Projection vs TV safe zones

DGrob wrote on 12/14/2003, 5:38 AM
As I understand it, my DVD+R projected will show full frame 720x480, while the same program rendered DVD+R for home TVs will require a 5-10% safe zone.

I have been supplied with footage that was shot at a local TV program and is cropped very tightly throughout at the top, well into a 5% safe zone. I have a couple dozen clips with this difficulty. All else, generated media, etc. will be fine.

My question. Should I render a full frame DVDA NTSC for projection and pan/crop down to a slightly smaller frame size for DVDA NTSC intended for distribution to home TV? Without a reduction, the home TVs are gonna see a lota flattops. Any suggestions for what that home TV aspect ratio might be would be appreciated. Can I simply select a project setting during render rather than multiple track settings to get the image sized down?

TIA, DGrob

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 12/14/2003, 6:29 AM
The only way that the home displays would 'see a lotta flattops' is if this was pre-cropped. I'm confused by how you are describing this/excuse my ignorance. The video should fill the entire screen, border to border, regardless of safe zones. Only titles and other overlays should be needing to worry about this.
To select multiple event's, it's a matter of setting one to where you want it, and then copying it and pasting attributes to the remainder of the events.
And yes, it would be a DVDA NTSC render setting. Or render as an AVI file and drop that into DVDA.
John_Cline wrote on 12/14/2003, 7:05 AM
ALL Tv's, whether conventional CRT, LCD, Plasma or front or rear projection, overscan to some degree. Just pay attention to the safe action and safe title areas and you'll be fine.

John
DGrob wrote on 12/14/2003, 7:31 AM
Thanks. I understand your remarks. A little clarification - the raw event clips I have were closely cropped in the original. When I drop them into my project, the tops of the heads (seated close-ups of talking head interviews) are already flirting with the top of the screen. If I render full size, projections will probably fly, but TVs will have the heads top third and cropped at the top. Can I downsize, and by how much, the file intended for home DVD/TV use?

DGrob
riredale wrote on 12/14/2003, 11:10 AM
John Cline:

Are you sure? I don't have an LCD or micromirror projector, but would have assumed that they showed the full 480x720 display, not a cropped version. Certainly the PC displays (WinTV/WinDVD/PowerDVD) show the entire frame.

Given how things are slowly moving to the digital domain, I would strongly recommend that you take pains to ensure that your video looks very good over the entire frame. I say this because in my own projects in the past I haven't given much concern to edge artifacts. For example, one of the cameras we use has an odd "top line" flicker problem. On a regular set, it would never be seen. Nonetheless, on my latest project I made sure the whole video was run through a final process that set that top line to black, so it would never draw any attention if the video were seen full-frame in the future.

Similarly, I've used SteadyHand on various clips that needed steadying. I never ask the program to re-zoom the shrunken image up, since it causes a loss of sharpness. Rather, I put a small black border on the steadied video. Since most of my project was not steadied, I put in keyframes so that the video is normally full-frame, but as we get closer to a steadied clip a black frame very gradually appears, and then goes away after that clip has passed. The black border is never noticed because it is relatively narrow and it comes and goes so gradually.
DGrob wrote on 12/14/2003, 2:37 PM
Gottcha. I'll compose and render for full frame projection. I may crop a coupla different test project settings to bring the head shots into TV. Thanks, DGrob
Chienworks wrote on 12/14/2003, 3:27 PM
I wouldn't worry too much about chopping off the tops of heads on Television screens as long as it's minor. I see plenty of commericial talk shows where this is done very often, especially on closeups. Probably if you're zoomed in far enough to show only head and neck, then losing above the forehead would look ok. Scenes that show more than that will probably look better with less of the top of the head cut off.
John_Cline wrote on 12/14/2003, 3:48 PM
John Cline: Are you sure?

Yes.
jsteehl wrote on 12/19/2003, 2:45 PM
Need some help here....

If I have video outside of the Safe Action box will it show up on any view TV, LCD, Projection, Computer Monitor?

My understanding is that the Safe Area is an indication of what a TV will show (given overscan) but if you have garbage outside the Safe Area it my still show up in a project screen or compute monitor? Is that correct?

Thanks

-Jason
DGrob wrote on 12/19/2003, 7:00 PM
Near as I can tell, yes you are correct. Just burned a one-hour DVD and played it on my TV. The default 10% overscan safety border in the preview window is just about dead on for my home TV. Viewed on my computer with WINDVD it's full frame as seen in the Vegas preview.
DGrob