Problem with video being cut off

Stranger4u wrote on 9/11/2005, 12:06 PM

I have just finished my first dvd using DVDA and it's playing fine on the pc. However, when I try playing it on my dvd player the picture is cut off all around. For example, in the menu I cannot see the leftmost letters. The same applies to the actual movie. I don't know why this is happening. It seems as if the picture is too big and only part of it is showing on the tv screen.

This is a fullscreen project btw.

Any ideas on why this is happening?

Comments

bStro wrote on 9/11/2005, 1:20 PM

Just a normal part of video production...

As a general rule, the entire image will not be visible on standard televisions. It's there, you just can't see it because that part of the screen is hidden by the television's casing. It's just as well because the outer edges of an image on standard televisions is rather rough looking -- it has to do with something called "overscan." I don't know a whole lot about the mechanics behind it, but I do know there's no point in trying to fight it, especially since the amount of overscan varies from television to television. So you're never going to get it "just right" for every TV.

What you can do, though, is use safe area (aka safe zone) guides when producing your videos and DVDs. There is the Action Safe area, which is where you should keep anything that you want to be sure the viewer sees. Then within that is the Title Safe area, which is where you should keep anything you want the viewer to be able to read (titles, buttons, warnings, etc).

Both Vegas and DVDA have these guides. In fact, I think they're on by default(?). In DVDA, go to View -> Workspace Overlays to turn them on / off. Keep in mind, these are just guides to help you place your objects.

Rob