Overscan help - Sony kp57ws550

[michaelbudney]

I recently got HD service from D* and have noticed I seem to have a problem with overscan. I never noticed this with DVD upscaling, game systems and ocasional OTA. It's especially noticeable with fine print on commercials and on channels that float their logo lower than average.

Anyway, I put my set into service mode and readjusted the HSize/VSize settings and am getting much better results. However, I did try to squeeze out a bit more picture but i began to get some geometry issues and convergence problems at the bottom of the screen. At the extreme end it also looks like the guns reflect back over. I backed off slightly until the geomety and convergence issues went away. I'm slightly off on the h/v ratio but not enough to notice.

I recorded the HDNet calibration segment and I'm aligning with 12 on the left and right sides. There seemed a bit more side scan available. The top is at 4 and the bottom 6. There didn't seem to be as much V overscan available. The audio track on the HDNet calibration indicated there was a little bit more signal than I could see.

Anyway, is it possible to minimize the overscan and correct the geomery and overscan issues on a DIY job? The hardest thing is navigating that cryptic Sony service menu. Also, is it possible in the service menu to pull in more signal into the picuture or is what you see at the edjes all you can get?

 

[teachsac]

Be careful with what you are doing. More than likely the problem is your source and not the TV. Many of these new HD channels like History, Discoveries, TBS, etc. on D* and E* aren't broadcasting true hd (using the term lightly). What they are doing is stretching and zooming a 4x3 picture in order to fit the 16x9 screen. Therefore things get chopped and look horrible as you describe.

If you are going to do a self calibration get something like DVE. Best bet though is to find an ISF calibration specialist like Gregg in your area and have it done professionally. Still not much you can do with these providers without screwing up everything else that is broadcast correctly.

S~

 

[michaelbudney]

Be careful with what you are doing. More than likely the problem is your source and not the TV. Many of these new HD channels like History, Discoveries, TBS, etc. on D* and E* aren't broadcasting true hd (using the term lightly). What they are doing is stretching and zooming a 4x3 picture in order to fit the 16x9 screen. Therefore things get chopped and look horrible as you describe.

If you are going to do a self calibration get something like DVE. Best bet though is to find an ISF calibration specialist like Gregg in your area and have it done professionally. Still not much you can do with these providers without screwing up everything else that is broadcast correctly.

S~

I suspect it's a combination of both but I think my TV does have a bit of missing edges. One clue was the chopped channel logos. While they may stretch the source I doub't they'd do that to the logo. Though I can see that perhaps commercials are probably guilty of cutting it close on a zoom. Before I did my calibration I didn't even see the ">" character at the end of the channel listing in the guide.

There is more there but pulling it out causes convergence issues. The HDNet test pattern mentioned there was even more edge data on the resolution pattern than I was able to see. I have DVE but I wanted to calibrate with the DTV receiver. I thought an upconverted DVD would not be an accurate source to calibrate the HD receiver.

I found some other mention of my model having overscan issues. Someone mentioned being able to tweak out the edges to 1% and then fix the geometry and conversion.

I wonder why Sony ships the set like that. Perhaps so people don't complain about black bars?

 

[Gregg Loewen]

sounds like you have just hosed your TV.

crt displays require overscan. Usually about 3-5 %. Sometimes they ship with as much as 6-7 %.

Overscan is also needed to enable your magicfocus (or touch focus, or whatever it is called) to work properly.