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rasmus · 04-07-2004, 14:33

Well, I assume the plasma screen is a PAL-machine.
The full/maximum resolution of PAL is 768x576 (also known as "625/50"), and that gives you aaaalmost square pixel ratio. But if you stick to another resolution, let's say 720x576 (also known as "D1"), then you will have a pixel-distortion (horisontal stretching) with a multiplier of ~1.094. So you will have to render the material a bit squezed together. A circle, wich look round on the screen, will be oval on the final PAL-apparature.
If you're using software like Final Cut Pro, Commotion or After Effects, there is a setting wich will let you specify the pixel aspect ratio of the final medium. Then, you can work in any resolution you want. But my advice is to do this in full resolution. 768x576, square-pixel aspect ratio, that is. But you should crop it down to 768x432. (for 16/9 or 1.7778:1) Then a circle on screen will be a circle on the plasma. IF it uses standard PAL, non-square pixel aspect ratio.

Second note; when exporting as Quicktime from Flash, you want to render a "real" movie, I assume. Just choosing Quicktime will make a movie with the acctual swf-file embedded in it, making it quite hard to import it into your editor software. what you need to do on Mac is to choose "quicktime movie" (not quicktime) and on PC you'll have to go with AVI. Choose a lossless codec and you wont lose any pixels on the way.

You should aslo think about the framerate. PAL is 25 fps or 50 interlaced frames per second. NTSC is 30 fps or 60 interlaced fps. So stick to 25 or 30 fps thruout all of the material. Or else you will get big problems.

Plasmas and all kind of low-resolution and interpolating screens tend to make fonts and sharp stuff blurry. But the standard antialias in flash shouldn't be any problem for sizes above 16pt.

There is also a "action-safe" and "title-safe" area of the image. In other words, when producing any material for TVs, cinema, etc, you never put any important stuff close to the edges of the frame. Keep it in about 10-20% of the screen width or height. It's a classic mistake to place a title to far down and afterwards notice it's been cut off by some tv, monitor or projector. Most movie editing applications has guides called "action-safe" and "title-safe" built in. To enable it is a good idéa.

04-07-2004, 14:33	#20 (permalink)
rasmus Dude früm Hell™ Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 15	Well, I assume the plasma screen is a PAL-machine. The full/maximum resolution of PAL is 768x576 (also known as "625/50"), and that gives you aaaalmost square pixel ratio. But if you stick to another resolution, let's say 720x576 (also known as "D1"), then you will have a pixel-distortion (horisontal stretching) with a multiplier of ~1.094. So you will have to render the material a bit squezed together. A circle, wich look round on the screen, will be oval on the final PAL-apparature. If you're using software like Final Cut Pro, Commotion or After Effects, there is a setting wich will let you specify the pixel aspect ratio of the final medium. Then, you can work in any resolution you want. But my advice is to do this in full resolution. 768x576, square-pixel aspect ratio, that is. But you should crop it down to 768x432. (for 16/9 or 1.7778:1) Then a circle on screen will be a circle on the plasma. IF it uses standard PAL, non-square pixel aspect ratio. Second note; when exporting as Quicktime from Flash, you want to render a "real" movie, I assume. Just choosing Quicktime will make a movie with the acctual swf-file embedded in it, making it quite hard to import it into your editor software. what you need to do on Mac is to choose "quicktime movie" (not quicktime) and on PC you'll have to go with AVI. Choose a lossless codec and you wont lose any pixels on the way. You should aslo think about the framerate. PAL is 25 fps or 50 interlaced frames per second. NTSC is 30 fps or 60 interlaced fps. So stick to 25 or 30 fps thruout all of the material. Or else you will get big problems. Plasmas and all kind of low-resolution and interpolating screens tend to make fonts and sharp stuff blurry. But the standard antialias in flash shouldn't be any problem for sizes above 16pt. There is also a "action-safe" and "title-safe" area of the image. In other words, when producing any material for TVs, cinema, etc, you never put any important stuff close to the edges of the frame. Keep it in about 10-20% of the screen width or height. It's a classic mistake to place a title to far down and afterwards notice it's been cut off by some tv, monitor or projector. Most movie editing applications has guides called "action-safe" and "title-safe" built in. To enable it is a good idéa.