XBMC Live Overscan help

[Nipa]

I've installed XBMC Live on my HTPC and I'm generally very pleased with it. It runs faster than Windows 7, which is a welcome improvement, but I've noticed something; my TV suffers from overscan. This means I can't use the full 1080i resolution, but I'm fine with that. My main issue is that I'm not sure how to set up xorg.conf to compensate for overscan. The ideal resolution should be around 1824x1026, but it ends up defaulting to 1280x1024 for some strange reason.

In Windows 7 I'd have used the nVidia configuration utility (graphics card is an old 6600GT that does the job) that lets me scale the screen to compensate for overscan, but there is no such equivalent in nvidia-settings for Linux. I'm aware there is an overscan compensation ability in XBMC, and I'm using that, but it's not a global setting. I want it to be across the entire X server; I plan to be using Firefox and Stellarium, which both become difficult to use with overscan. They fill up the entire screen, which obviously doesn't work out.

The computer is connected through component to the TV (a DLP rear-projection, so 1:1 pixel mapping is out of the option). Here is my current xorg.conf:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder75)  Thu Apr 22 11:44:23 PDT 2010

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "TV-0"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
    Option         "DPI" "200 x 200"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    Option         "UseEDID" "FALSE"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    Option         "TVOutFormat" "Component"
    Option         "TVStandard" "HD1080i"
    Option         "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

So if any X wizards know how to force it to compensate for overscan, it would help me out, a lot! I'd appreciate any help, even if I've already tried it. Thanks in advance!

[Pixel Heart]

Perhaps mess with the DPI settings until you see one you like..?

[Nipa]

What does the DPI have to do with anything? The actual resolution is being cut off by the TV. The DPI mandates how big text and other visual elements will be sized on the screen.

[butre]

dpi wouldn't help. I know there is an option in xorg.conf that adjusts overscan compensation, but I don't remember it

[Nipa]

I've tried TVOverscan, which didn't do anything, and Modelines, but every time I try a custom modeline nothing shows up on the screen when I start X. I can get a 1920x1080 resolution by specifying "TVStandard" "HD1080i", which presumably uses pre-created modelines by Nvidia; if I can get the modeline, I can probably modify it to fix the overscan.

[Pixel Heart]

Ugh, I've never been a fan of DLP projection TVs... they are ALWAYS a bitch to use with a PC, even just for showing a movie on.

[DrTaxi]

-snip-, didn't read properly