I bought a NOW tv box last week and am having trouble with the aspect ratios.

Whatever we view through the NOW TV box the picture doesn't fit the screen properly. Whatever I do with it the picture is too big for the screen. For example on YouTube the menu is half off the left hand side of the screen. On iPlayer it normally says BBC on the top left of the screen. But I only get the 'C' the rest is cut off.
The same problem exists with ITV player, 4OD, Demand5 and everything else we have used.

The top and bottom are also wrong. The bottom bar on BBC News is only half on the screen.

I have tried both the 16:9 and 4:3 settings on the Now TV box in combinations with the settings on the TV (4:3, 16:9, wide, zoom) and none of them get it quite right. (16:9 with wide is the best).

Is this normal with NOW TV or is there something I can do about it?

My TV is a 36 inch Sony Trinitron CRT so I have the NOW TV box wired up through a scart adapter for composite.

Now TV has loads of overscan for some reason.

There's no way of changing it.

The fact you are using a CRT will be compounding the problem further.

Thanks. Looks like I will just have to live with it. Its watchable, just a bit annoying.

I used to have loads of Aspect ratio problems, exactly as you describe when I had a CRT.

All went away when I moved to a more modern TV. Never get any of these issues on any of my HD TVs anymore, and I have loads of different STBs connected to them, including a NOW TV.

I am guessing you still have a CRT for a reason. Perhaps it is time to change?

I still use a CRT because until now I've had no problem with it. The stb and old Top Up TV box, WII and DVD player don't have aspect ration problems.

Its actually one of the last top of the range Sony models and is a damn good telly which was going foc to a good home. The design of my living room means a new telly wouldn't save any space so I've had no reason to spend the money.

I notice a lot of people are on their third or fourth new TV. I've spent £25 on tellies in 20 years so I'm happy to stick with the CRT.

I was hoping the NOW TV would change it into a smart TV, which, aspect ratio problems aside, it by and large has done. I intend to get a BT Youview box next year, hopefully that will work better with the catch up services.

The composite output from NowTV is 525-line NTSC, since it's just a reprogrammed US Roku box. Most TVs designed for 625-line PAL/NTSC will cope, but (as you've discovered) may not display the picture to fill the screen correctly. There's no solution, unless the TV has some settings to optimize it for 525-line video.