Ever seen a red horiz line in std def recordings

[stevech]

Starting two days ago, some channels I record have a bold red strip horizontally at the bottom of the screen. Only some - like Discovery and FoodTV. Don't see it on off-the-air viewing, or it's off-screen. It is there if I use SageTV's watch live tv. So it's like the tuner (Hauppauge PVR USB2) is adding the line but only for certain channels' signal characteristics.

I guess I will try exiting the Sage v5 app and power cycling the tuner, then restart.

Any other ideas?

[ke6guj]

It's most likely something that is normally hidden in the overscan that most TVs have. Normally the broadcast picture is oversized, 5-10% of the picture is too large to be seen. In Sage, we have the ability to adjut the overscan of the picture to perfectly fit our screen, and that is when stuff like you saw, or a choppy white line at the top of the screen for the Closed captioning data.

Try to increase your Aspect ratio settings up a couple of points or the offset to hide the red line. Its probably only a couple pixels wide, correct?

[stevech]

it's about 4 lines thick

I should not need to adjust the overscan. The red lines at the bottom of the frame are only on some channels, only recently appeared, only when using the Hauppauge, etc.

[ke6guj]

if it is only 4 lines at the bottom of the screen, it could be there in the broadcast stream from the cable company. I've seen artifacts like that on the top, bottom, or sides of the picture. You just normally don't see it on a regular TV.

Do you only have the hauppauge USB2? any other analog tuners in Sage?

What I am guessing is one your Sage setup, that the viewable picture while watching Sage actually shows more of the actual broadcast stream than when watching live TV.. When watching real live tv direct from the CC, the TV overscans the edges of the broadcast beyond the edges of the TV so you don't see the red line.

I'm not saying that your USB2 isn't defective or anything, it may be since it jsut started happening. Its just more likely that the CC may have adjusted it broadcast settings and now you are seeing it. THose 4 lines you see would never be seen on a regular tv since it would be lost in the 5-10% of built-in overscan that TV's have. With Sage, you can adjust it so that you get the "entire" picture if you want, but sometimes stuff like the CC data stream will be visable. Just adjust the aspect ratio slightly to push the bad stuff off screen.

[stevech]

I'll check some more. I thought the vertical interval data was in the first few lines of each field, not the last few lines. And solid red would be odd.

I don't think it's being broadcast, after careful consideration.

I have only the Hauppauge PVR USB2.

I haven't yet tried to reboot it - too much recording going on.

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by stevech

I'll check some more. I thought the vertical interval data was in the first few lines of each field, not the last few lines. And solid red would be odd.

I've seen weird lines on the left edge, top, and bottom. It just depends on how good the video fits the broadcast stream. Slight issues with color lines aren't normally a problem since normal TVs hide 5-10% of the picture in the overscan. I've seen green and white lines in the past, but not red. Since I have my aspect ratios set to hid the edges, I may be getting red lines, but I never see them.

I don't think it's being broadcast, after careful consideration.

How would you know? Your normal TV viewing isn't gonna show the entire broadcast, so that red line could be there and be hidden off-screen.

I have only the Hauppauge PVR USB2.

Without any hardware, you won't be able to tell if it is the tuner or the broadcast. It could be the tuner, but artifacts like that are common, and can be adjusted out.

What do you have your aspect ratio set at? Do you see more of the edges of the broadcast in Sage vs. watching direct from the wall? If you see more of the edge, then your aspect ratio in Sage doesn't match the amount of overscan that your TV does with normal cable.

If you aspect ratio is set to something like 100%, try to bump it up a couple of points and see if you can move the line off-screen. Or just bump the offset down a couple points to move the entire video downwards to move the line off-screen.