Re: Premiere Pro CS 6.0: First Impressions

I'm trying to wrap my head around the way you FCP guys are thinking about rendering, I suppose, in the same way that you're trying to figure out optimum workflows in PrPro. It seems as if there's some confusion around what needs to be rendered on output. That depends on which of the two kinds of output you're dealing with: file or tape.

If going to tape:
Nothing needs to be preview rendered that plays back in the timeline in real time: your compressed footage is decompressed, all real time effects are added at 32 bits and the output can't be more pristine. For clips that need to be rendered to previews you pick a codec and bit depth that's high enough to suit the clip, up to 10 bit uncompressed, and it plays out to tape in that quality with no added compression.

If going out to a file:
This is where I think most of the confusion arises. But basically the same signal that would play out to tape as uncompressed SDI is now recompressed into your output file's bit rate and depth. So to minimize degradation you pick those parameters at a bit rate and depth that's ideally higher than your timeline and previews codec. If you can pick uncompressed there's no recompression at all. But let's say for reasons of space, hardware, or delivery specs you can't do that. So just output a higher or at worst, equal, bit rate & depth. With today's quality codecs a decompression/recompression cycle at a high bit rate & depth is not going to produce any visible artefacts. The only issue is rendering time. That's why it's important to select a high bit rate & depth for your preview codec so you don't have to re-render all your effects heavy sections on output. And you probably won't have to render much of your timeline as previews if you are using CUDA effects. By following this workflow I've not seen an hour timeline that won't render out to a high quality file in more than a couple of hours. In fact I've often used that file to output to tape if I have a particularly complex timeline that I'm not confident will play out without dropping a frame. The only real render time issues arise if you don't have a beefy CPU and fast storage.

I hope this helps clear up any uncertainties.

David
AllinOneFilms.com