DVDs have dashes at top of screen when playing on blu ray player?

[Mikemovies]

I'm still buying some DVDs, mostly old documentaries that will never make it to blu ray. Right now, I am on a boxing kick, for example.

I wonder if someone could help me solve an issue/concern please? It comes when I play them on a blu ray player.

A few DVDs, not all, I pop in to my Oppo (and my Panny too) have dashes across the very top of the screen, and sometimes something across the bottom, but mostly the top. Please see 4 screenshots I attached.

Is that indicative of a wrong setting on my blu ray players, perhaps related to playing DVDs, or is that simply the now very old DVD technology of those discs not being completely compatible with modern blu ray players?

It's not awful, but a bit annoying. Sometimes I zoom in a bit to get rid of them but in a perfect world I'd rather resolve the issue.

Thanks!
ML

[AllOuttaBubbleGum]

Originally Posted by Mikemovies

I'm still buying some DVDs, mostly old documentaries that will never make it to blu ray. Right now, I am on a boxing kick, for example.

I wonder if someone could help me solve an issue/concern please? It comes when I play them on a blu ray player.

A few DVDs, not all, I pop in to my Oppo (and my Panny too) have dashes across the very top of the screen, and sometimes something across the bottom, but mostly the top. Please see 4 screenshots I attached.

Is that indicative of a wrong setting on my blu ray players, perhaps related to playing DVDs, or is that simply the now very old DVD technology of those discs not being completely compatible with modern blu ray players?

It's not awful, but a bit annoying. Sometimes I zoom in a bit to get rid of them but in a perfect world I'd rather resolve the issue.

Thanks!
ML

I remember they had something to do with being able to view area of a video image that would generally be hidden by over-scan, but I never knew their function. If they're a distraction, zooming to hide them is a good solution, especially since it doesn't look like you'd be cropping the image itself.

I found this:

"These lines are like barcodes embedded in the picture. Closed captioning, teletext and programming guide information is represented by these white lines. Your TV can interpret them and display the information in a format that you can read."

https://brokensecrets.com/2010/08/20/oversca/

..

[Mikemovies]

Wow, AllOuttaBubbleGum, thank you so much for responding and for the info!

[AllOuttaBubbleGum]

Originally Posted by Mikemovies

Wow, AllOuttaBubbleGum, thank you so much for responding and for the info!

Happy to help. I always wondered about those pesky dashes, too; I was kind of shocked that site had an entry about them.

[Mikemovies]

That site says I may be able to resolve it with the 'just scan' setting on my TV (LG oled). That's exactly what I was hoping for, just a simple setting on my TV.
BUT I will fiddle with it and make sure I am not fixing that but hurting the experience with other stuff.
Thanks again! Best regards to you.

[AllOuttaBubbleGum]

Originally Posted by Mikemovies

That site says I may be able to resolve it with the 'just scan' setting on my TV (LG oled). That's exactly what I was hoping for, just a simple setting on my TV.
BUT I will fiddle with it and make sure I am not fixing that but hurting the experience with other stuff.
Thanks again! Best regards to you.

You're welcome, no trouble at all.

FYI:

'Just Scan' tends to reveal the maximum amount of picture information, which will probably include those lines.

My LG has a mode called "set by program" that provides a fixed, small amount of zoom that might do the trick. For certain formats, 16:9 will also provide the same result.

If those don't work, if your LG has "Cinema Zoom," it allows for incremental zooming-in while preserving the aspect ratio; you might be able to notch away at the peripheral area until the lines are gone and your image fills the screen better. If your LG's like my units, you should then be able to simply click back to your default mode without altering anything else.

Edit:

One more thing, if you're looking at DVDs via an analog connector--not through an HDMI cable--you could probably solve your problem by choosing the standard "Zoom" option in 'aspect ratio'; that will expand your image to the sides of the screen (based on your photos). If your LG Zoom mode functions the way mine does, you could then click right twice while in the Zoom menu and that will remove the slightly scrunched look, expand the vertical image size slightly and push your lines off the top of the viewable area. As with the other modes, you could simply click back to your original setting in the aspect ratio menu when finished with the content with the issue.

..

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Mikemovies

That site says I may be able to resolve it with the 'just scan' setting on my TV (LG oled). That's exactly what I was hoping for, just a simple setting on my TV.

You can just toggle the Just Scan option on/off when watching content with the lines.

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by Mikemovies

I'm still buying some DVDs, mostly old documentaries that will never make it to blu ray. Right now, I am on a boxing kick, for example.

I wonder if someone could help me solve an issue/concern please? It comes when I play them on a blu ray player.

A few DVDs, not all, I pop in to my Oppo (and my Panny too) have dashes across the very top of the screen, and sometimes something across the bottom, but mostly the top. Please see 4 screenshots I attached.

Is that indicative of a wrong setting on my blu ray players, perhaps related to playing DVDs, or is that simply the now very old DVD technology of those discs not being completely compatible with modern blu ray players?

It's not awful, but a bit annoying. Sometimes I zoom in a bit to get rid of them but in a perfect world I'd rather resolve the issue.

Thanks!
ML

Those dashes are the closed captioning. When DVD-Video first came out, many people were still using analog television sets, so many discs were authored with the same closed captioning that would have been found on normal television broadcasts, videotapes and LaserDiscs. This allowed closed captions to be displayed from these discs through the closed caption decoder built into the television set, or an external decoder if the television set did not have one built in. The screens of analog television sets are not tall enough to display the top of the signal that contains the closed captioning dashes. One could have also chosen to use the digital subtitle stream if present on these discs. High-definition and later formats (Blu-ray, HD DVD, etc.) do not contain closed captioning as these are expected to be played through a modern digital display as opposed to an analog television set.

[Mikemovies]

BijouMan, That's all very interesting! Thank you.

I do feel a bit better that all this means there's nothing wrong with a lot of my discs.

And yes there's a few ways I can get them off the screen. I just was curious why they were there and if it meant I had a setting wrong on my player or TV.

[Jodi]

Originally Posted by AllOuttaBubbleGum

I remember they had something to do with being able to view area of a video image that would generally be hidden by over-scan, but I never knew their function. If they're a distraction, zooming to hide them is a good solution, especially since it doesn't look like you'd be cropping the image itself.

I found this:

"These lines are like barcodes embedded in the picture. Closed captioning, teletext and programming guide information is represented by these white lines. Your TV can interpret them and display the information in a format that you can read."

https://brokensecrets.com/2010/08/20/oversca/

..

I love your explanation. I've heard of this lots and lots of times. Although I never experience them myself in my set-up, I do know that those "lines" are what I like to call "metadata" for the CC, program information, etc.

Oh, and about your "handle" -- you better go out and get you some more bubble gum!!!

[Jason One]

Just to note, it's not normal for these lines to be visible, even if your TV is set for zero overscan. The lines are supposed to reside in the "vertical blanking interval" area before the active (visible) picture begins.

So, if you're seeing these, it means the particular DVD has been incorrectly mastered or encoded.

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by Jason One

Just to note, it's not normal for these lines to be visible, even if your TV is set for zero overscan. The lines are supposed to reside in the "vertical blanking interval" area before the active (visible) picture begins.

So, if you're seeing these, it means the particular DVD has been incorrectly mastered or encoded.

If you are using a modern display, it will show the entire frame with all 480 horizontal lines. The display will not cut off any part of the signal, unlike an analog television set. Any disc authored with closed captioning will appear like this.

[Jason One]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

If you are using a modern display, it will show the entire frame with all 720 horizontal lines. The display will not cut off any part of the signal, unlike an analog television set. Any disc authored with closed captioning will appear like this.

Disagree. As I said, there are scanlines beyond the 480 active/visible ones. Closed caption data should reside before the first visible pixel row.

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by Jason One

Disagree. As I said, there are scanlines beyond the 720 active/visible ones. Closed caption data should reside before the first visible pixel row.

The video on these discs is literally 720 x 480i MPEG2 video and the display would not want to cut off any of it, since instead of closed captioning there could be actual video up there. The video stream does not contain any pixels beyond that. An analog NTSC signal has 525 horizontal lines, 45 more than the 480 on the disc that are going to the display.

[Jason One]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

The video on these discs is literally 720x480i MPEG2 video and the display would not want to cut off any of it, since instead of closed captioning there could be actual video up there. The video stream does not contain any pixels beyond that. An analog NTSC signal has 525 horizontal lines, 45 more than the 480 on the disc that are going to the display.

Again, the dots and dashes that encode the closed captions should be in the extra 45 non-visible lines, not within the 480 visible ones. If you're seeing them on a DVD, the DVD has been incorrectly mastered or encoded.

[BijouMan]

Originally Posted by Jason One

Again, the dots and dashes that encode the closed captions should be in the extra 45 non-visible lines, not within the 480 visible ones. If you're seeing them on a DVD, the DVD has been incorrectly mastered or encoded.

The digital video on the disc contains 480 lines, not 525. If it did the resolution would be 720 x 525i, not 720 x 480i.

[JFizDaWiz]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

The digital video on the disc contains 480 lines, not 525. If it did the resolution would be 720 x 525i, not 720 x 480i.

They are outside of the 480 pixels but part of the 525 scan-lines.
I rip DVDs to my PC and these are never part of the off the 720x480 image yet they exist still

[Jason One]

Originally Posted by BijouMan

The digital video on the disc contains 480 lines, not 525. If it did the resolution would be 720 x 525i, not 720 x 480i.

(sigh) Yes, when did I say otherwise? DVDs store the closed captions on disc as extra data. When it comes time to transmit them to the TV, your DVD/BD player sends the CC data within the extra lines outside of the active visible picture area. Clear?