ATI card underscan on my TV (HDMI)

[flak4]

Hello, My ATI card found it necessary to underscan my display (Plasma TV) and I can't find a way to reverse it.

I've tried several versions of Catalyst drivers; none of which allow me to underscan/overscan my display. Nor do they allow me to ignore the EDID. I know ATI CCC has these features but they are missing and I can't figure out why. On my Samsung 2032GW monitor; ATI CCC had those features readily available. Same with a Samsung 46" series-5 LCD I tested it on. For some reason, it is not available for this display.

In ATI CCC, the DTV option IS MISSING. Does this mean the card does not detect the HDMI? If I remember correctly, the DTV option has the scaling sliders; one that allows you to underscan/overscan.

The Panasonic TCP42G15 is a 2009-model G-series plasma TV; 1080p capable. I am using a Windows PC running Windows 7 Home Premium, Catalyst 9.10 drivers on an Asus Radeon HD 4870 1GB.

The PC is connected to the TV via HDMI (through a DVI-HDMI adapter). Audio and video works fine. Other resolutions that I tried did not remove the black border.

I tried a different HDMI port and various picture control settings and nothing has worked. Used the PS3 on the same port with zero scaling issues. The underscan is between 6-8%.

It appears the GPU is initiating it (not 100% certain) since the TV has no picture control options that allow me to remove the underscan. There is a black border around the Windows desktop approximately 3/4" horizontally and 1" vertically.

I'm considering purchasing an NVIDIA card to see if it makes a difference.

Any help is MUCH appreciated. - Chris

 

[anatolik]

Hi,

Did you solve the problem? I have exctly the same issue with my Panasonic ps54s1 & ATI Radeon 2600 PRO. Did you try another videocard?

 

[LittleNemoNES]

It is definitely in the CCC

I have 50G10 and HD 4550 and have 1:1 1080p.
Just patiently check every single option on the CCC
Of course use the advanced option

 

[jlee]

Open the CCC and go to this menu.

In the lower left corner, there are small images of your displays. On the upper right corner of each small image, there's a little black triangle. Click the little black triangle for whichever display your HDTV is and you'll get a configuration option. Click that.

Some people may have to adjust their display resolution in order to see that option come up - don't ask me why...but I did run into someone who had that issue.

 

[jlee]

This is where you want to be.

 

[anatolik]

I have a Windows XP and I could not find Scaling option

 

[Number1]

I had a hell of a time finding it also. The ATI driver interface is the worst I have ever seen.

 

[Daedalus685]

I had a hell of a time finding it also. The ATI driver interface is the worst I have ever seen.

It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't have 3 places one would logically expect to find display options...

One would have thought "display options" would contain the display options... But alas.. I don't understand why everything isn't integrated into the "Desktops and displays" menu..

 

[jtvang125]

Had the same problem on a 4350 and my Panny plasma too. However when I try to go to the Configure Device it'll just take me back to the main CCC tab. Had to uninstall and reinstall the drivers before it'll take me to the scaling settings.

 

[anatolik]

I solved issue by uninstalling 9.xx ATI driver and installing the old version (8.xx). Now CCC allows me to change TV properties including Scaling.

Don't know why 9.xx does not work for me.

 

[AndroidVageta]

Open the CCC and go to this menu.

In the lower left corner, there are small images of your displays. On the upper right corner of each small image, there's a little black triangle. Click the little black triangle for whichever display your HDTV is and you'll get a configuration option. Click that.

Some people may have to adjust their display resolution in order to see that option come up - don't ask me why...but I did run into someone who had that issue.

THIS IS THE SOLUTION!!!

Been looking for it for a while on my HTPC (specs in sig) and this works...thanks jlee!

 

[jlee]

THIS IS THE SOLUTION!!!

Been looking for it for a while on my HTPC (specs in sig) and this works...thanks jlee!

I solved issue by uninstalling 9.xx ATI driver and installing the old version (8.xx). Now CCC allows me to change TV properties including Scaling.

Don't know why 9.xx does not work for me.

Were you getting the same screens I posted?

 

[anatolik]

Were you getting the same screens I posted?

Nope. You posted screenshots for Vista/Win7 Drivers. I use drivers for Windows XP, they have old-style CCC interface.

 

[htpcfan]

Thanks for the suggestion to downgrade to 8.xx.
I have a 50" Panasonic plasma and a HD 4350 on win xp pro. When outputting via HDMI I was getting severe underscanning with no way to turn it off in 9.xx. I tried everything (including powerstrip to no avail). On version 8.xx there are a bunch of options available (image scaling and overscan scaling) to fix this issue. Has anyone figured out if this is a bug in 9.xx and ATI plans to add these features back. wonder if this issue is specific to XP.

I solved issue by uninstalling 9.xx ATI driver and installing the old version (8.xx). Now CCC allows me to change TV properties including Scaling.

Don't know why 9.xx does not work for me.

 

[anatolik]

Thanks for the suggestion to downgrade to 8.xx.
I have a 50" Panasonic plasma and a HD 4350 on win xp pro. When outputting via HDMI I was getting severe underscanning with no way to turn it off in 9.xx. I tried everything (including powerstrip to no avail). On version 8.xx there are a bunch of options available (image scaling and overscan scaling) to fix this issue. Has anyone figured out if this is a bug in 9.xx and ATI plans to add these features back. wonder if this issue is specific to XP.

I think this is a regression bug. This feature works fine on WinXP (in 8.xx divers) as well as on Win Vista/7 (in 9.xx). I don't see any reason why it should not work on WinXP 9.xx divers.

If there is a bug tracker for ATI I think it worth filing a bug report.

 

[htpcfan]

submitted a bug report to ati.
http://www.amdsurveys.com/se.ashx?s=5A1E27D27E29B0E3
hope this is the right url.

would be nice to be able to upgrade to 9.xx, especially with the new hw acceleration support for flash 10.1

I think this is a regression bug. This feature works fine on WinXP (in 8.xx divers) as well as on Win Vista/7 (in 9.xx). I don't see any reason why it should not work on WinXP 9.xx divers.

If there is a bug tracker for ATI I think it worth filing a bug report.

 

[RaiderJ]

You can do it in the new version (9), but you have to RIGHT-CLICK on the little black triangle. Did a google search and found out how to do it.

 

[getook]

I've been looking all over the internet for a solution to this problem because I have exactly the same thing happened to my 42" plasma panasonic. I just bought xfx 5850 and using the latest CCC 9.12 and there's black bar around my tv. I could not see any scaling option on 9.12 where can I get older driver?

Thanks

 

[anatolik]

I could not see any scaling option on 9.12 where can I get older driver?

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/previous/Pages/radeonaiw_xp.aspx

It is where I downloaded WinXP drivers for my ATI Radeon 2600 PRO. Now I use 8.12 version.

 

[djnsmith7]

For what it's worth, I've tried a ton of different settings, fiddling around with just about every damn option in the CCC known to man, & the text on my plasma looks like absolute dog s*** with HDMI (direct, not using an adaptor) compared to my VGA connection. Everything else looks fine (movies or whatever & the audio is great), but text is awful by comparison.

Using the Overscan option referenced above did fix the fitment problem & properly fills the screen, but I sure would like to find a solution to the text issue. Funny thing here is, the VGA connection fit the screen perfectly the first time & didn't require any adjustments.

In addition, BF2 will only load with the VGA connection & won't load at all with HDMI. Right now, the only real advantage for me to use HDMI is to be able to access the HD Audio options from BR. Otherwise, so far, VGA has been the logical choice.

To the HDMI experts around here, why the hell is HDMI such a B**** on these larger displays compared to VGA? I know VGA is the intended target use for this type of connection on the larger displays, but shouldn't HDMI have caught up by now & produce the same butter-smooth results?

 

[RaiderJ]

I have a Panasonic plasma, 42" S1, and I can get pixel perfect 1080p over HDMI in the latest CCC. Just followed these instructions:

http://www.aoclarkejr.com/ati-catalyst-9-9-overcan-and-underscan-options.html

Do they not work for everyone else?

 

[djnsmith7]

I have a Panasonic plasma, 42" S1, and I can get pixel perfect 1080p over HDMI in the latest CCC. Just followed these instructions:

http://www.aoclarkejr.com/ati-catalyst-9-9-overcan-and-underscan-options.html

Do they not work for everyone else?

This does work for getting windows to fill the screen properly. What it doesn't fix is how crappy the text on the screen looks.

 

[RaiderJ]

This does work for getting windows to fill the screen properly. What it doesn't fix is how crappy the text on the screen looks.

Ah, didn't realize that. Text looks find on my plasma, but I've been mostly using it for HTPC stuff. Maybe I just didn't notice it.

 

[kermelapsus]

This does work for getting windows to fill the screen properly. What it doesn't fix is how crappy the text on the screen looks.

Same problem. I have 50 inch plasma Samsung PS50B850 (european) and I got excellent results with VGA (but the TV doesn't allow 24p or 100hz in this mode). Automatically full 1:1 1080p screen with no overscan and absolutely great text reading.

With HDMI i've suffered a lot with the black borders and the awful catalyst 9.12 (in Vista Ultimate x64), and i've just filled the screen with the 0% overscan (CCC scaling options) but the image is not perfect and the text is really crappy.

I think CCC is aplying a 0% overscan, but anyway it's an overscan, not a native resolution. But another question is: why the BIOS and POST messages before windows login have also the black borders?

 

[yacoub]

Just posting to say that threads like these are what scare me about owning ATI cards. Everything works perfectly on my 1080p HDTV, used as a second monitor. No over/underscan.
I feel your pain. I want to upgrade but NVidia has not given me any DX11 options. So I'm looking at a 5770 but with all the issues these new cards have (mostly driver-related because CCC is a turd), I am scared to.