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Title Safe?
I wanted to ask the herd what you think about this topic…
On newer 16×9 televisions, does title safe still mean anything?
I ask this cause I have begun to migrate outside of title safe for my biggest client.
My situation is unique, I know that they broadcasts to their own stores, and I know they are shown on 16×9 tvs only. I have seen my work on their tvs and have never seen any problem using the entire rectangle.
I have also noticed on my own personal tv (viewed always in dot-by-dot resolution, not stretched or zoom) that I see everything including the VITC white blinky lights at the top of the screen. As a matter of fact, it looks weird that everything is bunched up “in the middle”, and that there is vast amounts of real estate not used.So this brings up the question (and hopefully a discussion) of…
Is the need for title safe and safe area going away?I realize that broadcasting to the masses, you will still have to adhere since many folks still watch on 4×3 tvs, but as that paradigm shifts to 16×9, does that mean that we will gain even MORE real estate to work with?
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8 Replies
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[todd reid] “On newer 16×9 televisions, does title safe still mean anything? “
Yes. There is still clipping around the edges and if you’re delivering to broadcast there are VERY specific broadcast safe requirements. Especially for networks that are broadcasting in 16:9 in HD and 4:3 in SD.
Each HD network we deliver to has their own overlay representing Title Safe and most of them are even more conservative than FCP’s Title Safe.
On our own corporate work, we adhere strictly to Broadcast Safe as we can even see a difference between our 50″ and 42″ Plasma screens. The 42’s show slightly less real estate on the screen than our 50.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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All I can say is that I’m looking forward to the day when we’re no longer forced to protect for 4×3 center crop title safe anymore. I have a 16×9 frame and I’d love to be able to use it!
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There will always be that one person with a 4:3 monitor.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
yeah always stick to the rules for title safe
it will keep you out of trouble.I wish over scan and interlaced were history, but unfortunately
they are still sticking around.speaking of over scan, Walter I thought you owned the UK series
of industrial plasma models. They all have under scan over scan
adjustments on them. I have mine calibrated from an HD frame
that had a 2 pixel bright blue line on the boundary and adjusted
it until I could just see it. I still have my sony crt to
look at standard over scan. -
Title safe is still super important, but there is a big difference between 16×9 title safe and 4×3 title safe. I’m glad to say that here in the UK we can pretty much ignore 4×3 safe, and for broadcast we can use 14×9 title safe which gives us a wee bit more room…
-Simmie
4 MacPros – Kona 3 & Kona LH
2 G5s – Kona LH
xbox360, Wii, PSP, PS2
https://www.speak.co.uk -
[Stuart Simpson] “Title safe is still super important, but there is a big difference between 16×9 title safe and 4×3 title safe. I’m glad to say that here in the UK we can pretty much ignore 4×3 safe, and for broadcast we can use 14×9 title safe which gives us a wee bit more room…”
It’s common here to do the reverse, ignore 16×9 safe and keep 4×3 title safe.
And the reason is, a lot of HD broadcasts are downconverted and cropped to 4:3.
Titles would be cut right off if I adhered to 14×9 title safe. -
[Stuart Simpson] “I’m glad to say that here in the UK we can pretty much ignore 4×3 safe, and for broadcast we can use 14×9 title safe which gives us a wee bit more room…”
Until you get the tech reject from the international distibutors which usually happens months down the track after you have dumped the media from your drive.
Here in Australia, subtitles have been allowed that are not 4:3 safe both height and width, so make sure your producer writes that into your contract so the make good is their cost. I speak of course from bitter experience. The distributor had never heard of 14:9 and couldn’t be bothered beyond their tech specs which were largely written last century.
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[Chris Borjis] “It’s common here to do the reverse, ignore 16×9 safe and keep 4×3 title safe. “
That must be frustrating. Clip from the BBC guidelines on this issue:
“Commissioning documentation will indicate which protection zones should apply to
programmes. The majority of programmes apply 14:9 protection. Sport is normally 16:9
widescreen protected for 4:3. Unprotected 16:9 is agreed in a very few cases only.”https://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/dq/pdf/tv/tv_standards_london.pdf
-Simmie
4 MacPros – Kona 3 & Kona LH
2 G5s – Kona LH
xbox360, Wii, PSP, PS2
https://www.speak.co.uk
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