X3F to RMVB Converter

How to Convert X3F to RMVB Online

1. Upload Your X3F Files: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select one or more Sigma Foveon RAW files from your computer. Batch upload is supported — drop a folder of shots from your SD9, SD14, SD15, SD1 Merrill, DP Merrill, or dp Quattro and they queue together for a single slideshow.
2. Pick Merge Strategy and Image Duration: Default is "Merge images" — every X3F frame is concatenated into one RMVB. Switch to "Video per image" if you want one RMVB per RAW. Set "Image Duration" (default 5 seconds per frame; presets run 1/60 second up to 10 seconds). Pick "Background Color" (default White) for any letterboxing when aspect ratios differ.
3. Set Resolution and Quality (Optional): Under Video Resolution choose "Keep original," a Fixed Resolution (640x480 up to 7680x4320 / 4320P), or a Preset (240P, 360P, 480P, 576P, 720P, 1080P, 1440P, 2160P, 4320P). Set "Quality Preset" to Constant Quality or Constraint Quality and pick a preset (Lowest, Very Low, Low, Medium, High, Very High [Recommended], Highest).
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Foveon RAW is demosaiced on our servers, frames are encoded with a RealVideo codec into the RMVB container, and the file downloads when ready. No watermark, no sign-up.

Why Convert X3F to RMVB?

X3F is Sigma's proprietary container for Foveon X3 sensor data — three vertically stacked photodiode layers that capture red, green, and blue at every pixel instead of interpolating across a Bayer mosaic. Files are large (often 30-50 MB per frame on a Quattro) and only Sigma Photo Pro and a handful of third-party tools (Adobe Camera Raw via Sigma's plugin, RawTherapee, darktable's libraw path) can read them. RMVB (RealMedia Variable Bitrate, introduced by RealNetworks in 2003) is a compact slideshow container that became the de facto distribution format in mainland China for movies and TV episodes in the 2000s. Pairing them lets you turn an unsharable RAW shoot into a single small video file that plays in RealPlayer, VLC, MPlayer, and most legacy Chinese set-top boxes.

• Share Foveon shoots with RealPlayer-only viewers — Family members in China running RealPlayer on Windows, or older HiSense and Skyworth set-top boxes from the 2010s, often can't open X3F at all but play RMVB natively.
• Archive a DP Merrill / SD1 session as one file — Instead of mailing 80 raw frames totaling 4 GB, encode a 5-second-per-shot slideshow at 720P and ship a single ~50 MB RMVB.
• Recreate a 2000s-era photo CD aesthetic — RMVB at 360P-480P with 5-second holds matches the look of pre-2010 Chinese photography forum video posts (Tianya, MOP, Mtime).
• Stay under hard upload caps on legacy forums — Sites like 178.com and some Baidu Tieba boards still enforce sub-100 MB attachment limits where RMVB's VBR efficiency beats H.264 MP4 for slideshow content.
• Preview color rendering on RealPlayer-tuned displays — If your audience grades content on RealPlayer's color path, encoding through the same pipeline keeps preview parity.
• Bypass Foveon decoder fragmentation — Not every editor or viewer correctly demosaics X3F (especially Quattro variants); shipping an already-rendered RMVB sidesteps the recipient needing Sigma Photo Pro.

X3F vs RMVB - Format Comparison

Resolution and Duration Quick Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Why convert a Foveon RAW to a Chinese video format instead of MP4?

RMVB stays alive in pockets where MP4/H.264 doesn't — legacy RealPlayer installs in mainland China, older HiSense/Skyworth set-top boxes, and forum communities that gatekeep on .rmvb extensions. If your audience is one of those, RMVB is the practical answer. Otherwise convert X3F to MP4 for broader playback.

Which Sigma cameras produce the X3F files this tool accepts?

Any Foveon X3 camera: SD9 (2002), SD10, SD14, SD15, SD1, SD1 Merrill, DP1/DP1s/DP1x, DP2/DP2s/DP2x, DP Merrill series, dp Quattro series, and SD Quattro / SD Quattro H. Quattro X3F files have a different internal layout than earlier Merrill files; both are handled.

How long will the resulting RMVB be?

Total duration = number of X3F frames x Image Duration. Forty frames at the default 5 seconds per frame produces a 3-minute, 20-second RMVB. Set duration as low as 1/60 second for a flipbook effect or as high as 10 seconds for a contemplative gallery.

Will RMVB preserve Foveon's color advantage?

No video codec can carry the per-pixel three-layer color information that makes Foveon distinctive — the slideshow is encoded as standard YUV 4:2:0 video. To retain Foveon color fidelity for stills, convert X3F to PNG or TIFF instead. Use RMVB only when delivery, not archival color, is the goal.

What plays an RMVB file in 2026?

RealPlayer (Windows, the original), VLC (cross-platform, plays via FFmpeg's RealVideo decoder), MPlayer, MPC-HC with K-Lite codecs, and most Linux video stacks built on FFmpeg. Windows Media Player and QuickTime do not. Modern web browsers do not play RMVB inline.

Can I add an audio track to the slideshow?

The X3F-to-RMVB workflow encodes silent video. To overlay music or narration, render the RMVB first, then use a video editor that handles RealMedia (or convert RMVB to MP4 and add audio in any modern editor).

How is RMVB different from RM?

RM (RealMedia, 1997) used constant bitrate, optimized for early dial-up streaming. RMVB (2003) is the variable-bitrate sibling intended for stored files — it spends more bits on motion-heavy scenes and fewer on static ones, which is ideal for slideshows where most "motion" is a frame held still then cut.

Why is the file so much smaller than the source X3F set?

X3F stores three full-resolution color channels uncompressed-ish (lossless compression on each layer). RMVB stores motion video at a few hundred kbps with lossy DCT compression. A 1.5 GB folder of DP2 Merrill RAW frames typically encodes to a 30-80 MB RMVB at 720P/Very High — roughly 20-50x smaller — because the encoder discards every-pixel precision in favor of perceptual quality.

Is the converted file watermarked or limited?

No watermark, no email gate, no daily cap. Files process on our servers, downloads are direct, and uploads are removed automatically after a few hours. Batch up an entire shoot in one session.