Must I Always Render HD Footage?
 

I shoot with the Canon XH-A1 and edit on a PowerMac G5 with Final Cut Studio 5 and Shake. When editing, it seems I have to render and re-render every single edit and it's driving me freaking nuts! I spend more time rendering than editing. Am I doing something wrong? With Final Cut Studio, HD is supposed to be native. So why am I having to render and re-render?

I'm reading this forum for more information on this. Any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks.

Hi Brian.

A few things off the top of my head (concerning FCP):

1/ Do your Sequence Settings match the footage you are trying to edit? If not, you will always get render bars.

2/ I assume that your camera is 1080i (HDV2). I only edit 720p (HDV1), but I've been led to believe that interlaced HD footage (such as yours) is much more processor intensive, etc. than progressive footage. It might be worth checking out if your RAM is adequate.

3/ You could also try adjusting the RT settings on the top, left-hand corner of your timeline. Selecting "Unlimited RT" might help improve things.

Hey, David,

Thanks for your thoughts. I'll check into the items you've listed.