Does overscanning make picture worse?

[forensicd]

My 65" mitsu hdtv is overscanning on the sides about 5-7% of the picture (for instance, in GRAW i didnt even realize there was a blue line thingy around the screen when playing because it was all cut off). My question is this: should i get someone to come over and reduce the overscanning? Im sure it will be expensive, as they have to go into sevice menu etc, but will i get a better picture at all based on it? I know why they overscan, to take away the rough edges on some broadcastd, but when im in 1080i, it really cuts too much off for my liking.

[stiffarmleft]

Re: Does overscanning make picture worse?

I don't know for certain, but being that the image is in effect zoomed, when ever you zoom an image you will suffer some degradation and loss of resolution. As much as the 360 overscans I pretty sure you would see a better image if you had it corrected. I have the same problem and will probably contact an ISF calibrator to fix it, they are just so expensive.

[JohnnytheSkin]

Re: Does overscanning make picture worse?

If you are reasonably tech savvy you can search for your model over avsforum.com and they can "likely" give you instructions to check overscan yourself. I've done it on my Sony SXRD as well as my old Sony CRT. You need to have a test pattern though (from AVIA or DVE) so you can get it correct. It's pretty simple, since it's usually only four controls: horizontal and vertical shift and horiz/vert stretch/shrink.

Overscan IS normal though, and when shows and movies are filmed they take it into account. 5-7% is a bit high though, I think most of the modern displays are in the 3-5% range (I have mine down to 1% on the top and bottom, with 2% on the left and right).

An ISF calibration though does a LOT more then just overscan adjustment. While that will be fixed, the grayscale calibration coupled with proper brightness/contrast/color settings will improve the picture much more.

Good luck!