NTSC Overscan

Jeff2001 wrote on 10/16/2005, 11:34 AM

Where should you set up things so that everything is visible on a Television monitor? (e.g. so that text is not outside the viewing area) About 10% of is outside view on a NTSC Television.

Should the set up be done in the editing program or in the DVD authoring program or both?

Comments

jrazz wrote on 10/16/2005, 1:34 PM

In DVDA2 & 3 it has Title safe areas that are turned on by default. If yours are off you can try going to view and selecting them to turn them back on. As for the video you import into DVDA I always leave 10-15 percent free on both sides and the bottom if you are using lower thirds as all tv's are different and what looks okay on yours may not look good on someone elses.

Jeff2001 wrote on 10/16/2005, 7:36 PM

When you say that you leave "ten-fifteen percent free on both sides"?
do you mean
1) you have "black" space around the picture area or
2) do you just bring the titles within the safe area and accept the fact that part of your picture is "cropped" out by the TV monitor?

if you do (1) , do you it in DVD Architect? If so, HOW do you do it?

Thanks.

jrazz wrote on 10/16/2005, 7:47 PM

2 is what I do. If I am using lower thirds I allow the lower third to extend across the filmed footage, but the text is what I allow space for as people notice when they are missing the first or last letters of words or the bottoms are cut off, but they don't really know there is anything missing when concerning the graphic or the footage itself. If they did, "this movie has been reformatted to fit your television screen" would not be acceptable and we would have only had wide-screen tv's.

ECB wrote on 10/17/2005, 5:40 AM

Frist, it sounds like your tv is not adjusted correctly. I suggest you author a DVD+R/W with a menu made up of a series of concentric rectangles starting at the center. Play the DVD and determine the max rectangle where all 4 sides are visible on your tv. This rectangle becomes the bounds of your action safe area. Adjust the titile and action areas of DVDA3 to these boundries. Run the same test using Vegas and detemine the action and title safe areas. After you have determined the action safe area for Vegas look at you video with the action safe boundry on. If you have action (or text) outside the action safe area you will have to pan & scan the dv video which may cause a pillared or letterboxed image if you have to zoom out.

Ed B