RTV support?
- Thread starter Norman
- Start date
Seattle-HotShot
Event Photo and Video
So, what was the answer? I'm guessing that if SE can read everything else, it "should" do RTV too, right? Man, that would be funny if it didn't!
WOw. I never replied to a 13 year old thread before but, I guess I am in no rush. I am about to remove SE from my machine for good since I really cannot use it anymore. I only kept it installed so I can open my RTV files. Does anyone know the best way to convert from RTV to another lossless file? Should I use AVI for the 4:3 old stuff? Is another format better? I want something that will be around in the near future. Any help would be appreciated?
Hi Tony,
It's been a LONG time since I used SpeedEDIT (but still miss it) and I think the problem you face is not an uncommon one for users of old video editing software (Speed Razor anyone?). I think if I were in your shoes I would try the following approach.
If possible load my RTVs into SpeedEDIT and render out image sequences in a high quality TIFF or TARGA file format. The files will be big but with today's drives it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Most, if not all, editors can read image sequences so it should be pretty much future proofed. The only problem is, I can't remember if SE renders out image sequences or not.
Not sure if this helps but hopefully it does.
Shabazzy
It's been a LONG time since I used SpeedEDIT (but still miss it) and I think the problem you face is not an uncommon one for users of old video editing software (Speed Razor anyone?). I think if I were in your shoes I would try the following approach.
If possible load my RTVs into SpeedEDIT and render out image sequences in a high quality TIFF or TARGA file format. The files will be big but with today's drives it shouldn't be too much of a problem. Most, if not all, editors can read image sequences so it should be pretty much future proofed. The only problem is, I can't remember if SE renders out image sequences or not.
Not sure if this helps but hopefully it does.
Shabazzy
Thanks for the reply Shabazzy. I stopped using SE a couple of years ago and shifted toward Premiere Pro CC. I still have SE on my newest machine only if I need to open an RTV. I think the Targa sequence works in SE but I just want to keep it simple with a single file such as an uncompressed AVI. I just wasn't sure which settings to use. And, yes I remember Speed Razor.
Yeah, I understand. The only reason why I probably wouldn't choose a video file is because if the file gets corrupted, then boom. Nightmare session begin. Whereas, with an image sequence if one or two images get corrupted you can still work with the footage. You get a ton more protection against file corruption issues.
Hmmm. It's a tough one because it's always going to be a trade off between quality and file size.
A lossless format (great for archiving purposes) will produce massive file sizes but the opposite is true for a lossy format (but with a potentially great choice of intermediate codecs that are suitable for editing with. They are usually proprietory and so have to be paid for, but man the quality can be off the charts good).
If it's a question of quality with a reasonable filesize, then ideally you'd use (may God forgive me) Apple's ProRes (a pretty much universally accepted intermediate but proprietory codec) or one of Avid's DNx codecs (if you've got a licence) since these can give very good quality images with fairly acceptable file sizes, but I don't know if rendering out to one of those is possible with SpeedEDIT.
Since you're using Premiere Pro CC, I guess I'd render the RTV's out as image sequences and load them into Adobe Media Encoder, then export them as a DNxHR/DNxHD codec or maybe one the the higher quality h.264 presets available. That would pretty much guarantee as near to the original RTV version as possible.
AVI Uncompressed would be the most obvious choice but man, those file sizes really make them only suitable for archiving purposes in my opinion. Then there's the possibility of compatibility issues between editors.
Either way, whatever you end up rendering out to from SE, I'd run the resulting file through Media Encoder to get an intermediate (or proxy) I could edit with.
A lossless format (great for archiving purposes) will produce massive file sizes but the opposite is true for a lossy format (but with a potentially great choice of intermediate codecs that are suitable for editing with. They are usually proprietory and so have to be paid for, but man the quality can be off the charts good).
If it's a question of quality with a reasonable filesize, then ideally you'd use (may God forgive me) Apple's ProRes (a pretty much universally accepted intermediate but proprietory codec) or one of Avid's DNx codecs (if you've got a licence) since these can give very good quality images with fairly acceptable file sizes, but I don't know if rendering out to one of those is possible with SpeedEDIT.
Since you're using Premiere Pro CC, I guess I'd render the RTV's out as image sequences and load them into Adobe Media Encoder, then export them as a DNxHR/DNxHD codec or maybe one the the higher quality h.264 presets available. That would pretty much guarantee as near to the original RTV version as possible.
AVI Uncompressed would be the most obvious choice but man, those file sizes really make them only suitable for archiving purposes in my opinion. Then there's the possibility of compatibility issues between editors.
Either way, whatever you end up rendering out to from SE, I'd run the resulting file through Media Encoder to get an intermediate (or proxy) I could edit with.