If I want to design my own menus and background images etc for a PAL DVD, can someone tell me the safe viewing area. I have Paint Shop Pro 8 (unfortunately not Photoshop) and I've set up a new file 720 x 576 pixels as my canvas. Oh, by the way could someone tell me what resolution I should set. I've set it for 100 pixels/inch but I'm just guessing. Anyway, from these dimensions I want to create a template that I can use as a 'safe viewing area'. I hope you guys know what the hell I'm on about. Thankyou in advance
The "Action safe" zone is 5% smaller than the size of the screen and the "Title safe" zone is 10% smaller than the size of the screen. In Paint Shop, look to see if there's a template for a "PAL DVD menu" (I know Photoshop has them, but I've never used Paint Shop.) If so then that's all you need to use. But if not, then you need to change the pixel aspec ratio for PAL. Normally when creating an image in a photo editing program, the pixels are square (because that's what PC screens display pixels as.) But on a TV the pixels are rectangular, so you need to have the pixel ratio set correctly or the image will look funny on a TV.
Thanks for the info Krystovar. I thought for a while that no one would reply. Unfortunately PSPro doesn't seem to have that option but knowing the percentages...well I can work with that. That just leaves me with the resolution...any ideas about that? By the way..can you recommend an analogue capture card or should I post that question on another part of the site. Thanks again Krystovar for your help.
