How smart is Smart Render?

[Gisela Richter]

The big discussion on Smart Render in the forum at the moment has prompted me to write this contribution at a more general level.
How smart is Smart Render? Unfortunately not smart enough to know when to go to work. You have to tell him to. So he pesters you with the question whether you want him to or not. Gets on your nerves! You are tempted to follow his offer of disappearing from the scene by clicking on "Always use Smart Render". But is this a wise thing to do? In the Jonesgroup forum on this site we are told if you want to create an Mpeg file you should NOT use Smart Render. So why does Ulead give the choice "Always use"? We know that rendering (a more precise term is converting or encoding) always involves a loss of quality, but does this apply to Smart Render too?
We obviously need more information and advice on using Smart Render.

[Black Lab]

SmartRender Technology
Speed is usually one of the primary concerns of users when editing videos. While working on a video project, usually, you will want to preview the project as you edit, and it can be quite discouraging if you have to wait a long time to see the results of your work.

Ulead VideoStudio's SmartRender feature makes previewing and creating movies a lot faster. When you preview your video project for the first time, VideoStudio 'renders' the project by creating a temporary preview file on your hard disk which combines the video, image, and audio clips with the special effects which you applied to them. The SmartRender feature detects any changes in your project, and if there are no changes, instantly plays back the preview file. If there are changes (for instance, when titles, video filters or transition effects have been added), it renders out only the edited portions, making render times much shorter and faster.

The SmartRender feature also skips re-rendering when the properties of the captured video are consistent with the project settings. It only renders your project the first time you inserted your captured video clips. When you add more captured video clips, VideoStudio directly plays back the project without rendering.

In addition to previewing your video files, Ulead VideoStudio gives you an option to instantly preview your project without creating temporary files. With the Instant Playback option, you can play the entire project without having to wait then preview it immediately.

Can you provide a link to the "Jonesgroup forum" you are referring to?

[Gisela Richter]

Jeff, I was surprised by the speed of your answer until I realized you are simply quoting from the Ulread tutorials. Well it's still not clear at all, not for me anyway. Have you checked out the big discussion on the subject on this forum? You can see what problems people are having with Smart Render!
But I now realize that the Jones Group forum is not on this forum at all. The link is: jonesgroup.net/media/vsoned.htm

[Black Lab]

I am confused. The link you gave to the Jones Group tutorial clearly shows the box for Smart Render being checked.

Could you be more specific than just "the big discussion on the subject"? Maybe a link?

[Gisela Richter]

The link is "Smart Render causing distorsions" from today Monday on the forum list. The Jones tuto was for Studio 9 and no longer exists, but he probably says the same thing somewhere on his new tutorial for VS 11 which I am just perusing myself.

[Black Lab]

You will find lots of threads about problems editing MPEGs, from the aforementioned problems with titles to out of sync video. MPEGs are a lossy format and aren't intended to be edited. I believe SmartRender to be an attempt to reduce the problems associated with editing MPEGs. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I'm not sure what camera you are using, but you should try to capture and record in DV-AVI format. Editing problems are few and far between and you won't lose any quality.

If you must use MPEGs you may want to look into the special MPEG editors that have frequently been mentioned on this board.

[Gisela Richter]

.

If you must use MPEGs you may want to look into the special MPEG editors that have frequently been mentioned on this board.[/quote]

If you want to burn a DVD you HAVE to use Mpegs. I use a DV camcorder (still the best according to all the reports here in Europe!) so I capture in DV-AVI. Then however I have to create a DVD file for burning, so I'm into Mpegs whether I want them or not, and I'm also into the problem in the aforementioned big discussion whether to Smart render or not to Smart render, that is the question. Which brings us back to the question whether it is better to convert (a better term than "render") at the burn stage, without burning, so that Smart Render doesn't pester us so much.

Incidently, Jones says exactly the same thing in his new tutorial for VS11:
when you create a DVD file do NOT use Smart Render.

[Black Lab]

I use a DV camcorder (still the best according to all the reports here in Europe!) so I capture in DV-AVI. Then however I have to create a DVD file for burning, so I'm into Mpegs whether I want them or not, and I'm also into the problem in the aforementioned big discussion whether to Smart render or not to Smart render, that is the question.

But you are not EDITING the MPEGs at that point. SmartRender is all about only rendering CHANGES to an MPEG file. Once you've rendered your AVI file to an MPEG-2 it is then DVD-compliant (assuming you've used a VS template, or set the parameters as such) and no SmartRendering will take place.

The discussion in that other thread is all about EDITING MPEGs.

So, to put your mind at rest, if you are capturing and editing DV-AVI, then render to a DVD-compliant MPEG-2, you do not have to worry about SmartRender.

(In some earlier versions it was advised to turn off SmartRender to avoid out of sync problems, but I don't think that has been an issue for the last couple of versions.)

[Gisela Richter]

The discussion in that other thread is all about EDITING MPEGs.

Yes, Jeff, that makes sense, I only ever render to a DVD or AVI or DV-AVI file, never to a Mpeg file because I have not been using the "custom" choice. Maybe I should? Jones says so. But I don't see the diff. Nevertheless whenever I put my AVI file back onto the time line up pops Smart Render with "do you want to...", but as you have pointed out I suppose Ulead is assuming I am about to EDIT the file. So if I don't want to edit I should click "no", is that right?

[sjj1805]

Perhaps my Suggested workflow will help.

[Ken Berry]

I only ever render to a DVD or AVI or DV-AVI file, never to a Mpeg file

Gisela: Just on that point, I trust you realise that a 'DVD file' IS an mpeg file... It is thus irrelevant whether you use SmartRender only on 'DVD files' or whether you use it on mpeg files.

Now the ONLY problems of which I have been aware (though never experienced) with SmartRender are in relation to editing/re-rendering mpeg files (whether you call them 'DVD' or mpeg-2 is, again, irrelevant). SmartRender ONLY works when you re-rendering in the SAME format. It does NOT work when you are converting, for example, from DV to your DVD-compatible mpeg-2 (which is what you call 'DVD').

Now you can also use SmartRender when you are re-rendering DV format to DV again. Because DV is essentially a not a lossy format, there is no loss in quality whether you use SmartRender or not. But SmartRender speeds up the re-rendering (a better term in this context than 'convert' ), and does so by a very significant factor.

When you use SmartRender to re-render a DVD/mpeg-2 file to another DVD/mpeg-2 file, then it will also speed up the rendering process enormously since only those parts of the original DVD/mpeg-2 which have been subsequently edited are re-rendered, while the original unedited DVD/mpeg-2 is not re-rendered. (Apparently, if using SmartRender when the only editing you have done is add a new music track or voiceover, then only the new audio is rendered and the video is not touched.)

Given that DVD/mpeg-2 is a lossy format, re-rendering of the whole video would result in a loss of quality. It might not be noticeable to the naked eye if you keep the number of re-renders low and the quality settings are high, but it will be there nevertheless. But with SmartRender, only those edited parts, which are re-rendered by SmartRender, will suffer the quality loss, and the remainder of the unedited video will not suffer quality loss. That is the great advantage of SmartRender with DVD/mpeg-2.

As Black Lab has already said, the main problem with earlier versions of VS was with out-of-sync audio and video when SmartRender was used with DVD/mpeg-2s. The solution was not to use SmartRender. Like Black Lab, I too had thought the out-of-sync problem had been solved, at least since VS10. Some people dispute that. Fine.

I happen to be one user who has never suffered out-of-sync problems, mainly because I have mainly only ever used SmartRender in DV to DV re-renders, then did a single conversion to DVD-compatible mpeg-2 which, by its very nature, does not use SmartRender anyway. And then I burn that mpeg-2, and since it is already DVD-compatible, no further re-rendering of it occurs during the burning process. On the few occasions that I have used SmartRender with video which started life as mpeg-2, then the gods must have been on my side since I had not out-of-sync problems there either.

But the basic message, like a lot of things in video editing, is to try it for yourself. If SmartRender works without sync or other problems, then fine. Problem solved. If it doesn't, then you know the solution: don't use SmartRender. There is little point in discussing it much beyond that point, much less insisting as some people do, that you should or should definitely not use one method or the other. The point is that some workflows work for some users but not for others. You should work out which one works best for you, and be aware of possible work-arounds if you occasionally run into problems.