ao486 Config for a Plain Old CRT TV

[MiSTer_Kirk]

The MiSTer itself is a big hack to get a decent image on HDMI displays, in a way. VGA monitors were meant for productivity first and foremost, where you need a very sharp image. Many games (CGA-VGA era at least), on the other hand, will look much better on a TV set, where they benefit from bigger size, vivid colours and inherent anti-aliasing (thanks to more pronounced shadowmask/aperture and scanlines). It's now also much more convenient to have everything on one display and not have to switch cables/configs.

I suspect, 99.9% of the 486 era DOS gaming was done on VGA monitors, not 15hz consumer CRT TVs.

I still love having the pure-VGA ability, and it works very well with that modded mister file, but ao486 --->CRT TV is a godsend.

It's ok, not perfect. But side-by-side, my Philips 15hz CRT vs my VGA Monitor, the VGA monitor does look much better. Better, clearer text, and a really nice and sharp image. Anything else, such as consoles, and 8-bit computers, the Philips looks much better.

[akeley]

I suspect, 99.9% of the 486 era DOS gaming was done on VGA monitors, not 15hz consumer CRT TVs.

So? It hasn't been done on HDMI panels either, and yet... Huge chunk of "DOS" gaming also comes from machines where TVs were the main displays (and from the RF/Composite era too), see below.

But side-by-side, my Philips 15hz CRT vs my VGA Monitor, the VGA monitor does look much better. Better, clearer text, and a really nice and sharp image. Anything else, such as consoles, and 8-bit computers, the Philips looks much better.

Really? What about a game which was ported to a PC from 8/16 bit machine (or vice versa)? Ooops

This is a subjectivity-zone, (and also similar to the old tired CRT vs LCD thing), so arguing about it is a bit pointless, but to me there is no contest between a (decent) TV and a monitor - even CRT VGA one - when it comes to most games. Especially after spending few hours today comparing the two. Sharper/clearer image might be important when it comes to productivity software and games which rely on a lot of text. Other ones, with more advanced gfx, look naked & raw because of these factors. I actually remember this was one of our main arguments, from the Amiga side, vs PC debates back in the day, one which was only made redundant with the arrival of SVGA (and games such as Wolfenstein, but that's another story). If people liked to see stairway curves, nobody would bother with developing the anti-aliasing tech, which seems quite popular now. Same with colour banding.

In any case, there are quite a few people interested in this functionality, hence the existence of this thread.

[thorr]

I have pixel perfect games on my CRT TV. Dos text is not perfect because the resolution is too high, but games are great. Try these settings:

Well blow me down, it does work indeed! Not ideal, since there are some black bars, but the in-game display seems to be scaled properly and that's all that matters. Perhaps even better solution is possible, but that will do me for now. Thanks a million! I might try that vmode trick for DOS later too, I understand it's an external program?

(one thing: setting "Variable" instead of 60Hz in the OSD breaks things and image gets heavily scrambled/jumping - at least on my setup, Direct Video to a Trinitron)

Great! I am glad it worked for you. The reason for the black bars on the top and bottom is because the vertical resolution of the TV is 240 pixels and the games are 320x200. To achieve pixel perfect games, you will only be using the center 200 pixels. I added as much black bars on the left and right as possible to not cut off the left and right sides with overscan. Since it has a 1280 resolution horizontally, there is plenty of resolution to show all the pixels perfectly.

Back in the day, there was no good way to hook a PC to a TV, so the games were 100% made for monitors. However, now that we have a way to display them, it could be argued either way which way looks better.

Regarding the "Variable" setting, make sure you also set vsync_adjust=1. It is optional for most things but adds some additional compatibility. I needed it turned on in order to get the PC demo Second Reality working all the way through. If you turn off Variable, you may be able to set vsync_adjust=2.

[_javi_]

....
Back in the day, there was no good way to hook a PC to a TV,
....

Back in the day i had the Ati Xpression PC2TV, and i was a pro, gaming on a 29 Trinitron thru S-video

Maybe recreating an ATI Rage card in ao486 would make TV out easier.


..and back to the subject

I have pixel perfect games on my CRT TV. Dos text is not perfect because the resolution is too high, but games are great. Try these settings:
[ao486]
; Set it to "Variable" in the ao486 core instead of 60Hz
direct_video=0
vga_scaler=1
vsync_adjust=1
vscale_mode=3
video_mode= 1280, 170, 140,244,240, 2, 0, 22, 29020 ; Best for ao486

Those give me a nice up to down scrolling screen. Maybe these setting work when using the io-board.

I had to set direct_video=1 to stop the scrolling, as i'm using an HDMI to vga adapter (and then RGBs to the TV)

[MiSTer_Kirk]

So? It hasn't been done on HDMI panels either, and yet... Huge chunk of "DOS" gaming also comes from machines where TVs were the main displays (and from the RF/Composite era too), see below.

How many graphics cards from the 486 era had composite out ? Not many that I can think of. Connecting a consumer-grade TV to a PC, in the early 90s, wouldn't have been a straight-forward thing.

Really? What about a game which was ported to a PC from 8/16 bit machine (or vice versa)? Ooops

Oooops ? The 486 era didn't have many ports from the 8-bit or 16-bit machines - I mean, why would it ? The PC was the dominant gaming machine in the 90s, so any ports would have went from PC to lesser machines.

This is a subjectivity-zone,

Is it ? So a 640x480 DOS game, according to you, looks better on a consumer-grade TV, rather than the display it was meant for ?
Don't be silly. Try a point 'n click adventure, a game where you would need to see detailed graphics AND text. On a TV, these look awful, on a VGA monitor they look how they're supposed to look. And the higher you push the resolution, the better these old adventures look.
Even FPS games, like Doom, look utter shite on a regular TV. On a CRT VGA/SVGA monitor, Doom looks amazing, as does Duke Nukem 3D, and all the other DOS FPS games.

In any case, there are quite a few people interested in this functionality, hence the existence of this thread.

I agree. But not long after trying some of my own ini files, I hooked up my VGA monitor, despite it having an arching issue, I was surprised at how much better DOS games looked compared to my Philips, or Sony TV.

Back in the day i had the Ati Xpression PC2TV, and i was a pro, gaming on a 29 Trinitron thru S-video

Maybe recreating an ATI Rage card in ao486 would make TV out easier.

Both of those cards didn't exist during the 486 days, so not sure what "Back in the day" you are referring to.

[thorr]

....
Back in the day, there was no good way to hook a PC to a TV,
....

Back in the day i had the Ati Xpression PC2TV, and i was a pro, gaming on a 29 Trinitron thru S-video

Maybe recreating an ATI Rage card in ao486 would make TV out easier.


..and back to the subject

I have pixel perfect games on my CRT TV. Dos text is not perfect because the resolution is too high, but games are great. Try these settings:
[ao486]
; Set it to "Variable" in the ao486 core instead of 60Hz
direct_video=0
vga_scaler=1
vsync_adjust=1
vscale_mode=3
video_mode= 1280, 170, 140,244,240, 2, 0, 22, 29020 ; Best for ao486

Those give me a nice up to down scrolling screen. Maybe these setting work when using the io-board.

I had to set direct_video=1 to stop the scrolling, as i'm using an HDMI to vga adapter (and then RGBs to the TV)

There may have been TV output cards back in the day, but they were not the norm and companies didn't program for them.
I am not using an IO board. I am using HDMI with an external HDMI to component converter. It's quite possible your HDMI to VGA adapter doesn't like the signal. I had to go through a lot of HDMI to component converters before I found one that works very well. The others would have scrolling issues and other problems.

[FoxbatStargazer]

run vmode "insert a number from 0-9" at the dos prompt to change video modes for text and the TDL menu. this will make both legible on a CRT/RGB set. I think I use vmode 4 once you find the one you like, edit autoexec.bat and add it before the tdl command.

Is vmode.exe not included in your top 300 mister pack?

[akeley]

Back in the day, there was no good way to hook a PC to a TV, so the games were 100% made for monitors. However, now that we have a way to display them, it could be argued either way which way looks better.

Back in the Eighties gaming was low-priority for PC users and most of the significant games from that time are ports from micros, consoles, and arcades. So, made for TVs, so to speak. Even if we allow that games might've been designed on monitors (not always thou) it's obvious, and well documented, that they aimed to utilise the TVs' strenghts, because that was what vast majority of gamers was using. It's also common sense to try and portray reality as it really is - ie vibrant and curved - and not in a blocky, dull way. The PC didn't have any way to remedy that in the pre-SVGA, pre-AA, pre-shader era, so the users just had to live with it.

Great! I am glad it worked for you. The reason for the black bars on the top and bottom is because the vertical resolution of the TV is 240 pixels and the games are 320x200. To achieve pixel perfect games, you will only be using the center 200 pixels. I added as much black bars on the left and right as possible to not cut off the left and right sides with overscan. Since it has a 1280 resolution horizontally, there is plenty of resolution to show all the pixels perfectly.

Again, huge thanks for making this possible. I had a stab at making an appropriate modeline some time ago, but my math-fu is just too weak. It's something I always wanted, especially for the past-1991 games (before that Amiga was still better). And while it;s possible on my crtemudriver PC, it's also very cumbersome to faff around with modelines and Win10@320x200

I get the necessity for black bars, though I also wonder why the bloomin' consoles get to fill the screen while being mostly 224x? Is it an NTSC thing? Anyway, it's not really botehring me. In fact, I think this scaling might even look a bit better than on my VGA monitor, ie: the circles are more round.
getting DOS sorted would be nice though, I need to try tha vmode thing flynnsbit mentioned.

Also, I'll try the vsync_adjust again, I did copypaste your settings but might've left the old one still at "2".

[akeley]

@Mister_kirk: I see expletives, so I guess you're ranting now. Like I said I don't want to derail this thread further, so I'll just do a few bullet points and then you're welcome to carry on. I'd rather concentarte on what this thread was meant to be about: technical stuff about displaying ao486 on CRT TVs.

-instead of talking about some vague "486 era" I prefer "DOS gaming". This applied to MiSTer is probably best described as 1981-early Nineties. Later on ao486 just won't cut it, unless you like to watch slideshows. In that era PC was hardly a "dominant gaming machine" (if ever) and had countless ports from other platforms.

-it's not that relevant anyway, for the reasons I've already mentioned few times ITT and why 240p content looks better on TVs. To visualise it, it here's how Mona Lisa could've looked if Leonardo followed the "clean/sharp" logic.

-Of course you realise that most of DOS's "640x480" is just upscaled 320x200 and 320x240, right? For the proper hi-res games the situation changes, but then I've already mentioned it too, you just chose to ignore it.

-go have a look at any point'n click adventure, observe the text-to-gfx ratio and then tell me how I'm silly again. Alternatively, fire up a modern AAA 3D game, go into settings and switch off all the post process options and the AA. This is what you're arguing for mate

[thorr]

It's possible to fill the screen with pixel perfect 320x200 games without black bars, but it will chop off the top and bottom in DOS (edit: no DOS would be fine because it has 400 for the vertical resolution, but other games would be chopped off like 320x240 or 640x480). I remember seeing a special method for VGA CRT's where the scaler changes resolutions on the fly. This might be worth looking into for this situation as well. I will keep it in mind and try to find time to work on it at some point. I haven't really looked at it, so I don't know if that is an unofficial core that makes the on the fly scaler changes possible.

[thorr]

Those give me a nice up to down scrolling screen. Maybe these setting work when using the io-board.

I had to set direct_video=1 to stop the scrolling, as i'm using an HDMI to vga adapter (and then RGBs to the TV)

One more thing to try if you haven't already: set it to 60Hz instead of variable, but otherwise leave the rest of my settings. akeley said he had scrolling issues, but until now it is unclear whether he had vsync_adjust=1 or 2 (1 is required for variable, and 0 might work if 1 doesn't).

[MiSTer_Kirk]

@Mister_kirk: I see expletives,

Oh please, ONE word was slightly off, don't go into drama queen mode.

And this core is called ao486, not ao286. The 486 was a 90s CPU, although first announced in the middle of 1989, it didn't get a proper release until 1990. And this is the period I am talking about, the period where the PC dominated gaming, it pushed out the Amiga and ST, even went toe-to-toe with 90s consoles. And 99.9% of PC users, in this period, had a VGA monitor for their PC, not a TV.
Yes, for 240p content, there is no comparison, and a CRT TV is the best - this is why I own 15 various CRTs of each market, consumer, Pro (my Sony PVM), and Monitor. Now compare, for example, "The Secret of Monkey Island" at 240p, and at 640x480p, the latter just looks soooo much better, and you don't have to squint to see things. Heck, the higher the res you go for Monkey Island the better it looks, especially on a modern PC running ScummVM.

YOU are the one here making an argument, I just stated a fact - 99.9% of 90s 486 users had a VGA Monitor. If you have facts to prove me wrong, then prove me wrong. Otherwise, stop trying to look for an argument where there isn't one. I don't appreciate people who think they can "Correct" other users, without facts. Now 80s PCs, that is something very different, and CGA/EGA PCs were no match for what was around at that time.

[thorr]

Monkey Island 1 and 2 look gorgeous on my TV. They are pixel perfect. 640x480 is not the resolution of these games. Anything displaying them that way is upscaling the image. Other games like Sim City 2000 from what I recall can benefit from higher resolution. I would agree anything higher than 240 vertical resolution would look better on a VGA monitor.

[MiSTer_Kirk]

They are pixel perfect. 640x480 is not the resolution of these games.

The EGA version is 320x200 16 colours.
The VGA version is 640x480 256 colours.

Taken from wiki

The VGA version of the game later corrected these issues by implementing 256-color support, which allowed for more advanced background and character art

[thorr]

Thanks. I play the EGA version. I have never tried the VGA version.
Edit: I am home now and checked, and I am playing the VGA version. I found a comparison video to confirm. It is pixel perfect on the VGA version. I was thinking you were talking about the much newer remastered version that I never tried.

[FoxbatStargazer]

The colors improved for Monkey Island VGA but the resolution did not. Yes it rendered at 31khz just like any VGA game, but it was still doubling/quadrupaling the pixels used in the 15khz versions. You need to dig pretty hard to find actual SVGA DOS games that weren't past the reach of what is playable on AO486. (Mostly 3D-accelerated games I think)

And I can't believe we are arguing over what "looks" the best, when the correct answer is always what looks best to YOU. There is no rule that you can't prefer 15khz "intended" games on 31khz and vice versa no matter the system. Especially when games were ported as-is between such systems in both directions.

I think we should focus here on how to optimize for consumer CRT for those who want to try it without insisting that it is better or worse than VGA monitor or what the original "intent" was. Especially when a key feature of Mister is its extensive support for high-definition widescreen LCD monitors which none of these games were ever intended for!

[thorr]

Here is how Monkey Island 1 and 2 look on my TV. Keep in mind I used my mobile phone to take these photos and it looks a lot better in person. There are no moire patterns.

yOVdAEt.jpeg (1.65 MiB) Viewed 15542 times

1qbD3kw.jpeg (2.04 MiB) Viewed 15542 times

[akeley]

I've tried the vmode from DOS, but it didn't seem to do anything, at least with values between 1-6. Above that, the screen gets completely garbled. Anybody had more luck? Getting DOS to display properly would be an icing on the cake.

@thorr: your image seems to have less left/right borders than there is on my display. Have a look:

IMG-20210622-123013.jpg (311.01 KiB) Viewed 15542 times

Best to view it at 1:1 size, then you can see the actual border difference - part of the dark is the inherent TV thing so that's ok. Actual border is about half an inch each size. Any ideas why is it bigger? I see you're outputting to a component set...NTSC perhaps?

[flynnsbit]

Here is what vmode 4 and vmode 5 "should" do on your set: https://youtu.be/W0ScMbmXMG8?t=32 I tried to capture what it would look like. This is a Samsung GXE consumer set that is RGB modded. It's been a while since I had this setup, I might have been running UniVBE (SDD 5.X) (command is univbe -c2) along with vmode to get the video modes to switch.

[thorr]

@thorr: your image seems to have less left/right borders than there is on my display. Have a look:
Actual border is about half an inch each size. Any ideas why is it bigger? I see you're outputting to a component set...NTSC perhaps?

I am using component on a US television. The reason there are differences is because most TV's have a service menu where you can adjust the size and geometry of the picture. I set mine up so that it works well with most things, just barely cutting off the edges so there are typically no black borders, but sometimes there are. When I configured the modeline settings for ao486, I didn't want anything cut off if possible so I made slight borders. In your case, you have larger borders so less is cut off on other cores but you will have larger black borders on other cores most likely. It's a balancing act and personal preference where you set things up in your service menu. I have other issues with curved edges etc that I can only make good enough in the service menu but not perfect. I don't want to open the TV to make it perfect. It's too big of a pain to do that on my 36" TV and I might screw it up. I have adjusted my 20" TV by opening it up and it helps. You can royally screw it up if you are not careful and it is hard to get it back to where it was. The service menu is easy because you can write down your settings before you change them.

[thorr]

I managed to get a readable image with this ini settings..

[ao486]
direct_video=1
vscale_mode=0
vscale_border=1
video_mode=640,8,58,78,240,1,3,18,12324

The parameter which fixed the screen was vscale border. Anything above 0 fixes the garbling. (I dont understand the reasoning behind it)

Theres too much overscan to the left. Maybe i can center the image within the tv Service Menu, but that would break my tuned positioning for others cores.

Many games are playable, but the overall experience is suboptimal. It seems this core was not meant to be used this way.

I just went back and saw this post. Sorry for the delay, but I think the answer is what I just described above. You need to go into your service menu of your TV and adjust your settings there to get things to fit on the screen. It's a balancing act. Also, you can adjust the modeline settings to move things around. Each core has its own settings which makes it impossible to make everything fit perfectly. You said there is too much overscan to the left. You can go to this site and plug in your numbers, then press the Right button to get new numbers that will move the picture to the right. https://www.epanorama.net/faq/vga2rgb/calc.html
I just found these additional resources following a path from the previous link. They seem to be extremely helpful and I am looking forward to trying them:
http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl (The output of this can be imported into the previous link if necessary)
https://tldp.org/HOWTO/XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO/ (This helps to explain how to shrink the image if it is too big, etc.)

[_javi_]

I managed to get a readable image with this ini settings..

[ao486]
direct_video=1
vscale_mode=0
vscale_border=1
video_mode=640,8,58,78,240,1,3,18,12324

The parameter which fixed the screen was vscale border. Anything above 0 fixes the garbling. (I dont understand the reasoning behind it)

Theres too much overscan to the left. Maybe i can center the image within the tv Service Menu, but that would break my tuned positioning for others cores.

Many games are playable, but the overall experience is suboptimal. It seems this core was not meant to be used this way.

I just went back and saw this post. Sorry for the delay, but I think the answer is what I just described above. You need to go into your service menu of your TV and adjust your settings there to get things to fit on the screen. It's a balancing act. Also, you can adjust the modeline settings to move things around. Each core has its own settings which makes it impossible to make everything fit perfectly. You said there is too much overscan to the left. You can go to this site and plug in your numbers, then press the Right button to get new numbers that will move the picture to the right. https://www.epanorama.net/faq/vga2rgb/calc.html
I just found these additional resources following a path from the previous link. They seem to be extremely helpful and I am looking forward to trying them:
http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl (The output of this can be imported into the previous link if necessary)
https://tldp.org/HOWTO/XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO/ (This helps to explain how to shrink the image if it is too big, etc.)

Thanks a lot for the info. Looks promising. I hope to find the sweet spot with a proper modeline.

Maybe some slight adjust in the Service Mode wont matter for the other cores...But i spent a long time with neogeo and snes video patterns

[thorr]

Glad to help. Hope it helps. I was just going to add that when creating your own custom modes, you want close to 15.73 KHz and 59.94 Hz but both numbers are flexible. That is why I am excited about the xtiming link because it has ranges.

I just started playing with the xtiming link and it gives you a starting point that is out of range, but these numbers can then be put into the first link and adjust the MHz number until the other two numbers are correct. It gets tricky because you need to play with the MHz and non-resolution numbers to get it exact and there are rules to follow, which is where the how-to link comes into play.

I also did something similar with the SNES and found that it wasn't great for other cores. What I ended up doing is trying a bunch of cores and several games including on Genesis, NES, and SNES and got a sense of what all of them were doing and found a happy medium that would work for all of them. Then I adjusted my settings to that happy medium and tested again until I was happy.

[thorr]

Here is what vmode 4 and vmode 5 "should" do on your set: https://youtu.be/W0ScMbmXMG8?t=32 I tried to capture what it would look like. This is a Samsung GXE consumer set that is RGB modded. It's been a while since I had this setup, I might have been running UniVBE (SDD 5.X) (command is univbe -c2) along with vmode to get the video modes to switch.

Thanks for the info. I just got the 300 game version and ran the update script. I am getting command not found when I try to run vmode. Do I need to get this separately? univbe -c2 works. Thanks!

[akeley]

It's a balancing act and personal preference where you set things up in your service menu.

I thought these smaller borders might be due to your tweaking of service menu settings, so I just wanted to make sure, in case I missed something in the .ini. I'll leave it as is, it's not a big problem. About service menu, as you say, it's a balancing act and any drastic changes will inevitably mess up other cores. At the moment my service menu settings are adjusted using SNES NTSC 240p suite and this works okay for majority of other cores, because their output is mostly in line with the real hardware. And what we're doing here with ao486 is certainly non-standard.

@_javi_ you can check, perhaps your TV has option called "RGB centering", or something similar, in the "normal" menu. Some newer sets have this, it's a godsend when it comes to horizontal centering. If not, then you'll have to dive into service menu. Perhaps it can be adjusted with modelines, but this is not an operation for the faint-hearted ...certainly not for beginners. You touch one value and 5 others will go out of whack...and what might look ok in one core will produce artifacts in another.

@Flynnsbit: thanks this video is very interesting, since DOS looks ok, and also the whole screen is filled in games. Any chance you still have the config used in this setup?

[_javi_]

@_javi_ you can check, perhaps your TV has option called "RGB centering", or something similar, in the "normal" menu. Some newer sets have this, it's a godsend when it comes to horizontal centering. If not, then you'll have to dive into service menu. Perhaps it can be adjusted with modelines, but this is not an operation for the faint-hearted ...certainly not for beginners. You touch one value and 5 others will go out of whack...and what might look ok in one core will produce artifacts in another.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, theres no such option in this Sony.

These parameters are what works the best, so far..

[ao486]
;select Full Screen within core OSD menu
direct_video=1
vscale_mode=0
vscale_border=1
video_mode=640,0,58,86,240,1,3,18,12350

(thats the most i can force to the right, using https://www.epanorama.net/faq/vga2rgb/calc.html)

I'll start playing, enjoying it as it is.
Thanks again.

[FoxbatStargazer]

My understanding was that direct_video makes your modeline pointless. Its just going to ask the core for whatever resolution it feels like (which seems to be something like 1440 x 240). I think on this core it also adds some side border to go with the top border on 200p games, to try and have the viewable game area match a 4:3 aspect ratio. You can try to compensate with your TV menu but it will probably throw things way off for other content. Better would be to shut off direct_video and find a useable modeline. You can use the HV integer scale options in conjunction with different resolution widths to adjust the effective border on the left and right, at least within 200p games.

[FoxbatStargazer]

BTW here's some 1440x240 settings I found that work for me, this may work with HDMI->analog converters.

video_mode=1440,40,136,176,240,3,10,6,27000
direct_video=0
vscale_border=20
vscale_mode=0

Video settings in the core:
aspect ratio: full
scale: HV Integer(- or +)

over on scaling filter page: "no interpolation"

DOS text will run edge-to-edge (so may disappear into overscan) but will be pixel-perfect in width and exactly half resolution height. 200p DOS games will have some black border on either side which will get pretty close to 4:3 aspect ratio along with the border on the top/bottom. change scale from HV Integer to Normal if you'd rather have games run to the edge.

[flynnsbit]

Here is what vmode 4 and vmode 5 "should" do on your set: https://youtu.be/W0ScMbmXMG8?t=32 I tried to capture what it would look like. This is a Samsung GXE consumer set that is RGB modded. It's been a while since I had this setup, I might have been running UniVBE (SDD 5.X) (command is univbe -c2) along with vmode to get the video modes to switch.

Thanks for the info. I just got the 300 game version and ran the update script. I am getting command not found when I try to run vmode. Do I need to get this separately? univbe -c2 works. Thanks!

I can't remember if I included vmode or not, you can get it here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=133258#p133258

[akeley]

DOS text will run edge-to-edge (so may disappear into overscan) but will be pixel-perfect in width and exactly half resolution height. 200p DOS games will have some black border on either side which will get pretty close to 4:3 aspect ratio along with the border on the top/bottom. change scale from HV Integer to Normal if you'd rather have games run to the edge.

Tried these settings on my Direct Video...they do work slightly better than thorr's because there is a little bit less left/right border. DOS goes indeed into overscan though (for some reason HV integer doesn't affect it). Hmmm, which one to use then... *scratches head*.

Regarding the other angle, I did install univbe 5.3a, but the command "univbe -c2" doesn't seem to do anything, same for vmode 1-5. Most likely I'm doing something wrong though, or maybe its the fact I'm not running the 300 pack, but some self-made vhd's (with an exception of a "BOOT-DOS98.vhd", which I think comes from it). I'd rather not download this whole huge pack just to try to sort this out though...