Nvidia "boxing" issue on boot

[SynGatesFan200]

This is simply an annoying issue that comes with most of the new Nvidia cards i've seen (6xx series). I believe this guy may have figured it out and maybe people with greater minds than I can help get this working. Basically what the issue is when booting up, the screen is underscanned, so it not REALLY full 1080p. This is what user sj26 came up with:

I have a variant of Moarfish's build - GA-B75M-D3H i5 3570K with an NVIDIA GTX 660 Ti hooked up to an LG TV via HDMI.

My understanding is that Chimera/Chameleon is using the EDID modes to find the best resolution to display. HDMI supports an underscan feature which most HDTVs employ. Most HDTVs will overscan the signal, chopping off the outside of the picture, so the video adapter is asked to underscan to compensate. If you have a TV that supports a 1:1 PC scan which turns off the overscanning (on my LG it's called "Just Scan") then you also want to stop underscanning, and you end up with the behaviour you'd expect from a computer monitor.

Apple's window server, Linux's X server, Windows' WDDM all notice that the EDID advertises underscanning and turn it off sensibly, after some stumling blocks. The NVIDIA and ATI driver tools generally allow doing this too. Chimera/Chameleon needs to add this to the graphics mode setting to let us do it as well.

Here's my EDID, for interests sake (look for underscan):

header:          00 ff ff ff ff ff ff 00
serial number:   1e 6d 01 00 01 01 01 01 01 16
version:         01 03
basic params:    80 a0 5a 78 0a
chroma info:     ee 91 a3 54 4c 99 26 0f 50 54
established:     a1 08 00
standard:        31 40 45 40 61 40 71 40 81 80 01 01 01 01 01 01
descriptor 1:    02 3a 80 18 71 38 2d 40 58 2c 45 00 a0 5a 00 00 00 1e
descriptor 2:    66 21 50 b0 51 00 1b 30 40 70 36 00 a0 5a 00 00 00 1e
descriptor 3:    00 00 00 fd 00 3a 3e 1e 53 10 00 0a 20 20 20 20 20 20
descriptor 4:    00 00 00 fc 00 4c 47 20 54 56 0a 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
extensions:      01
checksum:        43


Manufacturer: GSM Model 1 Serial Number 16843009
Made week 1 of 2012
EDID version: 1.3
Digital display
Maximum image size: 160 cm x 90 cm
Gamma: 2.20
Supported color formats: RGB 4:4:4, YCrCb 4:2:2
First detailed timing is preferred timing
Established timings supported:
  720x400@70Hz
  640x480@60Hz
  800x600@60Hz
  1024x768@60Hz
Standard timings supported:
  640x480@60Hz
  800x600@60Hz
  1024x768@60Hz
  1152x864@60Hz
  1280x1024@60Hz
[B]Detailed mode: Clock 148.500 MHz, 160 mm x 90 mm[/B]
[B]               1920 2008 2052 2200 hborder 0[/B]
[B]               1080 1084 1089 1125 vborder 0[/B]
[B]               +hsync +vsync[/B]
Detailed mode: Clock 85.500 MHz, 160 mm x 90 mm
               1360 1424 1536 1792 hborder 0
                768  771  777  795 vborder 0
               +hsync +vsync
Monitor ranges (GTF): 58-62Hz V, 30-83kHz H, max dotclock 160MHz
Monitor name: LG
Has 1 extension blocks
Checksum: 0x43 (valid)


CEA extension block
Extension version: 3
30 bytes of CEA data
  Video data block
    VIC 16
    VIC 31 (native)
    VIC 04
    VIC 19
    VIC 05
    VIC 20
    VIC 03
    VIC 02
    VIC 18
    VIC 32
    VIC 33
    VIC 34
    VIC 21
  Audio data block
    AC-3, max channels 5
    Supported sample rates (kHz): 48 44.1 32
    Maximum bit rate: 56 kHz
    Linear PCM, max channels 1
    Supported sample rates (kHz): 192 96 48 44.1 32
    Supported sample sizes (bits): 24 20 16
  Vendor-specific data block, OUI 000c03 (HDMI)
    Source physical address 1.0.0.0
    Supports_AI
    Maximum TMDS clock: 150MHz
[B]Underscans PC formats by default[/B]
Basic audio support
Supports YCbCr 4:4:4
Supports YCbCr 4:2:2
1 native detailed modes
Detailed mode: Clock 74.250 MHz, 800 mm x 450 mm
               1920 2008 2052 2200 hborder 0
                540  542  547  562 vborder 0
               +hsync +vsync interlaced
Detailed mode: Clock 74.250 MHz, 800 mm x 450 mm
               1280 1390 1430 1650 hborder 0
                720  725  730  750 vborder 0
               +hsync +vsync
[B]Detailed mode: Clock 148.500 MHz, 160 mm x 90 mm[/B]
[B]               1920 2008 2052 2200 hborder 0[/B]
[B]               1080 1084 1089 1125 vborder 0[/B]
[B]               +hsync +vsync[/B]
Detailed mode: Clock 74.250 MHz, 708 mm x 398 mm
               1280 1720 1760 1980 hborder 0
                720  725  730  750 vborder 0
               +hsync +vsync
Checksum: 0x25 (valid)

I used OneSadCookie's gist to extract my EDID data.

If I can figure out how to issue the command in a VESA-friendly way I'll try hacking it into the bootloader. Perhaps it would also be possible to hack it into the VBIOS? I'm pretty sure GraphicsEnabler is correcting for overscan when actually booting anyway.

 

[MacMan]

It has been reported that the Chameleon/Chimera resolution module that meklort created might fix this.

I have attached the version that was compiled with Chimera 2.0.1 for you to try if you would like.

Unzip the attached and copy to /Extra/modules.

 

[SynGatesFan200]

Unfortunatly, the module did not work. I notice that you also have a 670 MacMan. Did it work for you?

 

[MacMan]

Oh well it was a thought.

As for me I've never noticed it on my GTX 670 and U2410.

 

[SynGatesFan200]

Thank you for the recommendation though I guess it's time to research

 

[sonicseamus]

MacMan I have a similar issue with my AMD HIS 5770 connected to my ASUS VH236H monitor. I edited the VBIOS to include 1920x1080 as a VESA mode and Chimera shows it as loaded (under the VBIOS section) and the bootloader appears to be at the right resolution, but it is boxed in and doesn't fill the whole screen. It shows the same behavior with or without GraphicsMode=1920x1080x32. If I plug into my HD3000, it takes up the whole screen. Any other ideas as to how I can fix this? Is there a way to check why it would be underscanning (assuming that's what's happening)?