Westinghouse 17TV7C

[Tim]

Originally Posted by Phil Nelson

I think some TVs were deliberately designed with a little overscan so that customers wouldn't constantly call the repairman when components aged and black bars appeared on the edges.
Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html

About 10 to 20% overscan was normal for consumer TVs. There are 2 parameters that were (are) used when framing and inserting graphics on images. "Safe Action" and "Safe Title". "Safe Action" is considered about 90% of the rectangular broadcast image where nearly all sets will display that area to the viewer and not cut it off. "Safe Title" is normally considered as 80% of the image where all sets will display and not cut off the titles or graphics. Some professional and broadcast monitors have a "safe title generator" option so the 80% box will be displayed on screen for proper framing of titles in the studio or post production.

I agree that your set seems to overscan a bit more than this.

Here is an image I lifted from the internet illustrating the 2 parameters that I mentioned.