Pat Horridge, Technical Director
DVD is generally viewed in one of three ways; on a TV, on a computer or via a projector. When viewed on a computer or through a projector, all of the frame, sides, top and bottom, is visible. You will therefore want to keep these areas clean. Mask off any scarring around the edges of your frame or resize the image to lose it.
When viewed on a TV, the edges of the frame will be off the sides of the visible screen in the overscan area. As a rule of thumb, 5% around the edge of the image will not be visible and any text that strays into a 10% border may be difficult to read.
Where possible, design with all of this in mind.