In article ,
Don Pearce wrote:
I think the overscanning thing is just manufacturers making sure you
never see a black edge anywhere - picture all the way to the edges. It
also slightly ameliorates the effects of letterboxing. You lose a load
of picture, of course - but who's counting? You should be able to
shrink the picture a bit by upping the EHT - care to try? ;-)

It's more, as Jim says, to make the picture look as 'large' as possible
in the showroom. It's been common practice to overscan sets since day one.

As for picture quality generally - particularly gamma, I think there
is a combination of things going on. The modern high-brightness
phosphors do seem to have rather strange gamma curves, which
presumably can't be corrected terribly effectively. And I'm sorry to
say, I think that QC in the broadcast business isn't what it should
be, particularly with the number of hops it takes a signal to get from
a studio to you. Blacks and peak whites get squashed and can't be
recovered.

I can't see why the phosphors would have any effect on the gamma. But
you've got to remember that plenty of programmes are very variable as
recorded. Black level and the detail in the blacks is perhaps the most
difficult thing to maintain throughout the chain.

--
*If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? *

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn