Sky Puck has started to 'overscan' picture. Anyone know why?

[Bordonbert]

Hi again.  I'm using Sky Broadband and Stream via the dreaded Puck.  (I can't help thinking that was misspelt somewhere along the line, and I don't mean just "Suck".)  It - - - works - - - kind of!  Well, let's just say I get pictures and sound for a while.  I get constant puck reboots for no reason, individual channels freezing and becoming unselectable for an hour or two, the current selected programme randomly jumping back to the "Hey, why don't you watch this instead" screen, the remote freezing for a longish while, periods of stuttering signal despite being fibre to the house, the worst least reliable ever "watch from the beginning" and "fast forwards and rewind" system I have ever seen, and a host of other quite major irritants which have just driven us away from supporting Sky as a service provider in any sense.  The only good thing about them is their support staff who are always very sympathetic and helpful but with a resigned tone of "yes we know and we feel your pain but what can we do".  When even your own support staff don't believe in you there is something rotten in the state of Denmark!

It's a long time since I've posted here.  Originally I was a strong defender of Sky's service and argued for patience while they sorted faults out but that was until I experienced the huge range of issues with it first hand.  As I said, I have experienced every kind of awful malfunction with the various Sky services which lots of others have posted here and, frankly, I am finally waiting for my contract to run out so I can hop off this bumbling 19th century tram of chaos.

Ok, rant over and on to the actual problem.

The latest piece of tech stupidity is that the puck has suddenly started to overscan the picture.  When I go to the channel listing I use to get a full 8 channels per page and each [page down] command moved on by 8 channels.  So from 1-8 it would move on to 9-16.  From nowhere, I now have half of the bottom line, the 8th channel in every page listing, missing off the screen along with some of the right hand edge.

The puck is still set to 1080p as always.  My TV is set to its normal 16:9 aspect ratio.  The TV works perfectly with its own simple aerial signal, with my Humax satellite box, with my DVD player and with the puck programme material.  The puck apps like YouTube work perfectly too.  It just permanently chops a slice off the bottom and right edge of all channel listings supplied by the puck software directly.  I can't help but think this points to the puck software as being the faulty piece of kit.

I have restarted the TV, restarted the puck from unplugging the power line, set it to different picture settings and back again but nothing I can find corrects it.  I have notice of an "update in progress" which has been there for a whole day that I know of.  If that is correct and it is genuinely ongoing then that is not good server management!  Has anyone else seen this behaviour and is there a known solution?

[Sky, your technology is genuinely mediocre at best, from the supply of the data to the display of it at home, and that is from one who worked designing and producing such technology all my working life!]

[Chrisee]

@Bordonbert I dont think there is anything wrong with the videe output of your puck instead I think what is annoying you is that the screens in the EPG show part of the next rail and part of the tile to the right. Sky's Entertainment OS design is more like a web page than a traditional. TV programme guide and users are expected to scroll to see more rather than load a new page. The inclusion of a bit of the next rail/tile is a visual cue to scroll to see more.

The way people choose what to watch has changed a lot and most people are used to scrolling on their phone or other device so this comes quite naturally but if you aren't it can take a while to get used to.

[Bordonbert]

No Chrisee, I am definitely missing about 2/3 of the bottom listing entry which I used to see, not seeing part of the following one.  It is number 8 which is chopped off and a page down moves to number 9.  That is not what I used to see which was a full 8 entries per down.  I now have to page down and step up to see it.

And the issue with the right side is again definitely part of what I used to see missing.  The mini screen which I have showing what is currently playing laid over the channel list is now slightly off the side of the screen.  This is a definite change from what I had originally.

The update is still showing as currently updating.

[nmbailey]

I've had Stream since May and have experienced none of the issues you mention on either of my pucks so maybe your puck is faulty?

What alternative service TV service would you consider? 

[Chrisee]

@Bordonbert why not take a picture of what you see and poost it so we can see what you are saying. I repeat it is normal for the screen to show the top part of the next rail at the bottom of the screen and part of a tile to the right.

[GD1]

@Bordonbert  As per @Chrisee  it may be worth posting a picture of this so we can co pare to our setups and hopefully point ypu in the right direction.

[Bordonbert]

Ok.  Here is a pic of the current situation.  You can clearly see that Channel 8 in the list is chopped off.  You can also clearly see that the inset picture of the current show is also chopped off a touch at the right hand side.  It may look as though it is not but what looks like background blue on the right side is the physical surround of the TV screen.  A bigger picture clearly shows that it is clipped, just a little.  Neither of these situations is what we were seeing for the previous 6 months or so of our contract.  We had a full 8 channels listed fitting perfectly in the screen and the inset picture was well in from the right hand side edge squarely in the corner with an equal border below and to the right.  The aspect ratio is correct but the picture is now overscanning for some reason on the channel listings.

 

[Chrisee]

@Bordonbert ok you do have a little bit of the picture cut off but its not down to the puck its actually your TV that is cutting off a small part on each edge. Before you say your other sources are OK most sets have memories for each input so thry can be different.Overscan was required some years ago as the edge of the image wasn't always clean so a small margin was removed modern video sources dont need that. Without going into technicalities the puck is not the cause its the way the TV is set up.

I can demonstrate the difference on one of my own TVs this is the TV on 16x9

Here is the same TV with its aspect ratio changed to Just Scan the name LG give to the option but check your TVs aspect ratio settings as Panasonic may call itvsomething different.

[SlenderRobert · Accepted solution]

@Bordonbert 

That's a very old Panasonic TV - check it it has an Underscan setting somewhere in the picture settings. 

[Bordonbert]

Yes, since last posting I figured it would be worth going through the Panasonic settings once again and there it was, an Overscan option and it was set to On.  Switching it off has corrected the problem as you can now see.  "Others TVs, like Panasonic and Sony, have an additional setting you must enable to get 1x1. On many Panasonic TVs, once you've enabled "Full" you also have to select "Size 2" in the settings menu to eliminate overscan. Sneaky."  Yes, sneaky is certainly correct.

 

I humbly owe Sky an apology for blaming their puck but it did seem logical that, as every other source including the puck's own programme material displayed correctly, the issue was with the channel listing display section.  I do actually know how overscan works and why, I just don't really get at this stage why this was only a problem with the channel listing section and not a thing else.

And the TV is certainly an old one but is still perfectly functioning with a great picture that is just the right size for our home.  We don't bother with access to UHD so no problem there and bells and whistles don't interest us.  Mind you, it does have one of today's great no-nos, a thick border around the screen area!  How can we continue to watch something with such archaic styling? 😄  It wouldn't suit many today but for us...