Voom overscan

[kjaslow]

I have an uncommon TV. It's a Philips 30" flat panel (30PF9975). When I watch certain channels (seems to be mostly OTA) I get some overscan along the top of the picture.

I have my Voom box connected to the TV using the DVI cable. Because it's connecting to the DVI, I cannot adjust the TV geometry (I'm not sure if LDC's can even do geometry adjustment to begin with, and even less likely with a digital-to-digital signal).

I've tried using the normal Voom setup menu to increase the height of the picture. No luck. I don't suppose there are any secret menus anywhere to increase the picture position or the height of the picture a bit more than what's on the normal menu?

The behavior I see is about 2 lines worth of pixels that are very clearly meant to be off the top of the screen. Usually these lines are white, but occasionally show some color when the rest of the picture (usually background) is moving near that part of the screen.

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[Ilya]

Most TV sets have 3-5 % overscan. Which means that the edges of the picture are usually cropped. Apparently your TV set is configured not to have any overscan. Which is good in some cases, as you don't loose any visual info, but in some cases may cause side-effects, like the one you just described. Evidently some of your local stations show some "garbage" around the border (not visible on most TVs due to overscan). Your TV set may actually benefit from some overscan, of say 2-3%. This usually can be adjusted through the Service Menu in the TV set. If you really want to do this, search AVSForum.com for your model number and see if anyone knows how to get to the service menu in your TV set.

 

[kjaslow]

Thanks. I've been down this road. I tried finding the service menu, and did find the part of the service menu that lets me set the gain for the tuner, the individual colors, etc. But I have not been able to find any geometry settings.

As I mention, my t.v. is a somewhat uncommon model, so I haven't be able to find the codes for my exact model. I presume that from your post, you have not encountered any hidden menus on the Voom system?

 

[Ilya]

I presume that from your post, you have not encountered any hidden menus on the Voom system?

There are some hidden System Configuration menus, but I am not aware of any way to control the overscan within the STB.

 

[Dvlos]

You can correct this in Phillips setup service menu I think its 062596 then SET, I think they use the same code for all their HDTVs, you can change the geometry on their last menu I think it's called GRE or something. It has like 20 image settings very thourough.

 

[kjaslow]

I appreciate the thoughts. 062596 i+ gives me the SAM menu. I can control color gain, tuning, etc. But I don't see any geometry options. I can do 062596-Menu and get into a mode called SDM, but I get no menu, and see no way to actually manipulate the settings once I'm there. I have not seen any mention of geometry on any of the service menus I've discovered. That's why I was thinking maybe the LCD behaves a little differently than a tube... If anyone else has any ideas, please chime in!

 

[slffl]

Well I've noticed something like this on a NBC OTA channel in Salt Lake City. All HD content is fine, but with anything else, they zoom in to make it look widescreen, so commercials, Conan O'Brian, etc have the top and bottom cropped off.