ODG to RM Converter

ODG to RM: A Drawing in RealMedia Packaging

.odg is an OpenDocument Graphics drawing — the vector shapes, connectors and text frames LibreOffice Draw and Apache OpenOffice Draw save inside a ZIP of XML. .rm is RealMedia, the proprietary streaming container RealNetworks built around its RealVideo and RealAudio codecs: RealAudio launched in April 1995, RealVideo followed in 1997 with early versions based on H.263, and together they carried most internet video through the dial-up era. This page renders your drawing and encodes each page as a silent held frame in that container — a genuinely niche request, and one that only makes sense when a legacy player or an archive expects RealMedia.

How to Convert ODG to RM

1. Upload Your ODG File: Drag the .odg onto the page or click "+ Add Files". With several files, Merge strategy decides the outcome: "Merge images" writes one .rm holding each drawing in turn, "Video per image" writes one file per upload.
2. Choose the Video Codec: Video Codec offers RV10 (preselected) and RV20 — RealVideo 1 and RealVideo 2, the two RealVideo generations available here. RV10 is the more broadly readable of the pair; RV20 is slightly newer.
3. Set the Image Duration and Video Resolution: Image Duration → Duration sets how long each rendered page is held, 5 seconds by default. Video resolution opens on "Keep original" — for an A4 drawing that is a 300 DPI render near 2480 x 3508 pixels, which is wildly outside anything RealMedia was designed for. Pick a modest raster such as 640 x 480 or 1280 x 720.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and save the .rm. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

RealMedia at a Glance

RM Against the Obvious Alternatives

What This Conversion Produces

LibreOffice opens the .odg as a Draw document, exports it through Draw's own PDF filter, and each page of that PDF is rendered at 300 DPI into a frame that the RealVideo encoder then compresses at 1 fps. The result is a silent RealMedia file holding your drawing as a still — technically valid, and about as far from the format's design intent as it is possible to get, since RealMedia exists to stream moving pictures over slow links.

The practical consequence is that the frame size matters more than usual. RealVideo's encoders were tuned for small rasters, and handing one a 2480 x 3508 render produces a file that is both large and slow to encode for no visible benefit. Set Video resolution deliberately, and expect softer edges than a modern codec would give you at the same size.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does anything still play .rm files?

VLC and MPlayer do, and so does RealPlayer where it survives. Browsers, phones and Apple's own software do not — RealMedia never had native support outside RealNetworks' own ecosystem, and nothing has been added since. That is the main reason people convert away from .rm; converting to it only makes sense for a specific legacy destination.

Which codec should I pick, RV10 or RV20?

RV10 unless something asks for otherwise. RealVideo 1 is the more widely readable of the two, and on a static drawing the compression difference between the generations is irrelevant — every frame in a hold is identical, so there is nothing for a better codec to exploit. RV20 is worth trying only if a specific player rejects RV10.

Will the RM file have sound?

No. An ODG carries no audio, so the Audio Codec group does not render on this page and the file holds a video stream only. RealMedia would normally pair RealVideo with RealAudio; here there is nothing to pair it with. Add a track in a video editor after converting if a platform demands one.

Why does my drawing look soft?

Two reasons stack up. RealVideo is a 1990s codec built for very low bitrates, so it smooths detail that newer codecs preserve — and if you left Video resolution on "Keep original", a print-grade render is being pushed through an encoder that was never meant to see one. Choose a moderate frame size, thicken hairlines in Draw before converting, and accept that hard-edged line art is not what this codec was designed for.

What happens to a multi-page Draw document?

Each page becomes its own held frame inside the same .rm, in page order, shown for the Image Duration you set. Three pages at the 5-second default give a 15-second clip. If you want one file per page instead, save the pages as separate .odg files in LibreOffice Draw, upload them together and set Merge strategy to "Video per image".

Is RM the same thing as RMVB?

Not quite. RMVB is the variable-bitrate extension of the same RealMedia container, introduced in 2003 and popular for storing films and TV episodes locally rather than streaming them. Both wrap RealVideo essence and both are read by the same players. If your destination asked for RMVB specifically, ODG to RMVB writes that name instead.

Should I really be converting a diagram to RealMedia?

Only if something genuinely requires it. For any ordinary purpose a picture is better — ODG to PNG is the direct route — and if the destination needs video, ODG to MP4 plays on everything RealMedia does not, which is nearly everything. Choose .rm when a legacy archive, player or ingest process leaves you no alternative.

How are my uploaded files handled?

Your drawing travels over an encrypted connection, is rendered and encoded on our servers, and is deleted automatically a few hours later along with the .rm it produced. Nothing is shared, published or reused, no account is required, and no watermark is applied. The ODG converter hub lists every other target for the same source file.