The ideal overscan percentage for NES/SNES/PS1, etc?

[fvgazi]

It only really bothers me when I'm playing a fighter or shmup and text gets cut off near the top of the screen. I don't even remember the last time I adjusted my TV to account for over-scan.

[Jamisonia]

Calibrated using the DVD creates an image that is very good for everything from the NES to the Wii. Nothing is too dark or too bright and the colours look great.

I'll have to try that using DVE then to see if it gives me a good brightness for my games. I was only saying Zelda OoT of MM because both of them have a brightness calibration pluge.

[dogman91]

I'm a noob when it comes to this kind of thing as I never bothered with videophile-esque stuff before now (quite a 360 from where I was just a couple months ago)... does anyone have any advice for calibrating a 4:3 SD CRT screen for someone who doesn't know anything about that? I'm getting a 36-inch "flat-screen" 4:3 standard-def Sony WEGA CRT with the auto 16:9 enhancement.

I don't have the TV yet but I want to research as much as I can beforehand. I will be primarily using it for consoles from all gens from the NES to the PS2/Gamecube/oXbox... if this matters, most of the old consoles will use an RGB to component connection and the others will use component directly (obviously only going up to 480i; 240p for older consoles with scanlines).

Any recommended guides or advice specific to video games and also specific to my setup from anyone who has first-hand experience doing this for every aspect of calibration (geometry, overscan percentages, color etc.)? Thanks!

[Zing]

It helps immensely to have a calibration DVD. There are basically two choices: Avia or Digital Video Essentials. I personally use Avia. I find it is more user friendly and has more than adequate test patterns. You want this DVD mainly for the geometry and overscan test patterns.

I have done quite a few calibrations with this TV and have my method down fairly well. The Avia DVD has a section titled "basic patterns", which covers contrast, brightness, colour, hue, and sharpness. This is perfect since these are exactly the settings in a TV's regular menu. Each pattern has a short instructional video and text to explain what to do.

One thing that I do differently is go into the service menu and disable the red and green colours when calibrating the colour and hue. The alternative is to use a "blue filter", which is literally a strip of transparent blue plastic. Temporarily disabling red and green results in pure blue, which is more accurate than looking through blue plastic.

Once you have the basic settings finalized, then work on the geometry. You will need to enter the service menu and load a crosshatch pattern from a DVD. The crosshatch pattern allows you to accurately make all geometry adjustments.

You will fix:
- Overscan. The pattern has a marked "safe area". I find that these marks are at the 5% overscan point. This is a good reference and probably the ideal compromise for CRT screens. Less overscan than this will exaggerate blooming and other quirks. Adjust the VSIZ, VPOS, HSIZ, HPOS until these marks are at the edges of the screen.
- Geometry. You will have to use several settings to get this right. Adjust VBOW, PAMP, UPIN, LPIN, and a few others until you have the screen as square as you can make it. I find that on Wegas, you will have to be satisfied with the extreme top and bottom curving in slightly, otherwise blooming will make things look distorted when those portions of the screen are bright. Also, the Wegas have no way to adjust horizontal bow, and the large size plus flat screen virtually guarantees that there will be some bowing of the image. This results in horizontal lines near the top and bottom not being perfectly straight. There is no way to fix this.
- Linearity. This is how evenly the image is spread across the screen. Symptoms of bad linearity will appear as some boxes being larger than others in the pattern. Measure the height of boxes at various points on the screen using a ruler, and adjust the VLIN and SCOR settings until they are the same.

You will have to go back and forth between settings, tweaking them as you go, since adjusting one setting may make another adjustment slightly off. Also, be sure to make geometry settings using a dim test pattern (I use the 30 IRE pattern). You want the geometry to be as perfect as possible for dark scenes. Bright scenes will be slightly distorted due to localized blooming, anyway.

Note that you want to make the geometry as perfect as you can for the main part of the screen. Don't get hung up on the corners, as they will never be perfect. This level of CRT just cannot be the size they are with a flat screen and have good geometry in the corners. Focus on getting the middle area perfect and the middle of the edges (not the corners) to be aligned.

There is also an overscan pattern to show you the percentage of overscan, but if you calibrate using the crosshatch safe area, you will be right at 5-6% anyway, which is perfect even for NES games that have info at the extreme edges. Super Mario Bros 1 is my benchmark. At 5%, the text at the top of the screen is completely showing. At around 7%, it starts to get cut off. I have my overscan set to 6% on a 30 IRE pattern, which seems to be the ideal setting.

I can't stress enough how a calibration DVD is essential to having a good image. If you can't get one, or don't want to, then you will have to calibrate by eye. You will also have to be familiar with entering and using the service menu.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

^ Great post, and as he said, don't get hung up on the corners. After a week of fiddling in the service menu I've got a nearly perfect image other than the very tops of the image. (This is a KV-24FS120).

If you don't have a calibration menu game menus can work pretty well. I used Black's main menu to adjust VBOW and the Saturn's memory manager for everything else and the picture is fantastic.

I'll get a DVD calibration disc sometime soon though. If anything just to see how well I actually was able to eyeball it.

[Zing]

The PSone's memory card screen is a poor man's crosshatch pattern. However, I noticed that the squares along the edges are not totally square.

[dogman91]

Wow, thank you very much! Pretty much everything I wanted to know. Awesome post. This will be very useful for me to refer to when I make adjustments... definitely going to pick up that Avia DVD.

[fastbilly1]

The PSone's memory card screen is a poor man's crosshatch pattern. However, I noticed that the squares along the edges are not totally square.

Good call Zing. I never thought about using that. That is a good enough reason to keep that second PSX...

[dogman91]

@Zing mind if I ask for the exact name of the Avia DVD and which one is best? What I see so far is Avia II and Avia Guide to Home Theater. Thanks!

edit: also, does the type of DVD player used effect the image? Would the PS2 through component suffice?

[Zing]

Yes, the PS2 DVD player is fine.

I have the original Avia guide to home theater. It is no longer produced. They now only make Avia II. The main difference is that the new edition is more geared toward digital HD displays. The original is designed for CRTs. Either version should be fine.