Ok, this one is hard to explain but I have a small line running across my channels on the top of the screen when I watch cable TV. I only see it on my Optoma HD72 projector in my theater and I dont see it on my plasmas upstairs who share the same cable boxes. any thoughts? the lines are about 1in thick and they are filled with "snow". thoughts?

PS. I have a cable distribution amp and a 4 way splitter attached as well as my cable modem. just FYI.

That's typical.

The same line is present on the signal going to your plasma, you just don't see it because the plasma scaled (zoomed) the image-- cropping off the edges on each side -- as a means to apply overscan. You see that line on your projector because it doesn't have overscan.

I suspect the lines are one inch thick cause you blew them up on a big screen. :) Normally, they would be pretty small.

OK I see. I figured this may be the case. So, maybe an adjustment on the projector will do the trick (?)

Possibly, I am not familiar with that particular model.

ok whats weird is I have two of teh same cable boxes and one does this and the other does not?

ok whats weird is I have two of teh same cable boxes and one does this and the other does not?Did you read my post above?

Two cable boxes set to the same settings (turn box off, press menu) will produce 100% identical output. If you see any difference, the difference is due to your display.

I think you might be seeing the data line for closed captioning. You shouldn't see it on a tv that does overscan.. But your projector might not have an overscan set.. and so you would see the entire frame, including the cc data.

Besides Closed Captioning, which is located on line 21, Nielsen rating service uses data on line 22. Line 22 is normally considered the first line of active video, but Nielsen got a waver from the FCC to use it for their ratings service. One field carries the data from the network and the other field carries the local station data.

This is a big problem with LCD and plasma sets because they don't have much, if any, overscan.

Mallego

WHOA guys! I just noticed these same scrambled lines on one of my LCDs on a channel that went from16:9 to 4:3 on a commercial. So, I know its not my projector and its coming over the cablebox. Weird thing is I have two ofthe exact same cable boxes and only one does this. Its almost like the screen placement on the cable box needs aligned. I know that sounds stupid but Im not sure what I can do.

I believe it to be your display as bfdtv mentioned. On my lcd NBC will show the scrambled lines on 4:3 commercials whenever I lessen overscan. The default overscan setting cuts off the scrolling ESPN scores on the bottom of the screen.