Can I have "crud" outside Safe Action area?

riredale wrote on 9/9/2002, 6:58 PM

I am using a really slick image steadying utility called "SteadyHand." This product steadies the image by trying to line up frames, but in so doing it necessarily creates black "bands" of varying widths around the video. The program can automatically zoom the image in order to eliminate the bands, but I prefer to do that zooming in VV3, since I then have much greater control.

I know there is a "Safe Action Area" that is defined because TVs overscan the image. My question is whether I can get away with using some of the overscan to hide my black edges. In professional circles, is the same care taken with the image in the "overscan" region as within the Safe Action area? I imagine that the answer is "yes," since that region is visible on a PC or some other digital playback device that doesn't have any overscan, right?

Comments

Tyler.Durden wrote on 9/9/2002, 7:58 PM

Hi Richard,

Many pros use action-safe as the guaranteed area where elements will be visible regardless of variation in TV set manufacture... It's just an industry practice that has some variation on the percentages, but the idea is to be "safe".

Computer display and projectors show image edge-to-edge, so you may want to zoom or mask if your work will be seen there.

HTH, MPH

Control_Z wrote on 9/9/2002, 8:02 PM

Depends how you define 'some' and 'get away with'. Many TVs - especially projection sets - are badly adjusted and will show the overscan area.

SonyDennis wrote on 9/9/2002, 9:23 PM

My 1988 Philips shows enough image on the edges that I catch stuff that slipped by in the studio. The worst offender is Car & Driver Television, when they put up a title or fact plate, and then switch out the video under it, the overlay isn't full screen and I can see the switch and a sliver of the new video before it's revealed. So, to answer your question, don't relay on stuff not being see. Zoom the steadied video.
///d@