Does overscan hurt image quality?

gadgtfreek

SatelliteGuys Master
Original poster
May 29, 2006
22,105
865
Lower Alabama
Cant really find any good info on this.

My plasma has a HD size 2 (1:1), and a HD size 1, which is 2.5% overscan.

Does this work like a zoom and add some blur to the image, or is it different?
 
It really depends on the TV. My Samsung has some overscan but it doesn't hurt the PQ at all. I had a Vizio that would overscan big time on 1080i. It made it look like a stretched picture almost. The Samsung has a 1:1 option, but I don't use it because you can sometime get video noise on top on certain channels.
 
I see a lot of crap on dish in 1:1, and even black lines across the top.

Im trying 2.5% now, cant really see any issues. I guess its just a mind set that its zooming and that hurts PQ.
 
Sometimes I think we let our mind create a pq issue, at least I know I do. With this tv you cannot avoid 720p overscan, and OTA HD looks great, so that should tell me to quit worrying about it :)
 
I would leave the 2.5% overscan on for most of the TV viewing, and would switch to 1:1 when watching Blu-ray movies.
 
In theory, overscanning on a fixed-pixel display requires a significant amount of tinkering with the image to "move" pixels that can't move.

Will anyone notice without a specially constructed test pattern? Probably not.

Will worrying about it consume you? Probably.
 
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