Apple Final Cut Express HD - Manual (Page 880)

880 Part X Real Time and Rendering
Video Render Status Bars
The color of the video render bar above the Timeline ruler indicates whether the items
below need to be rendered.
Bar color Timeline playback state
Dark gray No rendering is required.
Blue-gray The material has already been rendered.
Dark green Indicates a real-time effect that’s capable of playback and output to
video at full quality with no rendering required.
Green The media does not need rendering and will play on the computer
screen in real time, but not at full quality.
Yellow The effect you see during real-time playback is an approximation of
the effect you’ve specified. Effects indicated by yellow render bars
may ignore some filter controls (for example, Edge Softness) in
order to show you a real-time preview. To get the true final effect,
you must render these clips. The final effect is displayed when play
is stopped or when scrubbing.
For example, you may have added a wipe transition and set the
angle to 37 degrees. Depending on your selected effects quality,
Final Cut Express HD may only be able to display the wipe angle at
45 degrees in real time, so you see an approximation during real-
time playback. You can still see the effect as you specified it (the 37-
degree angle) by placing the playhead over a frame of the effect in
the Canvas or Timeline, or rendering the effect before playing it back.
Dark yellow Indicates that an effect has been rendered at a lower frame rate or
quality than the currently selected Frame Rate and Resolution in
the Render Control tab of Sequence Settings. Render files are
preserved even if these settings are changed back to 100 percent.
Orange Effects that exceed your computer’s real-time playback capabilities,
but are enabled anyway because Unlimited RT is selected in the Real-
Time Effects (RT) pop-up menu of the Timeline. Unlimited real-time
playback lets you play more effects, but increases the chances that
your sequence will drop frames during playback. This mode is useful
for getting a real-time preview of complex effects compositions.
Red The real-time capabilities of Final Cut Express HD have been
exceeded and the material must be rendered before playback or
output to tape.