721 archiving issue w/black line

[psycaz]

I have occasionally archived items from my 508 with no issues. today I attemtped to use the same method to archive a show from my 721. Imagine my surprise when I see a black line across the bottom of the screen about an inch up from the bottom. I get the line when using s-video as well as rca cables. I see it when watching any channel live or recorded show.

I reconnected my 508 to my pc and the line is not there, so I don't think its my vid camera that I use to convert the signal.

Does anyone know if its a setting on the 721 or some type of protection scheme they are now using?

Thanks

 

[Big Bob]

The line is just there on 721s.
Search though this and other forums and there are a couple of threads on it.
It is WAY outside of TV safe though, so many(most?) monitors do not show it.
I don't think it serves any purpose or does any harm.

 

[JonUrban]

I have it on mine, and it's been there since the beginning.

 

[SRW1000]

I had the same exact line on every program on my 721's hard drive. It went away with a reboot. Unfortunately, I didn't notice it on one of the DVDs I recorded until after I deleted it from the 721.

Scott

 

[psycaz]

Thanks for the update. Looks like I'll have to record anything I want to archive on my 508. That line is annoying. Never saw it before I hooked it to my pc. Not sure if I want it anything I archive.

Maybe I'll look aroung the net and see if there is any kind of program that can fill that line in by looking at the pixels around it.

 

[Big Bob]

If you can't see it on your TV, don't worry about it.

You can see it on your computer because your computer is showing the entire frame of video. NTSC was never intended to be seen in this manner. It is called overscanning. TVs are supposed to clip off the edges of the video and only show the stuff in the middle. Most all do it properly. If your TV is out of calibration, you may see too much of the video. I have an older set. When the picture is darker, the picture shrinks a bit and I can see the line at the very bottom of the frame.

There are lots of garbage floating around in the edges of the video frame. Close captioning is crammed in there.

If you can't see it on your TV, don't worry about it.

 

[SRW1000]

I think the line I was getting is different than the one that most of you are talking about. Mine was clearly within the frame of everything that I had recorded. I've attached a screen grab from one of the DVDs I recorded that clearly shows it against a white background. (You won't be able to see it in the thumbnail view.)

Again, I was able to fix it with a reboot.

Scott

 

[psycaz]

That's the same one I got. My problem with it is that is is showing up on thethings I capture to my pc and therefore is ending up on things I am trying to archive.

 

[TyroneShoes]

...There are lots of garbage floating around in the edges of the video frame. Close captioning is crammed in there...

CC actually lives at line 21, which is in the vertical interval and not a part of active video. Only 484 of the 525 lines of NTSC carry active video. The rest is devoted to sync, burst, and ancillary data.

Overscanning is kind of a legacy issue from days when displaying exact safe areas was more difficult to control than it is now, but it is still not always exact and overscanning still needs to be done to a small extent. It does seem a little weird that the 721 would put a black line inside of active video, however. More arrogance from E*.

 

[Stargazer]

I have noticed this on my 721 as well for a good while now at times.

 

[Big Bob]

CC actually lives at line 21, which is in the vertical interval and not a part of active video. Only 484 of the 525 lines of NTSC carry active video. The rest is devoted to sync, burst, and ancillary data.

Overscanning is kind of a legacy issue from days when displaying exact safe areas was more difficult to control than it is now, but it is still not always exact and overscanning still needs to be done to a small extent. It does seem a little weird that the 721 would put a black line inside of active video, however. More arrogance from E*.

exactly. if you underscan a monitor far enough, you can see the CC information flashing around.
Edit-
I may be out to lunch on this one. I may be thinking of monitors with external sync on them that....
/Edit

My point is, all consumer displays have some amount of overscan in them. The line at the bottom of the 721 "should" be outside of the viewable area. On my old set, the picture grows and shrinks a bit, depending on the brightness of the video, so that in darker scenes the line becomes visible.

I agree that I can think of no reason for E* to leave the line in there.

The bottom line for me is this: if you can't see it on your TV, don't worry about it. Even if you see it on your computer. And you shouldn't worry about future TVs either. Any display that claims to have proper display of NTSC should provide some means of overscanning the picture.

 

[Stargazer]

I still see mine. Is this not correctable in a software upgrade or is this a hardware issue?

 

[Big Bob]

I still see mine. Is this not correctable in a software upgrade or is this a hardware issue?

Who knows where the problem lies in the 721. I doubt that it will be fixed though.

But IMHO, part of the problem is with your (and my) TV. It is showing parts of the picture that it shouldn't show.

I am no TV repairman, but my guess is that it would be a simple adjustment to the picture size to make the line move off the screen.

I do know for certain that broadcasters do not intend for you to see the very fringes of the video and they put nothing there of any importance. Or in other words, if you get your set adjusted so the line goes away, you won't be missing anything.