Side of picture cropped by new Virgin and Freeview set top box

benawhile

I have just bought and connected up a refurbished Humax FVP 4000T to my old Sony Trinitron KV-X TV and it is working perfectly except that the sides of the picture are cropped by a small amount so that the volume bar and last two digits of time display on the right and the first letter or two of some information displays on the left are not visible.

I also have this problem with my latest Virgin Tivo box, but did not have it with the previous Virgin box, which I changed in April.

I can only find two display settings on the Sony TV, 16:9 and 4:3,

On the Humax box the following:

Screen Ratio: options of 4:3 and 16:9

S R 4:3:
Display Format: Letterbx, Centre or Auto

S R 16:9:
Display Format: Pillarbox Zoom Auto

Resolution 576i with no other option

I have tried every single possible combination of these settings with various changes to the picture borders and distortion as expected but nothing can bring that last 5% or so of picture missing from the sides.

Can anyone offer advice about this problem?

almillar

I assume this is a widescreen CRT TV connected via SCART?
Sony TV should be set to 16:9
Humax to pillarbox
And yes, 576i is the best you're going to do over SCART.
Have a look in the Humax and Virgin boxes for 'overscan' and turn it off for both - this usually affects things vertically though.

benawhile

I wouldn't say it was a wide-screen, it's a 4:3.
I have had some detailed responses on the Humax forum about overscan which I will follow up, but they are complicated and will take a few days.

I still would like an explanation about what has changed in the new generation of set top boxes.

stator

You can pick up an HD telly on Gumtree for less than £50.

Nothing has changed that I know of, but modern boxes are obviously designed for HD, digital viewing, so will output all of the picture using the whole screen. Older boxes will be aware of overscan on some TVs, so probably won't use the whole of the screen and the volume will be inset slightly.

The idea of you using an FVP-4000T (same as me) on an old CRT in standard definition is making me sad

almillar

I wouldn't say it was a wide-screen, it's a 4:3.
I have had some detailed responses on the Humax forum about overscan which I will follow up, but they are complicated and will take a few days.

OK then, your TV is ancient and the vast majority of TV is broadcast in a different shape from your TV.
As stator points out, you could upgrade your TV for free, or close to it. And I don't like waste!
So, what you should be looking for is bars at the top, and at the bottom.

Looking at your OP and the settings available there, and before worrying about overscan, let's try:

Humax
Screen ratio 4:3, letterbox. You'll have black bars top and bottom, but I would expect to see the whole width of the picture.
Sony TV should also be at 4.3.
If that doesn't look right, can you post a pic or describe what's wrong and we'll wrap our heads around it. And let us know about overscan at this point too.

I still would like an explanation about what has changed in the new generation of set top boxes.

They expect to be outputting to HDMI, or at least, widescreen, TVs, as has been the standard (connection and broadcast) for 20 odd years. So the settings you need, if they're there at all, will be buried as they're so rarely used.

benawhile

Almillar
Thanks, I have tried those settings with no success and pretty sure the problem, if fixable at all, is related to overscan. I have had lots of advice about changing engineers settings on the TV and will try this but need a long time slot to do so.

[Deleted User]

Time to buy a new TV.

Your Triniton has definitely had it's day.

The black bars are the least of your viewing problems.

I'm surprised you can even tolerate the picture you will be receiving connected via SCART.