Sorry for newbie question but why render ??

[sylvaro]

Made a short movie from clips I've captured from my Sony DIG8 Cam and put transitions in with new audio tracks (lots of fun !!)
I "Preview" the thing by pressing Enter, looks fine and then "Export to Tape" to get the final result which I can then dub to a VHS tape (lot better than making a VCD)....
So where is the rendering needed in here ? Am I skipping an important step ?
I see that render word all over this forum...what does it do anyway ?

thanks

Sylvaro

 

[WizyWyg]

Render in video sense is the time it takes to apply all filters and transitions used on the time before showing the actual footage via Print to Video or preview. Rendering is needed if you wan to make sure all your transitions and filters have been applied correctly, or you are switching from one compression to another.

If you have a pretty fast computer, rendering time is less than someone who has something slower.