Originally when SD TV was invented, a portion of the picture was hidden behind the bezel or picture frame of the TV. Because of this, certain safe areas (NTSC Action Safe and Title Safe) were created to ensure graphics and important visual information would be visible on a majority of TVs. With the advent of HD flat panel FPM (fixed-pixel-matrix) screens, that issue has been mostly resolved. But due to the fact that a large number of SD tube TVs are still being used, and that the picture area of flat panel TVs can be zoomed and adjusted, we recommend that these guidelines still be observed. Programs like Photoshop™ and other video programs will have special templates or guides that can be added or turned on to make sure graphics and important visual information remain within these areas in your video and DVD menu.
