External Monitor Crops Display?

Hey Mac Forums,

So here's the deal: When my macbook is hooked up to an external display (I've tried an HDTV and a Projector thus far) it has a nasty habit of cropping the observable video. Typically, this isn't too large a problem, but when I'm watching something subtitled, I'll get cases where I can't read the first or last words of a line, which is annoying.

To further illustrate... maximizing a window on the ext. display will put all of my window controls out of observable range... So is there any way to fix this? I'd greatly appreciate any info.

are you using vga or dvi for a connection?

is your macbook open or closed when it is cropping the picture?

I have two Mini-DVI adaptors. One converts to DVI and the other, to composite and s-video. The problem remains the same with both. One thing I have yet to try is hooking up to a dedicated computer monitor, but I'd prefer if this could somehow be fixed to work with what equipment I have.

And The macbook is open when the cropping occurs. Is there a way to clamshell the thing without putting it to sleep?

You can close your macbook and then wake it from sleep with the lid closed. To wake it with the lid closed you need a usb mouse and key board so you can navigate the screen. Any action on the keyboard or mouse will wake the computer.

Are you mirroring or spanning your display?

You can use it closed by hooking up a power supply, external keyboard, monitor and mouse, then close it and press a key or mouse button to wake it up again.

Good to know, I'll keep the closed book stuff in mind for the future.

Anyways, I found the problem... evidently a condition called 'overscan' was the cause of my woes. I opened up display options and found an option that, when toggled, compensated for the problem.