Video "Safe" Zones

[RobotChicken]

How much do you guys pay attention to the "safe" zones when making videos (the perimeter margins which are not visible when viewed on some devices)? A video I'm making shows fine on a computer monitor, but I played it for the first time this evening on my HD widescreen TV and the edges are cropped. This is significant because I've got text annotations that are readable on a monitor but cropped on a TV. Is it recommended that I adjust the placement of text and graphic overlays such that they're contained within this "safe" zone, or ignore it and assume most people will be viewing on a monitor? Thanks.

 

[foxleader]

I got an HD tv hooked up to my lab top I could check if it will do the same for me.

 

[RobotChicken]

That's how I did it - HD tv connected up to my MacBook Pro. But, the question is more with regards to how respectful people are of the safe zones for online video content, rather than whether specific devices will or won't experience cropping. Here's the dilemma: if I format the content so nothing is ever cropped (i.e., stay within the safe zones) then it looks bad on "normal" devices (iPods, smartphones, widescreen monitors, etc) with oversized margins (the content looks "squeezed" in from the screen edges. However if I don't, then anybody viewing the content on a "abnormal" device will not be able to read all the annotations or see the entire graphics. I'm leaning towards leaving it as is and expecting people will typically view it on a computer. I was curious, however, what other do about this.

 

[Demogorgon]

There are 2 safe zones when working with film, an action safe zone and a title safe zone. The action safe zone is the outer box and title zone is the inner box. Depending on what program you use to edit your films, you should be able to show these safe zones for the aspect ratio you are working in. Make sure all your text, or titles, are within the inner most zones. I would suggest tweaking the text. What aspect ratio are you working in?

 

[RobotChicken]

Thanks, I know about the two zones, how they're used, and how to display them. I'm using Apple Motion 5 and Apple Final Cut Pro X. The format is 1920x1080 29.97p. Like I mentioned, cramming everything into the inner-most zone makes the picture look bad on "normal" computer displays (exaggerated margins).

I'm going with no safe zone margins, since the video is intended for web delivery and most people will likely be viewing it from a web-video compatible device. It would be different if this were a DVD or Blu-ray, but that's not the case here.

 

[axmaxwell]

I have an issue with Windows Movie Maker (windows 7) cropping mine and putting a big black border around the video. no fix so far.