Neo Geo Overscan Area?

Tempest

Ninja Combat Warrior
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Can someone here answer this question for me? Why is it that the Neo Geo always seems to want to display off the edges screen on my TV? For example, the status bars on many fighting games (such as KOF) are slightly cut off on the sides of the screen, and the screen extends even beyond that a bit. To see the whole screen I have to seriously adjust the overscan area to such an extreme that it makes all my other systems look pretty bad (although the Genesis seems to have similar issues, but not as bad as the Neo Geo).

Is this just the way the Neo Geo is or can it be adjusted somehow? Thankfully I have an underscan button on my PVM that I can use for the Neo Geo, but I'd really like to use it with my big old TV instead. I'm using a CMVS unit if that matters any.
 
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Tempest

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No one? I assume it's just because the Neo Geo uses a different resolution than most other systems due to its arcade roots.
 

GohanX

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That's pretty much how things worked on a CRT. Everything overscanned, and never to the same point. If you adjust everything perfectly for one system another system will be off. If something was designed well, there shouldn't be any important information close to the edge of the screen since you couldn't tell how much any given screen would overscan, but in practice several games have things stuck too close to the edge. Arcade and computer monitors get around this by having easy sizing controls most of the time, but with TV sets it's hidden in service menus and isn't as easily changed.
 
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Tempest

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That's pretty much how things worked on a CRT. Everything overscanned, and never to the same point. If you adjust everything perfectly for one system another system will be off. If something was designed well, there shouldn't be any important information close to the edge of the screen since you couldn't tell how much any given screen would overscan, but in practice several games have things stuck too close to the edge. Arcade and computer monitors get around this by having easy sizing controls most of the time, but with TV sets it's hidden in service menus and isn't as easily changed.
That I know, but the Neo Geo seems to be way different than every other system I have (although the Genesis comes close). I was just curious as to why the Neo Geo is so far out of spec.
 

RAZO

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That I know, but the Neo Geo seems to be way different than every other system I have (although the Genesis comes close). I was just curious as to why the Neo Geo is so far out of spec.

Some monitors are different. I notice that switching between consoles sometimes things are slightly off but never to the point were I have to adjust the screen. That's on my PVM.

On my Sony Gdm Monitor when switching, I have to adjust the screen settings more often because sometimes the screen is way off. The Gdm mainly stays hooked up to my Supergun with Cps2 multi anyways so I'm not messing with it too often.
 

Tempest

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Some monitors are different. I notice that switching between consoles sometimes things are slightly off but never to the point were I have to adjust the screen. That's on my PVM.
That interesting. On my PVM I had it adjusted to where all my systems (SNES, NES, Saturn, TG-16, SMS, PSX, PS2, etc.) filled the screen. However the Genesis was a little cut off by a few millimeters and the Neo Geo was was cut off by a good half inch or more. I had to use the underscan button to get the whole screen to show.
 

RAZO

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That interesting. On my PVM I had it adjusted to where all my systems (SNES, NES, Saturn, TG-16, SMS, PSX, PS2, etc.) filled the screen. However the Genesis was a little cut off by a few millimeters and the Neo Geo was was cut off by a good half inch or more. I had to use the underscan button to get the whole screen to show.

Yea, I dont have that issue. Switching from NES to Neo Geo to Genesis I dont have to touch anything. Like you said, there might be something off by millimetres but nothing major.
 

Tempest

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Yea, I dont have that issue. Switching from NES to Neo Geo to Genesis I dont have to touch anything. Like you said, there might be something off by millimetres but nothing major.

The Neo Geo was pretty bad on mine. Like I said, you had everything to the right and left of the life bars (including much of the character name) cut off in most fighting games like KoF. I guess every PVM is different.
 

Neo Alec

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The Neo Geo is not really any worse an offender than other systems. All systems had funky stuff in the overscan areas that was sometimes visible. It was a reality of the CRT days that most people just ignored.

The Neo Geo uses sprites to draw the background. Earlier games with four-directional scrolling sometimes had really noticeable draw-in at the edges of the screen. Noticeable on modern TVs, that is.
 
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