HD For Indies

Hmmm - I would not call NewTek Off Major software. They have been around a long time - Starting with their Video Toaster product - They also make live switchers so they have a lot of experience with video. Their Lightwave 3D app was used for a lot of 300's shots (as well as Titanic and a pletora of other projects).

My only issue with SpeedEdit is that I cannot afford the time to learn a new tool like this when I have one that meets my needs.
 

B-Scene - TRUE - they've been around a long time. But the Majors are the AAA - Apple/Avid/Adobe in my book. And the infrastructure around an NLE is at LEAST as important as the NLE itself, so it matters.
 

I view Newtek almost the same as I view Avid: A lot of innovation in the 80s, but they're behind everyone else now... but the reason I don't like Newtek is because their REALLY into using exclusive, proprietary codecs on all their products.

For example, playing .RTV files, the toaster's native format, without Newtek's software or hardware is almost impossible. They released an After Effects plugin for .rtv files a long time ago, but the plugin has been unmaintained since AE 6.0. What's worse is that the license agreement reads like a ransom note.

Since you really can't just play media with sound normally in AE, there's no way to simply watch the file with sync sound without transcoding it through After Effects. And if you upgrade to a Mac, you won't be able to watch your old footage at all!

SpeedEdit now throughs another "exclusive" codec into the mix: SpeedHQ. Count me out.

And finally, if you're not mixing formats on one timeline, there is no reason at all that SpeedEdit is faster than well... anyone else. The only proof that Newtek shows that it's faster than the rest at editing is an iMovie-like "storyboard mode" that doesn't even work right if you are editing with multiple tracks.