[mythtv-users] small black border around analog recording

[richard Woelk]

On 05/11/2010 15:25, Brian J. Murrell wrote:
> So, I got a plasma screen and am aware of the burn-in issues with it.
> As such I opted for the "grey" pillar-box option for playing 4:3 content
> as that's supposed to be the most friendly towards the issue.
>
> The problem is that my 4:3 recordings, from analog cable by way of a
> PVR-{250,500} card still have a black border of 5-10 pixels around them,
> most likely in what would normally be non-visible in the overscan area
> on a traditional CRT.
>
> Is there any way I can expand the active area of the frame out to
> eliminate this black border, or somehow otherwise get rid of it?  I
> don't really want to change the aspect or size of the visible frame
> (720x480), just expand, say the inner 700x470 out to 720x480,
> effectively pushing the black border outside of the visible area.  Does
> that explanation make any sense?
>
> Cheers,
> b.
>
>    

Brian,
     I understand what you are saying. I have used a PVR-250 on a 
computer monitor in the past and have seen this exact problem. The thing 
is, broadcasters still make their content with the assumption that 
overscan will hide the garbage at the edges of the video, and do not 
worry about fixing it. I even see this on HD content, and there is a 
setting to manually cut this. Under settings/setup/tv 
settings/playback/General playback. Page 2 shows vertical and horizontal 
scaling settings in %. This will stretch the recorded picture to the 
point where the garbage will be cut off. Since you are watching SD on a 
plasma screen, myth is already scaling the video for you, and extra 2 or 
3% scaling will not be noticeable. I even have to put 2% vertical on my 
HD-PVR recordings as my STB puts a 10 pixel black line at the top of 
1080i recordings.

hope this helps

- Richard