OT: TV that displays entire picture (no cropping)

TLF wrote on 11/25/2008, 8:11 AM
This is a question for those of you in the UK.

Do any of you know of a reasonably priced LCD TV (with Freeview) that displays the entire picture area, not just the action safe/title safe region?

I've long suspected my television is cropping poorly, and I confirmed that today. I created a test image that clearly indicated the safe regions, and it appears that my television not only crops, but it crops the right more than the left, and the top more than the bottom.

I would much rather have a television that doesn't crop! (And no, I don't want to hook a TV monitor up instead).

Comments

JJKizak wrote on 11/25/2008, 8:31 AM
The Sony models will if you are viewing 1080i by clicking "full" in the menu. You will however get the top data line which may or may not drive you nuts. Default is around 2.5% cropping.
JJK
TLF wrote on 11/25/2008, 8:51 AM
Good old Sony.

I can see that I'm going to have to bring my test DVD with me to the stores and be a real PITA. Still, they need the custom, so should bend over backwards to earn my cash...!
rs170a wrote on 11/25/2008, 8:57 AM
I would much rather have a television that doesn't crop!

Bring your TV to a repair shop. A good tech can set it up so that it won't crop - until the componrents age for a week, that is :-)

Mike
Coursedesign wrote on 11/25/2008, 9:05 AM
You need to get the coil adjusted!

Uh, never mind.

:O)

It is odd that manufacturers can't give you a full screen and digitally remove the data portion at the top.

I suspect it's just a firmware mod away.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 11/25/2008, 9:16 AM
i thought my LCDTV gave me the option to resize/move the image. I'm pretty sure it did...
Coursedesign wrote on 11/25/2008, 9:55 AM
It's common with ATSC (digital TV) tuners etc. to be able to switch between "full" (which isn't) and zoom (which is there to deal with the totally flawed implementation of image size/aspect ratio signaling).

John_Cline wrote on 11/25/2008, 11:16 AM
Overscan has been a fact of life for about 60 years or so. Every one of us, except for maybe you, has learned to live with it. I suppose that if everything was from a digital source, we could get rid of overscan, but it isn't, there is a lot of analog sourced material out there and you definitely don't want to see what goes on at the edges of that stuff!
JJKizak wrote on 11/25/2008, 2:04 PM
coursedesign:
According to my AVIA test disc I have 2.5% overscan. When I switch to full at 1080i OTA I will see the entire picture. This was tested when the local news program goes to their computer mockup of which I can see everything at all edges including the data stripe on top. When I switch back to normal the data stripe dissappears and part of the computer text is cropped off on the display just a tiny bit. This full screen function is not available if the station is transmitting 720P. Why do you say it is not the full picture?
JJK
JJKizak wrote on 11/25/2008, 3:18 PM
Ooooops. I should have said "full pixel" instead of "full". Sorry about that.
JJK
Coursedesign wrote on 11/25/2008, 3:25 PM
Are you saying that your DVD player has 2.5% overscan, and that your ATSC tuner has none one the "full" setting?

JJKizak wrote on 11/25/2008, 4:44 PM
That's a good point. Does the DVD player have any overscan? I don't know. One of the old Samsung Tuners I had did have substantial overscan built in and I picked up on it right off. The Sony LCD 46XBR has a menu that in addition to the full, normal zoom stuff has another menu that says to select "full Pixel", Normal, -1, and -2. ---and it seems to work out that full pixel is showing the entire picture, normal is 2.5% overscan, -1 zooms in a bit, -2 zooms in a bit more which I am guessing are steps of about 2.5% each. IMHO the set when in normal overscans just enough to hide the data line on the top. And the AVIA disc says the overscan is 2.5% which I then have to "assume" that the DVD player has "0%" overscan. My old CRT was near 10% overscan. I also believe the "full pixel" control was put in for the computer input to size the picture to full resolution. If you are viewing a 720P program the "full pixel" portion of the menu is greyed out.
JJK
TLF wrote on 11/26/2008, 12:25 AM
Now, in the old days, I could adjust a CRT for undescanning, but LCD displays... but LCD displays I'm know nothing about. And there are no repair shops around these parts. The only one there was closed down a few months ago.

Anyway, I did some more testing with my television, and even in 4:3 mode it has cropped the left and right sides! So, I see the anamorphic image, but STILL overscanned.

From this I conclude two things - either the TV is seriously crap (highly likely!) or the DVD player is outputting an incorrect signal (less likely as the PVR also appears to be overscanned).

That will teach me to buy a cheap television! Perhaps now is a good time to give up television and watch all those DVDs I have on the shelf through a PC monitor.