42" LCD flat screen TV

[Barquentine]

We have had our big flat LCD tv for a year now. All is fine with it except we have never been able to get VHS videotapes to play properly. There is a shimmering band of distorted picture angled off to the right at the top of the picture. Most of the picture is ok except for about a tenth of the screen at the top. I've tried changing the tracking up and down but to no effect. Even changing the aspect ratio still leaves the lower edge of the shimmering band visible. Is this a common problem & is there a solution? Thanks.

[hazzaman]

Hello,

It sounds like your problem is caused by something called overscan. On most tv's the picture you see is actually zoomed in slightly, cutting off a small amount from the top, bottom and sides of the picture. This is used to cover up most of the rubbish normally hidden at the side of the picture such as timing and registration marks.

On modern High Definition TV's, it is possible to turn overscan off, and to view the entire picture - normally this is not a problem as most modern programming is quite tidy in these missing areas (apart from the occasional white bars at the top of the picture) This also allows High Definition pictures to be placed correctly on the screen for the best quality.

Chances are that overscan is turned off on your television and is showing the 'messy' edges from your old VHS tapes.

Consult your manual as this setting is in different places on different TV's. On samsung TV's for example - it is called Just Scan and is an option on the aspect menu. On panasonic TV's it is in the TV setup menu and is called picture overscan.

Hope that helps.

Chris

[Barquentine]

Many thanks Hazzaman. I will check out our 'Overscan' settings. I actually found another way to solve it. We were watching the video routed via the Sky box. I switched back to the TV, set it to the video channel, then used the video remote to change to AV1. Getting the VHS direct from the videoplayer lets us see old tapes (even on LP) without distortion. I was watching Glastobury 2005 at the weekend. The quality even on 42" is really good.