Magnavox H2160MW9 overscan
 

I recorded a PBS Great Performances program last night with the Magnavox H2160MW9, and it had "alot" of overscan. I don't see it when I use the tuner on my LG HDTV. I am using HDMI. It is most obvious when they have the banner across the bottom and you can see that parts of letters are not displayed on both sides.

Anything I can do?

I know you mentioned this on another thread, but I don't believe it's the DVD recorder that is showing you more overscan. More likely, the television set shows a different amount of overscan depending on connection.

HDMI is an overrated type of connection, and should only be used for truly HD sources, like Blu-ray media or computer input.

For standard DVDs, you should stick with component or s-video. There is a high chance that the HDMI connection on the TV set shows "more picture" because it assumes all input will be from HD non-overscanned retail sources.

Try reconnecting the recorder via various connections, and comparing the viewable frame size.

Even on my own Sony HDTV, the viewable area will vary between composite, component, HDMI, VGA and the tuner.

Thank you.

It looks like I am out of luck.

My current TV has only one of each type of video connections.

I am currently using the component video input for Cyberhome DVD player, the composite video input for the JVC DVD recorder. The s-video is unused.

I would swap the Cyberhome and the Magnavox, but the Cyberhome does not have HDMI.

I would move the Magnavox to component and the Cyberhome to s-video, except that the s-video and the composite video share one pair of RCA audio in jacks.

Argh!

Addendum.

As a test, I took the DVD that I made from the PBS program that I recorded on the Magnavox and played it on the Cyberhome DVD player that is connected to the component video input of my LG TV, and the result was the same overscan.

I also tried connnecting the Magnavox to the component video input on my LG TV, and the result was the same overscan.

Thoughts?

The tuner may be over-overscanning, then.

You need to

• pull the DVD into the computer,
• open the video in VirtualDub,
• copy a frame to the clipboard, paste into image software like Photoshop,
• resize it to a true 16:9 or 4:3 resolution (720x540, or 720x405 for widescreen)
• then get a fine brush and what it looks like on the screen.

Draw a fine line through the video still frame where the TV cuts it off. Don't guess at it, but pause the DVD on your TV, use the same frame in Photoshop, and match them up.

Then draw what you remember seeing on TV tuner in a separate version of the same frame.

Then upload those two frames as images on the forum.

Right now, I'm only guessing. Need to see more.

If you want to read wajo's 3,000+ post novel dedicated to this recorder, it's located at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1054933. See if others have the same problem.

However, I still firmly believe it's the TV, since I've witnessed this "variable overscan" issue on countless HDTV sets for years now -- including my own.

I went online and saw something about setting the HDMI on the TV to Just Scan. I did that. The overscan is still there on the video that is on the Magnavox's hard drive.

I still need to see a video frame with the lines drawn on it, to see if there's really a problem here.

I am not sure how to pull the VOB file into Virtualdub?

This is the frame that I am talking about.
The TV shows everything as is except for the thin black lines.

Attachment 731

Use the VirtualDub with pre-loaded filters download from this site. I'm sharing my install set there, so I know it works and opens MPEG-2 okay.

Can I get a sample of this frame:

I'll attach the image files that you asked for that was lost with the server hiccup, so that others in the future will know what we are talking about.

The TV Aspect may have been set to something other than 16:9. Can't be sure. Thought it only effected how it outputted the video and not what it did when recording.

I don't see anything else in the manual that has setting for 16:9.

That PBS program is being rebroadcast Monday night, so I am going to record it again, and see what happens.

Attachment 732

Attachment 733

Thanks for the re-attach. :)

Will get back to this thread after I get some time to dig through the Philips manual.

problem solved!
 

I am happy to report that the problem is solved.

The TV aspect is by default set to 4:3 letterbox. When I changed it to 16:9, the PBS Great Performances program recorded in HD was recorded by Magnavox correctly.

Ah-ha! Glad you found the issue. I knew it had to be something with a 16:9 vs 4:3 setting. I didn't think to make you double-check the TV.

In a way this is counterintuitive.

Why doesn't it always record in 16:9 and then do what is necessary to scale it to the TV setting?

I would never had thought the TV Aspect would effect the recording.

Ah well.

I don't know how the TV can possibly affect the recording -- in fact, it just can't. The display device is not bi-direction that way.

On my HDTV, each input mode has independent control over filters and aspect. I can have digital tuner set to 16:9 widescreen, component set to double zoom (crop 4:3 matte widescreen to fill screen), HDMI to 4:3 "fullscreen", etc etc. Changing aspect on one doesn't affect others.

Maybe yours is the same?

No my HDTV isn't like that. Just one setting regardless of input mode except that in HDMI mode I get the additional choice of 'Just Scan' which from what I read is for using with a PC.

What I meant was why doesn't the Magnavox record always in 16:9 if the program is broadcast in 16:9. What happened was that because the Magnavox's TV Aspect setting was set to 4:3 Letterbox which is the default, the Magnavox it recorded the PBS program in 4:3 despite the fact that the program was 16:9.

Or maybe I am not understanding how things work?

Yes, it's true, DVD recorders will record in the mode as set. The machines do not generally have any kind of "auto sensing" tech inside.

I'm actually relieved by that, because I can imagine many, many posts by angry owners because it auto selected the wrong one. Or that many machines would not have a manual override. More features almost always equals more problems, regardless of what it is (toaster, car, TV, etc).

Part of your issue is probably also with the PBS broadcast -- just a few years ago it was common to see mismatched info in the video headers. While not common anymore, I still catch streams that are incorrect. I watched a re-run of something last week (CSI Miami, I think), and the local CBS affiliate was sending the 16:9 as 4:3. I had to override it on both my 16:9 HDTV and my 4:3 SDTV (to letterbox it). About 20 minutes into the program, the stream was corrected, and I had to put the TV sets back to auto.

You're understanding, more or less.

If anything, I didn't understand you when you said "Magnavox's TV Aspect setting" -- I thought you meant the TV set there at first. I misunderstood. But I see what you were referring to now.

Is it just PBS, maybe?

With PBS the banner at the bottom during the pledge breaks made it very obvious something wasn't right.

I can't say for sure if it only happened with the PBS.

The other recordings I have made seemed fine though.