Silly question about Womble's "smart-rendering"

[Gatos]

This is completely hypothetical and obviously not something I would really do. But lets say I did an edit of just cut and paste stuff. I encoded it in Womble. Then I decide I want to cut or add something else. So I edit the initial clip that I encoded and re-encode with Womble.

Because no effects have been used in the initial edit there should be no loss in quality, correct?

And when I re-encode there should still be no loss in quality? Is that right?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around how it works. It leave unchanged footage the way it is and only encodes "changed" parts.

Sorry if this seems like a silly or simple question.

 

[nOmArch]

Essentially, you should always use smart rendering and use another app to add effects more complicated than fades.

 

[Captain Khajiit]

Then I decide I want to cut or add something else. So I edit the initial clip that I encoded and re-encode with Womble.
Because no effects have been used in the initial edit there should be no loss in quality, correct?

More or less. If I understand you correctly, it is better to go back to your original project and insert scenes into that rather than to insert scenes into your first smart render. Womble will re-encode a few frames on either side of every cut, so smart rendering, taking a video back in, editing again and smart rendering again is not without quality loss; but I doubt you'd notice it. If you must do this because you don't have your original files, then I wouldn't worry about it as long as you don't trigger the encoder. I hope that helps...