A look at Broadcast Safe…
I was doing some reading and the term broadcast safe has come up…or Broadcast legal…and it occurred to me, that even though I’ve learned what this term is, I don’t really know or understand what it means. That sparked me to look further into it’s meaning.
Broadcast Safe is enforced by the FCC or the Federal Communications Commission. They put a regulation on how a video will look in order for it to be broadcast on television.
The requirements for NTSC (which is used in North America and various other parts of the world) are as follows.
There should be 525 Horizontal lines to the video. Visibly this is also 480 pixels, as in 720×480, which is a standard size for video.
The frame rate should be 29.97 frames per second, which is standard for NTSC and television. In Europe (also known as PAL standard) it is 25 frames per second.
The resolution should be 720×480 which I stated above.
The Black levels should be at 7.5 IRE for NTSC - What this is, is a setup to properly make your blacks look right. If they are set up too dark, then they become one massive lump of black instead of showing the necessary detail.
and the White levels are 75% Intensity - The amount of intensity of the white can actually take over the television signal, and not only cause the image to distort, but interestingly the audio will distort as well. If the whites are TOO white, it will cause an ugly pattern on your television screen, and your audio will buzz like a fly.
These settings are set up so that you get the best image possible on the television screen, and it will help prevent it from varying the picture from one TV to the next.
I hope that helps you it, as much as it did me…