DVD VIDEO DISC - SAFE TV ZONE

[orizaba]

Dear Fellows,

May be some of you can help in my following problem:

1. I made a long and complex project (120 MB, 20 minutes) using 5:4 aspect ratio (1280x1024).

2. After finishing my project I made a "Create DVD Video disc".

3. On my plasma TV monitor, either choosing 4:3 or 16:9 format, my project shows well, but loosing 100% of the so called safe TV zone.

4. This way, all my color borders and some of my subtitles disapeared! Project is completly damaged.

5. It is impossible for me to make it again, re-configuring it according to such "safe TV zone", slide by slide.

6. Is there any way to avoid this problem in my actual circunstances?

Thanks and Merry Christmas to all!

P.S.: My goal is to make a DVD to offer people by Christmas, so I have no time for a big correction work. So, in case there is no other way, I would try the following:

I work with PINNACLE LIQUID EDITION to edit video.

I can in PTE create an AVI file and load it in LIQUID as a video file.

Using LIQUID, I could zoom out such file in order to get away of TV safe zone. This way, 100% of PTE image will be shown.

Then, still using LIQUID, I would burn my DVD.

Do you find this reasonable?

Thanks for help.

[Lin Evans]

It appears that your best bet right now with the time constraints is to go with Pinnacle and edit the video. I believe your mistake was in using the 5:4 aspect ratio which is going to be wrong for HD television which almost all have 16:9 aspect ratio. To get it right you would need to make your original slides cropped to 16:9 and then pay attention to the safe zone when creating the DVD. Sandard DVD is either PAL or NTSC format and neither will play with the correct aspect ratio on an HD tv or monitor set at other than the 5:4 you created the show with.

If your friends have older televisions playing at NTSC or PAL resolutions, then you would normally be O.K. with the 5:4 and the safe zone. On the other hand when you try to play a DVD made this way on your Plasma monitor or on an HD TV and change the aspect ratio, you will be distorting the image and not get the proper aspect ratio thus loosing your carefully crafted work.

Merry Christmas to you and your family as well!

Best regards,

Lin

[orizaba]

It appears that your best bet right now with the time constraints is to go with Pinnacle and edit the video. I believe your mistake was in using the 5:4 aspect ratio which is going to be wrong for HD television which almost all have 16:9 aspect ratio. To get it right you would need to make your original slides cropped to 16:9 and then pay attention to the safe zone when creating the DVD. Sandard DVD is either PAL or NTSC format and neither will play with the correct aspect ratio on an HD tv or monitor set at other than the 5:4 you created the show with.

If your friends have older televisions playing at NTSC or PAL resolutions, then you would normally be O.K. with the 5:4 and the safe zone. On the other hand when you try to play a DVD made this way on your Plasma monitor or on an HD TV and change the aspect ratio, you will be distorting the image and not get the proper aspect ratio thus loosing your carefully crafted work.

Merry Christmas to you and your family as well!

Best regards,

Lin

Thanks very much Lin, once again your reply was very fast and helpful!

Please, kindly give me some more of your time.

I can see that I made a big mistake! My idea using 5:4 was to see my monitor "full" (no black strips) because I don't like at all to see such black strips when looking at my project when making it. And my monitor is 5:4 (1280x1024). Ok, it is done!

When I start thinking on making a DVD, I was curious to see how it would play in a normal TV set. At this point, I made a small trial and I could conclude:

1. In my 16:9 plasma, puting it at 4:3, image was good (not distorted) but the so called TV safe zone disapeared and my borders and subtitles disapeared.

2. In my normal and old TV set (4:3) exactly the same thing.

So, my problem is not at all "distorted images" but only "TV safe zone" disapeared.

This way, please confirm: NOT considering the safe zone problem, 5:4 aspect is not a problem in terms of showing slideshow in any TV set, beeing it 16:9 HD or old 4:3, because it is always possible (I think...) to set it for 4:3 and image does not get distorted although it gets black strips. Is this so?

In case the above is correct, only problem is TV safe zone, which disapears.

You said in your reply that I should pay attention to safe zone when making the DVD. I think that I should pay attention NOT when making DVD but from the very start of building my project, building it "inside" the safe zone only for DVD purposes. However, in such case, when showing project on computer monitor, aspect would be "bad", I mean, TV safe zone would show (which safe zone would not be part of image composition, and so it would " damage" the "look" of the show, is this so?

My conclusion is that it is not possible to make an agreement between DVD and computer show.

Ok! I think I can only conclude that "PINNACLE zoom out solution" for DVD purposes is the best solution (only for DVD purpose) not damaging the original project for computer show.

Please, I should thank you for your comments.

Best regards,

Jose

[Lin Evans]

Hi Jose,

Yes, what I meant by paying attention when making a DVD is that you must plan for the DVD by paying attention to having everything within the TV "safe zone" when creating your slideshow if the DVD is to be the final display. Unfortunately, you are correct that it's not possible to have the show with no black borders when you are displaying on devices at different resolutions and specifically with different aspect ratios. To display properly on the different devices requires preparing the same slideshow differently for the different display devices.

Yes, if you create at 4:3 then you will "usually" have all content at 5:4 or 16:9 or even 16:10, but there will be black borders. If you create at an aspect ratio where part of the content is near the borders (such as titles, text, etc.) then subsequently display your slideshow on a device with an aspect ratio which cut's off that border portion, you will loose part of your text, etc.

Some televisions have settings which "force" all the image within the borders. This is what I meant by "distortion." For example, if you have a DVD formatted for a 4:3 display and display it on a television which has a 16:9 aspect ratio, depending on the individual television and setting chosen by the user, the image may be "squashed" vertically and possibly still have black borders on either side.

So you can't "depend" on all the image being visible if you create it at 4:3. It depends on the settings and the individual television. Unfortunately, they are not all the same and you can't be certain how the user has their television set up. It would be great if all were standardized, but unfortunately there are too many variables to be absolutely certain.

The best way of getting it right that I've found is to format your slideshow for your intended audience. If it is to be played on a wide variety of output devices, then "better" to make several versions than try to depend on one version being adapted for all devices. However, in the case that you already have the show created, the Pinnacle zoom solution may be your best option now for insuring that all parts will be visible on most devices. It's always a learning experience when trying to create a slidshow for many different display possibilities. In the future, you can create multiple versions of the same show, then burn these multiple version on a single DVD with a menu for choice. It's like the commercial DVD's which have you choose "wide screen" or "normal" from your menu before playing your DVD. When you choose "wide screen" and you display it on a 4:3 aspect ratio TV, you have a black bar at the top and bottom, but you see all the show undistorted. When you choose "normal" you actually loose that portion of the image on the left and right, but are usually unaware of not seeing everything because the movie fills your viewing area and the "cropped" portions are not the main subject. When commercial movies are made, they usually confine the scrolling text, etc., to the portions which would not be cut off on a 4:3 or 5:4 viewing area because they realize that when it goes to DVD it will be formatted both ways.

Another possible way to deal with this problem is to create your slideshows with a "border" and the main content of the slides within that border. Rather than just having black, you could use a background color. Then keep all content within a smaller viewing area so that when portions are cut off, it won't be the actual content of your slideshow, but rather the background.

Here's a link to a site which you may find useful for learning about various aspect ratios and how different systems might be configured:

http://www.nobell.org/~gjm/pc/aspect.html

Best regards,

Lin

[orizaba]

Hi Jose,

Yes, what I meant by paying attention when making a DVD is that you must plan for the DVD by paying attention to having everything within the TV "safe zone" when creating your slideshow if the DVD is to be the final display. Unfortunately, you are correct that it's not possible to have the show with no black borders when you are displaying on devices at different resolutions and specifically with different aspect ratios. To display properly on the different devices requires preparing the same slideshow differently for the different display devices.

Yes, if you create at 4:3 then you will "usually" have all content at 5:4 or 16:9 or even 16:10, but there will be black borders. If you create at an aspect ratio where part of the content is near the borders (such as titles, text, etc.) then subsequently display your slideshow on a device with an aspect ratio which cut's off that border portion, you will loose part of your text, etc.

Some televisions have settings which "force" all the image within the borders. This is what I meant by "distortion." For example, if you have a DVD formatted for a 4:3 display and display it on a television which has a 16:9 aspect ratio, depending on the individual television and setting chosen by the user, the image may be "squashed" vertically and possibly still have black borders on either side.

So you can't "depend" on all the image being visible if you create it at 4:3. It depends on the settings and the individual television. Unfortunately, they are not all the same and you can't be certain how the user has their television set up. It would be great if all were standardized, but unfortunately there are too many variables to be absolutely certain.

The best way of getting it right that I've found is to format your slideshow for your intended audience. If it is to be played on a wide variety of output devices, then "better" to make several versions than try to depend on one version being adapted for all devices. However, in the case that you already have the show created, the Pinnacle zoom solution may be your best option now for insuring that all parts will be visible on most devices. It's always a learning experience when trying to create a slidshow for many different display possibilities. In the future, you can create multiple versions of the same show, then burn these multiple version on a single DVD with a menu for choice. It's like the commercial DVD's which have you choose "wide screen" or "normal" from your menu before playing your DVD. When you choose "wide screen" and you display it on a 4:3 aspect ratio TV, you have a black bar at the top and bottom, but you see all the show undistorted. When you choose "normal" you actually loose that portion of the image on the left and right, but are usually unaware of not seeing everything because the movie fills your viewing area and the "cropped" portions are not the main subject. When commercial movies are made, they usually confine the scrolling text, etc., to the portions which would not be cut off on a 4:3 or 5:4 viewing area because they realize that when it goes to DVD it will be formatted both ways.

Another possible way to deal with this problem is to create your slideshows with a "border" and the main content of the slides within that border. Rather than just having black, you could use a background color. Then keep all content within a smaller viewing area so that when portions are cut off, it won't be the actual content of your slideshow, but rather the background.

Here's a link to a site which you may find useful for learning about various aspect ratios and how different systems might be configured:

http://www.nobell.org/~gjm/pc/aspect.html

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

That's it, thanks very much.

I'm gratefull for all your comments and advices. I will use all of them, thanks again.

Best regards,

Jose