Working XFree with my TV
 

I've checked up on this, and I guess I'm finding that standard TV resolutions are 512x486, according to www.catii.com/hightech/hightech016.html

My question is: How do I get X to be able to have a lower resolution than what the lowest is right now(Isn't it 600x480?) It'd help a lot if I could get it so I don't need a virtual desktop. Or, if anyone has experience with working with TV's and their boxes using an AV cable, do I need to lower the resolution? NTSC resolutions are 30 for HDTV and 60 for standard resolution, that I'm sure of.

For those of you who have a TV hooked up at all, what do you have for your refresh rate settings and sync settings?

Edit:
This comes from http://www.ee.washington.edu/consele.../ntsc/95x4.htm :
|_______lines____active__vertical__aspect__horizontal_frame rate
|_______________lines__resolution_ratio__resolution
NTSC____525_____484____242_____4/3_____427_____29.94

Quick followup:

I'm going to try just using the lowest resolution with my AV cable. I found this page: http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.0/nsc.4.html so I think that might help me out a little. Wish me luck!

Um, so far I havn't had any luck. I tried changing my settings around, but to no avail. Does anybody here have their linux box set up to their tv at all? If so, do you believe there's a standard setting for the sync values et al for tv's in general?

Hi dont know if I can help you, but what kind of video card do you got? And what kind of port do you use on the card? (svideo or composite).

Anyway I got my tv hooked up using the twinview option for nvidia cards, and my tv got no problem with 800x600 res. Most tvs as far as I know use between 50 and 60 Hz. My tvs PAL-B so it might be different though. Anyway if you got an nvidia card i can post my XF86config options for you. If its ati try search the forum for xinerama.

Hope this will be of some use.

MadNewbie

I forget what model my video card is, I'll look it up the next time I get the chance. All I really know is that it's 5/6 years old, has S-Video and Composite out, and I use Composite(Or is it component, I'm too tired to figure out, whichever is the crappy version), since my TV doesn't have S-Vid(It's an old TV).

Followup:

It's a RIVA TNT, I don't know anything else besides that. I believe it has 16MB because I think that's what I have it set up for to have in X, but I'm not positive.

I am sorry, but I am not familiar with the RIVA TNT, but I belive you can use nvidia drivers for them. Here is what I added in my XF86Config to use twinview:

Under section device

Option "Twinview" "1"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
Option "MetaModes" "800x600, 800x600"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT, TV"
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"

Obvious you would need to change some of the settings a bit, but it might get you started. Also do you get picture on the tv?

By the way there is a program called nvtv you can try out as well. (I didnt get it to work 100%, but I read somewhere that it wasnt tested on RH systems.

MadNewbie

Thanks for the settings, I'll try it, I don't think it could hurt anything. When I connect the computer to the TV via the a/v cable, the TV registers that data's coming through, it's just that it's all scrambled, kinda like what it looks like when trying to watch scrambled premium TV channels(Before Digital Cable took them all....). So I'll try that setting, hopefully it'll work. It'll just have to wait until I get wineX running somewhat(I'm trying to use the CVS version. It's my first time trying to install a cvs version of a program, is there any difference other than just getting it?)

Oh, for TVStandard, you have "PAL-B". My TV is ntsc, think I have to change that to something like "NTSC-A" or "NTSC-B" or something along those lines?