# DirecTV Overscan



## eawil (Jan 19, 2007)

I noticed after letting my HR20 sit around awhile, the DirecTV screen saver would pop-up. This had DirecTV bouncing around the screen. But as it got to the edges most of the "D" or "V" would be cut off. I got very concerned with the amount of overscan present on the box.

Last week, with the premier of 24, I noticed that the FOX bug was nearly cut-off. Thinking it might be an issue with my TV, I watched this on the other two HDTV's in the house, and noticed the same problems.

I couldn't find any settings in the menu to correct for the overscan. Is there some type of factory menu, or whatever on either the HR20, or the H20 that would let me get the full screen on the TV? Thanks for any help that can be provided.


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## LameLefty (Sep 29, 2006)

I don't see any significant overscan on HD material with my HR20 and my Samsung DLP.


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## Nolzman (Aug 29, 2003)

I have very significant overscan on my Mits HD RPTV. I can barely read the ESPN scroll across the bottom. I assumed it was the TV, and not DTV. But I don't seem to remember this much overscan when I was with Dish several years ago. It was with the same TV.


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

I don't see it on either of my Panasonic HDTVs with an HR20 or H20.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

IMHO: "Most" overscann issues are TV based.
(Once you turn of zoom, stretch, and other picture modifing features of the receiver)


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## mtnagel (Sep 18, 2006)

You can record the HDNet test pattern to test for overscan. I have a little bit. I think the bottom is cut off more than the rest for whatever reason. Is that the tv's fault or the HR20's fault?


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## wmschultz (Jul 18, 2006)

Sounds like an LCD tv that would prefer to be in 480p than 720p or 1080i.


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## markrubi (Oct 12, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> IMHO: "Most" overscann issues are TV based.
> (Once you turn of zoom, stretch, and other picture modifing features of the receiver)


I agree with Earl on this one. Just this past Sunday I finally sat down and found how to access my tv's service menu. On my tv the guide on both an hr10-250 and HR20 was cutoff to where the bottom of the screen was right under the show title. Do a google search for service menu codes or check this site.

http://www.fixyourowntv.com/servicemenu.php

BE CAREFUL WHILE IN THE SERVICE MENU. I would make note of each setting before you change anything


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## NYSmoker (Aug 20, 2006)

I actually get underscan on my tv with my local NBC channel 4. There is a white line on the left side of the screen on all the HD programs. Only NBC and only the HD. This is using the "dot by dot" mode on my Sharp Aquos 1080p set. That mode is supposed to be correct for 1080i programming according to the manual. I don't have another HD screen to test if it is the receiver or the tv and I assumed it was the NBC feed since that is the only channel it happens on.


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## jackmacokc (Oct 10, 2006)

Nolzman said:


> I have very significant overscan on my Mits HD RPTV. I can barely read the ESPN scroll across the bottom. I assumed it was the TV, and not DTV. But I don't seem to remember this much overscan when I was with Dish several years ago. It was with the same TV.


I have a mits HD 65" RP..and have this same issue. Just seems to be Espn..their crawl always cuts off when in 1080i. that seems to be the only overscan i get, which inclines me to believe its the network? not sure why just one channel would do that.


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## machavez00 (Nov 2, 2006)

here is a link to some photos I posted in the AVS forum. They are of My Sammy and the hdnet overscan test pattern 
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=757911

I see the same thing with my Fox channel, the lower part of the logo is cut off on the HD side. I do not see this when watching any channels with tickers on the bottom.

I call Samsung and the CSR said there is NO adjustment for over/underscan for DLP based sets. I was also told by Samsung's CSR it was most likley on the D* side. I had BB in to repair a componant input that did not work and he called whoever they call and was told the same thing., no overscan adjustment. On the AVS Samsung thread someone posted about a "software patch" from S* that was supposed to correct overscan, but no change.


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## cohbraz (Nov 19, 2006)

machavez00 said:


> here is a link to some photos I posted in the AVS forum. They are of My Sammy and the hdnet overscan test pattern
> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=757911
> 
> I see the same thing with my Fox channel, the lower part of the logo is cut off on the HD side. I do not see this when watching any channels with tickers on the bottom.
> ...


They are correct: there is no overscan adjustments. No vertical or horizontal size settings. The vertical and horizontal shift can be adjusted in the service menu, though.


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## macEarl (Jan 2, 2007)

In addition to direct-connect to my Samsung DLP, I also have S-video into an EyeTV 250 (mac usb-tv type product) for video capture on my Mac.

The Mac runs into the Sammy also.

When I watch via the EyeTV s/w an X by 480 window appears on the Mac desktop. I can adjust the EyeTV s/w (EyeHome) to show with or without overscan (so I can be sure of the full picture).

When comparing this my direct-feed-HR20-Sammy, I get the same results, same, same.

So I have an external std to ensure that I don't have an overscan problem on my particular set.

As to the pong-like screensaver - mine runs off the screen some as the OP described.

I thought it was by design - I think it looks cool that the boundary is beyond what I can see. 

In any case - others' mileage sure seems to vary. FWIW, I represent one data point where the screensaver is occluded on bounces, yet I have no overscan loss into my DVI port on my TV (converted from HDMI - works great, btw) for my regular programming.

hth!


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

NYSmoker said:


> I actually get underscan on my tv with my local NBC channel 4. There is a white line on the left side of the screen on all the HD programs. Only NBC and only the HD. This is using the "dot by dot" mode on my Sharp Aquos 1080p set. That mode is supposed to be correct for 1080i programming according to the manual. I don't have another HD screen to test if it is the receiver or the tv and I assumed it was the NBC feed since that is the only channel it happens on.


I get NY4HD DNS. When they run an SD show (which has black bars on the sides) I see a vertical line on the left side also. I've never noticed it during HD programming, however.


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## jaredb (Apr 25, 2006)

I realize I'm coming late to this discussion, but I haven't found much discussion of overscan regarding the HR20 elsewhere...

My Directv HD DVR (HR20) is showing some serious overscan. I noticed things cut off on the bottom on the lower third on certain channels, so I recorded the HDNet test pattern to check it out. It's showing about an 8 for overscan on the sides and a 14 (!) for overscan on the top and bottom.
Now, the few discussions I could find on this on the net, people tended to blame the TV and not the set top box... but when I put in the Avia test via my DVD player my overscan is only at 4.

Now, I've seen mention that the HDnet test pattern is a bit off, but even so, there are definitely overscan issues (most noticeable on networks with crawls etc. at the bottom)

To give you the particulars, I have the native setting turned off on the HR20, and everything is set to 1080i. The Avia pattern is from the standard def DVD but is being output at 1080i. Everything goes through the same switcher and into the same component input on my calibrated Mitsubishi CRT RPTV.

I did not have this problem with my previous Directv HD Tivo. 

The fact the most people don't have this problem or aren't posting about it leads me to believe that it is only on isolated units or isolated problems with certain TVs. Then again, maybe some people are so used to overscan that they don't even know they have this issue.


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## d0ug (Mar 22, 2006)

I have to go with this being TV settings. I have a Sharp LCD, which in the different display zoom modes has a Dot by Dot mode, which maps each pixel to a physical pixel on the screen. I don’t have any over scan while in this mode. The default mode for the LCD does introduce about 5% over scan on the picture.

LCD or Plasma are probably the only display technologies that are going to give you a no over scan display of your content, all of the rear projection LCD/DLP sets I’ve seen have over scan on them. The only way you’ll probably be able to correct this is in service menus, or actual physical adjustments to the projection optics. Consumer level CRTs also exhibit over scan, but this is by design, since most use crappy power supplies for the tube. Which causes the picture to grow and shrink based on the overall brightness of the content being displayed. They use over scan to hide this fact for the most part.


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

And I see that I posted "No overscan here" way back near the start of this thread. I must now change that to say that my projection LCD does overscan, not a whole lot, and less on the component than HDMI input. I had not noticed it at the time of my earlier post, but it definitely is there.

I have not checked the smaller direct-view LCD.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

If I set my TV (1080p plasma) to the zero overscan setting, the logo goes right to the edge but not beyond. This is using HDMI.


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## slider65 (Sep 27, 2007)

I have a Toshiba CRT RPTV and have adjusted overscan in 1080i with the HDNET test pattern on my HR10-250 to less than 5% all the way around. Now I have the HR20 hooked up to the same TV and I have way more overscan on the bottom and right sides than I had before. I haven't messed with the different DVR resolutions other than 1080i/native yet to see how that affects it (my TV can't stretch/shrink anything other than a 480i signal, so it can't be my stretch modes). It's got to be something with the DVR signal to the TV - and I think most people wouldn't notice or wouldn't care. I'll play with this some more and report back.


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## bhelton71 (Mar 8, 2007)

paulman182 said:



> And I see that I posted "No overscan here" way back near the start of this thread. I must now change that to say that my projection LCD does overscan, not a whole lot, and less on the component than HDMI input. I had not noticed it at the time of my earlier post, but it definitely is there.
> 
> I have not checked the smaller direct-view LCD.


I've noticed that too - component overscan is less than HDMI on my RPTV (Hitachi). But I will say it appears that an HDMI connected DVD player looks to be a lot less than the HR20 and the HR10 that was replaced didn't seem to have this either - but I have no empirical data to back that up. Also it seems to be more on the newer channels - ESPN still looks the same to me (ie - the bottom banner is still where I would expect) - so I am not comfortable making a comparison to the HR10. The TV has never been 'tweaked' so it is using the factory settings.

I notice a slight overscan (got to be on the order of 1-2%) on the flat panel.


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## Rabushka (Dec 21, 2007)

On what channel is the HDNET test patern?


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## RAD (Aug 5, 2002)

I have a Samsung 1080p LCD panel. If I use their 16:9 setting there is more overscan then there should be and I see what the OP sees with the screen saver (also see it on my Dell LCD panel and Sony LCD RP sets. On the Samsung there is a "just scan" option where it's a 1:1 pixel mapping which then has no overscan at all an nothing either via DBS or OTA is cut off.


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## dsm (Jul 11, 2004)

My projector lets me set overscan to zero so I can see the partial/imperfect first scan line if I want to. I've never seen any overscan problems on HD. Not to insult you, but are you guys sure you are not in "crop" display mode?

I did see a difference between HDMI and component though of a couple of scan lines. I actually get a bit more of the image using HDMI than component. That is I had to block a bit more of the image at the top and bottom of the screen when using HDMI to hide the boundary scan lines. Not much, like 2-4 pixels. It could have something to do with the projector though as it is very hard to tell.

-steve


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## jaredb (Apr 25, 2006)

From reading scattered reports here I think there is enough evidence now to support the notion that the HR20 has overscan issues with SOME sets. This is not counting user error, settings wrong or TVs not set up properly.

I have seen several posts from users (like myself) who are seeing overscan issues only with the HR20 and NOT any of their other HD sources all other things being equal. (my older HD DVR and my DVD player are fine for example) 

Many people don't have this issue, which means it isn't a widespread problem. That also means that unfortunately there is not much of a chance of a fix from Directv. (in fact, when I called their so called "advanced tech support" people about it, they didn't even know what the concept of overscan meant).
The HR20 does not have any settings that anyone has found yet that will fix this problem. As for going into my service menu of my TV to fix it - this would be an imperfect solution as it would mean that my other HD sources (upconverting DVD player, video games, etc.) would have severe underscan just to make the HR20 look okay.

Maybe it's time to put an official list together of which TV models have this issue. I would be very interested if anyone with my exact setup did NOT have this problem (assuming they can test it with similar HD signals from multiple devices to be sure it's the DVR and not their TV). I'm using the HR20-700 and a Mitsubishi WS-65819 via component only.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

This has been posted many many times. The HR20/21 uses "all of the real estate", it does not overscan but uses all that is there. All displays have some degree of overscan. Some more than others. Since most have no idea of what they aren't seeing [as they can't see it] when they first use a box that uses more than their others do, they blame the new box, when in fact it is their display. I can set my display to zero overscan and then use a test pattern off HDNet and see every bit of the test pattern. Clearly the HR20/21 doesn't "overscan" and when my TV is set not to, neither does it.
Long before the HR20 came out, I learned all about overscan as I connected my PC to my [then] HD RPTV and had to reduce the desktop pixel setting so the desktop would fit a 1080 x 1920 TV. The overscan from the factory meant that without making service menu adjustments, my desktop needed to be set to 996x1776.

If anybody wants to "prove this", simply connect a PC to your HDMI connector, with a DVI to HDMI cable, and if your video software has the feature [like Nvidia does & some ATI] to adjust for overscan, you can make the same adjustments and "see".


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## jaredb (Apr 25, 2006)

That's an interesting idea that the HR20 simply uses "all of the real estate" causing overscan on our sets to be more visible.
HOWEVER, this is still a problem. Because if most of the usual devices we're going to hook up (such as a dvd player, game console etc.) are set to one standard and the HR20 is set to another we're in a bind.
All I can say is, my set was professionally calibrated to have as little overscan as possible, and the HR20 is the ONLY device I have an overscan issue with. It is possible that I could adjust my set to compensate for this overscan, therefore making it "correct", but not without causing a serious underscan problem for every other device I use.
Maybe we're misunderstanding each other. My point is not that overscan needs to be adjusted on most sets - it does. 
But my point is simply that once that is adjusted to the maximum and looks great on every other HD device I use, the HR20 must become suspect.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Most new HD set have adjustments for each input.
At zero overscan if you're watching something with closed captioning, you will see "garbage" at the top of your screen [the closed captioning data], so "some overscan" is desirable, but you also want it to be even on all sides. This is where "I think" most of the problems come from as some TVs aren't centered.
I'm sure the same person that calibrated your TV could show you what your overscan is.
After my "learning curve" with my older TV, while my new one was under warranty, I had the service tech out. At first he used component to connect his test equipment and tried to explain it was the same for HDMI, but a call to Sony brought him "up to speed" and we used the HDNet test pattern and he learned he needed a new cable/test box for my TV.

As for your "However", are you really "seeing" the whole picture with your other equipment? It could be that they too are being cropped. If you had black borders with them, then [and only then] would it be valid to say that "this" was a DirecTV issue, but "I think" you will find that there is more than is meeting your eye. [I know I did when I first went down this road].


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## houskamp (Sep 14, 2006)

I have 2 HR20-700s and a sony DVD hooked to a 4x1 HDMI switch (meaning all TV overscan settings are identical) and have no problems with overscan on any of them.. just for the record my Aquos has a factory 3% overscan..


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## jaredb (Apr 25, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> Most new HD set have adjustments for each input.
> At zero overscan if you're watching something with closed captioning, you will see "garbage" at the top of your screen [the closed captioning data], so "some overscan" is desirable, but you also want it to be even on all sides. This is where "I think" most of the problems come from as some TVs aren't centered.


Correct, a slight bit of overscan is sometimes desirable. For example, in a CRT RPTV set like mine, there can be convergence errors at the very fringes that simply cannot be fixed, even by the most experienced calibrator. On my set, this compromise results in overscan that's at about a 4 on the Avia test pattern. It is perfectly centered, even with the HR20 (to be clear here, I mean that the HR20 is as well centered as my other sources, it just has more overscan on all four sides).



> I'm sure the same person that calibrated your TV could show you what your overscan is.


He did. It's at a 4. Has been for years. With my old DVD player, my new DVD player, my old HD DVR etc. etc. Only with the HR20 has it ever been a problem. The HDNET test pattern puts it at a 14. Even allowing for some discrepancies in the two patterns, I notice major differences in real world viewing between any other HD source and the HR20 (for instance when I A/B it with my old HD tivo I can see text in the lower third being cut off because of the HR20.



> After my "learning curve" with my older TV, while my new one was under warranty, I had the service tech out. At first he used component to connect his test equipment and tried to explain it was the same for HDMI, but a call to Sony brought him "up to speed" and we used the HDNet test pattern and he learned he needed a new cable/test box for my TV.


My set does not have HDMI, just component, so that part's not an issue for me.



> As for your "However", are you really "seeing" the whole picture with your other equipment? It could be that they too are being cropped. If you had black borders with them, then [and only then] would it be valid to say that "this" was a DirecTV issue, but "I think" you will find that there is more than is meeting your eye. [I know I did when I first went down this road].


As I stated, I am used to a slight amount of overscan so no, I'm not seeing the whole picture with the other equipment, but I am constantly seeing the same amount of very small (and deliberate) overscan with it. Only with the HR20 does the overscan become problematic.
Just to restate, I fully realize that my problem is not common and that many of you are able to enjoy your HR20s overscan free. I just wanted to go on the record that there IS an issue with this particular DVR with a minority of sets, mine being one of them. Hopefully at some point there will be a solution (that doesn't involve getting a new set - if you had a 65" crt calibrated by the legendary Craig Miller you'd want to squeeze the last years of life out of it as well).

If anyone else out there has a Mitsubishi RPTV (especially the same model as mine) and is running a DVR20 to it with component, I'd love to hear from you.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

jaredb said:


> He did. It's at a 4. Has been for years. With my old DVD player, my new DVD player, my old HD DVR etc. etc. Only with the HR20 has it ever been a problem. *The HDNET test pattern puts it at a 14*. Even allowing for some discrepancies in the two patterns, I notice major differences in real world viewing between any other HD source and the HR20 (for instance when I A/B it with my old HD tivo I can see text in the lower third being cut off because of the HR20.


Clearly you are "on top of the curve".
Now what I high lighted above: Are you saying that you're at the 14 "hash mark"? If so then I'd agree that "something" isn't right. There was a bug that we called "super crop", which mostly showed up when using the crop format.
Is it the same after a reset and what resolution are you using?


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## heaphus (Oct 30, 2006)

Rabushka said:


> On what channel is the HDNET test patern?


HDNet(ch. 79) Saturday, April 12th, 6:30 am EST.

More here: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=74738


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## rbrome (Aug 18, 2006)

I often *wish* my HR20 had overscan. I have an LCD TV that has zero overscan, and I'm often annoyed by a one-pixel-wide stripe of white or static on the top or left when watching HD programs. My TV has exactly one overscan-like mode, but it's extreme and cuts off a lot from all edges.

I'd love it if they'd add an option to the HR20 that simply overlaid a 2-3 pixel wide black frame around the picture. You know - *just* wide enough to mask the annoying static/white stripes. It could even be a hidden option activated by a special code. Could it be that hard to implement?


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## jaredb (Apr 25, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> Clearly you are "on top of the curve".
> Now what I high lighted above: Are you saying that you're at the 14 "hash mark"? If so then I'd agree that "something" isn't right. There was a bug that we called "super crop", which mostly showed up when using the crop format.
> Is it the same after a reset and what resolution are you using?


Yes, I'm at the 14 hash mark on the hdnet pattern (well, 14 on top and bottom, 8 on the sides). I believe that hash mark's on overscan patterns equate to percentage of overscan (for example, the 4 hash mark I'm at on the Avia pattern equates to 4% overscan if I remember right) - I read somewhere that the HDNet overscan pattern is a little off (don't know if it's since been corrected) but even so, at a 14 something is definitely not right and it's obvious when viewing certain types of material.

I hadn't heard about the "super crop" bug. I'll look that up... except, I'm not in crop format. Oh, and I'm in 1080i at all times. I'm going to try a reset anyway and see if it does anything. I'll play around with some other stuff too and report back if I figure anything out.
Thanks.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

jaredb said:


> Yes, I'm at the 14 hash mark on the hdnet pattern (well, 14 on top and bottom, 8 on the sides). I believe that hash mark's on overscan patterns equate to percentage of overscan (for example, the 4 hash mark I'm at on the Avia pattern equates to 4% overscan if I remember right) - I read somewhere that the HDNet overscan pattern is a little off (don't know if it's since been corrected) but even so, at a 14 something is definitely not right and it's obvious when viewing certain types of material.
> 
> I hadn't heard about the "super crop" bug. I'll look that up... except, I'm not in crop format. Oh, and I'm in 1080i at all times. I'm going to try a reset anyway and see if it does anything. I'll play around with some other stuff too and report back if I figure anything out.
> Thanks.


I don't think the "hash marks" are percentage [TexasBrit will correct me]. The "error" in the HDNet pattern is a miss marking of the hash marks at the bottom, they omitted one [8 IIRC]


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## MIMOTech (Sep 11, 2006)

On a Samsung DLP set your the set to "Just Scan" and it will reduce the amount of over scan. Use the test patterns from HDnet after that to center the picture with the size selection. There will always be some overscan with the Samsung DLP. Which one do you have?


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## kjnorman (Jul 5, 2007)

When I had my old RPTV I ran the HR20 and my HR21 to scale to 1080i as my Toshiba RPTV was not 720p compatible. I would notice that 720p sources would horribly overscan, in that the ABC HD logo would be disappearing off the bottom right of the screen. My Toshiba has been calibrated to give a 3% overscan. For 1080i sources the amount of overscan I had was what I would expect.

I now have a Philips LCD that is compatible with every resolution so I run my HR2x boxes in native mode. I have found that if I run the TV normally that the ABC logo is now pulled much father in to the picture so the overscan is less. The directv screen saver still bounces slightly off the screen but that is by design. If I put the Philips into PixelPerfect (?) mode so that there is a 1:1 mapping with 1080 sources and true upscaling to 1080 from 720p sources then I find that there is no overscan to the screen saver.

So I am wondering if one of the issues is actually in the HR2x's ability for scale internally from 720p to 1080i?

Can the people who claim to have overscan also post if they are using native mode or some other fixed resolution from their HR2x boxes.


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## cartrivision (Jul 25, 2007)

Earl Bonovich said:


> IMHO: "Most" overscann issues are TV based.
> (Once you turn of zoom, stretch, and other picture modifing features of the receiver)


Even the new Samsungs have quite a bit of overscan when set to 16:9 mode. On Samsungs, you have to use "Just Scan" mode for viewing 16:9 source without the excessive overscan.

In "Just Scan" mode on my Samsung the logo of the HR20 screensaver never goes behind the edge of my display.


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## twelch31 (Apr 21, 2008)

Joining the discussion very late. I have a Toshiba 57h81 that is cutting off the sports ticker among other things. After reading the posts am I to assume that the cause is the HR20 and not my set?


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## jaredb (Apr 25, 2006)

twelch31 said:


> Joining the discussion very late. I have a Toshiba 57h81 that is cutting off the sports ticker among other things. After reading the posts am I to assume that the cause is the HR20 and not my set?


No, if you read the posts carefully, you'll see that the most likely explanation is your set. But I'm one of the minority of people that seems to actually have a problem with the HR20, so it's POSSIBLE. 
Most likely your set is giving you some overscan on everything and you've just never noticed it before. You'll need to do some testing to see if the HR20 is worse than your other devices. How is it on DVDs? Standard def material? HD material? Has your set been professional calibrated? Do you have access to the service menu? Etc. etc..


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## cover (Feb 11, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> This has been posted many many times. The HR20/21 uses "all of the real estate", it does not overscan but uses all that is there. All displays have some degree of overscan. Some more than others. Since most have no idea of what they aren't seeing [as they can't see it] when they first use a box that uses more than their others do, they blame the new box, when in fact it is their display. I can set my display to zero overscan and then use a test pattern off HDNet and see every bit of the test pattern. Clearly the HR20/21 doesn't "overscan" and when my TV is set not to, neither does it.
> Long before the HR20 came out, I learned all about overscan as I connected my PC to my [then] HD RPTV and had to reduce the desktop pixel setting so the desktop would fit a 1080 x 1920 TV. The overscan from the factory meant that without making service menu adjustments, my desktop needed to be set to 996x1776.
> 
> If anybody wants to "prove this", simply connect a PC to your HDMI connector, with a DVI to HDMI cable, and if your video software has the feature [like Nvidia does & some ATI] to adjust for overscan, you can make the same adjustments and "see".


Absolutely right. I feed 4 TVs (1 LCos, 3 LCD) from my 2 HR20s through combinations of component video and HDMI runs. The HR20 doesn't add overscan, but most TVs (at least at their defaults) overscan to some degree. My RP LCoS set has something like 5% overscan that is not adjustable through the user menu.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

And for those brave enough to go into their service menu: http://www.bruzziforum.com/vbf/forumdisplay.php?f=5


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## twelch31 (Apr 21, 2008)

So, once I access the service menu is it relatively straight forward on adjusting overscan or is it some criptic symbol and jargon that needs deciphered just to get my tv to display the top sports ticker like pretty much every tv out there already does?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

twelch31 said:


> So, once I access the service menu is it relatively straight forward on adjusting overscan or is it some criptic symbol and jargon that needs deciphered just to get my tv to display the top sports ticker like pretty much every tv out there already does?


Understanding the service menu isn't the easiest thing. Mine was nothing but four letter acronyms. You may want to either have a tech do it or get the service manual, as you can really screw up your TV if you make a mistake. One Tech told me that he had to buy a EPROM chip because he did screw up and couldn't undo the changes he made.


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

Definitey do tons of reading in various places before trying to do anythign in the service menus. Also, write dorn every default value before changing anything at all.


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## twelch31 (Apr 21, 2008)

thanks for the help. I don't know that I'm bothered that much by the half showing ticker at the top of the set to mess with the settings myself, and I can't justify to my wife that spending upwards of 350 clams to fix this "minor" detail that is only noticed when watching NFL games in HD is worth the cash. I'll research more on the settings (like where to find them) and keep you guys posted. Thanks again


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## man_rob (Feb 21, 2007)

My Samsung LCD's normal 16:9 setting over-scans, but the TV also has a "Just Scan" mode that shows the entire image output by the HR20. The HR20 doesn't do any over-scanning.


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

twelch31 said:


> thanks for the help. I don't know that I'm bothered that much by the half showing ticker at the top of the set to mess with the settings myself, and I can't justify to my wife that spending upwards of 350 clams to fix this "minor" detail that is only noticed when watching NFL games in HD is worth the cash. I'll research more on the settings (like where to find them) and keep you guys posted. Thanks again


If you're like me, it'll be on your mind from now on, every time you watch the set.

You'll be wondering "What am I not seeing?"

I hope you're not like me.


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## clotter (Apr 12, 2008)

Just to chime in with what some other Toshiba and rear projection TV owners are reporting.

I have an older Toshiba 65HX81 rear projection TV with a DirecTV HR21-100 receiver and am noticing severe overscan when viewing the HDNet test pattern. My numbers for 1080i are approximately 9 at the top of the screen, 8 at the bottom, 10 at the left side, and 14 on the right side. At 480P they are 4, 4, 10, and 10 respectively. Needless to say I'm having sports scores cut off at the top and who knows what I'm missing to the left and right.

My TV was professionally calibrated several years ago, but this was before I had any HD sources. So the colorstream inputs were converged/calibrated to at least 480P but I don't know if it went to 1080i.

I know how to get into the service menu to make convergence adjustments and I have a plexiglass convergence grid that I use to get everything lined up perfect to 480P, but I am clueless how to lock my TV in at 1080i so I can converge to the grid. Colorstream inputs seem to lock in at 480P unless there's a video source playing.

I don't know how to converge my TV while the HDNet pattern is playing.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks


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