DVD production and TV Safe areas
 

Have almost completed my first DVD and by the looks of it...the TV safe area in FCE doesn't always catch everything.

I am using FCE and and iDVD. Burining to wide screen 16:9. The footage is 1920 / 1080i.

So far at least 2 TV sets and dvd players they have projected the image and have cut off at least another 20 - 25% of screen real estate and text inside and past the TV Safe overlays.

Anyway to make the DVD project more consistently on all TV's?

any input would be helpful before I send this to the production company.

Tobin

Are you talking about action safe or title safe? I typically put titles well within title safe to account for the wide variances in overscan on consumer TVs. Image is image- not much you can do about that other than next time- frame things closer to screen center, zoom out a hair, etc.

-Noah

In Title Safe
 

I have it all within title safe and it's still cutting off 20% more.

What do the commercial DVD company's do that do 16:9 movies for block buster etc.?

When converting from HD to SD are you doing Letterbox or Edge-Crop?

wide screen
 

I'm letting idvd do the downconvert to SD.

If I letterbox my true 16:9 fottage prior to cutting to dvd will it help? I want the final display to be wide screen just like modern dvd's. Or appear as such on both widescreen tv's or standard 4:3's .

Not sure I know what you mean by edge crop. I am not letterboxing. Should I be?

Edge crop means that the 16:9 image is "zoomed in" to fill a 4:3 frame completely. But this means that your going to loose the edges of your video because 16:9 is a rectangle shape and 4:3 is more of a square shape. I'm not familiar with the settings in iMovie, but it's worth checking into.

If you're working in 16:9- switch from iDVD to DVDSP. Sounds like you're cropping from 16:9 to 4:3 and chopping off big sections of your frame. DVDSP allows you to choose native 16:9 tracks and you'll end up pretty much having the whole image.

Noah

So, if I understand you correctly, IDVD may not have the ability to tell the TV to project the native 16:9 and the TV is trying to project a full frame and include the overscan area. You are saying that DVDSP has the ability to tell the TV to only project the 16:9 to it's full frame and not project to fill the entire TV screen.

Feel like if I edge crop I am really reducing the size of my images...partculary on smaller TV sets. If I letter box the 16:9 and project the letterbox image at 4:3 will it look correct on wide screen TV's as well?

Tobin

There are three options when going from 16:9 (high def) to standard def 4:3.

1) You can letter box (thin black bars at the top and bottom)
2) You can edge-crop (no black bars, but the sides are cut off a fair amount)
3) You can choose 4:3 anamorphic (I don't have much experience doing this, but basically it stretches the 4:3 image to fill a 16:9 screen. So it's basically the same as burning a standard 4:3 disc and then choosing WIDE on your LCD or Plasma monitor at home)

Thanks Mitchel,

I apologize guys, either I am not being clear...or I have no clue. Tell me if I am wrong, actually I am fine admitting to not having a clue. You guys are so awesome.

I could be wrong, but I don't think I am trying to create a 4:3. I say this because I want the DVD to play wide screen on both widescreen and 4:3 television sets.

If I did convert it to 4:3 and letterbox it or make it anamorhic, what would be the resulting image on wide screen TV's?

Maybe this will help. I drew up a little graph that might help visualize things. Let me know if it clears things up.

Dude, thanks.
 

That is awesome. So I guess I need to figure out how to letterbox 16:9 in FCE.

Or is the general consensus to do it in DVD studio pro.

I did find where to do it in iDVD but it requires some export settings I don't quite understand yet.

Thanks.

I would do your letter boxing in Compressor.