Viewable area for DVD/ TV vs PC

E

earlybird

New member
Hi,
I'd like to know how you handle the viewing area conflict between a PC monitor and a TV screen. I am working on a PAL DVD with screencaptures of a PC desktop that gets cropped on a TV screen but can be seen full screen on a PC monitor.

Currently I don't know how to solve that problem. Do I resize the image to the viewable area of a TV monitor I have black borders on an PC screen. If I leave it as it is every TV viewer has a cropped image and missing important information.

What to do?

Thx.
 
Use your "action safe" and "title safe" overlays to see what will be seen on the TV.

You're right, though, if you have stuff all the way to the edges on the computer screen, that doesn't show up on the TV, you'll have to resize. (If it has to be seen on TV) And that will leave a black border on the computer screen.

I guess it all depends on what you need for your final output. These are considerations usually addressed during filming.
 
I'm not positive on this, but it seems like most TV's nowadays don't have to worry about that title / action safe stuff. I totally forgot to leave my T/A safe overlays on a few months back, and the 2 TV's we watched it on didn't eat any of the titles on the sides. That could have just been those TV's, though.
 
Ha- yes you do need to worry about title safe/action safe. If you put titles past title safe you can pretty much guarantee they will be cropped off on at least some TVs though of course not all.

Noah
 
Well, obviously missing important information isn't a good thing so why not scale down the footage from the PC so it fits w/in title safe and add a subtle background image underneath so to take up the empty space?


-A
 
adkimery said:
Well, obviously missing important information isn't a good thing so why not scale down the footage from the PC so it fits w/in title safe and add a subtle background image underneath so to take up the empty space?


-A
Click to expand...

I think you'll find that looks kinda odd, especially on a TV where you'll just see a sliver of it. Most Hollywood/commercial DVDs are typically authored without a concern for these differences- that is edited according to standard title/action safe guideline.

Noah
 
NoahK said:
I think you'll find that looks kinda odd, especially on a TV where you'll just see a sliver of it. Most Hollywood/commercial DVDs are typically authored without a concern for these differences- that is edited according to standard title/action safe guideline.

Noah
Click to expand...
But Hollywood DVDs typically don't use screen captures of a PC desktop. If they show a computer screen it's usually a mock-up created in AE or something and the graphic artist knows to keep things in the safe area of the frame. The OP could go this route too if he has the time and/or money.

What I was envisioning was the PC desktop footage scaled down so it's all inside title safe and a subtle background element added to fill in the rest of the frame.


-A
 
I do screen captures on all of my training videos. I scale them as needed for legibility, and keep all the important details within title safe. So if it's full screen and there are black edges on the sides, not a big issue. If I'm zoomed into a detail then I zoom to title safe and let the rest get cropped off by the TV because it's not important. Another key aspect is choosing a screen resolution that scales neatly into NTSC 16:9 or 4:3 so that you don't have to worry so much about the cropping.

Noah
 
NoahK said:
If I'm zoomed into a detail then I zoom to title safe and let the rest get cropped off by the TV because it's not important. Another key aspect is choosing a screen resolution that scales neatly into NTSC 16:9 or 4:3 so that you don't have to worry so much about the cropping.
Click to expand...

Agree 100% that keeping the limitations of your end product in mind during production is a key to making things go smoothly.


-A
 
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