What's hidden in the 16:9-button?

[Mike_B]

Hi Guys!
On my previous 16:9-TV i got Full and 16:9. What is the resolution for Full HD in a 16:9 package?

I can see on broadcasts when running full the crop is slightly off and the channel icons hangs more in the "middle" but on Youtube you probably will need full to see all.

So TV broadcasts must produce for a slightly lower res, right?
Thanks for any advice!

[jagabo]

No, your TV is overscanning the picture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overscan

You can disable that to see the entire picture that's being broadcast. That may be what the Full HD/16:9 controls is on your TV.

Also note that TV broadcasts often crop, zoom, and/or distort to eliminate black borders in sources that aren't 16:9.

[Mike_B]

Maybe it was a thing for when TV's only got up to 50"? To get some zoom-in on details, especially with 2:35:1 and so on.

[jagabo]

No. Overscan existed because old CRT TVs could not keep the picture perfectly centered and the same size all the time. They also suffered from all kinds of distortions -- pincushion, barrel, trapezoid, etc. These problems varied with the age of the TV, the temperature, etc. Overscanning prevented black borders from becoming visible when these problems occurred. Broadcasters often didn't worry about junk at the edges of the frame because they knew TVs' overscan would hide it. When HD TVs appeared they overscanned because that was always the norm for TVs. Broadcasters continued to leave crap the edges of the frame because they know the new HD TVs overscanned. Eventually, most broadcasters cleaned up their act and made sure the picture was clean at the edges. So there's no reason for TVs to overscan anymore. But many manufacturers continue to do so by default.

[october262]

Hi Guys!
On my previous 16:9-TV i got Full and 16:9. What is the resolution for Full HD in a 16:9 package?

I can see on broadcasts when running full the crop is slightly off and the channel icons hangs more in the "middle" but on Youtube you probably will need full to see all.

So TV broadcasts must produce for a slightly lower res, right?
Thanks for any advice!

see this here - https://boords.com/blog/what-is-16-9-aspect-ratio-definition-and-examples

[Skiller]

So there's no reason for TVs to overscan anymore. But many manufacturers continue to do so by default.

For native HD content yes, destructive and not needed. But standard definition is ought to be viewed with overscan. Since an SD video will be resized to fit the panel size anyways, adding overscan while at it is not an issue.
SD content is always created with (usually large) overscan in mind.