New box picture problem

[Anonymous User]

Hi there, I picked up the new black now tv box yeterday, I noticed on some FTA channels there is a picture issue, at the bottom of the screen a line will run across it, it will happen randomly every few secs, this doesnt happen on every ch, HD seems to be worse. I then noticed on a SD channel little ------- at the very top left, this would start on the top left of the screen and go towards the middle and then stop, again this was only on certain channels, any ideas.

Thanks

[schnapps]

@Anonymous User

I also seem to get this full length small thin white flashing line occasionally on the bottom of my TV screen when watching the Freeview HD channels (doesn't bother me much because i tend to use my YouView box for the live terrestrial channels).

Never had the issue during the smart box trial and this small white thin line on my TV has only started to appear in the last month or so when watching Freeview channels (The small line is not there when viewing the Now TV streaming service or using other apps on the smart box).

However, it can be annoying if you use the smart box for your main Freeview viewing and if more customers report the problem then NowTV may need to investigate this further.

I might also try connecting my older Panasonic Plasma HD TV with the smart box to see if the white line appears on that TV as well, but it would mean temporary moving the TV from the Bedroom downstairs to the Living Room where the aerial is located (I am in two minds at the moment trying this has the Plasma TV is really heavy and would be a pain to move).  

Thinking about buying a second smart box on the weekend, so if i do i will test the second smart box on my Panasonic 50CX680 UHD TV to see if the white thin line appears on the second box.

Perhaps try turning the Overscan feature to "On" on your picture TV settings to see if that masks the small line on the bottom of your TV screen until a NowTV Team Member picks up your post on here.

[Anonymous User]

Ye thats exactly the problem i get but if you go to some sd channels I can an issue at the top of the screen. I know its not my tv as my youview box is fine, if it cant be resolved then it will be going back.

[Mark_Weinreb]

@Anonymous User I have agree with @schnapps's last paragraph. It's almost certainly an overscan problem as what you're seeing is the data that gets transmitted along side the tv picture/sound. Normally it should be off the top/bottom of the screen, but sometimes the broadcasters get the transmittion slightly out of sync and the data becomes visible on some tv sets. You usualy notice it as as series of flashing dots or a creeping line.

[Andy]

@Anonymous User

Yeah that's an overscan issue. Most Freeview devices usually zoom the image a tiny amount anyway to avoid displaying the 'broadcasters garbage' that often appears in the extremes of the transmission, particularly if the content is older or a live transmission. They expect TVs to add a tiny amount of zoom to the image as well.

Have a look at your aspect/format settings (there's usually a button on the remote for it) and if it's set to something like unscaled/full/1x1/fit then try changing this to widescreen/16:9 (different TVs use different terminology) which should introduce a tiny amount of zoom to hide the 'garbage' lines. 

Edit: apologies, you've already got a reply while typing

[schnapps]

Agree about using the overscan feature on some of the poor broadcast quality SD Freeview channels with some of the picture interference around the outer edge of the picture that you may encounter when watching SD terrestrial channels .

However, with a clean HD picture on Freeview you should not see any artefacts on the picture outer edges and there should be no need for overscan (I refuse / avoid watching SD channels on Freeview because of the poor PQ, so i can always leave overscan off).

From my experience with TV's that i have owned over the years they are initially setup has standard from the factory with their overscan feature left on (I personally turn off the overscan feature on all my TV sets to squeeze out every little bit of PQ performance).

Never had this random flashing thin white line on the bottom of my TV for the full three months duration whilst on the smart box trial and i was using the Freeview aspect on the box fulltime during the trial.

I don't believe this flashing thin white line is related to the Freeview HD broadcast, because both my Youview box and inbuilt HD Freeview tuner on my Panasonic TV shows a clean interference free picture when watching the same HD programme.

If i am in a testing mood over the weekend and i can pick up a second smart box cheaply for £35 from Argos, i might compare the two smart boxes which i can test on three different TV sets to see if i can replicate the flashing white thin line on the new smart box.     

[Anonymous User]

I'd just like to add that I'm having this problem too and it's driving me mad. When the aerial is plugged into the TV there are no flickering lines, but plugged into the NOW TV smart box the lines are there on freeview.

[Anonymous User]

I was having this problem as well, and solved it by changing the NOW TV box display settings down to 720P.

Flickering line gone

[Anonymous User]

Changing the display settings to 720p worked for me too. Thank you so much for posting and sharing this information!

[schnapps]

My Smart Box with the flashing small white line on the bottom of the TV screen whilst watching the Freeview TV channels (which i mentioned in my first post above) disappeared months ago after a newer software update was received on the box.

Touch Wood the faint flashing white line on my TV screen when viewing the Freeview channels hasn't appeared ever since with my Smart box set to 1080p