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System specs:
Athlon XP 1800+
DFI NFII Infinity
512MB Corsair PC3200 ValueRAM
MSI GF4 MX440 128MB (Pulled from Gateway computer)
Pinnacle PCTV Pro card (for MythTV)
OS Specs:
linux-2.6.8.1
Arch 0.7 (Wombat)
Latest nvidia drivers, glxgears works fine
Problem:
I can't get TV out to show anything. POST does not show on the TV, kernel boot does not show on the TV, and X doesn't show on the TV. nvtv's query can't find an encoder chip, and nvidia-settings shows no TV connected.
Reboot into Windows XP using the 61.77 forceware drivers, and bam, it works great. The picture is bright and reasonably crisp (for a TV) and I couldn't be happier. I would use Windows and SageTV for my PVR setup, but the PCTV isn't supported under Windows (it should be, but nothing works... but it works great under linux)
I've had my GF2 and GF3 working with TV on this exact system, albeit different installs of the OS. I don't want to use them because they have external encoder chips (hence lower quality than the onboard encoders on the GF4 MX440) and the are also actively cooled - something I don't want for an HTPC.
Normally I'd opt for a TV tuning or cable fault in your situation but it works in M$ so I'm a bit mystified.
Seriously, nothing in either Windows or Linux will stop your card displaying basic BIOS info out all available ports during PC boot so we must look deeper.
Are you using a native s-video out port on the VGA, a native s-video cable and a native s-video in port on the TV or are there a series of adapters in there?
How is it that the card DOES show BIOS info when booting to M$ but not to Linux? How does it know what you are going to choose from grub/lilo?
Or is it that you get the BIOS stuff but none of the Linux boot stuff? if this is the case then it's all down to your xorg.conf file (or xfree86.conf file)......post it here with all the rubbish edited out and we'll have a look.
Old is no matter Stupid, that why these threads aren't archived.
The TV out of the card should be active during the BIOS boot before you have even selected which OS to run. If you are not getting anything at all then there is a problem with the configuration of the TV and/or cables. The phono plug output should be picked up by any scart input given a suitable cable/adapter but the S-video o/p might only be registered by a dedicated s-video input on your TV (kinda depends).
A handy tip here is to get into the BIOS edit menus so that you have plenty of time to checkout how your TV accepts the signal without continually rebooting the PC.
Once that bit is working then the rest is really just a few edits in the xorg.conf file....see the DEVICE section below
My MX4000 just worked, straight out the box. I had to configure xorg.conf to get it to pass X down the phono output but BIOS readings should ALWAYS appear on your TV screen if you have the cables set up right.
Think very carefully.....when windoze makes it work it waits until after it has booted the GUi right? SO that is equivalent to a post X boot in linux...therefore either work out how to get X to use the card (read the superb nvidia howto from NVidia and edit your xorg.conf appropriatetly or go through the BIOS first, X later routine above.
Trust me, you should always get the BIOS output on your TV whether it be windoze, linux, mac or atari.
Many thanks for your reply. It is at least comforting to know that it should all work.
Regarding cables - I just plug one end in the TV and the other in the card. I cant imagine any other possible configurations!
In your second paragraph you refer to "go through the BIOS first, X later routine above." I am not aware of any BIOS settings which would affect the TV out but I could be wrong. Can you enlarge on this please.
Would appreciate a peek at your Xorg.conf setup in this respect and like krock923, would be grateful for a pointer to the nvidia "howto"
Many thanks for your reply. It is at least comforting to know that it should all work.
Regarding cables - I just plug one end in the TV and the other in the card. I cant imagine any other possible configurations!
In your second paragraph you refer to "go through the BIOS first, X later routine above." I am not aware of any BIOS settings which would affect the TV out but I could be wrong. Can you enlarge on this please.
Would appreciate a peek at your Xorg.conf setup in this respect and like krock923, would be grateful for a pointer to the nvidia "howto"
IK
my xorg.conf is a few posts up
the nvidia_readme is right where it should be linked from the nvidia instructions on the page you downloaded the nvidia module from when you first installed your nvidia card. ;_)
SCROLL DOWN TO APPENDIX H
The cable configuration refers more to what your TV can sense....on boot the VGA is not capable of transmitting all video signals...from memory I think it is only phono that comes on through the TV-out at boot. Many TV's won't accept this signal through a SCART lead and even more cheap SCART leads won't pass it at all. If you aren't even getting to see the card BIOS stuff & your PC BIOS screens on your TV at boot time then this problem applies to your TV/cable settings. If you are sure that windos or whatever works fine then skip straight to setting up X.....if you can't confirm that your cables etc are okay then you might be wasting your time changing a working X when it was a cheap/broken cable/Tv causing you grief.
Yes, once you install the proper nvidia driver instead of the distro default (PCLOS) and you explicitly edit Xorg.conf to include - Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV" all X video is directed out of the svhs/composite socket to the TV.
Now I have some screen res issues to deal with but otherwise very good.
However - Having no video during boot-up means that I will need to have the normal monitor available and connected to the VGA out at all times. Also probably better to configure it for twinview.
I can only assume that for some reason, my TV is not automatically detected by the MX4000 and I can't see how I can resolve this issue without knowing what it is this graphics card is looking for ( in the way of load impedance possibly ) on the TV-out port
The MX4000 isn't capable of sensing your TV down any port. It is only capable of such communication with your PC monitor via the VGA lead.
Most TVs without a dedicated svideo port are only capable of displaying an svideo (also called shvs or yc) signal on SCART1/AV1 and often you'll have to get into the TV menus to turn it from composite or RGB to s-video. The differnce between svideo and composite is the way that chromiance is handled (colour) so you should always get a picture. RGB isn't so helpful and if you're defaulted to that you might get no image at all. The problem is that the signal output of the MX4000 isn't set until X boots and IIRC the default TV-out format is not at a handy resolution but it is in composite. My TV auto shapes it to fit but then I also route video through a power amp for domestic distribution. Anyway, the point is that so long as you have video don't worry about it but I would 'guess' that tweaking your TV settings and/or switching your cables over might solve your no-BIOS screen trouble.
Thanks for your informative reply, otchie1. I'm surprised that the mx4000 does not auto-sense on it TV-out port. My old ATI certainly did. Anyways, I'm 90% certain that there is no video coming out of that port during boot-up. My TV is auto sensing and multi-standard. You can throw pretty much any signal at it and it will sync up fine.
Playing around with Xorg.conf this morning I noticed an interesting line commented out and not generated by me: something like "TV full svreen video / DVD" I havent tried to uncomment it yet as it doesn't appear to comply with any Xorg command syntax, but it is intriguing because the same words appear in the Windoze gui for the card. When I select that option in Windoze it behaves exactly as I need - ie full screen video during playback of DVDs and AVI files using any of the available media players. There seem to be a multidude of "controls" available but only a few documented for use in Xorg.conf.
Do you know of any source for the complete command set - eg are the nvidia people amenable to technical questions like this?
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