1 nvidia card, 2 monitors, and a tv

xtravar · 07-14-2006, 02:43 AM

I have an nVidia card with 2 DFP outs and a SVIDEO out. Right now the 2 flat panels are working great with TwinView, but I want to be able to also have TV output from this card. Is this possible, and how?

Thanks

Tuttle · 07-14-2006, 06:55 AM

Well, I'll try...
I haven't tried getting 2 monitors AND a tv out going but, if you leave the twinview config as it is and add another device, monitor and screen section to your xorg.conf - what happens? Here are the things I added, I don't use twinview at all so this might be a good starting point:

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"

    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" rightOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Mouse1" "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "TV0"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 50.0
    VertRefresh     50.0 - 60.0
EndSection

Section "Device"

    Identifier     "TV"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    Option         "RenderAccel" "1"    # [<bool>]
    Option         "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
    Option         "nologo" "1"
    Option         "TVStandard" "PAL-I"
    Option         "TVOutFormat" "composite"
    Option         "TvOverscan" "0.6"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "TV"
    Monitor        "TV0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

I have a pal tv btw (uk standard)

xtravar · 07-14-2006, 07:24 PM

Thanks- after a bit of mucking, I've improved my Xorg error greatly...

(WW) NVIDIA(1): There are only 2 CRTCs available, trimming display device list
(WW) NVIDIA(1): from "TV-0" to "".
(II) NVIDIA(1): Assigned Display Device:
(WW) NVIDIA(1): No valid modes for "1024x768"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(1): No valid modes for "800x600"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(1): No valid modes for "640x480"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(1):
(WW) NVIDIA(1): Unable to validate any modes; falling back to the default mode
(WW) NVIDIA(1): "nvidia-auto-select".
(WW) NVIDIA(1):
(WW) NVIDIA(1): No valid modes for "nvidia-auto-select"; removing.
(EE) NVIDIA(1): Unable to use default mode "nvidia-auto-select".
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadModule: "ramdac"
(II) UnloadModule: "fb"

This is where things go wrong. Any ideas?

Tuttle · 07-14-2006, 10:10 PM

Now is the time to read I think, have you read the README that nvidia supply, perhaps there is something in there... I'm not sure if your card supports more than 2 devices at a time, judging by your error messages.

Electro · 07-15-2006, 02:25 AM

Twinview only outputs to two outputs. It can be DFP and TV or DFP1 and DFP2. Though I think you can three sections in the metamodes option only if one is set as NULL. Use ConnectedMonitor to specify the monitors.

xtravar · 07-15-2006, 06:36 AM

So, does that mean it's completely impossible to output to all three at the same time, or do I have to hack together 3 screens and not worry about the twinview option?

I did what Tuttle suggested and made 2 devices for the same card- so one instance of the driver has twinview and one does not... I take it it doesn't work like that, then?

I don't even care if the SVIDEO output clones one of the DFP outputs... I just want it showing anything at all!

Tuttle · 07-15-2006, 07:33 AM

Read the nvidia README for the answer! I honestly don't know. It can't be done in windows as far as I'm aware..

Electro · 07-15-2006, 12:48 PM

No, you can not output to three displays at the same time. Only two because of hardware limitation.

Like I said in my previous post. You could bend the rules slightly. By including the following in the Device section.

Option "Twinview"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0,DFP-1,TV"
Option "Metamodes" "1024x768,1024x768,NULL;800x600,800x600,NULL;640x480,NULL,640x480"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Leftof"

What the NULL in Metamodes option does is it turns one of the output devices off so it can display to either DFP-1 or TV. All you need to do is enable the Zoom feature in X11 which is on by default. Since this is set, you just hit CTL+ALT++ or CTL+ATL+-.

If you want all three monitors to display at once, you need another video card. These days PCI video cards are hard to find. If you have a motherboard with two PCIe 16x slots, you can add a second card with out any performance drop and PCIe graphics card are very easy to find.

xtravar · 07-15-2006, 01:33 PM

Has that actually worked for you with any version of the nvidia driver?
I'm getting pretty much the same error:

(II) Setting vga for screen 0.
(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "HWcursor" "1"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0,DFP-1,TV-0"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "RenderAccel" "1"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "TwinView"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "MetaModes" "1600x1200,1600x1200,NULL;1024x768,NULL,1024x768;1600x1200,NULL,NULL;800x600,NULL,NULL;640x480,NULL, NULL"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "TVOverScan" "0.6"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-0,DFP-1,TV-0"
(**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling RENDER acceleration
(**) NVIDIA(0): Forcing SVIDEO output
(**) NVIDIA(0): TV Standard string: "NTSC-M"
(**) NVIDIA(0): TwinView enabled
(**) NVIDIA(0): ConnectedMonitor string: "DFP-0,DFP-1,TV-0"
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce 6800 at PCI:3:0:0
(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoRAM: 131072 kBytes
(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 05.40.02.12.08
(II) NVIDIA(0): Detected AGP rate: 8X
(--) NVIDIA(0): Interlaced video modes are supported on this GPU
(--) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s) on GeForce 6800 at PCI:3:0:0:
(--) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA TV Encoder (TV-0)
(--) NVIDIA(0): Dell 2001FP (DFP-0)
(--) NVIDIA(0): Dell 2001FP (DFP-1)
(--) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA TV Encoder (TV-0): 400.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
(--) NVIDIA(0): TV encoder: NVIDIA
(WW) NVIDIA(0): There are only 2 CRTCs available, trimming display device list
(WW) NVIDIA(0): from "DFP-0, DFP-1, TV-0" to "DFP-0, DFP-1".
(II) NVIDIA(0): Assigned Display Devices: DFP-0, DFP-1
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Invalid display device in Mode Description "NULL"
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode description "NULL"; unable to map to display
(WW) NVIDIA(0): device
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Invalid display device in Mode Description "1024x768"
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode description "1024x768"; unable to map to
(WW) NVIDIA(0): display device
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Invalid display device in Mode Description "NULL"
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode description "NULL"; unable to map to display
(WW) NVIDIA(0): device
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Invalid display device in Mode Description "NULL"
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode description "NULL"; unable to map to display
(WW) NVIDIA(0): device
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Invalid display device in Mode Description "NULL"
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Not using mode description "NULL"; unable to map to display
(WW) NVIDIA(0): device