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I just discovered the horror of overscan and my blood is boiling

A

AuthenticM

Member
For those who don't know what this is: you might be a victim of overscan from your television without even knowing it. Overscan is a feature some (all ?) televisions have that makes it so the image being displayed is zoomed-in just a little bit. Why does this feature exist ? Well, from what I've gathered, it's because, apparently, watching cable or over-the-air broadcast without overscan could result in weird broadcast signals being displayed on your television. By having overscan on your television, those weird signals are hidden outside the screen. How thoughtful of television manufacturers to have included such a feature, right ? Great, right ?

Well NOT WHEN YOU CAN'T TURN IT OFF IT'S NOT.

My 32" TV has overscan and there are no options whatsoever to turn it off. I've searched my TV model number and found that, indeed, overscan cannot be turned off on my television. My question is: why the FUCK would any self-respecting TV company ship and sell a television, to consumers, that has part of its image permanently hidden ?

Why would they do that ? What were they thinking ?! Other televisions have the option to turn off overscan in their settings, but not mine ?

Oh my GOD. I am so pissed right now. I've been playing games on my Sony HDTV for the past five-and-a-half years and I am just discovering that, for all of this time, parts of the image was not being transmitted to my eye ?

FUCK YOU, SONY.

edit: my TV model number is KDL-32L4000

edit2: here are some examples of what overscan does to your image:

05c9tzL.png
Click to expand...
overscan_zpse3e2a969.png
Click to expand...
jiZEGIq.jpg
Click to expand...
 
pants

pants

Member
This is why I aint even mad when games ask you to do screen calibration before the game starts.
 
P

patrickthehedgehog

Member
AuthenticM said:
For those who don't know what this is: you might be a victim of overscan from your television without even knowing it. Overscan is a feature some (all ?) televisions have that makes it so the image being displayed is zoomed-in just a little bit. Why does this feature exist ? Well, from what I've gathered, it's because, apparently, watching cable or over-the-air broadcast without overscan could result in weird broadcast signals being displayed on your television. By having overscan on your television, those weird signals are hidden outside the screen. How thoughtful of television manufacturers to have included such a feature, right ? Great, right ?

Well NOT WHEN YOU CAN'T TURN IT OFF IT'S NOT.

My 32" TV has overscan and there are no options whatsoever to turn it off. I've searched my TV model number and found that, indeed, overscan cannot be turned off on my television. My question is: why the FUCK would any self-respecting TV company ship and sell a television, to consumers, that has part of its image permanently hidden ?

Why would they do that ? What were they thinking ?! Other televisions have the option to turn off overscan in their settings, but not mine ?

Oh my GOD. I am so pissed right now. I've been playing games on my Sony HDTV for the past five-and-a-half years and I am just discovering that, for all of this time, parts of the image was not being transmitted to my eye ?

FUCK YOU, SONY.
Click to expand...

My super old 32 inch Sony had the same problem. I hope the newer sets don't have the same issue.
 
xn0

xn0

Member
Nearly every elderly person I know has their overscan turned on because they want that "full" picture to fill up their screen regardless. I have gotten so accustom to it I can notice it immediately when looking at a TV. Its the same way I trained myself how to instantly see magiceye pictures :)
 
S

Speevy

Banned
My Dad turns on the zoom because of how screwed up his Dish stuff looks on the TV.

I want to get him a TV just to alleviate this.
 
S

SirMossyBloke

Member
xn0 said:
Nearly every elderly person I know has their overscan turned on because they want that "full" picture to fill up their screen regardless. I have gotten so accustom to it I can notice it immediately when looking at a TV. Its the same way I trained myself how to instantly see magiceye pictures :)
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're talking about screen stretch, not overscan.
 
N

NSider

Member
xn0 said:
Nearly every elderly person I know has their overscan turned on because they want that "full" picture to fill up their screen regardless. I have gotten so accustom to it I can notice it immediately when looking at a TV. Its the same way I trained myself how to instantly see magiceye pictures :)
Click to expand...
That's not overscan though.

Edit: Beaten.
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
pants said:
This is why I aint even mad when games ask you to do screen calibration before the game starts.
Click to expand...

You may be able to see everything then, but you're still getting less resolution.
 
S

Speevy

Banned
I wish I could show some of you the horrible overscan from my previous TV.

All those beautiful PS3 wallpapers were cut off an inch or more at the edges.
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
Speevy said:
Try to find something in your diagnostic mode. Be careful, but check it.

Also, is your TV 1080p?
Click to expand...

What's diagnostic mode and how do I access it ?

I can set my PS3 to 1080p and my television will display the image, but nothing is smaller; everything is the same. My TV is a 2008 (possibly 2007) model, 32", that cost less than 1000$. I don't think it's really 1080p.

pants said:
This is why I aint even mad when games ask you to do screen calibration before the game starts.
Click to expand...

yeah, I am now just realizing why so many games ask the player to resize the image when you boot it for the first time. And each and every time, I had to resize the image and was left scratching my head as to why the game simply didn't display the image properly in the first place.

I cannot believe that permanent overscan is a decision that was made by supposedly sane-minded individuals at the head of billion-dollar corporations.

Un-fucking-believable.
 
R

REDRZA

Banned
AuthenticM said:
For those who don't know what this is: you might be a victim of overscan from your television without even knowing it. Overscan is a feature some (all ?) televisions have that makes it so the image being displayed is zoomed-in just a little bit. Why does this feature exist ? Well, from what I've gathered, it's because, apparently, watching cable or over-the-air broadcast without overscan could result in weird broadcast signals being displayed on your television. By having overscan on your television, those weird signals are hidden outside the screen. How thoughtful of television manufacturers to have included such a feature, right ? Great, right ?

Well NOT WHEN YOU CAN'T TURN IT OFF IT'S NOT.

My 32" TV has overscan and there are no options whatsoever to turn it off. I've searched my TV model number and found that, indeed, overscan cannot be turned off on my television. My question is: why the FUCK would any self-respecting TV company ship and sell a television, to consumers, that has part of its image permanently hidden ?

Why would they do that ? What were they thinking ?! Other televisions have the option to turn off overscan in their settings, but not mine ?

Oh my GOD. I am so pissed right now. I've been playing games on my Sony HDTV for the past five-and-a-half years and I am just discovering that, for all of this time, parts of the image was not being transmitted to my eye ?

FUCK YOU, SONY.
Click to expand...

Do you have the screen set to "full pixel"?
 
B

bobbychalkers

Member
I have a really old tube HDTV. I remember picking my Wii U up and connecting everything to discover the horror. Luckily they patched in some screen adjustment settings. I never noticed it before with my PS3 but now I just use the service menu to fix the problem there, you might want to give that a shot.
 
A

AuthenticM

Member
Agent AA1 said:
Since it's 5 years old, I don't know how "smart" it is, but is there like an updated firmware?
Click to expand...

None. It's not a smart TV. There isn't even a USB port on it and Sony isn't offering new firmwares for it on their website. I've checked.

Grayman said:
You didn't notice this in the past 5 years?
Click to expand...

No. Why would I, really ? Why, in seven hells, would I suspect a worldwide multimedia powerhouse to sell me a television (i.e. a device existing for the sole purpose of transmitting video) that did not display everything for which it was intended ?
 
F

Foxix Von

Member
I can't disable sharpening on my set :(

It's always on. The only way to disable it is to set it to pc mode but as a consequence it makes it impossible to adjust brightness and contrast settings. The settings exist and can be adjusted but any time you change inputs or turn the TV off it reset's the settings. It retains the number value, saying contrast is at 35, but it really isn't. =/
 
S

Sean*O

Member
Check to see if it crops on all inputs or all input types. If so, look around for "service menu" access for your set and see if you can access the geometry settings, but be careful in there.
 
P

Paz

Member
Not totally related but somewhat related, I was super impressed with the PS4 having OS level overscan settings - That alone should be able to solve a shitload of technical requirement stuff and player visibility problems we had to deal with in past generations :D

Sorry about your TV :( It's fairly common in smaller or non 1080p TV's to not have 1:1 pixel mapping options :/
 
I

infinityBCRT

Member
AuthenticM said:
For those who don't know what this is: you might be a victim of overscan from your television without even knowing it. Overscan is a feature some (all ?) televisions have that makes it so the image being displayed is zoomed-in just a little bit. Why does this feature exist ? Well, from what I've gathered, it's because, apparently, watching cable or over-the-air broadcast without overscan could result in weird broadcast signals being displayed on your television. By having overscan on your television, those weird signals are hidden outside the screen. How thoughtful of television manufacturers to have included such a feature, right ? Great, right ?

Well NOT WHEN YOU CAN'T TURN IT OFF IT'S NOT.

My 32" TV has overscan and there are no options whatsoever to turn it off. I've searched my TV model number and found that, indeed, overscan cannot be turned off on my television. My question is: why the FUCK would any self-respecting TV company ship and sell a television, to consumers, that has part of its image permanently hidden ?

Why would they do that ? What were they thinking ?! Other televisions have the option to turn off overscan in their settings, but not mine ?

Oh my GOD. I am so pissed right now. I've been playing games on my Sony HDTV for the past five-and-a-half years and I am just discovering that, for all of this time, parts of the image was not being transmitted to my eye ?

FUCK YOU, SONY.
Click to expand...

Are you 100% sure theres no way to turn off overscan? On some TV's, renaming the Input to "PC" usually turns off all processing including overscan.
 
I

imadinosaur

Banned
Hey, at least it's not as bad when you wanna watch a movie and your stupid friend decides to stretch the older format fullscreen movie to widescreen.

"Hey, dude. Why'd you do that? Now they look like they got squashed by a steamroller."

"What are you talking about? It's fine."

"Dude, are you blind? LOOK AT HIS FACE. LOOK AT IT"
 
Schrade

Schrade

Member
Why haven't you posted the make and model of the TV yet. With information searches can be done to find out if it supports getting rid of the overscan or not.
 
D

dangeROSS

Member
I'm dealing with overscan issues with hooking my PC up to my Vizio TV right now. For the life of me I can't figure out a way to make the image fit the screen. No real options on the TV itself to correct things, and Nvidia control center doesn't seem to fix things either. Lame.
 
pants

pants

Member
TAJ said:
You may be able to see everything then, but you're still getting less resolution.
Click to expand...

A better option than having half one's HUD rendering into the ether. That said though, only one of my televisions have this issue and it's the one I typically watch telly on, so not that much of an issue for me.
 
K

Krusenstern

Banned
Roto13 said:
If you didn't notice it for five and a half years, maybe it's not worth having a big fit over.
Click to expand...

I just found out I was living in a house full of a health-damaging asbestos but I didn't notice it all the years. So why bother now?

That really sucks OP. I would buy a new TV if there is no way to calibrate that.
 
staticneuron

staticneuron

Member
AuthenticM said:
What's diagnostic mode and how do I access it ?

I can set my PS3 to 1080p and my television will display the image, but nothing is smaller; everything is the same. My TV is a 2008 (possibly 2007) model, 32", that cost less than 1000$. I don't think it's really 1080p.



yeah, I am now just realizing why so many games ask the player to resize the image when you boot it for the first time. And each and every time, I had to resize the image and was left scratching my head as to why the game simply didn't display the image properly in the first place.

I cannot believe that permanent overscan is a decision that was made by supposedly sane-minded individuals at the head of billion-dollar corporations.

Un-fucking-believable.
Click to expand...

There you have it. Features, options, accurate light, color, and pixel representation are all things that get added as the price goes up. You purchase a TV that long ago at that price point you are not going to get the best options there. In 2007 I purchased a 56 inch DLP Samsung for quite a bit.... and it still had overscan. You had to go into the service menu to calibrate it (something like mute 187 when the tv was off iirc).

I purchased a Sony XBR led in 2012. Beautiful beast does not have that issue at all.
 
A

androvsky

Member
hlhbk said:
Does anyone know if the PS4 has image adjustment? I know my TV has overscan that can't be turned off.
Click to expand...

Gloriously, the PS4 has overscan adjustment as a system-wide setting! Set it once on your TV and never have to worry about it again!!

And the web browser on the PS4 completely ignores it. :/
 
H

HTupolev

Member
imadinosaur said:
Hey, at least it's not as bad when you wanna watch a movie and your stupid friend decides to stretch the older format fullscreen movie to widescreen.

"Hey, dude. Why'd you do that? Now they look like they got squashed by a steamroller."

"What are you talking about? It's fine."

"Dude, are you blind? LOOK AT HIS FACE. LOOK AT IT"
Click to expand...
The kicker is when you correct it and they complain that the image is now squished.

Yay acclimation.
 
A

aspiegamer

Member
If it's overscan overscan and not some weird kind of automatic zooming, it's a very small amount of screen. 10-20px per side, maybe?
 
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