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I'm going to start with the problem statement:

My TV over HDMI cuts edges of the picture.

Obviously, most of these problems I have found in the search, point to the cable... But I don't think this is the case.

Cable: EVOLVEO XXtremeCord 3 meters, direct link to manufacturer web site.

  • type: HDMI
  • version: 2.0b
  • specifically mentioning
  • UltraHD resolution support
  • HDR capability
  • way too much other information concluding it should be of superior quality

^^^ The cable IMHO is not the culprit, moving on...

Then, my natural reasoning was either my graphics card is doing it, or more likely the TV itself.

So, the GPUs, my laptop is Dell with service tag ==REMOVED==:

  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB GDDR5 memory which, Max-Q Design
    ^^^ This, once again, IMHO is not likely the problem. Since you can scroll down on the page, and see to Full Specs, and verify Standard Display Connectors including HDMI 2.0b.
  • The integrated GPU I don't use that I know of, none-the-less, Intel i7-7700HQ has Intel HD Graphics 630
    ^^^ this should also not be the problem, but I am stating it, for this question to be complete

^^^ Both of these GPUs should be just fine, but I believe, only the NVIDIA is actually in use for the TV.

The operating systems I use:

  • Windows 10 Pro (1903)
  • Linux Mint 19.2 Cinnamon

^^^ The picture resolution and refresh rates are the same on both. The only difference is I can enable HDR only on Windows, but this question is not about that.

The TV itself is not exactly Smart as it has only some basic functionality:

Vlastimil Burián
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    I wonder what could have possibly pointed you towards the cable. – jcaron Aug 23 '19 at 15:35
  • @jcaron HDMI 1.4 which to date is standard does not support UHD, nor HDR, and there are plenty of things which could go wrong with not using correct one. – Vlastimil Burián Aug 23 '19 at 15:37
  • A cable issue would lead to problems a lot more visible than a few missing pixels... – jcaron Aug 23 '19 at 15:46
  • I tweaked the title a bit - I found this listed as just a title on hot questions & it sounded odd. – Tetsujin Aug 23 '19 at 16:49
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    That's just the nonsense of **overscan** that apparently TV manufacturers do. – Martin Ueding Aug 24 '19 at 08:00
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    Does this answer your question? [Why won't my taskbar display on my secondary monitor? (Windows 10)](https://superuser.com/questions/961665/why-wont-my-taskbar-display-on-my-secondary-monitor-windows-10) – phuclv Dec 23 '19 at 04:09

2 Answers2

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I know you have answered your own question. But in case others don't have the same setting on their TV, but are still getting the image cropped all round, I'll leave this answer.

My TV, an 8 year old Panasonic, has what it calls "Picture Overscan" where a small number of pixels, maybe 20 or so, are cropped off all round. Irritatingly enough, this is often just enough to hide a lot of the task bar in Windows. There is an option on my TV's settings menu to turn this feature off. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overscan for more info.

Nick
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    Yeah, was just going to add a comment - most TVs do Overscan because for decades back in the analog days, there would be data transmirtted in the top few lines of the picture, which of course you never want to see. idk why they still hang onto it as a default, but they do. Many TVs have a specific "computer monitor" input, which ought to [if correctly implemented] do away with the overscan & do pixel to pixel instead. – Tetsujin Aug 22 '19 at 15:57
  • Would have mentioned the VGA input on my TV, but for some bizarre reason it only supports 1366x768 pixels while the HDMI port supports 1920x1080 pixels (with overscan turned off). Said my TV was old! – Nick Aug 22 '19 at 16:12
  • Mine is actually older! It doesn't have VGA, only SCART [old school] & HDMI. It can be 'told' one input is a puter, though & will behave accordingly. – Tetsujin Aug 23 '19 at 15:52
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    I'm gonna copy this link up here too, just in case people miss it below, for the whole gamut of *'why my TV is weird when wired to my puter' *;) …It's even more fun if you find it does Pixel Orbiting too - https://superuser.com/questions/1217747/philips-brilliance-monitor-periodically-shifts-screen-by-2-pixels-and-cuts-off-s/1217994#1217994 – Tetsujin Aug 23 '19 at 15:58
  • @Tetsujin is actually goes farther back than that. CRT TVs were typically adjusted to run the picture out all the way to the bezel, and since perfect alignment wasn't practical they typically would extend the image beyond it to use part of the glass hidden behind the bezel. It was because the top/bottom most scan lines were never shown that they were available to be repurposed for metadata later. – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Aug 23 '19 at 19:12
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    The explanation I've seen for why it's still done is a combination of tv producers never putting anything of value in the overscan areas so that anything you'd seen before would look wrong if they were shown, and claims that in a/b testing of otherwise identical displays the one that did overscan and thus had everything shown on it bigger would get better reviews from the average consumer. – Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight Aug 23 '19 at 19:12
  • At least in some cases, I believe there is a way to configure the GPU output to deal with the overscan on its end (if e.g. the TV is old enough that it doesn't have a setting turn it off). I remember doing this with a raspberry pi but I don't remember exactly how... – mbrig Aug 23 '19 at 19:31
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It turned out, there is a setting I have never needed in this TV:

Changhong Chiq UHD43E6000ISN

It was the Aspect Ratio = PTP (Pixel-To-Pixel? Feel free to comment, if you found a link to wiki or something, I did not). Selecting this option instead of 16:9 or Auto, fixed the problem.

Original picture, Aspect Ratio 16:9, cropped

16:9 Aspect Ratio

After-Fix picture, Aspect Ratio PTP, not cropped

PTP Aspect Ratio

Hope you find this useful if running to the same problem.

Credits

I used this SVG for the test:

The Indian-head test pattern:

Vlastimil Burián
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  • It's even more fun if you find it does Pixel Orbiting too - https://superuser.com/questions/1217747/philips-brilliance-monitor-periodically-shifts-screen-by-2-pixels-and-cuts-off-s/1217994#1217994 – Tetsujin Aug 22 '19 at 15:53
  • For reference - I suspect that there's a handful of 'common' slightly smarter than dumb chips for these TVs/low end monitors. My crossover branded monitor calls this Point to Point, and if you're running it in native resolution this is *always* the best option – Journeyman Geek Aug 25 '19 at 06:22