Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 425)

90 Part II 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 Pro 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 Pro 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.
∏
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.
Why Would You Change Your Sequence Settings?
Although the instances are rare, there are a few situations that may prompt you to
change your sequence settings:
 You’ve imported multiple video or audio formats, and you decide to change your
sequence settings to accommodate the more dominant format in your sequence to
reduce rendering.
 You’ve changed your video interface or capturing setup, allowing you to work in the
Y´C
B
C
R
(YUV) color space rather than the RGB color space.
 You’ve added an audio output device that allows you to output 8 channels of audio
directly from Final Cut Pro.
 Your intended output format has changed.
Sequence settings such as frame size, video compressor, and audio sample rate can be
modified at any time.