Please explain me how to make my HD video properly ready for tv broadcastin

[Lav851]

Hi, VideoHelp users!

I have one beginners question for you, since I don't understand how it will my video will look on the tv screen while it will broadcast!

I made video in adobe after effects, with settings : HDV/HDTV 720 29.97, and I have nice image which is fitted well in the title and action safe area.

1) I dont understand how video will look if some of users has old type of tv, which is not wide and HDTV?

2) Since I have background image on my video, I am a little confused about action safe area since, I have image which I want to show in the background but I am scared that it will be maybe cut out when it is broadcasted! So, I decide to resize a background image a little to fit exactly where it is action safe area, but I get black border around, and I know don't know if I do this properly well. Here is the picture:



What is the best solution to do?

Thank you very much?

[smrpix]

First time poster includes links to a jpeg that does not seem to download. POSSIBLE VIRUS!

[johns0]

It's not a virus,just an improper link that loops back to the link.

[manono]

1) I dont understand how video will look if some of users has old type of tv, which is not wide and HDTV?

It'll play with added black bars above and below to keep the aspect ratio.

[smrpix]

Thanks johns0. When the file didn't appear on my desktop I figured it might be smart to issue a provisional warning. Scans here turned up negative.

To OP:

In most cases, the image will be letterboxed on an older TV. Other possibilities are squeezed or cropped. It all depends on the the playback device.

Almost all TVs display beyond action safe, that is why images are generally filmed so that there is picture, but nothing vital, outside of action safe.

[El Heggunte]

First time poster includes links to a jpeg that does not seem to download. POSSIBLE VIRUS!

Yes, Imageshack is the name of the virus.

Why people keep using that lame image-sharing service is beyond me.

</End-Of-Rant>

[Lav851]

Really appologize for this a little delay on these messages.

People, I am really confused and excuse me if I make you some trouble, but I really dont know about what type of virus you just talked? It just upload my image link, from ImageShack to this community :/

I have some background images, which I did in 3ds max, and I have some text in the after effects, so I need to have confidence when I broadcast my video, that whole image will be seen!



I hope that this time you wont have any virus.

All the best!

[budwzr]

Modern TV's are 16:9, so they can accomodate any AR. Only 16:9 AR video will completely fill the screen. Anything not 16:9 will be letterboxed or pillared, or both, depending on the pixel aspect ratio.

Example: On an HDTV, a 640X480 video will be in a small box centered on screen, with black bars on top and bottom.

To further complicate things, many people use Stretch, Zoom, and Crop on their TVs, and leave it on even if not needed. So in that case anything can happen.

Bottom Line: Use 16:9 whenever possible, even if you have to put your own black background as a control. Putting a 16:9 black background layer prevents most anomalies.

Shout Out: Thanks to the virus warning people.

[Lav851]

@budwzr

Thank you very much for you help!!!

My videos are already 16:9, so I will put some black layer as control as you mentioned it for every case!

Thank you again for your explanation!

Cheers!

[_Al_]

Do you want to zoom in your hd footage so black borders stay around your footage? That sounds insane You just have to remember not to put any info at the edge, that's all.

Broadcaster would tell you what format he wants, resolution, letterbox or not etc., that is not your choice I'm afraid.

[LMotlow]

Example: On an HDTV, a 640X480 video will be in a small box centered on screen, with black bars on top and bottom.

On your TV, maybe. Want to correct that for the rest of us? A 4:3 image on a 16:9 display won't be letterboxed.

If you mean a 4:3 image pasted into a 16:9 colored background and the whole thing encoded for 16:9 display aspect ratio?:
- On an HDTV, the 16:9 image will fill the screen. The 4:3 image inside the 16:9 background will be surrounded by the background border colors on all 4 sides.
- On a 4:3 display, The 16:9 image will fill the screen horizontally (that means side to side, or left to right, kapeesh?), but the 16:9 image will not fill the screen vertically (which means up and down, or top to bottom). Therefore the 16x9 bordered image with the 4:3 image inside of it will have additional top and borders added (letterboxed). That is, the 4:3 image inside the 16:9 background will appear to be a smaller image and will proportionally fill less of a 4:3 screen than a 16:9 screen.

But since we don 't really know what video frame size or display aspect ratio the owner is talking about, or how it is to be encoded, no one can say for sure.

[budwzr]

Oh yeah, I see what you mean. The converter box is going to scale all the way around.

My methodology overrides the user Stretch, Zoom, Crop settings, but not converter box shortcomings. Thanks for pointing that out. I hope the OP reads this.

So I think upscaling the 4:3 video to 1080 vertical, prior to render, would be the best you can do. I can't think of any ideal scenario.

[LMotlow]

Well....I think the owner needs to get a better understanding of aspect ratios and make some mods in the central image. I think if you upscale the 4:3 to 1080 high, parts of the top and bottom would exceed the safe areas for both HDTV and SD. It's the use of the safe area inside a wide screen background panel that screws things up. If the central image is 4:3 to begin with, what's with the 16x9 panel? A 4:3 image on an HDTV will be pillared side-to-side anyway, so the side border panel isn't needed. STicking with a 4:3 image, why not a 4:3 image inside the safe areas of a 4:3 panel? It would look the same on HDTV, but wouldn't be shrunk on SD TV.

Whether the HD box re-borders the incoming image varies. Many stations transmit 1280x720 as well as SD images that play fine through most of the outputs of most boxes. Some stations don't bother with corrections, I've even seen 4:3 transmitted as stretched to 16X9 (which is really really really stupid). The analog outputs bon many HD boxes deliver all kinds of oddball images, depending on how broadcasters set up their signal. Most of my SD images come thru as pillared 4:3. Some get 4 borders + letterbox.

The widths differ in the two images below, but heights are is the same.
The widescreen 16x9 image = 856x480.
The SD old-style 4:3 image = 640x480.

DAR 16x9 image of 16x9 background panel on a 16x9 HDTV:


DAR 16x9 image of 16x9 background panel on a 4:3 SD TV:


In case the O.P. doesn't know it, the BluRay/AVCHD spec includes standard definition 720x480 video for 16:9 and 4:3 as well as the big frame sizes, and provides 1440x1080 high-definition for 4:3 video. Except for 2 exceptions in the standards, most HD material for disc and TV is interlaced or telecined.

[budwzr]

Now that I read it again, the Ope said his material is 16:9, but he's curious to know how it would show through a converter box.

[LMotlow]

ED: Oops, let me change that. I have to keep these 4:3/16:9 threads separate in my head, even if they're really just repetitions of the same question. I'm getting this thread confused with the 12 others we've had in three months about the same thing.

If the entire image is 16x9, not just a 4:3 central image, then 16x9 will be reduced in size and letterboxed on every SD display in the world. As was said earlier, there's no way to fit a wide image into a narrow box without changing the image dimensions.

I realize that you do have to plan things such as safe areas for broadcast. But SD and HD have been around for two decades, yet most people still don't get it. I walk into homes where people have not only stretched 4:3 into fat, distorted, blurry images on their HDTV's, but they're even stretching out and cropping the 16x9 images as well to get a "bigger" picture in a smaller HDTV. I got a relative who zooms in on 16x9 weather and news channels and doesn't understand why the bottom temperature and news banner is cropped off and can't be seen.

Lots of folks explain that this odd behavior is just due to ignorance about the technology. But I don't believe it's ignorance that makes people think they can put an elephant into a kitchen refrigerator without changing something.