Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1044)

When you enable high-precision rendering in your sequence settings, some systems with
older graphics cards may be able to play back clips with FxPlug plug-ins in real time but
may not be able to render those clips. Keep in mind that a green render status bar indicates
only the real-time playback status of a clip in the Timeline; it does not indicate whether
or not it is possible to render that clip. In these cases, turn off high-precision rendering
in the Video Processing tab of the Sequence Settings window or move your project to a
system with a more powerful graphics card.
Important: When you attempt to render sequences containing effects that cannot be
rendered, Final Cut Pro skips these segments and the color of their render status bars
does not change. However, you cannot use the Print to Video, Edit to Tape, Export
QuickTime Movie, or Export Using QuickTime Conversion commands because your system
cannot render all of the effects. You can transfer your project and its current render files
to a system with a more powerful graphics card to complete rendering.
To improve FxPlug plug-in real-time performance
Do one of the following:
µ
Hold down the Option key when scrubbing through video clips with filters applied. This
works for both FXScript and FxPlug plug-ins.
µ
Turn off the Digital Cinema Desktop Preview playback option by choosing View > External
Video > Off.
Plug-in Restrictions and Troubleshooting
The following section explains plug-in limitations you should be aware of before
incorporating plug-ins into a particular workflow.
FxPlug Plug-in Restrictions
When using FxPlug plug-ins with Final Cut Pro, the following restrictions apply:
• Onscreen controls, such as point controls that appear directly in the Viewer and Canvas,
are not supported.
• Motion allows filters to render beyond the bounds of the Canvas, but Final Cut Pro
does not. Some effects have parameters, such as Crop and Expansion Amount, that
control this behavior. These parameters will not have an effect in Final Cut Pro.
• Effects that result in subtle gradations (such as a Gradient generator or Gaussian Blur
filter) can cause colored vertical banding after rendering. This kind of banding is likely
an artifact of rendering in a low-resolution codec (such as DV) and not an issue with
the filter. Try setting your sequence settings to an Uncompressed 8- or 10-bit sequence
preset instead.
• FxPlug plug-ins that render in RGB color space may cause clipping, especially when
applied to Y
′
C
B
C
R
clips with high chroma or luma values. This may be particularly
noticeable when applying an FxPlug filter to a range of a clip instead of an entire clip.
1044 Chapter 64 Installing and Managing Video Effects