TV Screen Edge woes: 2 Fixes

[NexusDude]

.   The edges of the Pine64's screen aren't showing on your TV. It's as if you are zoomed in.

    Let's fix that, shall we?

    Method 1: Settings of your TV 
    You can adjust the settings of your TV. You may have already tried that. Can it be done on
    your TV, you wonder? In most cases, yes, it can.

    Which menu and sub-menu?
    There's no standard method of organizing the settings of TVs. Many TV settings menus
    appear to have been designed by confused rabbits running late. Poke around, and definitely
    try these menus and sub-menus:

• Picture
  
• Video
  
• Advanced Video
  
• Screen
  
• Screen Adjustment
  
• Picture Size
  
• or who knows, just try exploring...
  

    What is the item called?
    Look for any of these.

• Overscan
  
• Scan
  
• Screen Fit
  
• Screen Fill
  
• Format
  
• Title Safe / Safe Title
  
• Action Safe / Safe Action
  
• TV safe
  
• Aspect Ratio*
  
• Resolution*
  
• Size*
  
• Wide / Width*
  
• High / Height*
  

   *Some RPi users report using these items to correct this issue on their TVs. It may be 
    necessary with your TV, but I'd avoid it if I could.

    What is the correct setting?
    The correct option could be:

• Just scan
  
• Dot by Dot
  
• Fit
  
• Off / uncheck (for Overscan)
  
• 1x1 pixel ratio
  
• Full
  
• Auto / Auto Config
  
• On / check
  
• 4:3 (or even 16:9) *
  
• 1080p / 1080i *
  
• or other options (experiment)
  

    Put in a little time and effort. Check all the sub-menus. Even if you can't find it right
    away, it's probably there, somewhere. Look again.

    Succeed with method 1, and the issue is fixed for that TV, even if you later use a different
    OS image. Plus, it fixes this for Android, RemixOS and Linux. But will it affect your other
    uses of the TV, like, say watching? It might.

---

    Method 2: Settings of Android -- Screen Scrap Edge
    Here's another option that works only for Android using HDMI. Both DD images and rooted
    DD images can use this method. RemixOS cannot.

    Go to Settings / Display / Screen scrap edge. Set width and height to ~96%.

    With Screen Scrap Edge, you must apply this fix every time you change the Android image.
    That is, if you upgrade to a new Android image, then you have to do this over again. But it
    wasn't that hard, was it?

---

    Don't use both methods, unless you want a black frame of unused space.


    I hope this helps.     Don't forget to give this a thumbs up, if it helps you, and definitely 
    add your own TV settings experience below.

[Ghost]

Your TV isn't showing the edges of the Pine64's Android screen, and that's vexing.   
    Android is unusable, or nearly so. Let's fix that, shall we?

    Method 1: Settings of your TV 
    You can adjust the settings of your TV.  You may have already tried and failed. Can it be done?

    Which menu and sub-menu?
    There's no standard method of organizing the settings of TVs. Many TV settings seem to 
    have been organized by confused rabbits running late. However, you should definitely try 
    these menus and sub-menus:

• Picture
  
• Video
  
• Advanced Video
  
• Screen
  
• Screen Adjustment
  
• Picture Size
  
• or who knows...
  

    What is it called?
    Look for any of these. The menu item could even be something else:

• Overscan
  
• Scan
  
• Screen Fit
  
• Screen Fill
  
• Format
  
• Title Safe / Safe Title
  
• Action Safe / Safe Action
  
• TV safe
  
• Aspect Ratio*
  
• Resolution*
  
• Size*
  
• Wide / Width*
  
• High / Height*
  

    *But avoid messing with these settings, if you can help it.

    What is the correct setting?
    The correct option could be:

• Just scan
  
• Dot by Dot
  
• 1x1 pixel ratio
  
• Full
  
• Fit
  
• Off / uncheck (for Overscan)
  
• On / check (if Underscan is an option)
  
• 4:3 (or even 16:9) *
  
• 1080p / 1080i *
  
• Auto / Auto Config
  
• or other options (experiment)
  

    So, expect to put in a little time and effort. Check all the sub-menus, and anything that could
    be a sub-menu, if you can't find it right away. It's probably there, somewhere, so look again.

    Method 2: Settings of Android
    If the above method doesn't work, or isn't ideal for you, here's a different way. (Using both
    methods, or going overboard with this one, would put a black frame around the edge of
    your TV screen.)

    In Android, go to Settings / Display / Screen scrap edge. Set width and height to ~96%.

    This method works on rooted Android 5.1.1 HDMI 20160505, found here. It does NOT work
    on RemixOS (yet, anyway), nor on Linux, OpenHab, etc. It's only for Android. I haven't 
    confirmed it to work on unrooted Android, but it probably does.

    Apply this fix every time you change to a different image of Android.

    I hope this helps. 

Thanks, NexusDude. I will sticky this.

[Luke]

Yup, great post. Will fwd people asking about overscan here in the future +1

[gbjensen]

Yup, great post. Will fwd people asking about overscan here in the future +1

It helped me, I had to adjust the setting for my "Logic" TV used for my initial testing of the Pine. My Philips TV did not require any configuration changes.

[phloog]

I had read somewhere (here?) that the RemixOS folks were working on resolving this. But I also seem to recall it was months back, so they may have declared defeat...?

So here's an odd question, and forgive me it's answered somewhere I missed....is this issue present for ALL displays? Most notably, does it occur on the actual touchscreen sold by Pine64?

I'll likely just live with it, because I'm not sure that my main TV can adjust ONE HDMI input separately from the rest - - you would HOPE that it would, but I'm always amazed by how many features my very expensive TV does NOT have.

[Ghost]

I had read somewhere (here?) that the RemixOS folks were working on resolving this.  But I also seem to recall it was months back, so they may have declared defeat...?

So here's an odd question, and forgive me it's answered somewhere I missed....is this issue present for ALL displays?  Most notably, does it occur on the actual touchscreen sold by Pine64?

I'll likely just live with it, because I'm not sure that my main TV can adjust ONE HDMI input separately from the rest - - you would HOPE that it would, but I'm always amazed by how many features my very expensive TV does NOT have.

The Pine64 touchscreen uses its own special Android image. And Android is currently the only OS that supports the touchscreen. Hopefully this will change in the future. But my guess would be that this overscan thing is not an issue with the 1024 x 600 LCD touchscreen because the image is specifically designed with it in mind.

As for other TVs and monitors, I think the answer is basically the same as that regarding using DVI and VGA adapters. Some work and some don't. 

My TV has the overscan issue and no way to fix it that I can find. Whereas my monitor displays everything just fine.

Wouldn't like to use the word 'random' exactly, but certain screens have no issue, others do.

Edit: my monitor lets me save settings on a device by device basis. My TV does not.

[84thProblem]

.   The edges of the Pine64's screen aren't showing on your TV. It's as if you are zoomed in.

    Let's fix that, shall we?

    Method 1: Settings of your TV 
    You can adjust the settings of your TV. You may have already tried that. Can it be done on
    your TV, you wonder? Yes, it can.

    Which menu and sub-menu?
    There's no standard method of organizing the settings of TVs. Many TV settings menus
    appear to have been created by confused rabbits running late. Poke around, and definitely
    try these menus and sub-menus:

• Picture
  
• Video
  
• Advanced Video
  
• Screen
  
• Screen Adjustment
  
• Picture Size
  
• or who knows...
  

    What is the item called?
    Look for any of these.

• Overscan
  
• Scan
  
• Screen Fit
  
• Screen Fill
  
• Format
  
• Title Safe / Safe Title
  
• Action Safe / Safe Action
  
• TV safe
  
• Aspect Ratio*
  
• Resolution*
  
• Size*
  
• Wide / Width*
  
• High / Height*
  

   *Some RPi users report using these items to correct this issue on their TVs. It may be 
    necessary with your TV, but I'd avoid it if I could.

    What is the correct setting?
    The correct option could be:

• Just scan
  
• Dot by Dot
  
• Fit
  
• Off / uncheck (for Overscan)
  
• 1x1 pixel ratio
  
• Full
  
• Auto / Auto Config
  
• On / check
  
• 4:3 (or even 16:9) *
  
• 1080p / 1080i *
  
• or other options (experiment)
  

    Put in a little time and effort. Check all the sub-menus, and anything that could be a
    sub-menu. Even if you can't find it right away, it's probably there, somewhere. Look again.

    Succeed with method 1, and the issue is fixed for that TV, even if you later upgrade to
    a new OS image. Plus, it fixes this for Android, RemixOS and Linux. But will it affect your
    other uses of the TV? Maybe.

---

    Method 2: Settings of Android -- Screen Scrap Edge
    If the above method doesn't work, or isn't ideal for you, here's a different way that works
    only for Android using HDMI. Both DD images and rooted DD images can do this.

    In Android, go to Settings / Display / Screen scrap edge. Set width and height to ~96%.

    RemixOS does not have this setting, so you're limited to adjusting your TV settings for Remix
    (or Linux).

    With Screen Scrap Edge, you must apply this fix every time you change the Android image.
    That is, if another Android image comes out in a month, and you upgrade to it, then you 
    have to do this over again.

---

    Don't use both methods, unless you want a black frame of unused space.


    I hope this helps.     Don't forget to give this a thumbs up, if it helps you, and definitely 
    add your own TV settings experience below.

Awesome!  Method 2 (scrap edge settings) worked for me on my old TV!

[NexusDude]

It helped me, I had to adjust the setting for my "Logic" TV used for my initial testing of the Pine. My Philips TV did not require any configuration changes.

That's great, and good to know about the TVs.

For a (BestBuy) Dynex TV, I had to change the Overscan setting to Off). It was in the Advanced Video submenu of the Picture settings. In Linux, I really suffered with all the edges hidden, until I found that setting. I'd looked for it a couple times before I finally found it.

Android wasn't so bad, since pretty quickly, I managed to find method 2.

That experience made me decide to do a little research for other menu settings, to write the OP.

---

I'll likely just live with it, because I'm not sure that my main TV can adjust ONE HDMI input separately from the rest - - you would HOPE that it would, but I'm always amazed by how many features my very expensive TV does NOT have.

On my fairly cheap, BestBuy store-brand TV (Dynex), Overscan had been cutting off the borders of everything. So turning it off meant that everything improved -- Pine/Linux, Pine/Android, Netflix, Amazon, everything. 


This message sent from Pine 64+, running Firefox (IceWeasel) on Debian-XFCE, and later edited from Pine 64+ using Chrome on Android Lollipop.

[Spaghetti Monster]

had that to with my LG fullled tv.
go to screen settings and set it to just scan, solves it too.

[tomarneson]

Is there a software fix for Linux? I have the Basic Pine A64.