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ATV 2 Overscan
- Thread starter ScottBGKY
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For digital TV sets, overscan should be in control of the TV. Does your TV have a "Native" resolution setting or perhaps something actually called overscan?
So, you've turned overscan OFF on your TV? Also, what's the native resolution on your TV (i.e. the LCD or plasma panel resolution)?
This is a complicated issue. Since the new Apple TV only outputs at 720p (1280x720) if you are displaying the output on a panel that isn't exactly 1280x720 native resolution then the TV will need to scale the video from the Apple TV to fit the panel resolution. Therefore, if the scaling done by the TV isn't a precise match for the panel resolution you will end up with an image that is either too large or too small. You could call this overscan/underscan but in reality it is more of an issue with the TV's scaling of the 720p output from the Apple TV. Some TVs will do this scaling better than others, for valid technical reasons or simply because the TV manufacturer was a bit "lazy."
I think the only way Apple could correct for this type of overscaling is to allow the active area of the video to be be scaled down within the Apple TV itself and then letterbox the output so that whatever is lost by the TV's scaling will be black bars (i.e. non-image areas). The output would still have to be exactly 1280x720 (of course) but you'd lose some resolution since the original would have to be reduced in size to match what could be called the "overscan" done by the TV.
If the new Apple TV directly supported 1080i/p output then this issue might not be so prevalent. However, you'd still have TVs that would introduce overscan (and offer no way to disable it) and you'd still have scaling issues with TVs that didn't have panels that were exactly 1920x1080 native resolution.
I think the only way Apple could correct for this type of overscaling is to allow the active area of the video to be be scaled down within the Apple TV itself and then letterbox the output so that whatever is lost by the TV's scaling will be black bars (i.e. non-image areas). The output would still have to be exactly 1280x720 (of course) but you'd lose some resolution since the original would have to be reduced in size to match what could be called the "overscan" done by the TV.
If the new Apple TV directly supported 1080i/p output then this issue might not be so prevalent. However, you'd still have TVs that would introduce overscan (and offer no way to disable it) and you'd still have scaling issues with TVs that didn't have panels that were exactly 1920x1080 native resolution.
I have a similar Panasonic. In the tv advanced menu what is the HD size setting? You should have it set to HD size 2. Hope this helps.
No problems with overscan on my Samsung 52" LCD. However, on 65" Mitsubishi... well that's a different story. 
Sorry about that. I remember setting HD2 but that was for my blu-ray player. I have a G series Panasonic and am not having overscan problems with the Apple TV. You might search on the AVS forum for an answer. Good luck.