How To Fix Underscan in ATI's Catalyst Control Center
Posted on 3rd Mar 2010 at 09:53 by Clive Webster with 25 comments
I've just updated my graphics driver to Catalyst 10.2, and it doesn't seem to know what a 1080p screen is... The screen is being underscanned, so there's a huge black border around the displayed image. There's a way to fix the issue, but it's hardly easy.
The reason for the update is my Windows 7 RC install was timing out, and given this and that there are so many 1080p screens on the market at the moment, I'd guess quite a few people are in the same boat as me. The issue is that (and I don't know why) CCC underscans many screen resolutions by default - usually the resolutions of TVs, such as 1,920 x 1,080. It seems no-one's told the Catalyst driver team that most new PC monitors use this resolution these days.
The fix to the underscanning issue is buried in CCC, but bit-tech is here to help! Step one is to open CCC in Advanced mode, and then go to the Desktops & Displays menu (use the drop-down in the top-left)
Now you need to open the menu for the screen that's being underscanned. However, there are two images of each screen on this page, each with their own drop-down menu. The drop-down of the large screen has different options to that of the smaller screen, and lacks the crucial 'Configure' option we're looking for. Well done on making things simple, ATI.
Once you've navigated the labyrinthine route to the screen configuration menu, you need to click the Scaling Options tab and you'll see a slider. Slide this around until your picture fills all of your screen. You may want to go to the Attributes tab to enable GPU scaling, as this will (I presume) mean that your CPU won't be burdened with the overscanning.
At the moment, I'm not sure if this is an issue with the HDMI output in particular - I've had a similar experience with my media PC, which outputs over HDMI. Therefore, I hand the discussion over to you - if you've updated your Catalyst driver lately, tell us whether you had a similar underscanning issue or not. Please include the Catalyst version you updated to, your screen resolution and the connection type and we'll see how general or specific the issue is.
The reason for the update is my Windows 7 RC install was timing out, and given this and that there are so many 1080p screens on the market at the moment, I'd guess quite a few people are in the same boat as me. The issue is that (and I don't know why) CCC underscans many screen resolutions by default - usually the resolutions of TVs, such as 1,920 x 1,080. It seems no-one's told the Catalyst driver team that most new PC monitors use this resolution these days.
The fix to the underscanning issue is buried in CCC, but bit-tech is here to help! Step one is to open CCC in Advanced mode, and then go to the Desktops & Displays menu (use the drop-down in the top-left)
Now you need to open the menu for the screen that's being underscanned. However, there are two images of each screen on this page, each with their own drop-down menu. The drop-down of the large screen has different options to that of the smaller screen, and lacks the crucial 'Configure' option we're looking for. Well done on making things simple, ATI.
Once you've navigated the labyrinthine route to the screen configuration menu, you need to click the Scaling Options tab and you'll see a slider. Slide this around until your picture fills all of your screen. You may want to go to the Attributes tab to enable GPU scaling, as this will (I presume) mean that your CPU won't be burdened with the overscanning.
At the moment, I'm not sure if this is an issue with the HDMI output in particular - I've had a similar experience with my media PC, which outputs over HDMI. Therefore, I hand the discussion over to you - if you've updated your Catalyst driver lately, tell us whether you had a similar underscanning issue or not. Please include the Catalyst version you updated to, your screen resolution and the connection type and we'll see how general or specific the issue is.
25 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyI'm surprised that noone with clout has contacted ATi regarding this behaviour. Maybe someone at, say bit-tech, could do it... :)
Desktop size is pixelprecise, some games give a smaller picture though.
I had to go hunting for ages to find the scaling options in the CCC. But even then it's not a 100% perfect fit as there is still a tiny tiny amount of overscan. It's fine as I only watch movies on the TV. But I know it's there and it annoys me something rotten!
I've never had underscan from ATi hardware via either DVI or VGA, it seems like it's an HDMI thing rather than a specific ATi problem. What was interesting is that my nVidia Ion HTPC had the opposite problem - ridiculous amounts of overscan; that was fixed with the same option on the TV.
Have had this with both Vista and Windows 7.
yeah, the CCC is too complicated, just a plain driver would suffice for most.
But if you do feed to a TV, using CCC is easier than just the driver.
The CCC is a mess. They need to organise the menus to make everything a lot clearer and not hide important options in submenus of submenus!
I were so frustrated and angry I couldn´t find this option in catalyst.
Sure it works flawless for some, but for a lot of people catalyst is doing this all the time. I have a 23" monitor with 2048x1152 resolution + a 1080p projector connected to a ATI 5750 and I have this problem every time I´m updating catalyst.
With Nvidia I never had any issues like this, but then again, I don´t want to use an Nvidiacard so I´ll guess I have to live with the fact I must follow this guide every time I´m updating catalyst.
I already updated to the most recent CCC version 10.3 for windows 7 64 bit.
Ever since I upgraded to windows 7 from vista, the black border problem occurred(not full screen via HDMI).
I used a DELL XPS 16 HD Mobiliti Radeon 4670(an epic laptop by the way).
THANK YOU CLIVE WEBSTER
You can find older versions here if that helps.
EXCEPT one issue with my Samsung Syncmaster P2770HD, that I had to fix, too. When connecting a PC via HDMI with the Syncmaster, the picture quality is the opposite of sharp and colors are oversaturated. This can be fixed.
To do so, press MENU on your remote, hover to INPUT and choose EDIT NAME. Then move to HDMI - another menu will appear to the right. Choose PC and it's done. I believe this works with other Syncmater models as well.
Best,
El Pix