Still lacking basic features NLEs had 28 years ago

First off, it would be nice if there was any "on your face" warning that installing Resolve Studio 20 beta will overwrite your Resolve Studio 19.1.4 install.

Second, all these new features are great, but I just don't understand how Blackmagic Design releases a new major version (perhaps not RC, but by the beta stage we have to assume that almost everything is in place) and we still don't have the most simple things. Something is really failing when you have an NLE with the most advanced features and technologies available nowadays, and you don't have something as basic as the ability to save presets for FXs in the edit page.

There's an impressive list of FX that are far better than what comes with Premiere and FCP 11. I don't know Avid MC so I can't talk about it. And many of these presets change the look of the video we're editing. So once I dialed in a look for that particular FX I'm happy with, I would like to save a preset of that. But that's not possible, so I have to take screenshots and then rename the screenshot file to the name of the FX and preset. Does that seem like the right way I should be doing this? No way!

It's absolutely ridiculous that in 2025 we still don't have a way to do something as simple as saving parameters of an FX to a file that then we can load, or at least to that favorite section in the FX panel, which so far can only have the default versions of each FX. I started using Premiere in 1997, and as far as I remember, from the first version I was able to save customized FX as a file.

Another feature that's surprisingly missing is a simple Render In to Out. While the somewhat complex way Resolve renders is great for some uses, most of the time an editor just needs a simple Render In to Out shortcut that will render everything between the IN and OUT points, including the FX in the edit page, the Fusion comps, and the color grading and anything else we did in the Color page. Not right clicking 10,000 in each clip to select Render color, render this OFX, render this other OFX and so on. Even then, if the project is specially large and with many tracks, enabling render in each and every clip still won't make it play at 100% its speed. So that workflow of right clicking to force render in each and every clip sometimes doesn't work, and leaving everything in Smart mode not always works. Sometimes you just need the basic thing that NLEs have had for three decades, render in to out, or in the early days of Premiere, render the work area, which was an alternative in to out. Meaning, a way to render every single thing that's needed so the editor can play that section directly from the timeline even if the timeline has 60 clips stacked with FXs.

And lastly, despite all the complaints, there's no way to switch the mouse wheel modifier for zoom and scrolling, which sucks because Resolve has that setup in a way that is unlike any other software with a timeline. I still can't get used to zoom in and out pressing alt+mouse wheel, and scroll using Ctrl+mouse wheel, or Cmd+mouse wheel in macOS.

So I'm wondering if BMD ever reads these forums, because these things have been discussed several times.

Short answer: they read them but don’t feel bound by them and have their own priorities that they don’t communicate to us here.

Wish it were otherwise but that’s the current reality.

I highly agree with your complaints but at the same time i want to give credit to BMD that they finally implemented a keyframe editor on the edit page (which means they seem to take notice, even though it can be really frustrating how long it takes for such changes to be made).

With the introduction of advanced keyframing in the edit page, the need for saving those keyframes and effects as a preset will grow even bigger. I really wish that the ability so save effect presets will be implemented in the final version of Resolve 20.

I still can't get used to scroll using Ctrl+mouse wheel, or Cmd+mouse wheel in macOS.

Yeah, that one IS annoying.

You can change to the correct behavior by going to Preferences>User>UI Settings and unchecking the 2D timeline scroll.

Also.. why is no pause button in voice over recording features.. ?

If you know from previously Betas, things are never in place in Beta 1. There are usually 5-6 Betas before final.

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It’s really not helpful to just invalidate others’ perceptions. Besides, it’s quite likely your use case is different than theirs.

One thing that happens here often is colorists chime in and say that editors’ requests are unnecessary. Perhaps this is happening here?

It's absolutely ridiculous that in 2025 we still don't have a way to do something as simple as saving parameters of an FX to a file that then we can load, or at least to that favorite section in the FX panel, which so far can only have the default versions of each FX

Yep..

BUT, we can save a text file with our preferred fonts, that's amazing.
Everything we asked for... not lol.

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BMD is very good at choosing not to implement requested features. Or at least to not implement them quickly.

They’ve asked us to tell them what we want, while AVOIDING saying which suggestions by others aren’t worth the time.

It’s way too easy to get into flame wars when we say others requests aren’t worth it.

Grant did mention that they’ve been occupied with code rewrites and that now they are freed up to do more stuff. I can’t recall his exact words but it sounded promising as if the current list of new features wasn’t impressive, lol.

Another feature that's surprisingly missing is a simple Render In to Out. While the somewhat complex way Resolve renders is great for some uses, most of the time an editor just needs a simple Render In to Out shortcut that will render everything between the IN and OUT points, including the FX in the edit page, the Fusion comps, and the color grading and anything else we did in the Color page. Not right clicking 10,000 in each clip to select Render color, render this OFX, render this other OFX and so on. Even then, if the project is specially large and with many tracks, enabling render in each and every clip still won't make it play at 100% its speed. So that workflow of right clicking to force render in each and every clip sometimes doesn't work, and leaving everything in Smart mode not always works. Sometimes you just need the basic thing that NLEs have had for three decades, render in to out, or in the early days of Premiere, render the work area, which was an alternative in to out. Meaning, a way to render every single thing that's needed so the editor can play that section directly from the timeline even if the timeline has 60 clips stacked with FXs.

I'm confused: can't you just set an In and an Out point on the Deliver page and render that?

Or: set an In and an Out point on the Edit page and Render-in-Place?

Would either of these function as a workaround for what you're trying to do?

With the former method, you can render individual clips (if that's what you're trying to do) and you can bake-in specific effects if you want, using the "Render Timeline Effects" mode. And you also have the "Render All Video Tracks" option as well.

I'm with you on the "Saving OFX Presets," and this has been a feature request for a long time.

I'm confused: can't you just set an In and an Out point on the Deliver page and render that?

I don't want to have to render to some clip, then go find the clip, import it or play it in Quicktime Player or VLC just to see what a section that I'm working on will look.

Premiere has had render preview in the timeline since at least 1998, and FCP, since 2000 when I started using it. Can't remember Edius much, but pretty sure it had it too. And so did Sony Vegas.

Or: set an In and an Out point on the Edit page and Render-in-Place?

In the shortcut manager whatever it's called, I typed render in the search field and went down the list. There was a "render in place" command, to which I assigned Ctrl+Shift+R. I set an in and out, pressed that shortcut, and nothing happened. I closed Resolve, opened it again and tried it again, nothing happened.

Is that supposed to render between in and out for preview? Because to me the term "render in place" means that it will overwrite whatever is there with a rendered version of it. That would be even more useless than the render from the deliver page.

What people mean by render in this case is cache everything so that the selected section plays smoothly in real time.

This is easy in most NLEs but I think Resolve’s approach has been to use the GPU to make it usually unnecessary. But in many cases it is still necessary and Resolve’s cache system is too complex ands unreliable to fill the need.

Here's my main issue with it, regardless of other NLEs having it for decades, or for a year. Forget about the rest. Having a preview render in to out in the timeline itself just makes sense. It's really basic.

Now, Resolve's smart render works fine for most cases, as long as the timeline doesn't get too complex. Because for the most part, I'm able to edit without problems. But I've had cases with heavy footage like 4K 60p renders from Blender, FX on top of that and color grading. There were also some other clips on top, adjustment and a PNG sequence with alpha, oo it wasn't the easiest footage, but I was editing this on my Mac Studio M1 Ultra, which is a very fast machine. And still, I couldn't get a perfect playback. Even after right clicking on every clip involved and enabling Render Cache this and that for each clip, still no dice. And I hate to even have to try right clicking so many times for something so basic.

No matter how insanely heavy the timeline is, there has to be a simple way to preview a section of the timeline without right clicking a thousand times on clips, and even then it doesn't work. So there has to be a full proof way to tell Resolve to pack all that mess of clips, FXs, color grading and so on into a simple video track that will play for the section the editor specified. If it's a really heavy timeline it might take a while, but at the end, I get something I can play.

The way it is now it's completely absurd. You right click and choose Cache this and that and that other thing, and it still takes a long time if it's a heavy timeline, but it can't play smoothly. And in a Mac Studio M1 Ultra, I can assure you that it can play 4K-60p footage just fine, without stutter.

Second, all these new features are great, but I just don't understand how Blackmagic Design releases a new major version (perhaps not RC, but by the beta stage we have to assume that almost everything is in place) and we still don't have the most simple things.

I completely agree. I mean Resolve added automatic AI music editing before auto-crossfade, one of the most basic and fundamental editing tools. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I would much prefer Blackmagic focus on getting the basics in order before adding on any more automatic AI tools. It would be like if the Color page had automatic AI color correction before the manual color wheels. It is totally backwards. Give us the basic manual tools and once those are solid, then go nuts with the AI wizardry.

And lastly, despite all the complaints, there's no way to switch the mouse wheel modifier for zoom and scrolling, which sucks because Resolve has that setup in a way that is unlike any other software with a timeline. I still can't get used to zoom in and out pressing alt+mouse wheel, and scroll using Ctrl+mouse wheel, or Cmd+mouse wheel in macOS.

Yes! A Mouse Editor (like we have for the keyboard) for the mouse wheel and mouse buttons has been one of my top feature requests, which I bring up over and over again. I don't know how it is on Mac, but Alt+drag to make a copy is totally backwards on Windows. It is Ctrl+drag to copy in every other application I can think of (including Windows Explorer). Then Resolve locks us into these backwards counter-intuitive ways of working and doesn't let us change it. They can leave everything the way it is by default, I just want to be able to change it and set it up so that it is comfortable for me to use.

No matter how insanely heavy the timeline is, there has to be a simple way to preview a section of the timeline without right clicking a thousand times on clips, and even then it doesn't work. So there has to be a full proof way to tell Resolve to pack all that mess of clips, FXs, color grading and so on into a simple video track that will play for the section the editor specified. If it's a really heavy timeline it might take a while, but at the end, I get something I can play.

If you get a fast enough machine, it can absolutely play under most circumstances. There are specific situations where you pretty much have to use the Render cache, but that's also true for all the VFX software I know of (particularly After Effects). We only use Render Cache (under the Playback menu) in User mode, and then when I know one particular node on the Color page is slowing things down, then I manually turn that one node on to do a quick temp render in the background for continuous playback. That method can work, but I've gotten pretty good at knowing in advance which modes and processes are going to stressful for the system. Color grading is rarely a problem, but multiple tracks can be a problem, noise reduction can be a problem, and some OFX nodes can be stressful.

BTW, I'm old enough to vividly remember when 1990s Avid struggled to playback anything but really low-res 480i DNx compressed files (on 500MB drives!). We had to spend over $150K to get a system capable of 4-camera playback for network sitcoms. So actually, nonlinear editing systems have always struggled with multiple streams of video. This is not a new problem.

Worst case, if you're just editing, use lower-res proxies like 422LT HD and do the entire show in that with your client. Once it's approved, switch back to the high-res files and render that for your deliverable. There's always methods to come up with a rational workflow that performs well under the right circumstances.

There are specific situations where you pretty much have to use the Render cache, but that's also true for all the VFX software I know of

The request pertains to the Edit page, not Color. What's being asked for here is a cache of everything within the bounds of the in/out points, rather than caching of individual clips. It's a long-standing feature of virtually every other Avid-based NLE, going back many years, and it assures you can play back any edited segment, no matter how complex, after one render command.

This feature has been asked for since v12, because it's so familiar from other NLEs. It's also been encountering 10 years of user resistance, as does virtually every Edit page feature request here. You'd think editors would know their own business, but that idea has never been accepted here.

Thank you John

Thanks John and Joe

If I could put an empty adjustment layer over a section of the timeline and render-in-place the adjustment layer in the background, that would pretty much do the job, but I'd much rather be able to tell Resolve, render between in/out (in the background) and let me get on with other editing tasks outside this in/out range. I remember when Avid added background rendering to Media Composer - it was pretty good if you had a powerful machine. Even prior to that, being able to render in/out in the foreground while you went for a coffee - that was also very useful because at least you could be guaranteed to play through that section without skipping frames when you wanted to evaluate the timing of the sequence with all its color and FX changes.

The request pertains to the Edit page, not Color. What's being asked for here is a cache of everything within the bounds of the in/out points, rather than caching of individual clips. It's a long-standing feature of virtually every other Avid-based NLE, going back many years, and it assures you can play back any edited segment, no matter how complex, after one render command.

This feature has been asked for since v12, because it's so familiar from other NLEs. It's also been encountering 10 years of user resistance, as does virtually every Edit page feature request here. You'd think editors would know their own business, but that idea has never been accepted here.

IMO, this is a feature that is more important over AI tools, not that I don’t want them but would be higher in priority. With hardware cost going up and up, we will expect that many will try to leverage what they have - I sure am. So the productive the software can make it on computers that are not the very latest and fastest, I’m for it. Hope this gets implemented in 20.1.

With hardware cost going up and up, we will expect that many will try to leverage what they have - I sure am.

And me here still using Resolve with integrated graphics because the graphics card market has been sh*t since I started using Resolve and it's only getting worse.

Caching is the only reason I'm able to use Resolve at all, but it has been incredibly frustrating to use. I could not agree more that there needs to be a single top-level "CACHE EVERYTHING" option instead of this patchwork method.

With Smart Cache enabled, some effects still won't be caught by the cache system. Sometimes enabling "Render Cache Color Output" works, but sometimes this doesn't work either because there is another layer of effects sitting on top of it that haven't been cached. So I have to go into the menu and enable caching for specific effects. To enable "Render Cache Color Output" I can select multiple clips and apply this setting to all of them at once, but I can't do that for specific effects even when all clips have the same effect. Every single clip has to be enabled one at a time... Why? And why doesn't Smart Cache take care of all of this? If it can detect performance issues, why can't it just enable caching for the effects that need it?

Another problem I have frequently is old cache being "remembered" after clips have been moved. Like moving Adjustment Clips with effects, it frequently retains the video clip that was in the old location and it doesn't re-cache at the current location. Deleting cache for the clip doesn't always fix it either. Often I have to cut the Adjustment Clip and paste it back into the same location and then it will finally update the cache.

So yeah, a single top level render/cache in background option that encompasses everything without needing to deal with color cache, effects cache, clip cache, etc. Just one master render/cache to rule them all that takes the final output and renders/caches it would be very welcome.

Caching is the only reason I'm able to use Resolve at all, but it has been incredibly frustrating to use. I could not agree more that there needs to be a single top-level "CACHE EVERYTHING" option instead of this patchwork method.

I see this as a workflow problem. You have two choices:

1) you can either transcode the original demanding source material to lower-res proxies so that your system can easily handle them without having to cache very much (like ProRes 422LT or DNxHR LB)

2) or you upgrade your hardware to the very top level, so you have a ton of CPU processing cores, lots of GPU processing cores, lots of system RAM, and extremely fast SSD source drives. With that, you might still be able to use 4K Raw (or god forbid, 6K or 8K Raw), but the choice of timeline could be a limiting factor.

Caching everything is -- in effect -- transcoding to proxies. It's a question of whether you do it manually or automatically. There's validity in choosing either method, but I'd always rather get the more power hardware if I can.

There is a third method: just cache the few shots that need it. If your system is up to snuff, it won't need it that often. I don't think I need to cache more than maybe 20-25 times per feature, except in unusual circumstances.

Marc- are you saying this as a workaround or are you saying the way things are is a perfectly acceptable and reasonable way for the software to be?

I see this as a workflow problem. .

And the editors here see it as a "workflow problem" which exists because the Edit page lacks a common NLE feature, as basic as insert or ripple delete. And because current timeline caching is not stable or reliable enough for productive editing even within its design limitations. And this one is not solved by transcoding or better hardware.

Hence, the feature request.

It's absolutely ridiculous that in 2025 we still don't have a way to do something as simple as saving parameters of an FX to a file that then we can load, or at least to that favorite section in the FX panel, which so far can only have the default versions of each FX. I started using Premiere in 1997, and as far as I remember, from the first version I was able to save customized FX as a file.

I hit a wall with presets too, but there are a number of methods to accomplish this. It's just not the way Premiere works. Nor is it as simple as it could be. And well it requires you to use Fusion for these effects.
It's outlined here

If it's a series of effects I can save those as a node tree/still on the colour page and use that system to store FX looks.

Finally, if I'm really going to use an effect a TON, I'll save an adjustment clip of it in the Power Bins that I can drag and drop onto footage in that project library as needed too. It's obviously not the same as you are describing but you can save a lot of repetition if needed.

But you're right. It can be frustrating when with one button click save a transition you have created as a user transition, it would be nice to see more options for edit page effects.

Another feature that's surprisingly missing is a simple Render In to Out. While the somewhat complex way Resolve renders is great for some uses, most of the time an editor just needs a simple Render In to Out shortcut that will render everything between the IN and OUT points, including the FX in the edit page, the Fusion comps, and the color grading and anything else we did in the Color page. Not right clicking 10,000 in each clip to select Render color, render this OFX, render this other OFX and so on. Even then, if the project is specially large and with many tracks, enabling render in each and every clip still won't make it play at 100% its speed. So that workflow of right clicking to force render in each and every clip sometimes doesn't work, and leaving everything in Smart mode not always works. Sometimes you just need the basic thing that NLEs have had for three decades, render in to out, or in the early days of Premiere, render the work area, which was an alternative in to out. Meaning, a way to render every single thing that's needed so the editor can play that section directly from the timeline even if the timeline has 60 clips stacked with FXs.

I agree, I think the caching system is both extreme dense and complex, but also strangely limited. Personally, I've started to adopt a different workflow since it tends to save me more headaches in the long run. But there is a work around I discovered. If you are in User Cache mode, and have enabled caching on the big group of clips you want to cache, if you playback that section with the monitor setting "show all frames" enabled, it will force Resolve to play and cache every individual frame in that section of playback. Once it's gotten to the end you can playback normally.

But like I said, I've more or less changed my workflow to instead lead on Render in Place a bit more. It's more clicks and waiting, but if I Render in Place any heavy Fusion Animations or Heavy Effects on a clip that are bogging down my system (like a retime optical flow speed warp for example) i'll Render in Place to ProRes and reference that rendered out file going forward. It's non destructive and I can revert back at anytime, so I find that it's a lot more reliable than hoping the caching system will hold onto a cache even I change the location of a clip by a couple of frames. Plus I can set it up to keep things in log or ignore down the chain color adjustments if needed. Premiere and do both, and fundamentally I just want both options. My work around gives me both solutions, Resolve could support more caching methods too.

And lastly, despite all the complaints, there's no way to switch the mouse wheel modifier for zoom and scrolling, which sucks because Resolve has that setup in a way that is unlike any other software with a timeline. I still can't get used to zoom in and out pressing alt+mouse wheel, and scroll using Ctrl+mouse wheel, or Cmd+mouse wheel in macOS.

Yah this one could use some more options. There are also asks for the ability to jump the playhead to the mouse position, and have a shortcut for that too. I'm hoping they read those request and consider them too. The 2D scrolling option helps a bit, but it's just start.

Caching is the only reason I'm able to use Resolve at all, but it has been incredibly frustrating to use. I could not agree more that there needs to be a single top-level "CACHE EVERYTHING" option instead of this patchwork method.

I see this as a workflow problem....

I build Fusion effects (which are processing heavy) on Adjustment/Fusion clips and I place these on top of the source media. The source media by itself plays fine as I'm not editing with high-res source media, it's when I start layering on effects that everything comes to a halt and caching is required. Making proxies of source media doesn't include effects added in Fusion/Edit/Color pages. And does a system even exist that could play Speed Warp, Magic Mask V2 and Noise Reduction all in real time without needing to cache anything? In my case, effects are where Resolve's caching system is necessary.

So I see a third option, request that Resolve fix the issues with the caching system for a future update. Obviously it is possible as it has been pointed out that other NLEs have had a better caching system in place for years. That is what is being requested for Resolve too.

1)

Caching everything is -- in effect -- transcoding to proxies.

With all due respect, this is technically incorrect. Proxies are generated BEFORE the application of FX, etc; caching is AFTER, and primarily BECAUSE OF the application of fx, etc.

2)

And because current timeline caching is not stable or reliable enough for productive editing even within its design limitations. And this one is not solved by transcoding or better hardware.

That's right.

3)

What's being asked for here is a cache of everything within the bounds of the in/out points, rather than caching of individual clips

Yes, exactly. Editors need an agile, reliable system so we can QUICKLY and ACCURATELY make timings on dozens if not hundreds of clip sequences. You cannot do this now, so you guess, and then review it over, and over and...

Not sure why the issue with mouse scrolling. Maybe I misunderstood. I use a Logitech vertical ergonomic mouse and have set custom actions using the Logi+ app. My scroll wheel scrolls the timeline horizontally and the two side buttons on the mouse zoom the timeline in and out. No keyboard modifiers needed.

Have you tried using the Optimize Media feature on all your assets before begin your edit?

Regarding saving presents, etc, I would really like that as well. It’s very simple with Avid and it just works the way you expect it to. I would use this a lot with Power Bins.

About copying effects - what about copying the attributes from clip, pasting that on adjustment clip or fusion composition with Paste Atributes option? Then drag that AC/FC into your powerbins/project library, and you have it ready for reuse.

I'm aware that Fusion is not for everyone, and there is a small number of people who start adding their FX on Fusion Page, having an idea of saving the macro for later right at the start, but you can 'save' your effects from edit page. It may seem overcomplicated, but that does the work.

I'm going to revisit something I mentioned earlier because I thought it didn't work with Resolve but I can't recall what exactly didn't work.... I setup a timeline with a series of clips with Text+ on top. I then added some aggressive noise reduction to a few of those clips - aggressive enough that it didn't playback in real-time.

Rather than rendering the clips in question, I added an adjustment layer above all the tracks for a duration I specifically wanted to playback in real-time and with render caching setup to user mode, I right-clicked on the adjustment layer and selected the 'Render Cache Color Output' option.

For some reason my recollection was that this didn't used to work and maybe there are scenarios where this didn't used to work but it worked in my test and it let me playback the specified section in real-time. The background render caching seemed to work just fine (v20 beta 1). Now I'm kicking myself because I could swear the last time I tried this that it had some pitfall - I just can't recall what that was, lol.

I'm going to revisit something I mentioned earlier because I thought it didn't work with Resolve but I can't recall what exactly didn't work.... I setup a timeline with a series of clips with Text+ on top. I then added some aggressive noise reduction to a few of those clips - aggressive enough that it didn't playback in real-time.

Rather than rendering the clips in question, I added an adjustment layer above all the tracks for a duration I specifically wanted to playback in real-time and with render caching setup to user mode, I right-clicked on the adjustment layer and selected the 'Render Cache Color Output' option.

For some reason my recollection was that this didn't used to work and maybe there are scenarios where this didn't used to work but it worked in my test and it let me playback the specified section in real-time. The background render caching seemed to work just fine (v20 beta 1). Now I'm kicking myself because I could swear the last time I tried this that it had some pitfall - I just can't recall what that was, lol.

That worked for a long time, there are posts around from me that explained that technique....

That's why I can't understand my reluctance to use this technique, Walter - It's like I had some preconceived notion that it didn't work so I blocked its consideration. My bad, lol.

I also got to thinking about a way to 'render-in-place' a segment rather than relying on the render cache since a render cache can be easily lost by an unintended change (even a layer on top of the adjustment layer will invalidate the rendered adjustment layer clip.

Found that render-in-place of an adjustment layer doesn't work (not surprised), however, I can create a Fusion Composition clip and modify it with a Media In set to 'Background' source and this does nothing but provide a container that supports render-in-place and this works very well to provide a rendered composition of everything under it. So if you need to render complexity of a section of your timeline, this also works, although the render does not occur in the background but has the advantage of supporting layers on top without re-rendering.

My next test for this will be use use clips that have alpha output on the color page - of course, render-in-place would need a codec that supports alpha but I wonder what the render cache of an adjustment layer does with this? Although, thinking about this, considering this is a top-layer render, alpha channels don't really enter into it unless you intend to build above this layer... a bit of a different use case, really.

That's why I can't understand my reluctance to use this technique, Walter - It's like I had some preconceived notion that it didn't work so I blocked its consideration. My bad, lol.

Man oh man... so many times happened to me too.

I remember when Shared nodes were introduced it did bug out in a live session with a client on me (6 years ago at least) and since I never trusted again, even if now is perfectly fine to use it (most likely)...

I think there are two things being discussed here and both are interesting/important.

1. things that didn’t work for a long time and now do - but BMD probably didn’t tell us about the fixes, and

2. things that are possible but much different/harder to do in Resolve than other programs but for no discernible good reason.

I HOPE they’re going to start addressing both of these issues at some point. Their priorities are their own but it’s clear (to me) from this forum these two make up the lion’s share of all messages here.

Now I'm kicking myself because I could swear the last time I tried this that it had some pitfall - I just can't recall what that was, lol.

The technique of using adj. clips and/or fusion clips in background mode is definitely worth revisiting. Might help to point out where the deeper issues lie.

IIRC there are problems getting them to re-cache on changes to the underlying clips. Also, some Fusion fx just won't properly cache no matter what - for these only "render in place" seems to help. (e.g MotionVFX 16mm looks - I find these basically unusable.)


Vegas Pro used to have a RAM cache that was very quick, and quite useful for rapidly previewing short sections of timeline... problem was, it wasn't reliable, and could cause crashes.

Here's a good example of what I'm talking about. I added an adjustment clip over a section of a video I'm working on. A very old render from Lightwave that wasn't that great to begin with, and I wanted to spice it a little bit.

So I threw in the Film Look Creator, a few more things and at one point it started to hiccup a little bit, so I right clicked, render cache OFX Filter, once per filter (which by the way, can't they at least make that one operation, not a right click, navigate to the render cache OFX filter, select, then do it again for each filter?), for the three OFX that I had added.

So it rendered those, and I was able to play back fine. But then I decided to test two more, and real time playback went away. So again, I had to do the same thing for each of those:

Screenshot 2025-04-20 171509.png (86.4 KiB) Viewed 1074 times

Now, imagine this. Instead of having to right click, navigate to the cache thing, enable the cache for each filter and so on, if you simply could do a Shift+A to select the range of clips you want to preview in real time (or set it with I and O if you prefer), then have a shortcut like Ctrl+F12 or whatever your heart desires, which would start rendering the preview, and when it's done, it plays it back for you.

If anyone tells me that what I just described is not much faster and easier than the way it is now, you just want to argue for the sake of it, because you know that this is way faster and simpler, and most of all, it just makes sense.

Now, you can all argue to kingdom come that the current cache system is great and this and that. It just doesn't work. It's annoying and it takes too much time to be able to preview a simple section of the timeline. Unless you're a masochist and enjoy right clicking on clips thousands of times, a simple selection and a shortcut to render it and then play it back is the way to go.

…select the range of clips you want to preview in real time (or set it with I and O if you prefer), then have a shortcut like Ctrl+F12 or whatever your heart desires, which would start rendering the preview, and when it's done, it plays it back for you.

Isn’t that exactly what Premiere does when you hit Return? I never render anything so I can’t remember 100%.

this is a tough one to read through.

All of the above solutions are not doing what the OP requested and he also basically named all of them as not sufficient, too.

there's great options to control cashing for most sceanrios, still there are times (and they occur often) in which you just want to preview the freaking 10 sec you spend the last two hours dialing effects in. And you want to preview it now, without counting down the seconds you set up for auto-caching and most of all you want to preview them right again, after changing something. I still very much muss in-out-hitting-enter to simply forcing my computer to make this section playable right now, and thats all that was requested here.

I still very much muss in-out-hitting-enter to simply forcing my computer to make this section playable right now, and thats all that was requested here.

Sure, but they also brought up some problems with the caching system:
"....right clicking 10,000 in each clip to select Render color, render this OFX, render this other OFX and so on. Even then, if the project is specially large and with many tracks, enabling render in each and every clip still won't make it play at 100% its speed. So that workflow of right clicking to force render in each and every clip sometimes doesn't work, and leaving everything in Smart mode not always works."

The problems with the caching system also needs to be addressed so that it works properly.

…select the range of clips you want to preview in real time (or set it with I and O if you prefer), then have a shortcut like Ctrl+F12 or whatever your heart desires, which would start rendering the preview, and when it's done, it plays it back for you.

Isn’t that exactly what Premiere does when you hit Return? I never render anything so I can’t remember 100%.

If I remember correctly, because I haven't used Premiere since 2023, when you press Return it will render the clips between in and out that it thinks it needs to render. So if there's one or two clips in the range with FX that are GPU accelerated, Premiere will not render them, thinking that the GPU is always sufficient to play them back at full speed. It will also not render audio.

There's a further render mode, I can't remember the name but it's in the menu under... Render? Or was it Sequence? Anyway, the menu item that has all the render commands. There's one there that will render a preview (what us Resolve users call "cache") that will render everything between in and out, even if it's marked as GPU accelerated, and it will also render audio. This menu item doesn't have a shortcut, so if I have to edit in Premiere in a workplace computer for example, I always assign Shift+Return to that special render command. It's not always necessary, most times the FX that are GPU accelerated don't need to be render for preview. But if I'm working on something rather heavy, I just press Shift+Return, wait a few seconds, or maybe a lot of seconds, and then I have a full speed preview.

For this, I didn't need to right click a million times on each clip inside the range I want to preview, and select each FX applied to each clip, as well as the cache for color page adjustments, and fusion page adjustments, it's simply move the playhead to the starting point you want, press I, move it to the end point, press O, then press Enter, or as I described above, Shift + Enter.

Right clicking once or twice doesn't make a difference in anyone's day. When you have to do that all the time, multiplied by hours, then days, then months and so on, after several years you will end up having wasted a lot of time of your life that you will never get back. Time is my pet peeve, I like to spend it on things I enjoy, not pointless mundane tasks that have no reason to be when clearly there's a much faster and easier way.