Your final rendering will be very dependent upon the choice of output medium. Not all TV’s are created equal. Some of the differences are:
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[li] Aspect ratio: Not only the horizontal-vertical dimensions of the screen but also the shape of the pixels. The dots aren’t square, and they are not the same size. [] Frame rate: How fast the images are redrawn on the screen. US broadcast video is one speed; European PAL is another. HDTV is yet another. It is good to render at a higher frame rate, ideally one that is a multiple of the various rates you might need to publish to, so that various outputs can be produced without asking the computer to “interpolate” (synthesize…) any data. (Anytime a computer synthesizes anything there’s a lot of noise; looks bad.) [] Interlacing: On broadcast TV, even-numbered lines are drawn then odd-numbered lines. On computer screens there is no interlace. But if you simply “add” interlacing after-the-fact you might get horrid jaggies on an interlaced screen! (And of course, viewing interlaced output on a non-int screen is essentially unviewable.)[] Colors: Computer monitors have considerably more color resolution than TVs do. Subtle color distinctions may be lost. Variations in brightness and contrast can also be enormous. Just drop by the television section of any store and compare the images on sets that are showing the same broadcast. [] Laptops/LCDs: A similar but unrelated color problem has to do with the fact that LCD (laptop) screens have sometimes-nasty color shifts when the viewer’s eyes are not 90-degrees to the screen. [*] “Safe” areas: Depending on the particular set, not all of the image might be visible. The margins might be cut-off, just a little or fairly extremely. Also, a render that was done for the HDTV 16:9 aspect-ratio might need to be re-cropped for NTSC or PAL because there is no time or budget to re-render it. [/ul]
[/li]As a designer, you have to plan your production to accomodate these realities. You have to work within these limits. Many of these issues can only be economically addressed before the work begins.
