Safe Margins?

[PaPa]

Hey guys.

Been trying to find the magic numbers for the "clip" function to change 4x3 footage to 16x9 and even 2.35:1

But now the whole Safe Margins thing is making me question what aspects to really look at in the footage.

Now, when i play my 4x3 letterbox footage in my NLE and put the Safe Margins on, the black bars at the top and bottom barely make it in the margins. However, when i play the footage back on my TV screen, i get them plentifuly.

What i tried doing previously, to figure out exactly the numbers to use in Clip ot make my footage Look anamorphic widescreen , i just imported a still from lord of the rings, and stretched it to fit the screen, after that, i just applied the same amount of black area ( clip ) on my footage to mimic the exact look of the 2.35:1 ratio. But now that im questioning the whole Safe Margin section, im beginning to wonder if i've over stretched my image. If this sounds confusing, here are some stills of me trying to achieve the 2.35:1 ratio, but not being sure exactly which lines to follow

Anyone have any suggestions? Or know exacty what this is?

 

[overnighttolondon]

Safe margins are because most TVs cover up part of the outsides of the image. The outer guide is that Action Safe guide, the inner guide is the Title Safe guide. Most TVs won't be cut off as much as the guides say, they're kind of there as a "keep it inside here and you're sure not to have any problems" kind of thing. That being said, some TVs (especially projectors and LCD TVs, or someone watching your DVD on their computer) don't cut anything off. Use the top example.

 

[PaPa]

thanks