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Until recently, most NLE software applications have followed similar workflow protocols. Now a company that helped to invent this industry has come up with a different way of approaching the NLE process.
In the late "80s, NewTek created the Video Toaster, which helped usher in the age of computer-based video editing. SpeedEdit is NewTek's new standalone nonlinear editing application for HD or SD video on Windows XP and Intel-based Mac computer systems. NewTek calls SpeedEdit a "resolution-independent,aspect-independent, and format-agnostic" product and touts it as "the world's fastest editor." I was more than a little curious and, frankly, skeptical. But, like so many other video creators, I'm making the transition from DV to HDV and I need what SpeedEdit supposedly offers.
SpeedEdit has all of the tools you would expect in a professional NLE application, with some innovative additions. Its resolution independence means you can use SD and HD (720p or 1080i) clips on the same timeline. SpeedEdit takes that a step further and allows the use of other digital formats such as AVI, QuickTime, MPEG-2, and Flash. And because it does not transcode anything, formats remain in their native states.
Everything is done in realtime: combining SD and HD clips, playback, color correction, and basic 3D keyframe animation. Working in the interface, there's no rendering necessary for clips, transitions, titles, etc. SpeedEdit features a dual interface with both a traditional timeline and a storyboard that are dynamically linked.
As a video maker, I wanted to see if this timeline and realtime flexibility would really add up to a new way of editing, one that would free me to concentrate on telling the story at hand. Let's see.
As with any advanced system, it pays to have a dealer or integrator put together a plug-and-play SpeedEdit system; that's how my review unit arrived. I ran SpeedEdit on a provided tower...