Question about Overscan with bigger TV's

[BorgmanJayce]

I collect a lot of fansubs of Anime shows and dramas from Hong Kong, Japan and Korea and I usually have to convert them into a format that's suitable for a regular widescreen TV to burn onto DVD because of overscan and I was wondering now that bigger HDTV's are available such as 42" and 50", would I still need to convert said fansubs to take account of ovserscan [TV-Nihon's fansubs of Boukenger and Kamen Rider Kabuto are done in such a way that there's no need to convert them for overscan] in the future.

[jman98]

It's my understanding that almost all TVs overscan, even new HD TVs. For some reason, manufacturers seem to think this is a "good thing". There was a chipset manufacturer in the past that made a chipset for a few DVD players that allowed underscan as an option, but it's just about impossible to find any DVD players that have this as an option. I really don't know of any good solution to this problem and I'm interested to know if others might know something I don't. If you can find a DVD player that allows underscan, it might be a lot easier to fix this problem by having the right DVD player than trying to find the rare TV that doesn't do overscan.

[Krispy Kritter]

Sounds like a question for edDV.

There is of course a definition in the GLOSSARY, but I remember reading somewhere there was a specifc reason why it was/is done. I just don't recall at the moment.

[redwudz]

Wikipedia has a good article on overscan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overscan

If you convert VHS video, you will see one reason for overscan because of the head switching noise at the bottom of the screen. And broadcast video may have closed caption or other information on the top of the screen. If you go to a TV station, they usually have a underscanning monitor in the control room so they can view the whole picture.

Now that HDTV is becoming more common, it seems they really should have adjustable overscan. Probably a financial or engineering reason for not having it. I like the idea of a DVD player with adjustable overscan also. It seems if they can 'zoom' a video they could also shrink it.

[edDV]

Wikipedia has a good article on overscan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overscan

If you convert VHS video, you will see one reason for overscan because of the head switching noise at the bottom of the screen. And broadcast video may have closed caption or other information on the top of the screen. If you go to a TV station, they usually have a underscanning monitor in the control room so they can view the whole picture.

Now that HDTV is becoming more common, it seems they really should have adjustable overscan. Probably a financial or engineering reason for not having it. I like the idea of a DVD player with adjustable overscan also. It seems if they can 'zoom' a video they could also shrink it.

They still overscan 5-10% because they (TV makers and broadcasters) don't want people complaining about junk around the edges of the picture. This extends to HDTV but fixed pixel displays are using less overscan (3-7%) vs. ~10% used for CRT and rear projectors. They still need some overscan to keep the edges clean for all likely inputs.

CRTs have the additional problem that the picture size tends to decrease as the CRT ages. CRT phosphors dim with use over the years. The user compensates by turning up the contrast thus drawing more from the high voltage power supply. This tends in time to overload the power supply causing the picture to shrink. This is one reason why CRT TV sets have more overscan when new.

[TBoneit]

You couls always get a HDTV that has VGA input (No Overscan) and play thos videos on the TV from the computer. That would cure the problem. Other option before buying see if you can find a HDTV that has adjustable overscan without having to go into the service menu.