Ruby

Ruby is a conversion tool from Runway that takes compressed video and re-expands it to meet broadcast display standards. Until now, the output of video generation tools has been like vacuum-packed files, squeezed tightly to fit. Push the color even a little and the sky gets blotchy, dark areas turn to mush. Ruby's job is to take that squeezed footage and unpack it into the wider format broadcasters require.

What matters here is that it's not just about nudging up the brightness. To get a genuine result, you have to increase the number of steps used to represent color (as if undoing compression), widen the range of colors available, and also change the calculation rule that converts pixel values into actual screen brightness. Runway draws a clear line: skip any one of these three, and all you get is a fake with the brightness turned up — the same old footage in different clothes.

Ruby can take any video made within Runway, and even footage shot with a real camera. The output comes in two forms: a set of high-quality still images ready for editing or color grading, or a video file that can be dropped straight into a broadcast editor.

Articles describe it with lines like "Runway's Ruby converts AI video into broadcast HDR format." A common misunderstanding here is thinking Ruby is just a filter that brightens the picture. In reality, it changes three things at once — the brightness steps, the color range, and the rule used to calculate brightness — and the article's key point is that touching only one of these won't actually produce a true broadcast-ready format.

1. Generate a video in Runway, or prepare a video file you already have.
2. Find the Ruby conversion feature and input that video.
3. Choose an output format — different options depending on whether you'll use it for post-production color grading and compositing, editing and mastering, or streaming delivery.
4. Play the converted file on a broadcast display or an HDR-capable monitor and compare the brightness and color differences against the original.