Safe Areas for 720p?

[Mike Truly]

I am currently working on a 1280x720p project.

When looking at the safe area that's displayed in the Edius preview window, I'm wondering what that represents in the world of displays these days. It has more space on the sides than on the top and bottom.

Since my project ends up on a SD DVD, the 16x9 image will probably be either scaled to fit a 16x9 TV or letterboxed onto a 4x3 TV depending on what's connected to the DVD player. There might be some cropping on an older 4x3 display but on a 16x9 is there any?

What I'm trying to decide is how much of that space I can safely use for titles and callouts, etc.

Thanks!

[GrassValley_BH]

Yes, there is still overscan in the world of 16x9.

Generally there is more overscan on tube-based displays, but even my LCD projector (which is natively 16x9) cuts off some stuff from the edges on Component input.

[Mike Truly]

Brandon,

Thanks for that info. Any idea why the safe area shown on the Edius preview window is not equi-distant from the edges all the way around? Seems like it should be as that is the way it is shown on an SD format image.

Thanks again.

[aldigitalguy]

That all depends...

Your question is a good one! I have switched over completely to HDV shooting on my Sony Z1. If you are editing for conversion to SD, most SD conversions will put black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. In other words 16:9 in a 4:3 space. This is what I run into all the time. I have begun to create two sequences one with no overscan figured in and one with. Nothing looks sillier than titles floating out in the middle of the screen on a 16:9 in a 4:3 screen.

[Mike Truly]

Al,

Thanks for the ideas. Perhaps the greater width of the safe frame overlay on a 720p project is that even though there will be NO overscanning when 16x9 is letterboxed into 4x3 image on a 4x3 display on the top and bottom, there still will be overscanning on the sides?

Not sure.

Thanks again.

[Mike Truly]

Any idea how much % is cropped on typical 16x9 LCD or Plasma type displays? I always thought the newer displays were showing all or almost all of the image.

Thanks!

[GrassValley_BH]

I would say it's probably still 2-3% of overscan, depending on the individual device.

As for why the overscan isn't equidistant from all edges, I'm not sure. My feeling is that the percentages don't work to-aspect because I don't think they take pixel aspect ratio into account.

[Mike Truly]

Brandon,

So your saying that because the format I'm working in is square pixel (1280x720p) the code for the safe frame thinks it should be doing safe frames with non-square pixel formats like D1 or DV? Sounds like something that should be fixed.

Likewise, I was just noticing that I could set the size of the action frame but not the title frame. Would be nice to be able to adjust the title frame too.

Thanks!

[GrassValley_BH]

Looking more closely at my projector's output, I think the horizontal and vertical overscan sizes aren't the same either. So weird.