TV-OUT on nVidia, almost there.......

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot · 05-10-2006, 03:46 PM

G'day
ive been trying to get the TV-out running on my GeForce 6600GT for a while now. i have it partially running. apparently i can see the tv-out but my LCD mmonitor shuts of saying there is no input siginal. the xorg.conf file ive been working on that has this peculiar problem is here :

Quote:

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

Section "Files"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, a font server independent of the X server is
# used to render fonts.
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

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

Section "InputDevice"
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 "LCD Panel 1280x1024"
HorizSync 31.5 - 67.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600/GeForce 6600 GT]"
Option "TwinView" "yes"
Option "MetaModes" "1024x768,1024x768;800x600,800x600"
Option "TVStandard" "NTCS-M" #or PAL-B etc.
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE" #or COMPOSITE
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "LCD, TV"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group 0
Mode 0666
EndSection

now what im trying to do is have an exact clone of my monitor show up on my tv screen hence i used twinview. this file works perfectly on the tv but from some reason my monitor doesnt get any input siginal. i know its just a small fix to get the monitor running so i was hoping someone could suggest something.

thanx.

slackmagic · 05-10-2006, 04:36 PM

hey there WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot,

I have a nVidia Geforce 6600 (definitely not as great as your GT version but it's still nice :P). I also have mine set up for TWINVIEW which is a nice way of watching movies on both screens (CRT and TV)

Take a look at my /etc/X11/xorg.conf set up and you should be able to get yours working in no time

I added some extra comments in blue font which may help you much easier spotting the things you really need to get your TWINVIEW setup working

Code:

# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "GeForce 6600"
    Driver      "nvidia"
#   VideoRam    262144
    
    Option      "NvAgp" "3"
    Option      "DigitalVibrance" "0"
    Option      "NoLogo" "1"
    Option	"RenderAccel" "true"
    
    Option      "TwinView" "TRUE"
needs to be set true of course if you like twinview
    Option      "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
clone display1 to display2
    Option "HorizSync" "CRT-0: 30-96; TV-0: 40-70"
set the frequencies of both your display devices
    Option "VertRefresh" "CRT-0: 50-160; TV-0: 60"
set the frequencies of both your display devices
    Option "MetaModes" "1600x1200,1024x768;1280x1024,1024x768;1024x768,1024x768;800x600,800x600;640x480,640x480"
set your resolutions corresponding to displaydevice1 / displaydevice2 (for example 1600x1200 on my CRT will display a 1024x768 resolution on my TV
    Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT,TV"
order of display devices CRT=1, TV=2
    Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
    Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
#    Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "TV"
  
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Screen 1"
    Device      "GeForce 6600"
    Monitor     "SyncMaster 997DF"

#   DefaultDepth 8
#   DefaultDepth 16
   DefaultDepth 24
#   DefaultDepth 32

    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       32
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubsection

EndSection

good luck!

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot · 05-10-2006, 05:41 PM

I tried out most of the stuff you mentioned but the problem persists. with that kind of xorg only my TV works, i checked it in the nvidia settings even and it only showed the tv there, no sign of the LCD. heres what my device section looks like

Quote:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600/GeForce 6600 GT]"
Option "TwinView" "TRUE"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x768,800x600;1024x768,640x480"
Option "TVStandard" "NTCS-M"
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "LCD,TV"
EndSection

anything i am doing wrong here ? i dint include the frequencies as i am not sure what ther are for the TV. the LCD monitors freq is there in the xorg under section monitor.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot · 05-10-2006, 05:50 PM

could you perhaps show your complete xorg.conf file ? there might be something in the serverlayout section that i might need to do as i see you have your outpus set to screen 1 while mine is by default set to screen0.

slackmagic · 05-10-2006, 06:00 PM

hm very odd, your config looks just fine to me but then again I don't use or have LCDs either.

A possible downside with the above config is that it generally requires both monitors to be turned on when issuing the command "startx" or when gdm loads.

So, if x doesn't find both monitors, it falls back to the non-twin view setup and you'll have to restart x with the second monitor turned on.

A way around this is to add to section device to override detection of attached displays.

Code:

Section "Device"
 ...
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT,CRT"
 ...
End Section

If you use DVI cables with your LCD monitor then replace CRT with DFP (digital flat panel).

The inverse is important: if you use your LCD in analog mode (non-dvi cable) you should refer to the monitor as "CRT". You can also change the order here.

So again, if you're using a DVI cable on your LCD, change

Code:

 Option "ConnectedMonitor" "LCD,TV"

TO

Code:

 Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP,TV"

and see if that works

Good luck!

slackmagic · 05-10-2006, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

could you perhaps show your complete xorg.conf file ? there might be something in the serverlayout section that i might need to do as i see you have your outpus set to screen 1 while mine is by default set to screen0.

Actually it doesnt matter if you call it Screen0 or Screen1 as long as you use the proper identifiers in your ServerLayout section.

Try what I've put up in the previous reply before this and see if that works out for you.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot · 05-10-2006, 07:37 PM

Sweet ! changing LCD to DFP made the difference, now both TV and LCD are working at the same time

there is one small problem though, i cant figure out the problem with the TV's rez. ive set the metamode as "1280x1024, 640x480" as the tv is old and supports 640x480 only but the tv seems like its running on 1280x1024 :s

Quote:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600/GeForce 6600 GT]"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "TwinView" "TRUE"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP,TV"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "HorizSync" "LCD-0: 31.5-67; TV-0: 40-70"
Option "VertRefresh" "LCD-0: 50-75; TV-0: 60"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024,640x480"
Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"
EndSection

not sure how to fix this, any ideas ?

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot · 05-10-2006, 08:12 PM

Ohh well, i have an idea whats happening here. the metamodes have rez for the LCD monitor and then for how much of the TV covers the main LCD monitor. i realized this when iset the tv's rez from 640x480 to 400x300 and i saw thet the images on the TV got even bigger!! i then tried setting it to 1024x768 and the TV image covered most of the desktop now.
sadly, this works only uptil 1024x768 rez. if i set both the LCD and TV to 1280x1024 ( which i normally use ) the TV goes blank. i guess the composite cable aint able to carry so much info or what i dont know but to use the TV i have to use 1024x768

i was wondering if there is a way around this ? cant i specify what rez the TV should be ? infact that is what you said i was doing in the MetaModes section, dont know why it aint working that way.

slackmagic · 05-10-2006, 10:13 PM

take a look at your xorg.conf again

Code:

 Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP,TV"
 Option "HorizSync" "LCD-0: 31.5-67; TV-0: 40-70"
Option "VertRefresh" "LCD-0: 50-75; TV-0: 60"

There you have it. At one point you define DFP and in the other you define LCD (which actually does not exist) so change that.

so here is what I would do:

Code:

 Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP,TV"
 Option "HorizSync" "DFP-0: 31.5-67; TV-0: 40-70"
Option "VertRefresh" "DFP-0: 50-75; TV-0: 60"

take a look at my xorg.conf again

Code:

    Option "MetaModes" "1600x1200,1024x768;1280x1024,1024x768;1024x768,1024x768;800x600,800x600;640x480,640x480"
set your resolutions corresponding to displaydevice1 / displaydevice2 (for example 1600x1200 on my CRT will display a 1024x768 resolution on my TV

My TV does not go higher than 1024x768 and most TVs won't. I haven't looked into HDTVs with nvidia drivers but I believe they're supported only if your video card supports those. So at this point you'll just have to do with 1024x768 like I do but perhaps someone else knows more about this issue as I've never really worried about that part. Make sure you set your resolutions for each resolution you set your DFP up with, for example if there is a 1280x1024 on your DFP make sure you give it a co-existing resolution with your TV.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot · 05-11-2006, 02:15 AM

thanx for correcting me in that, i totally missed the LCD to DFP thing. anyways that dint make any difference. let me describe to you what i see :

at 1280x1024 the tv is set to 1024x768. the tv does not cover the entire desktop, covers parts from the top left corner.

at 1024x768 the tv is set to 1024x768. the tv fits the desktop perfectly.

at 800x600 the tv is set to 800x600. the tv does not show anything.

at 640x480 the tv is set to 640x480. tv works perfectly.

from what i can tell, the tv doesnt like 800x600 and works at 1024x768, only if the desktop is at the same rez

now i cant tell what the maximum rez of the tv is but its a really really old panasonic ( heck it supports mono audio only ) so never mind HDTV or s-video. anyways, it doesnt make any sense why the tv works properly with 1024 only if the screen is in that rez and not if the screen is higher. i am at a loss to explain this.

slackmagic · 05-11-2006, 03:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

at 1280x1024 the tv is set to 1024x768. the tv does not cover the entire desktop, covers parts from the top left corner.

That's how my setup is due to the fact that my CRT display resolution is much higher than the one my TV/video with S-VIDEO supports.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

at 1024x768 the tv is set to 1024x768. the tv fits the desktop perfectly.

yep same here

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

at 800x600 the tv is set to 800x600. the tv does not show anything.

that's very odd - my TV works perfectly fine with any of the following resolutions: 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

at 640x480 the tv is set to 640x480. tv works perfectly.

yep same for me

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot

from what i can tell, the tv doesnt like 800x600 and works at 1024x768, only if the desktop is at the same rez

now i cant tell what the maximum rez of the tv is but its a really really old panasonic ( heck it supports mono audio only ) so never mind HDTV or s-video. anyways, it doesnt make any sense why the tv works properly with 1024 only if the screen is in that rez and not if the screen is higher. i am at a loss to explain this.

like i said it's very odd why your tv wouldn't work with 800x600 on both display devices. Make sure you've set all possible resolution in your Metamodes lines within your xorg.conf

if you look at my xorg.conf again, I've set up all proper / parallel resolutions for CRT as well as TV to make sure it doesn't get confused as to which resolutions to use (that's maybe why it does blank out ?! - not sure)

other than that this is the exact same set up for my twinview. I barely use other resolutions because I prefer 1600x1200 on my CRT as well as use 1024x768 as that is the highest my hardware allows me to have. When I play movies and such, I usually run mplayer invoked with the -vo svga switch which plays everything centered on both display devices - hence no need to play around with the size or trying to fit it on the tv screen (although I sometimes like to watch a movie as well as watch tv that way (I have a tv tuner card in my system)

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot · 05-11-2006, 04:19 AM

wow, mplayer does that ? i gotta figure out if Xine does that. for now i have to change to 1024x768 everytime i wanna watch something on the tv. its interesting that your mplayer configures the video automatically so it fits the TV even though the desktop is clipped. heck, i might even switch to it :P

anyways, doing all this editing is a serious pain. im trying to make some sort of GTK tool that allows the xorg to be configured automatically though i wonder if my limited programming skills will take me that far. anyways, thanx a lot for ur help and BTW, my 6600GT may be a bit faster that your 6600, but you still got twice as much ram as me, someting to think abt

slackmagic · 05-11-2006, 04:52 AM

not if my system is 5 years old and it's using the old RDRAM modules :P (my system is very slow - I could use a new system which hopefully will last me for another 5 years lol)

and you're very welcome

P.S.: I don't use XINE...never really liked it - have been using mplayer ever since I've heard about it and that's a pretty long time ago

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot · 05-13-2006, 07:18 PM

anyone keen on knowing what the final xorg.conf file looks like, here it is. you can compare it with my older xorg file above to see what has been done.

Code:

# Created on 10th May 2006. Supports cloned TV-out. Dont modify !!!!

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

Section "Files"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, a font server independent of the X server is
# used to render fonts.
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "unix/:7100"
EndSection

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

Section "InputDevice"
	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    "LCD Panel 1280x1024"
	HorizSync    31.5 - 67.0
	VertRefresh  50.0 - 75.0
	Option	    "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "nvidia"
	VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
	BoardName   "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600/GeForce 6600 GT]"
	Option	"RenderAccel" "true"
	Option      "TwinView" "TRUE"
	Option    "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP,TV"		#DFP -Digital Flat Pannel, used for DVI-LCDs
	Option      "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
	Option "HorizSync" "DFP-0: 31.5-67; TV-0: 40-70"
	Option "VertRefresh" "DFP-0: 50-75; TV-0: 60"
	Option      "MetaModes" "1280x1024,1024x768;1024x768,1024x768;800x600,800x600;640x480,640x480"
	Option      "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
	Option      "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
		Modes    "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1280x1024"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group        0
	Mode         0666
EndSection