No need for overscan anymore OK!

thecaretaker

In the days of old when people watched Television on TV's with tubes, set top boxes & satellite equipment added a thing called overscan to the output signal so people didn't see any black lines around the sides of the screen.

Now that we have LCD/Plasma TVs and HD, it seems that manufacturers still insist on overscan even on HDMI outputs. I have a Fortec Star Passion and 2 TM6900 HD Combo (original and super) and all 3 boxes have overscan.

However, it records the full picture to PVR. If I transfer those files to my PC and then play them from the PC to the same TV (Sony bravia), no more overscan and I can see the full picture.

As the picture is output in full 1080i from the PC matches the original perfectly, it is amazing how much clearer & sharper the images appear from the PC than the satellite receiver. OK, the Sony does have a scaling option (normal, -1 and -2) , but I am unable to get the full picture from the satellite box. I wondered why the on screen logos (DOGS) seem a little close to the edge of the screen at times.

The only satellite receiver I have noticed this does not happen with is the Thompson Sky HD box which does not appear to add overscan.

It maybe due to satellite receivers having to comply/downscale and accommodate people who still use scart and video outputs to old TV's.

Sorry about the useless photos, but I have taken a snap of both out put from the PC and my TM6900 HD super of the changeover screen on Melodyzen 9E. Regular viewers will know that between every 4 minute clip, they add a small border around the screen and put up the information about the clip. Through my TM6900 you wouldn't know that it is a rectangle as the overscan causes the sides to be hidden only showing the top and bottom sections. Yet through the PC (from a recording off the TM6900) the borders are shown perfectly symmetrical.

I know I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but I wish they didn't do this. Has it bothered anybody else?

Picture from TM6900 HD Combi super with overscan


Picture from PC without overscan using film recorded off TM6900

BombedOne

Interesting too bad I can't receive this channel. But there's more easier way to check this. On most HD boxes, you can set up your own bitmap as logo. So any person can prepare an 1920x1080 pixels bitmap with black color and white border, set it as logo, and check tv screen - how it will look.

thecaretaker

I don't think I can do that with a TM6900 can I?

A proper HD testcard like the one BBC HD puts out would also show it up.