Howcome computers need overscan settings but Xbox, Blu-ray etc are all fine?

[Marcos]

I just hooked up my MacBook to an older Plasma and it's got horrible overscan I can't correct easily.

But howcome the Xbox is fine with it? It seems like Overscan is a thing that happens when a Desktop OS get's involved.

Howcome an Apple TV never over-scans?

[watercooled]

What interface are you using to connect it?

[Marcos]

Mini display port to HDMI, 2009 macbook pro

Is it the converting from display port to HDMI that is to blame? If so, would a Retina MBP with direct HDMI get around this? Interesting, I hadn't thought of that angle.

[watercooled]

Well DP and HDMI aren't electrically compatible so I guess you're using an active adapter?

It could be one of a number of things, either the TV overscanning as you say (probably the most likely), or an issue with settings on the TV.

On a lot of TVs, one of the HDMI ports will be labelled something like HDMI/DVI - using this one for PC input often solves this sort of issue. If not, look in TV options for 'screen fit', '1:1 pixel mapping' or something along those lines. It's unfortunately often the case that TVs will overscan 'HDTV' inputs, but like I say in some cases a HDMI/DVI port will expose the actual screen size to the computer; in many cases '720p' TVs are actually 1360/1366x768.

If the above doesn't work I'd check the monitor settings are correct on your computer as the adapter might interfere with the data link between PC and TV, so it can't report supported resolutions correctly.

[Marcos]

Nope, passive adapter, the Mac's displayport to HDMI adapter just passes a signal, doesn't do anything too clever. No power to it or processing.

It's Panasonic, and I have since learned they are horrible at giving proper options and settings, this one does not have a 1:1 mode :-/

Unfortunately the Mac is also to blame for having far too basic an Overscan option, it's only on/off, not a slider. Though some Macs get the slider, it's confusing why.

[watercooled]

Ah I didn't know whether the MBP supported passive adapters; I seem to remember seeing Apple-branded active adapters but maybe it depends on the model.

Is there no other port to use on the TV? If not labelled as DVI, it's usually the first numbered port from what I've seen.

Failing that, does the TV have a DVI port? Of course, you'd lose sound that way, but you might be able to use a 3.5mm cable for that.

[DanceswithUnix]

TV standards include an amount of overscan to fudge around all the geometric distortion problems like pincushion and parallelogram effects that you used to get with CRT screens.

Screens have moved on, but the overscan still exists as part of the TV standard. Consoles etc expect the TV to scale the picture and allow for it. Big text that you can read sat on a sofa across the room helps a lot.

Some display drivers try to scale the image to compensate for that, but doing that you are shrinking the image down losing information before the TV scales it back up to fit the screen. It is only 5%, but and small text ends up looking pretty nasty. The only thing you can do is read the manual for the set to find out how to do a 1:1 mapping, and if the set can't do that then you are pretty much hosed.

Do you not have an old D-sub VGA connector on the TV? Not the best, but any picture on there is expected to be 1:1

[Marcos]

I do have a VGA adapter, but for some weird reason I couldn't switch to that input, I found no way to tell it to view the PC input. Ugh, this TV is just bad news. Panasonic are so bad at interfaces, their panels are ok but their remotes, UI and inputs are bad. No audio out either.

I'll just replace the TV