SAFE area restrictions?

razorcut wrote on 6/3/2003, 11:01 AM
I'm using the default safe/menu areas of 10%/20% and all is fine, BUT when trying to have a large scene-selection p[age with say 8 or 10 menu buttons on it the buttons and text can get really small when played back on a TV...

My observation is that there appears to be a 'lot' of extra horizontal and vertical space around the buttons and text 'on the TV' during playback...

what I'd like to do is use more of the available 'practical' space... so my question is why 10%/20%??? it looks to me in this combination I have I could use 2-3%/5% and still have margin...

so... what's the 'real' story --- does 'everyone' use such wide margins???

I always ignore thoe 'text outside safe area' messages as the always indicate that a text 'bounding box' is just over the edge... though some 'bounding' boxes that roll over the edge do not cause warnings - interesting...

one only runs into this issue for a large number (maybe 6 or more) buttons on a page...

Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 6/3/2003, 11:45 AM
The reason for the safe areas is due to a TV's over scan area. All TV's are a little different and the end user can also influence the size the picture on your TV blooms if the TV is not set up correctly meaning your high voltage is causing the picture to distort or you changed the height or width beyond what it should be. Do you have to follow the safe areas? No.

I frequently have 8 thumbnails of good size (158 x 115 pixels apx) two rows, 4 across. These easily fit within the so-called 'safe area' and still have ample space between the thumbails. My gripe, which I have ranted about perhaps excessively is you constantly have to change the size/position of the thumnails manually, because DVD-A is too dumb to give you a means to tell it keep the thumbnails at such and such size/position.
razorcut wrote on 6/3/2003, 1:30 PM
"easily fit" is exactly what I mean... using the default size thumbnails generated by DVD-A I get 2 rows of 4... and there's about half a button width of space at the sides...

On 'my' TV I get more than 1-1/2 buttons of width at the sides...

Yes, I understand overscan... my quesiotn is "is 20%" the right number for menu items... are some TVs that bad and overscan 'THAT' much??? looks like even 10% for menus would be more than enough, and less than 5% overscan on my TV...

what is everyone else's experience with overscan and safe area setting... (IOW, should I not push it? - for general use)
BillyBoy wrote on 6/3/2003, 1:48 PM
It depends on what you're shooting for. If you're only worried about your own TV's then a simple matter to check. If you want to be super save for the whole universe of TV's out there, then use close to the size the safe areas are set to. I think they are a bit conservative myself and probably 12-15% would be fine for most. The flip side of the coin is if you happen to hit a TV that is way out of wack then some of your thumbnails would be partially cut off... which obviously would look very bad and you, not the TV or TV owner would be blamed.
Erk wrote on 6/19/2003, 2:04 PM
My TV is the worst I've seen re: safe areas. It cuts off a good bit of the standard lower third and 1/3 to 1/4 of the bug in the lower right corner (this is on "real" TV shows, almost every network, not my videos). Its also not centered. I discovered this the first time I made a DVD menu. The buttons were neatly centered on the computer, and quite noticeably out of whack on my TV. Its a Sony from '97. Doesn't seem to be any way to adjust it.

So what I'm saying is that if you want to test your safe areas under the worst possible conditions, just send your videos to me for $20 (plus shipping and handling).

Seriously, the safe areas in Vegas are conservative enough that they work on my TV (except for the centering), so they're probably pretty safe.

G
sqblz wrote on 6/24/2003, 5:25 PM
Erk, I own a Sony Wega only a little newer than yours.
You should be aware that there is an hidden menu where the technicians can go and change such things as pincushion, zoom, etc. You access this menu by a certain combination of remote buttons.
If you search in Google with your TV's model and "hidden menu" you might find something.
Use at your own risk. And don't destroy your TV ;-))
Erk wrote on 6/25/2003, 10:48 AM
Sqblz,

You are truly the man. I look forward to some hacking tonight.

If I destroy my TV, I just might get more editing done.

G