I have a Samsung LN52A650 TV on which I view Netflix and other assorted broadcasts via my Media PC. The PC itself is a Dell Inspiron 530 to which has been added (swapped really) a Radeon HD4670 graphics card. For the best possible picture and sound I use an HDMI connection. This was the reason for the updated video card, the one that came with the Dell in the first place did not have an HDMI out.
The operating system is still Windows Vista 32-bit which I have had no real issues with in spite of the many complaints that I’ve heard about Vista over the years.
The other day I saw that there were software updates outstanding so I allowed it to go ahead and apply a bunch of security updates. Under the optional updates section I saw that there were updated drivers for the video card so I let that go ahead too.
After upgrading I found that all edges of the screen image (at 1920 by 1080) as viewed on the Samsung were cut off. I first experimented with my computer’s display settings in case any were set back to some kind of default state during the upgrade and found that everything was still set up correctly. Being more of a moving forward rather than a falling back kind of guy, I went to the ATI site and manually downloaded and installed the most current drivers for my OS/Video card (dated 11/17/2010 I believe). This also had no impact.
The solution was straightforward. For some reason my TV was overscanning the incoming image. I suppose the older drivers must have been outputting a signal for which this was necessary?
Anyway, on the the TV, go to Menu > Picture > Picture Options > Size . The setting was showing 16:9, changing this to “Just Scan” solved the problem. As an added bonus the PC image displayed on the TV looked absolutely amazing clear. Obviously the difference from whatever was going on with the 16:9 setting to the 1 to 1 pixel matching that “Just Scan” allowed.