# Horizontal Line on Top of TV Screen



## gvatty (Sep 21, 2006)

Recently on both my hdtv sets on some channels like TNT, Sundance, Discovery sometimes a flickering horizontal line at the top of my tv screen appears. Sometimes it disappears quickly, sometimes it stays for hours, but it is only on a few channels. Does this happen to anyone else? Do you think it is a Directv problem(either a transmission problem or my 2 HR22-100 receivers) or one caused by the individual channels? I'm ruling out my tvs since it is a recent problem that is occurring on both of my tvs.


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## Hutchinshouse (Sep 28, 2006)

gvatty said:


> Recently on both my hdtv sets on some channels like TNT, Sundance, Discovery sometimes a flickering horizontal line at the top of my tv screen appears. Sometimes it disappears quickly, sometimes it stays for hours, but it is only on a few channels. Does this happen to anyone else? Do you think it is a Directv problem(either a transmission problem or my 2 HR22-100 receivers) or one caused by the individual channels? I'm ruling out my tvs since it is a recent problem that is occurring on both of my tvs.


I think I've seen this on TNT once or twice.


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## Athlon646464 (Feb 23, 2007)

Most TV's will do a little 'overscan', so you'll never see past the 'edge' of the program material. In your case it sounds like sometimes you are seeing some of the additional stuff sent with the signal (such as captioning, etc.) that is not meant to be seen.

Your TV's likely have a setting that allows you to raise your picture line by line (my LCD's do). Just raise it by one line and you should be all set.

If you are unsure about doing this, just let us know exactly what model TV's you have, and someone here can be more specific than me about what to do.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

It's the closed captioning data.

If you can adjust the overscan on your display you can get it to go away.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

Yes, this is the closed captioning info sent in the interscan. You probably have your TV set to a mode that displays all the lines in the picture (called pixel mode, or dot-to-dot, or something similar). While OK for digitally-sourced video like video games, this is really the wrong setting for TV because sometimes your picture centering can be off by a line of pixels or sometimes more. Some TVs also have this problem in de-inerlacing or scan conversion. You should set your display mode to an overscan of around 4%, there is almost certainly a setting like this on your TV.


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## Hutchinshouse (Sep 28, 2006)

The OP stated "I'm ruling out my TVs since it is a recent problem that is occurring on both of my TVs."

What are the odds that both TVs all of a sudden have this problem? Sounds like something else to me.


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## gvatty (Sep 21, 2006)

Thanks everyone. I know my newer hdtv in the bedroom has a horizontal adjustment. I just wanted to know if it was just me. I'll give it a try.


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## Barry in Conyers (Jan 14, 2008)

Maybe a long shot, but have you recently changed the resolution?

One of my TV's shows the "flickering white line" some of the time on some channels when using 1080i resolution. It never happens when using 720p resolution.


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## gvatty (Sep 21, 2006)

No, I haven't changed resolution on either set.


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## gfrang (Aug 30, 2007)

When setting overscan try to use settings that don't go overboard on overscan because the more pixels you push over the edge the less you have in the viewing area.

So the more overscan the more resolution you are giving up. You may have to go in the service menu to get it perfect.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

Hutchinshouse said:


> The OP stated "I'm ruling out my TVs since it is a recent problem that is occurring on both of my TVs."
> 
> What are the odds that both TVs all of a sudden have this problem? Sounds like something else to me.


Add 4 more sets to the mix, just started recently and no there have been no changes on the sets nor the dvrs

samsung (LED) - 46in, HR20
LG - 40in, HR21
Panasonic - 46in, HR21
Insignia - 37in, R22


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## MrShowtime (Apr 8, 2009)

Barry in Conyers said:


> Maybe a long shot, but have you recently changed the resolution?
> 
> One of my TV's shows the "flickering white line" some of the time on some channels when using 1080i resolution. It never happens when using 720p resolution.


This is the solution to your flickering white line. Occurs when you have your box set at 1080i and they are broadcasting an sd show on an HD channel. Switch over to 720p or 480p and the line will go away. Or you could turn native on (but most people hate how long the channel changes take when its on). It only happens on certain channels for certain shows and I'm not sure why... but above is how you fix it.


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## gvatty (Sep 21, 2006)

Thanks Mr. Showtime. Although I don't think I will want to change the resolution of my tv on a show by show basis. I'm a man. I channel surf. It's just curious why it's happening now. lol A change in the most recent software update?


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

gvatty said:


> Thanks Mr. Showtime. Although I don't think I will want to change the resolution of my tv on a show by show basis. I'm a man. I channel surf. It's just curious why it's happening now. lol A change in the most recent software update?


No, it's always been around, on content that was originally analog. If it's only on SD material on HD channels then it's probably being created by the upconversion at the station. Just some timing drift can cause this. That's one of the reasons you should not use zero overscan. Some of the TV user manuals actually tell you this.


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## gvatty (Sep 21, 2006)

One of my hdtv's is a 4 year old Sony 46" lcd projection tv 1080I (which my receiver is set at) which does not have an overscan function on the menu. My new Vizio will allow me to raise the picture one line at a time.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

gvatty said:


> One of my hdtv's is a 4 year old Sony 46" lcd projection tv 1080I (which my receiver is set at) which does not have an overscan function on the menu. My new Vizio will allow me to raise the picture one line at a time.


Overscan adjustment on many TVs can only be done through the service menu.


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## HDinMA (Aug 29, 2008)

MrShowtime said:


> This is the solution to your flickering white line. Occurs when you have your box set at 1080i and they are broadcasting an sd show on an HD channel. Switch over to 720p or 480p and the line will go away. Or you could turn native on (but most people hate how long the channel changes take when its on). It only happens on certain channels for certain shows and I'm not sure why... but above is how you fix it.


In my experience, the line appears with Native resolution turned on and goes away when turned off.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

MrShowtime said:


> This is the solution to your flickering white line. Occurs when you have your box set at 1080i and they are broadcasting an sd show on an HD channel. Switch over to 720p or 480p and the line will go away. Or you could turn native on (but most people hate how long the channel changes take when its on). It only happens on certain channels for certain shows and I'm not sure why... but above is how you fix it.


it might be a solution but the bottom line is this did not occur until just recently, it consistantly shows up across ALL my sets each with different models of the dvrs. I have a copy of each and every setting page for the sets and the dvr's, settings are exactly the same as they where before this issue started occurring, something changed either in the feeds or in the software that caused this to occur.

I have everything below 720P disabled on all the DVR's as a output


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## MountainMan10 (Jan 31, 2008)

For me this mostly happens on 720p channels upscaled to 1080i by the DVR. If I set Native On and select 480p, 720p and 1080i I see this less. But then channel changes are slower.

This line of pixels at the top is normal, and has always been there. It is not a new bug in the DVR or a change in transmission. Palladia has a line at the left side, but only during the program, never during commercials.


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## Athlon646464 (Feb 23, 2007)

BTW, adjusting 'overscan' and moving the part of the signal meant to be viewed up or down one line at a time are two different functions.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

MountainMan10 said:


> For me this mostly happens on 720p channels upscaled to 1080i by the DVR. If I set Native On and select 480p, 720p and 1080i I see this less. But then channel changes are slower.
> 
> This line of pixels at the top is normal, and has always been there. It is not a new bug in the DVR or a change in transmission. Palladia has a line at the left side, but only during the program, never during commercials.


It may be normal, but the fact remains is just started showing within the last few days/weeks per my wife and kids who spend a lot more time in front of the set then I do.


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## Sim-X (Sep 24, 2009)

This use to happen on my cable box if I had my tv set to "Just Scan" - set it to 16:9 and you should be golden - I use just scan on my xbox & ps3


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