My friend doesn't have to render brightness and contrast, why do I?

How is everybody doing?

I am new to Final Cut Pro 7 but I have been working on it for a couple of Months. A friend of mines has been editing for a couple of years and he's pretty much teaching me a lot of the basics.

I have encountered a problem that me nor him can find a solution.

You see, for some weird reason, with his Final Cut Pro 7, he can add the filter "Brightness and Contrast" to his clips and doesn't have to render it at all. However, when I try to do it, I have to render (and my video is long so rendering is going to take forever).

I want to know if there is anything that I am missing or anything I need to change on Final Cut Pro so I don't have to render when using the filter "Brightness & Contrast".

Please let me know, thanks!

Depends on the hardware you have.

If you and your friend have the exact same settings and preferences set and you have to render while he or she does not, then Ben is correct, and it most likely has to do with your hardware. However, there is one thing I would check: click the tiny "RT" icon in the upper-left corner of your Timeline, then make sure that "Unlimited RT" is checked. You'll still have to render your sequence upon output of course, but this ought to help you play back your timeline in real time.