Action and title safe. Are they still relevant?

^faldo^

^faldo^

Member
I was watching a documentary yesterday that introduced a professor by fading in a solid marble patterned background at the bottom left of the screen some text of his name and position on top of it.

The amount of empty space it took up at the bottom and left of the frame was huge.

I'm pretty sure that bigger TVs are magnifying the amount of space that margins take up, but I also wonder how many LCDs and plasmas there are out there right now that overscan anywhere near as badly as CRTs. And surely they wouldn't overscan any more over time than they do when they leave the factory.

Other than making the audience feel comfortable with the position of subtitles and text, is there a reason other than backward compatibility with older sets that we respect margins?

When can you break the margin rules in broadcast?

And if we can't, is the reasoning any different from the CRT problem?
 
I don't think LCD and plasma screens are subject to overscan, are they? Hard to imagine an engineering reason they would be. Although I'm not an engineer.
 
No, they aren't. But does everyone in your audience have one? All new TV's are going to be that, but there are a huge number of people who don't want to invest that much in one. Remember, you're a video guy, but most people aren't as concerned about what they see and don't need to upgrade.
 
faldo asked specifically about LCDs and plasmas over-scanning, which they don't. He did not ask about backwards-compatibility to CRT displays.
 
If you're shooting HD content it's going to be 16:9 so you don't need to worry about the title safe on the top and bottom of your frame. And generally speaking I can't imagine a well composed shot that doesn't fit the title safe parameters of CRT's.
I know 90% of the viewing of my content is going to be on the web so I don't really worry about it.
 
Sad Max said:
faldo asked specifically about LCDs and plasmas over-scanning
Click to expand...

I pulled this one out of the subject line:

"Action and title safe. Are they still relevant?"

The topic is pretty clear; a perfectly phrased question that deviates slightly from the part of the message you read, and which I responded to.
 
Action and TV safe still apply for television, when shooting and posting 16.9 also remember when broadcast television, cable vendors asks you for full frame and/or 4.3 letterbox. Your action and titles still have to be within safe areas. We still, huh imagine that even after tv goes all DIGITAL we will still have to deliver in SD 4.3 as well!
Cheers
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top