Getting Started > The Player > Setting Player Display Options >
Playing Clips from Memory

By default, the Player plays clips from disk using the framerate of the project's default resolution, and the frame depth of the clip, in real time. Under some conditions, however, real-time playback cannot be delivered using the default Player settings. When this occurs, Flame plays back as many frames per second as your system can render on-the-fly. These conditions include:

- If the clip's resolution is too high (frame size or frame depth, or both). In this case, you can play the clip from memory instead of from disk.
- If the clip has soft effects, transitions or soft clip resize settings. In this case, play the clip from disk, but disable some effects that Flame otherwise tries to render on-the-fly.

To deliver real-time playback under these conditions, you can set options in the Player Setup menu to reduce playback frame depth, play clips from memory, or disable soft effects that are not necessary for review purposes. You can also force audio sync to keep audio in sync with video when Flame cannot provide real-time playback.

NoteThe yellow positioner turns blue to indicate dropped frames. It turns orange to indicate real-time playback with no dropped frames of soft-imported clips.

To play a clip from memory:

1. Click the Clip & Setup tab.
2. Select Play from Memory from the Source Feed box.

   The clip is cached, and controls appear to set the play-from-memory options.

   (a) Frame Depth box(b) Play from Memory controls

3. If the clip that you want to play from memory is large relative to the amount of memory you have, select an option from the Frame Depth box.

   Select: | To reduce playback frame depth to:
   --- | ---
   Monochrome 8 bits | 8-bit (total) greyscale.
   RGB 3/3/2 bits | 8-bit (total) colour.
   RGB 5/5/5 bits | 16-bit (total) colour.
   RGB 8/8/8 bits | 24-bit (total) colour; 8 bits per channel colour. This option only benefits playback of 12 bits or 16 bits (12 bits unpacked) per channel clips.
   RGB 12/12/12 bits | 36-bit (total) colour. This option loads the clip in memory without dropping bit depth and is available only for 10, 12, and 12 unpacked clips.

4. To limit the range of frames stored in memory, enter frame numbers or timecode in the In and Out fields.

   In the timebar, in and out caching marks indicate the current range.

   TipYou can also drag the in and out marks along the range display in the timebar to set the playback range.
5. Play the clip.

   If you set a range of frames to load into memory that exceeds your RAM capacity, the maximum number of frames is loaded, beginning from the In value or beginning of the clip.

6. If the clip's playback halts due to insufficient memory, click Reload From Current to reload the clip from the current frame to the end of the range you have set to play from memory.

To change preview rendering settings:

1. Select an option from the Preview option box.

   Select: | To render:
   --- | ---
   Preview FX | All soft effects on-the-fly. If the soft effects cannot be rendered in real time, frames are dropped.
   Realtime | Only those soft effects that can be rendered in real time.
   View Src | No soft effects, and play back only the source clip.

   TipOptions selected from this box only affect playback from disk.