Moviemaker vs. Vegas Rendering

JimMSG wrote on 8/8/2011, 1:17 PM
Have a client who usuall does his own DVD's in Moviemaker. Brought one for me to finish though, and has never been exposed to overscan and safe areas. Says it never cuts off like that when he makes one. Does anyone have any experience with this? Does Moviemaker automatically shrink the frame size a bit to cover overscan? Is it a known amount? I will just shrink it down a bit to cover but if there is a known quantity, I'll use that.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 8/8/2011, 5:20 PM
Just guessing here, but i'd say it's probably more likely that the preview in MovieMaker is hiding some safe area from view, specifically to avoid the problem so many folks have with it when they watch their DVDs on a TV.

Ask him to render a very short clip to WMV and play it on his computer in Windows Media Player. Ask him if he sees more picture around the edges there than when editing it in MovieMaker.
musicvid10 wrote on 8/8/2011, 5:53 PM
I made a DVD in WMM (yes just one), and I'm sure there was no difference in exposed image area. 720x480, and no borders.

Only thing I liked in WMM was the ability to easily show a motion thumbnail or preview on the menu. Easy enough to construct in DVDA.
JimMSG wrote on 8/9/2011, 8:10 AM
Yes, I was thinking that too, but he tells me the wmv or avi or whatever kind of file he uses to make the DVD looks the same when played on WMP on his computer as it does on the TV from the DVD later. I'm just going to resize the frame a little. Probably just pull it even to the "action" area. He already told me if it ends up with a little black along the edges that would be better than the way it is cutting off now. It would be nice if inexpensive cameras had markings to show users safe areas when they are shooting.
Chienworks wrote on 8/9/2011, 1:25 PM
Most consumer camcorders don't show the overscan areas on their display. When i bring video from my little Everio into Vegas i see a lot of area around the edges of the frame that wasn't visible in the viewfinder.

The biggest problem is that no two devices ever agree on how much of the edges to hide. I've seen it vary anywhere from 0% to 20%.