Overscan... Help me understand!

[kajunchicken]

Ok. So when I first got my computer, I turned it all on and started it up and lo and behold there was about a one inch border around the edges of my monitor. After a fair bit of research I found out that the borders could be gotten rid of by going into catalyst and changing the overscan setting to 0%. I've sort of accepted this for 2 years now.

But of course, when I play DirectX 10 games... the overscan setting gets reset! But that's another story.

My main question is, why do I have to change the overscan setting? I know CRT monitors needed this... but in the modern age of LCDs why does it still exist? Is it some sort of grandfathered technology?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dingo07]

have you read the wikipedia page...? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overscan
and that doesn't explain it for you...?

 

[kajunchicken]

Have read that. Doesn't explain why LCDs still need it. Theoretically, it should be a useless feature, especially for a modern GPU.

 

[nvalhalla]

Overscan is still used on TVs, it cuts off the noisy edge of TV broadcasts. Are you using a TV as your monitor?

 

[kajunchicken]

Nope. I'm using some inexpensive 23" computer screen. I'm guessing the reason for the overscan is because it's cheap.