GameCube games not filling the full screen on new Sony TV?

[johnnymacwerter]

I have this persisting problem of GameCube games not filling the full screen on my new TV and no one seems to be able to give me a good explanation for it. Most people just say "I have never heard of that happening so I can not help you." This is what I know:

I live in the UK and have imported a US GameCube (and have a modified ?50 scart lead). I didn't notice any problems on my small seven year old Sony Trinitron TV (although that could only be because of the smaller screen ratio) but when we bought a brand new widescreen Sony KD32DX150U FREEVIEW Digital 32"/82cm tube (76cm visible screen size) TV I found that with each game I tried I had a slightly different problem with the image.

So far I have tried Metroid, Mario, Zelda, Rogue Leader and Spiderman on my new Sony WEGA 100 Hz TV. Rogue Leader and Spiderman show similar results, the image seems to bend in at the sides (about 2/3 of a cm) at the top left hand corner and in at the bottom right hand corner leaving black screen space where the edge of the image pulls away from the edge of the TV screen (it dose this no matter what ratio you view it in) and I have noticed that in the GameCube system menu itself the two green vertical screen positioning lines also show this bending distortion.

Metroid produces a similar result but this time the image just dips in the center at the top and bottom and Mario seems to just go up at the bottom right hand side of the image. Oddly Zelda fills the entire screen perfectly. Everyone has said that I should have no problems with an NTSC compatible TV and the setup I have.

Now comes the even more confusing part, in my frustration I decided to get a PAL Cube (and sell my US one at a later date) to put an end to all my problems. My heart sank when I plugged in the new PAL cube with the standard lead that came with it using a new PAL copy of Rogue Leader (I bought for ?9.99) and it produced exactly the same "image seems to bend in at the sides (about 2/3 of a cm) at the top left hand corner and in at the bottom right" problem! So I sent the PAL cube back and have no idea what I can do about this.

Could there be a problem with the TV if so what is the problem and what can I do about it? If anyone has experienced any of this or knows what the problem is please let me know.

[yashiro]

I have noticed that in the GameCube system menu itself the two green vertical screen positioning lines also show this bending distortion.

If the bios screens are warped then all your games will be warped.

From what you have said it sounds like the the TV has poor geometry. This is a common fault with all large CRT's. You either need an engineer to correct it or a replacement TV. If you re-read your own post you will see it's likely the TV is at fault.

[bwi]

Typical Sony crap geometry settings from factory. Thing is with normal tv broadcast going over teh edges of teh screen you never really notice the bent image until you try a console or in my case the sky digital guide. Took me 3 tvs till i was anywhere near happy then i forced an "engineer" to phone Sony to tell him how to enter the service menu.


Ten minutes later i had tv that finally had no banding, pincussion or slanted straight lines.


Bri

[marcus]

I had three 36" Sony FS-70s until I finally decided to give up and went down the plasma route where the geometry is perfect. The FS-70 was in the region of ?1500, and for that money I expected perfection. It wasnt until researching this afterwards that it became apparent that for CRTs "perfection" doesnt exist, all screens have a flaw in one way or another its a case of finding one that you are happiest to live with and sticking with it despite its flaw(s). Sonys were well known for having geometry issues, if I were you I would complain about it and ask an engineer to visit. Then there is the problem of what Sony consider to being acceptable bounds of the problem, ie in your case the amount of distortion before they will accept its not good enough.

[johnnymacwerter]

But will they not just give me $*!t for using an imported console on the TV? Do I need to ring Sony for an engineer or should I get the place we bought the TV from to ring Sony and find out about this service menu thing? Plus is the alteration relatively simple with no side effects (how do they alter it?), it's just, its my dad's TV?

[demon9k]

That really sounds like its your TV. I would be taking it back right away to get a replacement. One thing...are all these problems through the same scart socket?

[gIzzE]

the gamecube has very little overscan and this combined with the gernerally acknowleged **** geometry from sony tvs is causing the problem.

call the shop you bought it from, get them to arrange somone to come out and get it sorted out, get them to do the geometry (in wide, 4:3, smart etc.) first and then the horizontal and vertical amplitude. make sure you are happy with the settings on the geometry before they do the size and dont let them go too far with the overscan as you will be increaing the image for anything else that is 60hz.
they need to do this with both an ntsc and pal signal running as the sony has memory blocks for each.

[johnnymacwerter]

Yeah bwi I just noticed the sky digital guide after you mentioned it, so it is definitely nothing to do with my console. That has cheered me up no end. I'm not going to be able to return the TV so I will have to make do with getting an engineer to try and fix it. Have you any idea of how common a request this is? Are they going to look at me like I'm a frickin' idiot when I try to talk to them about it? Thank you all very much for your help!

[gIzzE]

every sony set I, or friends, have ever owned has had to have the geometry adjusted.

Toshiba and philips are pretty poor too, I think that you are noticing it more because the image isn't filling the whole screen, I use a dvd called Avia to set the geometry and grayscale on my tvs.
It has test grids etc so you can get pretty spot on geometry and size, as well as getting the white level (contratst) and black level (brightness) spot on.
the dvd is ntsc only but gets you almost there with Pal stuff.

[vic_viper]

Any TV engineer worth his salt will has access to a test patten generator so showing him the fault when he arrives shouldn't be a problem at all.

Just make sure that you let him know that its a geometry fault before he comes so he knows to bring it with him.

[demon9k]

Apartently if the picture is like you describe it can be caused by the earths magnetic field. 36ZD26 has its own controls for changing the geometry.

I take it you have looked through the manual?

[johnnymacwerter]

Okay, I've been into the shop and an engineer is visiting tomorrow morning. But they had never heard of the fault and seem very reluctant to enter the service menu for fear of messing the TV up!

then i forced an "engineer" to phone Sony to tell him how to enter the service menu.

Ten minutes later I had TV that finally had no banding, pincushion or slanted straight lines.

Judging by this it sounds as though he could do it regardless of his inexperience with the problem............any more advice?

[fuzzybee]

A tv engineer should know how to access the service menu on virtually all makes of tv, he should also know what he's doing so should be impossible for him/her to mess up your tv more than it already is.
Sony tv's are renowned for very poor geometry and crap factory presets, i bought a 29inch 4:3 trinitron a few years ago for gaming and found the image was stretched vertically quite significantly. I accessed the service menu myself and corrected the problem, the service menu will probabbly be the same combination of buttons presses on all Sony tv's.
Make sure he doesn't leave until the problem is solved, if your not happy with it after he has adjusted it demand a new tv or even better a refund and buy a Toshiba(they do make the best CRT's at the moment)
No CRT is perfect and have problems with geometry in some form or another from my experience Sony are the worst by far. I will never buy anything from Sony again in AV form as i have had nothing but trouble with them.
Their AV gear is also very average and underspeced in comparison to it's rivals especially in the CRT department.