How much overscan is normal? (1 Viewer)

[MikeEckman]

I was messing around in the service menu of my WEGA 32FS13 and I was looking at the overscan test pattern on Video Essentials. I noticed I could get my TV to almost 0 overscan horizontally and on the bottom and about 2.5% on the top. Anyways, I set my overscan to about 1-2% horizontally and then threw in Gladiator. I noticed throughout the whole movie, the movie was gray on the far left side of the frame. Went back in the service menu and set the overscan back to 5% on both sides, and the gray band went off the screen. Im starting to wonder if 5% isnt the norm. I thought that if you TV could do less than 5% then why not, but apparently thats not how it should be.
So my question is, how much is normal on a 4x3 NTSC television?
Also, on Video Essentials, which is the best test pattern to use to center your screen, the Overscan test pattern wtih the big circle in the middle and diagonal lines pointing to each corner of the frame, or the one with the SMTP lines and the 4 smaller circles, one in each corner? Because when I center the screen on the Overscan test pattern, if I goto the STMP one, it doesnt appear to be centered anymore.
Anyone?

 

[Matt_Stevens]

5% is fine for a direct view TV. Some TV's are as high as 10% and that's bad.
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[Marc Alexander]

5% is the norm. You should have equal overscan vertically and horizontally. My [rear projection] set is set to 3%. Sounds like 2.5% is feasible for your set. I would set it as low as possible without having blank spaces for DVDs.
I do believe that the VE overscan pattern is shifted. That could explain why you see the dead space. Therefore you should not use VE to set overscan. I use AVIA which has the correct pattern. See this thread for detailed AVIA info.
AVIA