Hello --

So after reading some forums about how to use my tv out (nvidia) and wanting to do it -- I changed my xorg.conf file to reflect my wanting to watch a dvd on the spare television I have next to me.

I have the tv attached via s-video out. I have checked
http://www.madcarters.com/gottv.png
nvidia-settings and it shows me the tv and my monitor. So, that's there.

When I play a movie in mplayer or xine I want it to be displayed on my tv, and my desktop stays on my monitor. That's the whole goal, ey. My plan is digital entertainment center...starting when my tv tuner card arrives but I'm setting up now.

I get nothing on my tv, my movie plays on the desktop. Of course.

And I find nvtv. But I don't really want to install more software - do I?

I read a persons how-to compiling xine with nvtv and all that. Cool. I don't want to recompile just yet. Right?.

So, I reboot my machine and unplug my monitor. I want to see if anything will show up on my tv -- and it does. Upon rebooting, I see my bios and hardware information -- I see grub ask me which os to boot, and I see linux start -- it's uncompressing...

Immediately following the "Press 'I' for INteractive mode" my tv screen goes blue.

I wait... I even think (but I know it won't work) to put my uname and pwd in, and enter... of course the screen stays blue.

So -- wrong refresh rates in my xorg.conf file?
Anybody have a JVC - AV-27950 that htey have plugged into their nvidia tv-out? Via S-Video? I checked google quickly but couldn't find the specs for my tv yet...

see my xorg.conf file============================

# XFree86 4 configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
# Load "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
# Option "Xleds" "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
# Option "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults). For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
# Option "XkbModel" "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
# Option "XkbModel" "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# or:
# Option "XkbLayout" "de"
# Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
# Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
#
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "GATEWAY CS70"
DisplaySize 330 240
HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX (generic)"
Option "TwinView"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
Option "MetaModes" "1024x768, 1024x768; 800x600, 800x600; 640x480, 640x480;"
Option "TVStandard" "Pal-G"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection

=================end file==================
Do I simply need to add another "monitor" section?
I'll use nvtv if I have to, and recompile xine -- I thought that would be last, if necessary.

Thanks

machiner

You do not need the specs for your TV. Also you did not specify any settings for resolution and refresh rate. You have to include some modelines in order for X to display something. The modelines goes in the monitor section. Go to http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/ to help you generate some modelines. You will need to change
Option "MetaModes" "1024x768, 1024x768; 800x600, 800x600; 640x480, 640x480;"
to
Option "MetaModes" "1152x864, NULL; 1024x768, 1024x768; 800x600, 800x600; 640x480, 640x480;"

The NULL tells twinview to not do anything at the resolution for either output device in this case TV. If you have trouble with resolution 1024x768, specify NULL for the second 1024x768. Some nvidia drivers do no have support for 1024x768 when using twinview with TV although the hardware can handle it.

After all of that, X should be working. All you need to do is hit CTL+ALT+- or CTL+ALT++ to zoom in or zoom out to activate TV out. xine, mplayer, vlc, and many other commands should display its windows at 0,0 (top left corner) when viewing in fullscreen mode.

Thanks for your reply -- wife commandeered the "spare" tv for a little while, so I'll try tomorrow.

I had a suspicion it was refresh rates and I found another tutorial here:
http://www.linuxnetmag.com/en/issue7/m7tvout1.html

Thanks again,

machiner

You are thinking too much. Its not the refresh rate for TV. Its the resolution that you set. That is why I showd you the NULL value in metamodes. Televisions has their own circuit to control its display so all it needs is an NTSC or PAL signal from one of its inputs (composite or S-VIDEO).

NOTE:
tvtime gives out the best quality than xawtv, mplayer, and many other programs. By using tvtime I got about 5% to 10% increase in quality on a TV even though the wire length was about 20 - 30 feet (6 - 9 meters) with poor quality wire.