RENDERING - LOSS IN QUALITY??

[Grasshopper]

Hi All,

I thought I saw this mentioned once before, but does rendering cause a loss in quality.

Each time I add a transition or add text, I render to see what it looks like because playing it without rendering gives you a choppy playback or none at all.

Just wondering, as I play around and learn Final Cut Express, am is there a cost to chronic rendering?

 

[kai]

Re: RENDERING - LOSS IN QUALITY??

It shouldn't cause any loss in playback quality, depending on what codec you're using in your sequence settings. Also, check your RealTime settings. I usually leave mine on "safe", just to be... well....

 

[J_Barnes]

Re: RENDERING - LOSS IN QUALITY??

I think what you're saying is that you're changing things (transitions, filters, titles, overlays) and then rendering the changed section to view the difference.

When you render something like a title, filter, or transition, it doesn't actually affect the source material. It renders out that section using the original source material, processing the source through the filters and outputting a new video file of that section with the changes applied. When you view the playback, FCP switches to the rendered file and then back to the source file as needed. Thus, every time you make a change to a filter, title or transition, FCP just discards the rendered video and repeats the process with the new changes.

The source material is always there unless you render out that part of the sequence as a new video file and then discard the original source material.

Almost all changes in final cut are essentially non destructive.