Why are menu side edges cut off?

[terrypin]

I use TMPGEnc DVD Author version 1.6 for my authoring. Unfortunately this old version doesn't support 16:9 menus, so I made my own menu background to the specified AR of 4:3. But I was surprised when I played the finished 16:9 PAL DVD on my widescreen TV to find that some of the text near the sides wasn't visible.

With 16:9 images I'm always careful to avoid positioning text near any of the four edges because of the darned 'overscan' issue. But as this menu is only 4:3, with black bands either side, I'd assumed I would see every last pixel at left and right. Why wasn't this the case please?

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[tinker]

Same "overscan" or "safe zone" exist for 4:3 menu, so if you placed text too close to the edge, it will not show.

[terrypin]

Thanks, but I still don't understand. Isn't overscan a hardware/electronics issue, affecting the margins of the TV screen. So how can it be relevant in this situation?

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[usually_quiet]

What you are describing seems normal to me. Whenever I have viewed 4:3 material on a 16:9 TV, it doesn't display any more of the picture than a 4:3 TV does. The TV still compensates for overscan, and cuts off the parts of the picture that normally would not be seen on a 4:3 TV.

[terrypin]

OK, thanks both, I guess I must have misunderstood the effects of overscan. I've now redone my menu with generous space at the sides and it's now OK on the TV.

BTW, one other factor I always have to take into account is that I normally have my TV's 'Aspect' setting at 14:9 (not 4:3, 16:9, Auto, etc). That usually gives me a reasonable compromise when viewing older broadcasts (e.g repeats of Frasier). Strictly they should be viewed at 4:3, but that fills so little of my 16:9 screen that I'd rather have the occasional lopped off content at the edges. But for my DVD menus, of course, that means I'd have to allow even more tolerance for text titles. As the DVD automatically switches to 'Wide' on clicking the Play button, I usually don't bother to switch from 14:9 to 4:3.

Pity all of this can't be handled automatically!

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Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[lordsmurf]

Automation only leads to problems for pros (it's only helpful to those who probably shouldn't be making DVDs anyway, if they can't be bothered to learn about video).

[jagabo]

Broadcasters know you can't see the very edges of the frame so they don't worry about noise or other junk at the edges of the picture. This forces HDTV's to simulate overscan when they display 4:3 material. They intentionally cut of a few percent of all four edges of the 4:3 frame before upscaling and pillarboxing.