TV-Out/Overscan issues

[Zigz14]

I'm having an issue with using the TV-Out on my system that i think is related to overscan. I'm currently using a GeForce 2 MX 400 running at 720x480. My sys is a P4 1.5 GHz, 384 MB Rambus, Hauppauge 150MCE, Hauppauge 350, GBPVR 0.97.09.

Everything's working fine on my Dell 17" monitor. However, when i use the TV-Out from the geforce, i lose part of the image on my TV, a 27" Panasonic. For instance, i can barely see the top of the taskbar, and i can only see about half of any icons on the desktop that are on the edges. Same in GBPVR. Looks like i'm losing about 10 or 20% overall of my screen. Any ideas on how to correct this?

I've tried changing resolutions but anything aside from 640x480, 720x480 and 800x600 makes my screen scroll. And only 720x480 fills the entire screen. Any ideas?

[sub]

It wont change the size of your tv out picture, but you can adjust how much of it GB-PVR will use by editing the following settings in config.xml.

<OverScanBorderX1>0</OverScanBorderX1>
<OverScanBorderY1>0</OverScanBorderY1>
<OverScanBorderX2>0</OverScanBorderX2>
<OverScanBorderY2>0</OverScanBorderY2>
<OverScanVideoAlso>false</OverScanVideoAlso>

The defaults are to use the whole screen. If, for example, you wanted to ignore the 20 or so pixels off the right of the screen, set <OverScanBorderX2>20</OverScanBorderX2> etc...

[gkar]

What display drivers' version are you using?

If it's one of the later sets, try this:

right click on desktop & choose 'Nvidia Display>?' (analogue monitor or TV depending what is set as primary device)

open 'nView Display Settings'

There will be two TV icons (1a & 1b if set to clone mode) right click on icon depicting your 'TV' display & click 'device adjustments'

Under 'screen positioning' there are two boxes; one to enlarge your desktop & one to decrease.

Click the left hand icon until your entire desktop image is visible on your TV screen. Click 'apply', then 'OK' out of your Display settings.

If you want to playback video at full screen on your TV, click on 'Full screen video' on the left hand tree view

Set full screen video to your TV (either primary or secondary) & apply.

[csy]

when i use the TV-Out from the geforce, i lose part of the image on my TV, a 27" Panasonic. For instance, i can barely see the top of the taskbar, and i can only see about half of any icons on the desktop that are on the edges. Same in GBPVR. Looks like i'm losing about 10 or 20% overall of my screen. Any ideas on how to correct this?

This is normal and expected. Standard defination TV's (SDTV) deliberately overscan the video image by 5-10% by design. So it is your TV doing this, not your HTPC, and this configuration will give the best possible video quality.

TV's are not designed for displaying computer desktops. You can view the whole desktop by configuring your video card to scale down the image, however this will reduce the display pixel resolution of the video, thereby reducing video quality.

[sub]

csy is correct, so setting the overscan settings to adjust your GB-PVR screens position, combined with <OverScanVideoAlso>false</OverScanVideoAlso> is probably the best option, but it of course will depend on if you want to adjust the screen position for other apps or the Windows desktop.

[Zigz14]

Thanks. Changing the overscan settings worked brilliantly. I found an earlier post that said those settings were in the direct.ini file, but i couldn't find them when i looked, so i guess that was an older post. Config.xml worked great.

I tried changing the desktop size in my driver settings, i have the newest ones, 91.31, but my TV wasn't responding to them, but it's an older model tv so i suppose that's why it didn't want to work.

Thanks for all the help, i love the program and great community support too.