…then easily place the result back on the time line? This would make realtime playback a bit more likely but it’s a pain to do on an adhoc basis.
-set region to render (extent of effect)
-render out (with a usefull traking name)
-import render and place above effect in timeline
-reset playback region
I don’t know of any other edit systems that don’t perform this housework. It makes editing a fluid feedback process, smoothing out performance issues in any system.
This is an interesting suggestion indeed but unless your renders are lossless quality will most certainly degrade. Not to mention the fact that one has to render the effects once and then re-render the final video which is a waste of time and resources imho.
Whenever sluggish realtime playback is a major issue, I usually cut first and then add effects and grade. I usually preview the effects and color corrections through scrubbing or by rendering certain frames. I have found that color corrected HD footage really brings my system down to its knees. Haven’t tested it with proxies yet so I don’t really know how my system mght respond. The drawback of this method is that you only get to see stills or get a quick glimpse of the footage through scrubbing, i.e. have no access to realtime playback. But if I want smooth playback I can simply hide the effects or disable the color corrections made. So the idea is to apply whatever needed and temporarily hide or disable it.
Btw I remember a color correction tutorial using Avid where the grading was applied in the beginning and was deactivated for the purposes of cutting and playback. Interestingly enough, though, Avid seemed to be able to handle the graded footage without problems. I think we can simulate this using the method outlined above. What do you think?
Avid is hardware assisted for playback.
What I was really implying was a sort of proxy use of the effect, by rendering. It would be lower res than the final render but good enough to play back smoothly with the NON-effected footage. The drawback would be turning the temp render off for the final pass.
Yes it does eat some time up but it’s the price you pay for smooth replays. I find this at work all the time, and I can choose whether or not I want to sacrifice a moment to a render. Most of the time I do, as I want to experience the passage of time in the edit with few distractions, and dropped frames is a BIG distraction 
But I probably wouldnt bother with a long render for a colour correction. Just scrubbing that would be enough.
Gee this reply was posted a few dayz ago and I missed it.
Didn’t know that Avid requires special hardware to run but if that’s the case then it’s understandable why everything seemed to be so smooth in that demo.
It seems that there’s always a trade off and there is something to gain and/or lose with every decision made.
I find it more convenient to look at high res stills (if there is not much movement in the frame, motion blur etc) but different users have different needs and preferences.
Nevertheless, I do wonder if adding effects and color corrections will be more acceptable when proxies are back in trunk.
Agreed proxies suck and over time most systems move away from them. But it is dependant on the PC. At last I can easily play back multi stream standard definition video, on a PC that costs just a few hundred dollars. A decade ago it cost tens of thousands! So I know that HD video will play more easily too, but it’s a waiting game. But of course by then HD will be old hat and we will need to process 3D HD with smell-o-vision.
I like After Effects way of proxying, that is dynamically scale the playback depending on system capability but park on Hires for stills.