When I connect my MacBook Pro to an HDTV, it appears that the TV is cropping out the edge of the picture, and I can't seem to figure out why. I've noticed this on every HDTV I connect it to, including both plasma and LCDs.

When this happens, I can't see my dock or the menubar at the top of the screen. Here's a couple of pictures: the first shows what the picture should look like, and the second shows what is actually being displayed on the TV. The TV recognizes the signal as being 1080p, and the laptop says the display resolution is 1920x1280. On the HDTV, the image fills the screen entirely (no black bars).

Any ideas? In all of the TVs (4-ish) that I've connected it to, I haven't seen anything in the TV menus that lets me change any settings to try to get the entire image to fit to the screen.

6/21/2009 12:40:38 PM

Which model TV? Will it let you disable overscan? just read everything.

the issue with my dvi-hdmi cable was an overscan issue. The vizio didn't have any way to turn it off either, so I had to force 1366 x 768

[Edited on June 21, 2009 at 12:58 PM. Reason : ]

6/21/2009 12:56:06 PM

Quote :

"laptop says the display resolution is 1920x1280"

so...... change the resolution to something lower

6/21/2009 12:59:06 PM

See if there is a checkbox in the Monitors prefpane to disable overscan.

Also, see if your TV has an option in the menu, or a zoom mode (like a "just scan") that disable overscan.

What kind of TV is it?

[Edited on June 21, 2009 at 1:01 PM. Reason : v]

6/21/2009 1:01:08 PM

^^I assumed that was a typo

Yeah, brand of TV, macbook generation (mini display vs dvi), and type of cable used are all missing pieces of info.

[Edited on June 21, 2009 at 1:03 PM. Reason : .]

6/21/2009 1:01:21 PM

^ I assume it's not a typo. Look at the screenshots - it looks like there are ~100 pixels cut off from the top and bottom of the screen.

1080 TV resolution + 100 px top & bottom --> 1280 laptop resolution

Just lower the MBP resolution to 1080 or less.

6/21/2009 1:12:57 PM

touche, having not seen many 'shops in my day, i did not think to analyze the pixels.

problem solved?

6/21/2009 1:27:40 PM

1920x1080 is what you want, knuckleheads.

If you connect via DVI-HDMI cable the computer will detect the appropriate resolution from the TV and set it automatically. If that doesnt work do to having the wrong cable, a goofy adapter or a goofy tv then you should be able to select that res from the lists of resolutions for the TV device in the Display prefs.

It all works automatically for me perfectly using a DVI-HDMI cable.

6/21/2009 2:48:39 PM

Quote :

"^ I assume it's not a typo. Look at the screenshots - it looks like there are ~100 pixels cut off from the top and bottom of the screen. "

no, it was a typo. I meant to say 1920 x 1080. It's also cut off on the sides too, along with the top and bottom.

Quote :

"Yeah, brand of TV, macbook generation (mini display vs dvi), and type of cable used are all missing pieces of info."

I have one of the new unibody MacBookPros, with a mini-display->DVI adapter, and a DVI->HDMI cable.

I've had it hooked into the following TVs:
Pioneer Elite Kuro PRO-111FD, 50" 1080p plasma TV
Samsung LN-T5281F, 52" 1080p LCD TV
Sharp 46D65U, 46" 1080p LCD TV

The second picture was just cropped by hand in photoshop to show what it looks like on the TV screen. It is currently connected to the Sharp LCD, but I have noticed this issue on all of the aforementioned TVs.

Quote :

"it looks like there are ~100 pixels cut off from the top and bottom of the screen. "

The MBP resolution is 1440 x 900. Plus I'm not mirroring the displays. Here's the settings/resolutions for the two displays:

6/21/2009 2:59:56 PM

1) Hit detect display

2) It's the video card. There's a known issue with almost all nVidia hardware that does this. In Windows you just have to edit the EDID of the monitor profile driver, and it will fix the issue (ask me how I know)

On the Mac, if it doesn't detect the display properly, your only hope is DisplayConfigX

6/21/2009 3:16:15 PM

I got it working now. There's an option that moron suggested about disabling overscan. Doing that, coupled with enabling "dot by dot" mode on the TV filled up the screen perfectly, with no cropping.

^ DisplayConfigX was my next option, but I was overwhelmed with all of the scan rates and frequencies that I just don't know enough about to be messing with.

apparently a lot of tv manufacturers enable the overscan mode by default to crop out any digital artifacts that may be broadcast (like the white fuzzy bar I've seen at the top of some tvs).

6/21/2009 5:14:03 PM

Some TV's aren't capable of 1:1 pixel mapping, but yeah that's definitely the best way to fix. nVidia finally came out with an overscan compensation option and to my knowledge it's no longer an issue with their drivers.

I shouldn't have second guessed myself.

6/22/2009 1:01:31 AM

ok, since I obviously don't know shit about the ins-and-outs of TV/computer resolutions, I might as well post my own question here - something that I've wondered about for a couple years, but have not investigated at all.


I have a Mac Mini hooked up via DVI to a 2004 Samsung 720p 50" DLP. The resolution on the Mini is set to 1280x720 - the max res of the TV. But there is a ~1" black frame all the way around the computer desktop on the TV.

In the TV Picture setup, there are several settings. I have it set to "Wide PC", and even in the thumbnail for that setting it shows the black frame going all the way around the picture


If I set the TV to "Wide TV" (and the computer resolution is still 1280x720), it overscans and the picture falls off the edge of the TV, like the OP here.



I found some other forums saying you can turn off Overscan in the TV Setup > PC menu, but that menu is grayed out on my TV, I guess because I don't have a PC connected to it.


Is all this because of the nVidia issue? I tried DisplayConfigX, but couldn't figure out WTF it was trying to do

6/22/2009 11:08:58 AM

What type of connection?

6/22/2009 12:58:28 PM

DVI -> HDMI most likely.

What model of Samsung? Some of those models were pretty easy to get into the service menu, which is probably where you'll have to fix the issue. AVSForums has a lot of info on these weird 1:1 pixel mapping, true 1080p, 16:9 vs 16:10 resolution quirks, phenomenons and such.

6/22/2009 1:15:12 PM

no, DVI only - on the Mini and the TV. It's an HLP5063WX
http://www.teptronics.com/hlp5063w.html

6/22/2009 1:36:06 PM

Does this only happen on Macs? I've never had a problem getting a PC hooked up to an HDTV through DVI to HDMI. Plug and play. Didn't even have to set the resolution.

Quote :

"2004 Samsung 720p 50" DLP."

Have you tried setting it higher? And you're sure the TV's max is 720 and not 768?

[Edited on June 22, 2009 at 2:37 PM. Reason : .]

6/22/2009 2:27:36 PM

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=781643

Quote :

"There is no option in the HLP service menu to eliminate Overscan. However, it you feed it 720p over DVI you can set the Picture/Size to Expand Mode which has less then 1% overscan. Or of course you can use the VGA interface whcih does not Overscan"

6/22/2009 2:48:16 PM

I had a hell of a time trying to get my vizio to display correctly at 1366x768 with dvi-hdmi

^heh, i just came back to check if he had tried Expand mode

[Edited on June 22, 2009 at 3:05 PM. Reason : .]

6/22/2009 2:48:37 PM

holy shit, batman - it's fixed!
From the AVS thread ^^, but not the part you quoted

Quote :

"The "P. Size" button on the remote will give you "Expand" as an option in either case."

I've been using that TV for 4.5 years, with a computer hooked up to it for 2+ years, and I've never hit the fucking P. Size button. When the picture is set to "Wide PC", the P. Size button gives options to adjust horizontally, vertically, and zoom the whole picture, just like on a computer monitor. I just zoomed it a bit, and it fills the whole screen now.

before (using the test screen from DisplayConfigX)



now, after zoom - picture goes all the way to the bezel



and the f'ing adjustment options I've missed for almost 5 years

6/22/2009 3:46:35 PM

AVSForum is >>>> *

6/22/2009 6:14:10 PM

bump

12/2/2009 5:27:58 PM

I really wish I remember exactly what I did to force my Vizio into 1366x768. I think there's a problem with 8800 Forceware drivers and Vista/Win7 -- because custom resolutions are absolutely not working at all. Immediate "Test Failed" even when my timings are perfect and the EDID is hacked. Is anyone having a similar issue?

12/2/2009 5:37:14 PM

Don't know if this would help but here it goes. I would have never figured this out in a million years if I did not try to do one of those calibration setups in a blue ray disk I bought.

I have a mac mini hooked up to a Panasonic plasma 50 inch via minidvi to hdmi. When I first hooked it up the top of the screen was cut off by a half an inch. In my tv settings under picture advanced there was a hd size setting, not the zoom, full etc... setting 1 and setting 2. Nothing special about it but setting 2 gave me the screen size back so I can see the entire desktop screen. My advice is play with the tv settings.

12/2/2009 5:47:51 PM

Not sure if you're responding to me or the OP. I think Joe solved his MBP issue and by my responses -- I had mine working fine in WinXP. It's not a setting on my TV because it's DVI - HDMI (H-Size and V-Size are already on 0) and needs to be forcefed a custom timing to display properly. Even 1280x720 has Overscan, but the only way to compensate for it is if you use the LCD as your main display so that the drivers treat it as an HDTV and not a monitor and let you adjust it in the control panel.

12/2/2009 6:15:09 PM