Apple Final Cut Express HD - Manual (Page 274)

274 Part VI Rough Editing
When Rendering Is Required
Rendering slows down the creative editing process, so people try to avoid it at all costs. If
you’ve ever seen a red bar appear in the Timeline as soon as you add a clip to a sequence,
it’s probably because the clip settings and the sequence settings don’t match.
Final Cut Express HD assumes your sequence settings match your intended output
format, such as NTSC DV tape or a 320 x 240 Sorenson movie for the web. Whatever the
format, any media from clips with settings different from the sequence settings, such as
different image dimensions, must be conformed to match the sequence settings. Clips
with settings that don’t match the sequence settings may require rendering.
The capture and sequence settings that must match your output format settings include:
 Image dimensions
 Compressor (codec)
 Frame rate
 Field dominance
 Audio sample rate
 Audio bit depth
Note: Even when Final Cut Express HD renders a clip’s media file to match a sequence,
the original media files are left untouched. Separate render files are created. This is part of
the philosophy of nondestructive editing—your original media files are never processed.
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Tip: Don’t add clips with settings that don’t match the sequence, unless you have a
good reason. Otherwise, they’ll need to be rendered to match the sequence.
Viewing an Existing Sequence’s Settings
All sequences have settings as soon as they are created. When you first create a sequence,
its settings are determined by the sequence preset of your currently selected Easy Setup.
To view sequence settings:
1 Do one of the following:
 Select a sequence in the Browser.
 Open a sequence into the Timeline.
2 Choose Sequence > Settings.