Comments on: Fixing Overscan Issues for the Mac Mini Mediacenter

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 02:32:49 +0000

A big thanks to Moten! I have a 46 LCD Sony, z series and did your solution and it work like a charm finally! I should have google that problem sooner, instead of 10 months later :)

By: Hank Roberts

Hank Roberts — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 23:52:48 +0000

Weird. Never had problems with this for 2 months since I bought an AOC V22+ to use with my Mac Mini (Intel 2ghz). Suddenly today it’s very confused.

With overscan “off” my screen has a black blank edge about an inch wide, the display is smaller and all the fonts are fuzzy.

With overscan “on” everything looks right for a while. Then I’ll open a new window in Firefox and it’s cropped at all the edges, or I’ll boot and find the status and menu bar and dock disappeared off the edge of the screen.

Then I turn Overscan “off” and everything’s fine for a while. Then for no reason suddenly I’m back to the black unused space around the edge and all the fonts are fuzzy again.

It may be connected to viewing a Quicktime video somehow changing what happens later.

It seems to be a scissors-paper-rock where each time it happens, changing the Overscan setting to the other way fixes it for a while.

It also may be related to whether or not the USB cable is plugged in (which makes the webcam work but I strongly suspect is involved since I just got the webcam working before this started).

OSX 10.6.2, Firefox 3.6, and 3.6.1, and 3.6.2
AOC V22+ monitor
HDMI connector
USB connector
speaker connector
Mac Mini Intel 2ghz

I’m still trying to just get the color calibration working — I have to set the monitor to zero brightness to get the targets in Apple’s color config to come even close to correct, anything brighter puts some of the sliders off scale, and adds lots of purple, though that got somewhat better after 10.6.2 came out, and I know lots of others had reported that issue.

This one with the overscan, though, I don’t find anywhere.
Lots of people stumble over it once. But having it keep coming back, I dunno.

Pulling the USB cable to see if that ends it.

By: Herb

Herb — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:59:51 +0000

Moten – You rock! My new Sony 46 inch LCD is now perfect. I will tell anyone reading this, that this is a Sony only setting. The mini I have on my Sharp is still jacked up. Off to play w/Display ConfigX for that one.

By: Christine

Christine — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:16:58 +0000

Moten – thank you for the Sony tip, worked a treat!

By: Shayne

Shayne — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:34:37 +0000

Thanks Moten, worked perfect!

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:32:36 +0000

Hi Moten what is the effect changing the display to full pixel on the television reception, and other (non-computer) inputs?

By: Moten

Moten — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:24:35 +0000

Hi If you have a Sony tv., Like mine 40W4500 star up your mac mini, and in the TV menu under settings find screen settings, there you will find display size, set this to full pixel.
and on your mac leave overscan on.
this fixed it for me atleast., without the use of any external programs.,.

By: Rasmus Linnet

Rasmus Linnet — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 10:21:29 +0000

FIX: Panasonic PX50 X10 Y

…Hi

I’ve had a lot of problems fixing this overscan issue.
Turn out that after spending hours with DisplayConfigX, I found a setting in my Panasonic PX50 X10 Y to disable overscan.
Now it works like a charm in both 720p & 1080.

Might be worthwhile checking this out…

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:42:51 +0000

Great,

finally, after years of trying, it works. Thanx for helping.

By: abbie

abbie — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:25:42 +0000

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2998
This support article fixed my issue.

Open System Preferences on the Mac.
Select the Displays pane.
Click the Options tab.
Deselect the Overscan checkbox.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 12:41:20 +0000

Thanks very much works perfectly, Vertical front and back porch were perfect had to change horizontal front porch to 184 and the back porch to 168.

thanks again

jim

By: Technology and More » Blog Archive » Mac Mini Overscan Settings

Technology and More » Blog Archive » Mac Mini Overscan Settings — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:58:08 +0000

[...] friend Jason sent along this link that described how another guy got his Sony HDTV display to overscan properly with DisplayConfigX. [...]

By: andreas849

andreas849 — Sat, 12 May 2007 15:07:17 +0000

Does this mean that your overscan now is off?

By: BHill

BHill — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:58:36 +0000

Thank you very much for all the info….very helpful. I have a Sony LCD projection TV KF42we610 that I am trying to figure out the timing settings, but no luck so far. I am pretty close with about a 3/4″ black on the right, and 1″ missing on the left. The vertical is perfect. Do you have any suggestions for getting it right?

By: Dyldev

Dyldev — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:47:53 +0000

Thanks! I have been looking for tis for a long time. Strange that Apple doesn’t include a settings panel for this in OS X.

By: Femi Adeyemi

Femi Adeyemi — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 04:23:11 +0000

Thank you very much. It works!

By: Wterboy

Wterboy — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:45:28 +0000

At last! Thank you thank you thank you! I thought I would never find a way to see all of Front Row when playing music.