Thanks for your response. I've been doing some
experimenting and found some interesting results...

I tried rendering a three second section of the video (with
all the effects)to a new track. The playback of just this
new video track was also sluggish. Is this what you meant
by "pre-render"?

I also noticed that I can't view video on my external
monitir unless I have "recompress edited frames" checked.
Is this normal?

Thanks!
Rob

"I tried rendering a three second section of the video
(with all the effects)to a new track. The playback of just
this new video track was also sluggish."

- sounds like you rendered uncompressed? If you are working
with DV, pre-render to DV. You should get full frame rate
unless you are still forcing a recompress somewhere.

"I also noticed that I can't view video on my external
monitir unless I have "recompress edited frames" checked.
Is this normal?"

- yes

Rob,

When Sonic said to "pre-render", he/she didn't mean to make
a whole new track. You have to do it like this:

1. Highlight the section of video you want to pre-render.
2. Go to the "TOOLS" menus.
3. Select "PRE-RENDER VIDEO".
4. A dialogue box will pop up. Either select a template to
pre-render with, or make your own (I recommend you make
your own).
5. Hit the "OK" button.

Your section will now pre-render. When it's done, make sure
there's a yellow bar above your timeline. This indicates
the section is now pre-rendered, and will run at full speed
during playback preview. A template I recommend is:

- 360x240 resolution
- 29.97 fps
- uncompressed AVI
- pixel aspect ratio of 0.909

Why uncompressed AVI? If you compress your video, the CPU
will be taxed more heavily because it has to decode it (try
with MPG to see what I mean). Uncompressed takes up a lot
more room, but for performance reasons, it's what I
recommend. Also, using the 360x240 resolution saves you
pixels, since you're only previewing it in that little
window anyway. I hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Nick LaMartina

Thanks for the lesson in Video Pre-Rendering 101. I
appreciate everyone's input! Now off to experiment some
more...

Rob

I'll modify Nick's advice a little. If you have a DV
project, pre-render using the NTSC template. The reason?

Even uncompressed avi's need to be rendered on the fly to
the DV codec to allow DV out. If you are playing back a DV
file (in this case a pre-render) it spits right out 1394,
no processing required

That pre-rendering thing works great. Thanks. By the way,
what do you mean by a DV project? Isn't all video in VV
digital and therefore DV? Or am I missing a distinction.

Rob

Good. Glad we all could be of help.

To answer your question, yes, all video in VV is digital.
However, when someone uses the term "DV", they are
referring to the codec called "DV". "DV" is the "DIGITAL
VIDEO STANDARD", meaning it has the following attributes
(for full NTSC screen):

- 720x480 resolution
- 24 bit color
- 29.97 fps (30 fps audio)
- 2 channel, 48kHz audio, or...
- 4 channel, 32kHz audio

Ever see one of those fancy Sony or JVC camcorders that
use "MiniDV" cassettes? That's the standard being referred
to. Digital Video. It's kind of like the label "dog"
or "bug". For canines, a male is a "dog" and a female is
a "bitch" (pardon me), but we call both dogs. There are
thousands of different insects that we lovingly refer to
as "bugs", but there's actually a species called "bug". In
the same way, the video you use on VV is digital, but there
an actual standard called "Digital Video". You follow me?

Anyway, I'm glad your problem worked out. Have fun.

Nick LaMartina