SpeedEdit, what do you think?

[ted]

Considering we are talking about NewTek's first draft of SpeedEdit vers 1.0 I'm fairly impressed with the relatively small number of showstoppers, if any have been discovered. It was also a little more developed then I expected for the first release.

Obviously this is the stepping stone to VT5, but a good start. Especially with all the file conversions we are having to deal with more and more. HD is the buzz but there is no "kleenex" file or size standard. :thumbsdow SE helps a lot there. :thumbsup
There is room for maturity in SpeedEdit but I like it for sure.

What do you think of it and how are you using it?

[billmi]

I don't use FCP, so I can't make a serious comparison, but...

Recently a friend called me up, looking for an FCP edit suite. He'd been using one at his church for well over a year now, and had a short drama that he wanted to edit for a demo real to go in with a film school application - he didn't think it was appropriate to use the church's equipment for it.

I didn't know anyone local who uses FCP, so I edited for him in SpeedEdit, and he directed.

We knocked it out in one evening in Speed Edit, using the one-pass auto-chop (I definitely like that I'm not having to do one pass that collects capture points, and a pass for each clip to capture) to grab the footage while we went over the script. It was pretty basic cuts-only, but I had to do some color correction on some shots that were way out, and was able to do that automatically with the toolshed color match. There was some cropping where an extra person or boom mic just peeked in frame, and quite a bit of audio clean-up.

When we were done he said "Wow, that was great, you did stuff that I could not have done in Final Cut Pro." Now how much of that was what FCP can or can't do, or that in a year plus of using it he hadn't learned how yet, I don't know, but he was quite impressed by the speed and ease of use with Speed Edit in comparison.

[Dan Hong]

Just uninstalled Adoobie Premiere (whew, I won't miss that beast). Yeah, I've had a few glitches here and there, but for the most part, I can ACTUALLY edit hdv. We do HDV for a digital signage application, so I've been killing myself with Premiere and Vegas for the last 8 months. Me likee alot Spedit. Thanks again NewTek!!!

[prospector]

So far I like

BUT
I hit something lastnight I thought was strange.

A friend working in LW was also using After Effects so I asked why.

"because LW renders RLA and every object in a scene can be made into a seperate layer in After Effects".
So he can render a full scene with dozens of objects and he can then pull any object out of an animation to do whatever can be done with a piece of film in After Effects to only that object, then merge it back into film.

So naturally I looked into Speed Edit and it wouldn't import RLAs. And to my surprise..neither would the VT4.

So I thought.....a LW output NOT usable in any other Newtek product?

I wouldn't think this true so I must be doing something wrong.

But so far I like SE.

[Ivan]

Why does that suprise you? The RTV plugin that Newtek released for LW doesn't create an RTV that will match up with one rendered in VT. For that you need Bob Tasa's RTV plugin that comes with LWConnect.

Ivan

[Jim_C]

But is RLA an extension, file and creation by somebody other than Newtek(maybe even Adobe themselves) and they just adapted LW to export to it?

Or is it actually a Newtek created file type?

I'm betting the former.

[John Perkins]

An RLA has the objects in separate layers with Z depth information for 3D compositing.

We aren't a 3D compositing application, so we can't interpret the information.

That would make an interesting feature request though. :thumbsup:

[prospector]

Well we just can't have this :thumbsdow

I hereby demand that Newtek make all Newtek products see other Newtek in or out codecs. :D

[prospector]

Oficially requested :D :thumbsup:

[cholo]

I like SE a lot! It may have some shortcomings as a compositor, as a word processor, as a spreadsheet and as a database, but as an editor it is the greatest! :)

[rycar_m]

An RLA has the objects in separate layers with Z depth information for 3D compositing.

We aren't a 3D compositing application, so we can't interpret the information.

That would make an interesting feature request though. :thumbsup:

With so many LW licenses around the more intergration with SE the more SE will be around

just my 2 cents

ric

[prospector]

:i_agree:

What better way to sell Speed Edit to other Newtek product users.

[Dennis Sladek]

Although, I've only spent a couple of hours with SE, I'm very impressed indeed.
The Storyboard / Timeline workflow makes a lot of sense.

I'd like to be able to download the DVD content, so that I may follow along with the Quick Start.

[Rich Deustachio]

I have a complaint about SE and VT4, it doesn't do my taxes for me.

[prospector]

I have a complaint about SE and VT4, it doesn't do my taxes for me.

That is a hidden shortcut.

hit CTRL-SHIFT-T-A-X-E-S-F-O-U-R-Y-O-U
:D

[Scott Bates]

That is a hidden shortcut. hit CTRL-SHIFT-T-A-X-E-S-F-O-U-R-Y-O-U That needs to be changed to CTRL-SHIFT-T-A-X-E-S-4-U. While I can handle 7-finger and 2-thumb shortcuts, I'm just not flexible enough anymore to manage the 8th finger and 4 toes. :grumpy:

[Exception]

SpeedEDIT looks really nice, the interface is smooth and well thought out...

That said, I find version 1.0 useless, and it's going onto the shelf, unfortunately.
It crashes when coming even near xvid avis, and what's worse, every time I do a slip or roll edit, the audio needs to be resynced with the video by hand. That's neither Speed nor would I call it 'edit' focused.
For a video editor, I expected some innovative timeline tools that premiere misses. Instead, there's some premiere tools that speededit misses.

Also, changing the project basics (resolution, frame rate etc) halfway through a project seems to be impossible. This is the one major thing I truly dispise about Premiere, and speededit doesn't seem to differ in this regard.

I stopped testing after I discovered the a/v lock problems. There might be tons of great stuff in it, and perhaps some other show stoppers.

I'll be looking foward to version 1.x.

[cholo]

Exception... Even thought you can't change the project settings, if you render out to a different format, it will NOT upsample/downsample the project you saw on your timeline (either temporally or spatially), but rather render it out as if the project had been natively set at what you're rendering out to, fully taking advantage of the full resolution of your files... Try it. It's a great idea. Project settings are more like timeline monitoring settings.

[Exception]

Cholo:

Will it also render data that falls out of the timeline aspect?
Like, when I have set the timeline to 4:3, and there's 16:9 footage in it, its sides cropped, when you render to 16:9, all data is present? Because that's usually my problem, halfway through a project they change the aspect on me...

[SBowie]

An RLA has the objects in separate layers with Z depth information for 3D compositing.

We aren't a 3D compositing application, so we can't interpret the information.

That would make an interesting feature request though. :thumbsup:
I'm not convinced this would actually be useful an way, sorry. This seems to me one of those ideas that sounds great when you don't think it through.

RLA's break out in a lot of layers. Lacking transfer modes, you couldn't really even display one correctly in SE. Even with layer transfer modes implemented, you wouldn't be able to do much more than display it, afaics. Well, maybe you could do a little blurring of reflections, tweaking of brughtness etc., but mostly it would be just a way to avoid a render step on export from AE (or whatever compositor you use to modify the render).

Worse by far, every loaded RLA would result in a large number of layers in SE! Not for me, thanks. I'd prefer to do any manipulation of the RLA layers elsewhere, and flatten before loading into SE. (Not that implementing transfer modes in SE is a bad idea, mind you.)

[Gordon]

Will it also render data that falls out of the timeline aspect?
Like, when I have set the timeline to 4:3, and there's 16:9 footage in it, its sides cropped, when you render to 16:9, all data is present? Because that's usually my problem, halfway through a project they change the aspect on me... Wouldn't it make sense to work only in 16 x 9 and then render to a 4 x 3 if you have to?

[cholo]

Exception:

Yes, it will handle aspect transfers upon rendering and the dialog box offers you the option to either letterbox or crop for source material that falls outside the aspect.

[Exception]

Neat!
Well that's something...

Thanks for the elaboration.

Too bad about the other stuff. Hope they'll fix it soon.

[Terrence]

SE rocks

[Pete Draves]

Mine will not edit when i am not there!!!!

Pete

[Ivan]

You must not have it set up right. Talk to your dealer.:hey:

Ivan

[Scott Bates]

Pete, you mean your download didn't include a "Programable Virtual Robotic Alien Editor"? I use their secret script to have mine begin editing 30 minutes after the last time I touch the keyboard in the evening - all I have to do when I get to the office the next morning is print the invoice and call the client. (I've submitted a Feature Request to have SE take care of that too.)

You need to get on the phone with Customer Support first thing in the morning!

[Pete Draves]

I know my computer is fast enough. It turns on as I reach for the switch.

All humor aside... SE is really great
Pete

[ted]

Nice to see more LW people interacting here. Much more then in the VT forums.
For version 1.000, SPeedEdit is pretty darned good.

[pox]

I love Speed Edit so far, but it does seem to crash a lot when working in the GC also the CG should be easier to find for noobz. SE is cheap enough for schools to start buying it for there students to use, but it still needs a few more things less hidden.

[mbloor]

Exception... Even thought you can't change the project settings, if you render out to a different format, it will NOT upsample/downsample the project you saw on your timeline (either temporally or spatially), but rather render it out as if the project had been natively set at what you're rendering out to, fully taking advantage of the full resolution of your files... Try it. It's a great idea. Project settings are more like timeline monitoring settings.
I would only give one word of caution here. When using motion CG, say in a 720p project, then rendering out as an interlace format, the results will NOT be quite the same as creating the same CG in an interlace project.
If you dont believe me set up a progressive 720p project and add a crawling graphic. Render out at DV 576/480i. Repeat but this time set up a DV interlace project. View the two resulting DV files they do not appear the same. The DV from the interlace project will look much smoother, in terms of the CG scroll.
What I would suggest is IF you are intending to render out an interlace file from a progressive project, open a second instance of SE, this time set up with an interlace project, then paste the files from one to the other..it will give you better interlace CG.
Mark

[PixelFarmer]

Does it export .flv?
Does it export different frame rates? If so, are there options for the interframe blending?

Thanks.
M