Problem with adding black borders

Billy

Hi all, hope any of ye can help me.
I built an arcade machine with the following:

Flat pack cabinet for 2 players
Raspberry pi 3B
Power supply 2.5A
IPAC 2 controller
Joysticks (8 positions)
Retropie 4.7.1
Monitor 16:10 format

I know most of the people want to remove the black borders around the retropie ES menu but in my case i'd like to add them.
The reason is that the frame around the monitor in my bartop arcade machine covers some part of the top and bottom of the screen so i basically want to add the borders so i can see the retropie menu underneath i.e. select, favourites, start etc
I went to the /boot/config.txt file and i uncomment the disable_overscan=1 and the same for the overscan_left, overscan_right, overscan_top and overscan_bottom.
I modified the numbers on the top and bottom from 16 (default) to 100 and the screen looks the same. I tried with negative numbers too. Maybe i should go to 1000??
I also modified disable_overscan=0 and it made no difference.
I tried from the retropie menu from the raspi config and nothing.

Any idea anyone on how could i configure this to change it?
Thank you

Ashpool

@billy Is your monitor one of the good ones which keep the AR of the Input Signal, or one of the bad ones which stretch the Image of the Input Signal (As an Example, will Fullscreen 640x480 result in a 4:3 Image with Black Borders Left Right, or is the Image stretched to fill the full screen?)? If it honours the Input (to Display) resolution, how about setting the output (from Raspi) resolution to, let's say, 1080p [Edit: Or whatever the 16:9 Vertical of your 16:10 Display is] (rtfm: Video options in config.txt)?

Billy

@ashpool thanks for your response.
The monitor I have is an old monitor with speakers i found in the attic at the time i built the arcade machine.
It is one of the "bad" ones unfortunately. (Medion MD 20119)
When i go to the options for the video in the raspi-config, the 16:9 option is not there, only 4:3, 5:4 or 16:10 with different resolutions.

I didn't find the sdtv_aspect in the config.txt file. Could i add it to the file? i only can see sdtv_mode=2
The thing is i managed to do this in the past and it worked perfectly, but this was like 3 years ago and I can't remember how i did it.

do you know what the ranges for overscan top and button is?

DreamcastKid

@billy

try also setting overscan_scale=1

to add borders ... you need to use positive values

i needed to add borders for my monitor/bartop machine and my config.txt file looks like this.

Note: i didn't edit the disable_overscan=1 setting, i just left it as it is. I didn't un-comment it ... so the default is "0"

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
# disable_overscan=1

# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border.
overscan_left=20
overscan_right=20
overscan_top=45
overscan_bottom=15

overscan_scale=1

Ashpool

@billy said in Problem with adding black borders:

I didn't find the sdtv_aspect in the config.txt file. Could i add it to the file? i only can see sdtv_mode=2

You've could just add it... BUT the sdtv parameters are ment for the composite out signal from the pie and as you have a computer monitor (This one, right?) connected, I would assume that you are (most likely) using a HDMI to DVI-D cable for the connection? So, hdmi_group (1: CEC Device (Consumer Electronics Association, the standard typically used by TVs), 2: DTM (Display Monitor Timings, the standard typically used by monitors)) and hdmi_mode would be the relevant parameters. If my provided link (The German Manual from Medion) really is for your Monitor, one of its video modes (page 7 of the pdf, page 5 (print)) is 1024x768, 60Hz which would be for hdmi_group 2: hdmi_mode 16 (That one is 4:3, so it is just an example for the parameters, mode 35 (1280x1024 would be 5:4).. (*1).

But my tip was only meant as a workaround, so if the advice from DreamcastKid will get you the desired result, i think it would be best to run the display on its native resolution (1440x900) with added overscan bars to it ;)

[1]: Mh, somehow it puzzles me that all listed resolutions for that monitor, which ain't its native one, are either 4:3, 5:4 or 9:5... but no 16:9, so in the end, even if you are setting the videomode via config.txt, you will only get black borders left/right, but not top/bottom)

Billy

@dreamcastkid
I think that might be the issue as i didn't have the overscan_scale=1 so that's probably it didn't work. I'll add it tonight and i'll let you know if it works

Many thanks.

Billy

@ashpool i agree, it puzzles me as well... It would certainly have made my life easier as a setting with 16:9 would have made the top and bottom borders automatically.
And yes, i have it connected with a HDMI - DVI adaptor.

I'll try to add the overscan_scale=1 tonight and see how it goes.

Thank you all for your help, much appreciated

Billy

@dreamcastkid said in Problem with adding black borders:

overscan_left=20
overscan_right=20
overscan_top=45
overscan_bottom=15

overscan_scale=1

It worked! as predicted the overscan_scale was the part missing...
Thank you!

DreamcastKid

@billy
no probs .. glad to hear it's working now for you :)

Ashpool

@billy Cons! (Maybe you can mark your threads subject as solved?)

Billy

@ashpool can't the button to show as solved :-( sorry

Billy

@ashpool how do I mark the post as [Solved}?

Ashpool

@billy Simply by editing your 1st post and adding something like [Solved] to the title, though I am unsure whether there is a forums recommendation about the how ( @mitu ? ). Some seem to prefer adding it at the titles start, others add it to the end. Most use square brackets, some regular ones.