I applied a simple color balance filter and Premiere C4 needs to render. I'm a FCP user and it FCP doesn't need to render color adjustment filters. Why does Premiere?

I worked with FCP just a couple of times, but as far as I remember there are several kinds of render, isn't it? (green, yellow, red bar)

In Premiere, it will ask a render every time you apply a filter. Some filters play just fine (depending what machine you have). But there's other that are heavy and you need to render to see the final result.

Color corrections don't need to render, you can see exactly the final result by analysing a single frame and/or scrubing a couple ahead.

If you render, the previews will take some space on HD. Leave as it is and let it calculate on exporting. Note, if you render to view the final result, Premire wont render it again at export, so, it can save some time.

Hope I could help

Cristian

In FCP to change the white balance using 3-way color filter doesn't need to be rendered (no green, yellow or red bar). In premiere the same filter, yields a red bar, and while I can preview it without a render, I would need to render it to export the video. So 6 hrs of video white balance corrected would take a long time to render and then export (twice as long as FCP).

In PR CS4 there various indications possible above the timeline, nothing or grey means no rendering is necessary, yellow means no rendering is required, but the format is not the same as the sequence in which it is used, red means that rendering may be required for preview, depending on the speed of your computer. If you have a fast computer it may not be necessary to render at all and playing or scrolling through the timeline can easily be done. Green means the preview renders have been created.

Rendering is only necessary if your computer is not fast enough and is essentially only for previews. Normally when exporting with Adobe Media Encoder, you would not use the option to use Preview Files, but it is an option if you so desire.

The big advantage the Premiere Pro has over Final Cut is that you can use it with a Matrox card. I have the Matrox Axio card, which has its own color correction, chroma/luma keying, speed changes, blur and focus effects, and much more . . . all WITHOUT rendering.

I cannot imagine editing in PP without my Matrox Axio card.

you have to understand what rendering means in premiere.
When you manipulate video, there is always rendering (calculations) needed, unless you limit the work to cut and trim.
Some of these calculations can be made on the fly, thus no "rendering" needed (but some render is still performed obviously). For this no temporary file will be created. it is really on the fly.
Others calculations needs need more power, so not on the fly, but in background.
Usually these calculations are easy enough so the preview , either of the full clip, or just a still picture (where the cursor is) can be made almost real time.
This require render, and creates tmeporary files (rendered videos).
The last categoy is the calculation that needs absolutely to be rendered, so you can get the preview.

These 3 categories are floating, depends the project settings, the format of the video, the combination of codec and hardware.
The common mistake is to edit rushes that are not in the same format as the project.
At worst, premiere will require rendering for everything from the start.
Another common mistake is to use the wrong tool. For example some codecs or cards are coming with their own settings/transition/effects for premiere. choosing something else (even if equivalent) will force everthing to render.


I think it is pretty the same with FCP, except Apple has done a good job with quicktime, limiting the formats to a few, so chances to go wrong are limited.
The drawback of this, is you could find more formats that FCP does not handle at all.

The big advantage the Premiere Pro has over Final Cut is that you can use it with a Matrox card.

And the biggest advantage is you can also forget about Matrox altogether and have a much more stable system.

As Charleton Heston may have said, "you'll have to pry the Matrox Axio card from my cold dead hands." More stable without the Matrox card? Bah Humbug!!