There seems to be some debate as to whether shadow files are of any real benefit.

As a relative newcomer I always understood the value was that producing lower resolution files for use in editing when you might want to drag fowards and backwards on the timeline would produce a smoother and more responsive visual effect, but it now seems this may not be the whole story.

Issues of pc power - quantity of memory - power of GPU etc seem to bear relevance - and now Support are actually recommending turning off shadow files as a possible cure to the "Audio wave does not display in PD16" thread.

What is your opinion? Apart from the possible affect on the above threads issue - do shadow files really improve the visual appearance when dragging back/fowards through the timeline? Is available RAM an influence on the shadow file debate? Are other parameters of the host system relevant?

Like most - I love a smoothe scroll when dragging backwards or fowards on the timeline trying to locate a particular point, it feels and looks most professional, but is at the end of the day so much easier to work with than constantly wondering if the visual position you're at actually matches where the grabber is.

Try using NewBlue Titler Pro (even the free old v1.5) and you will get a beautiful demonstration of just how sweet live scrolling back and forward can be when the coders took the trouble to write sweet software. not that I am expecting PD16 to equal that demo, I still think smoothe scrolling is a very nice feature - but whether shadow files on any particular setup help or not is where I would value the thoughts of this forum.

Cheers
Alan.