[EDIT: I completely misunderstood the section I was asking about so if you haven't read my question skip it, it is pretty much non-sensical if you understood what Casey was talking about.]

Given the discussion on dividing the screen into a main central area and bands with bleed around it (around 28 minute mark on the youtube archive), I was wondering whether it will be necessary to use a title-safe or action-safe area (an area that a screen/monitor doesn't guarantee will be displayed completely or without distortion).

I am not sure whether this is an issue on new computer monitors, nor new tvs for that matter, but it seems like if it will be an issue later on we could deal with both dividing up the screen into power of 2 areas and have a central safe area at the same time.

So, is this not an issue, or is it too complicated to deal with both issues at the same time, or is it something we will be dealing with later on so it is not worth worrying about now?

I'm not sure I understand your question exactly, but: usually the "safe area" requirements for display are about not having critical information displayed on the border, so that if a TV has overscan, the player won't find themselves unable to read, say, the ammo counter on the HUD, etc. So it's really just about positioning, and doesn't really have anything to do with the actual size you make your game art. You still have to make the game art to fill the full resolution. You just make sure you don't put anything in the outer band - however big it is for the technical requirements, often 10% or 5% of the screen - that is essential to see.

- Casey

Oh, I just reviewed the section and I _completely_ misunderstood, instead of centering an image that is bigger than the screen I understood you were drawing a central image and then 4 bands around it to fill out the screen. Sorry.