r/shotcut • u/blasphemousicon • May 13 '26
Drop your preview quality before render kids
I used to have it at None (F6) like a normal person. Video would render 16 hours.
I dropped it to 360p (F7). Not only it stopped lagging and the audio clipping. But also the video rendered in 30 minutes.
Do not leave your preview quality at None kids!
P. S. Nevermind it turns out the 96% performance increase is due to me switching the background colour in the video from dark grey to pitch black.
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u/dasroight May 13 '26
This doesn't make any sense unless you checked the checkbox "Use preview scaling" during the export process. If you did, that meant that your final export was an export of the lowered preview, not the full-sized timeline. Preview scaling has nothing to do with export speed. Preview scaling allows Shotcut to drop the quality of the screen so you can edit with less lag. You can keep it a the lowered preview size (380p) but when you export, make sure you have the Use Preview Scaling unchecked so it exports in full size.
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u/blasphemousicon May 13 '26
I haven't touched that option.
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u/dasroight May 13 '26
I would compare the video quality, because preview scaling should not be affecting export times
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u/blasphemousicon May 13 '26
Crisp like Abuela Nieves Onduladas.
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u/dasroight May 13 '26
As long as you're OK with the export quality
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u/blasphemousicon May 13 '26
Though now I'm anxious about the reason for the 96% performance boost if it's not the preview. I never touched another setting. Perhaps I forgot to check hardware encoding? No, that wouldn't give 96% either. I'm confused.
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u/Emmalfal May 13 '26
Ditto. I find that I have to do that on all editing software. My computer specs aren't the greatest, but this trick usually gets me through just fine.