best card for tv-out

[rude78]

Hi,

has anybody good experiences with tv-out and linux? Some information on the black border issue (the black border all arround the image, because most tv-out chips don´t do overscan as default) would be great. Are there any tools to get rid of theses borders for ati cards? I already found one for nvidia cards. What about matrox cards, i think some mplayer developer uses this card with great success.
Perhaps someone has some experiences with some high intergrated mainboard like the via epia and their tv-out.

thx,

rudi

[connyosis]

I use a Geforce 4 card and it work great with TV-Out and using the Nvidia drivers.
Highly recommended...

[mean]

It depends :
- If you want a standalone player near TV
I would vote for ATI card, great colors, no black border.
But they are harder to set-up with tv-out enabled.
I use a cheap r128 card for TV out (with passing cooling) and i don't even have a monitor connected to the PC (boot on TV).

- If you want also to use the PC as desktop and/or play, go Nvidia.

[rude78]

@mean

i want to use it as a near tv standalone player. I alread have a ati rage pro lt and got these borders. You are right is was quite difficult to persuade the ati card to make tv-out and x-server. but i did not find any tool to get rid of the black border problem. which ati card are you using?

rudi

[cjv]

@mean:

I also have a r128 (RFP) and would love to hear how you enabled overscan..or some other way you eliminated the black border?

Otherwise, the card works great with the xvidix interface.
cjv

[mean]

I use the experimental-old-cvs gatos X11 server.

It is a bit of a "secret driver", because there is a macrovision issue behine it. So gatos project keeps them quiet and don't propose binary or direct source tar ball to avoid being sued.

I have absolutely no black border an use 800x600 X11 windows with Xv acceleration.

I did collect 2 of these drivers, they are available here
http://fixounet.free.fr/gatos

At the very bottom. The first set of drivers should work for most card,
the second set is for low end radeon card (i.e. VE ...)

(source is available on gatos CVS, i put up only binary , problem of size mainly).

To use them you have to boot with tv connected to video card
Start X11 (Xfree 4.2.x) and CTRL+ALT+PLUST two times to reach 800x600

I tested these drivers with a R128 and a AIW7500, and it works in both case.

But your mileage may vary.

[rude78]

@mean

hi i didn´t test your binaries yet. I want to retell your last post to get sure that i understood everything. You recommend to use the old experimental cvs driver instead of the newest cvs driver, because tv-out will not work with the newest drivers due to macrovision issues and other legal stuff. This sounds good because i already tested the newest gatos drivers, binary release, and didn´t get tvout working. At the moment i use http://www.retinalburn.net/linux/tvout.html retinal burn adapted gatos drivers for my ati rage pro lt (mach64 chip!). tv out works but only with this borders. I think there are two possible reasons for this.
1. the driver,i use, does not switch to overscan mode
2. the tv-out chip on the mach64 chip is the problem. This means that the driver works fine with a "normal" ati rage but not with this mach64 chip...
I will post again as soon as i have tried your drivers.

thx.
rudi

[mean]

Yes exactly. Only the old CVS driver will have a chance to have TV-out working.

For the black border, 100% agreed with your analysis.
It could be due to the driver/ati-tvout utility or to the chip.

I don't know if the old CVS driver will work with mach64 based card
It don't say it won't, just that i don"t know

[rude78]

@mean

Hi,

just tried your drivers, but i only get a screwed up image. but it is a little bit bigger => less black borders. only borders at the left and right side.

perhaps i got the wrong settings in my XF86Config-4
VertRefresh is already set to 60
perhaps you can post me your config file.

thx.

Rudi

[((( atom )))]

hmm.. anybody got overscan to work under framebuffer? thats the only i am using.

[Kb_cruncher]

Interesting thread.I have a redeon8500le i want to get working with tvout under linux,i found out about the problem after
running "Womp" which is similar to "MovieX".I get tvout until x loads then nothing.I did find some info about compiling support into the kernel and configuring x in such a way ==>http://hompages.paradise.net.nz/gazzanz/Linux_Radeon-TVOutfix.rtf

I have no linux installed at the moment but am in the proccess of building an LFS(linux from scratch)distro specifically for media playback,transcoding and burning,so i guess i'll be back in a decade or so to post my success:D
All i really need is tvout working and a compatible modem,most onboard stuff of my nf7-s v2.0 are supported very well which is nice to know.

[madluther]

Nice to see another LFS / BLFS user on this forum, as for TV-out, I've blown the dust off my old H Plus card which works better under linux that it ever did under windows. I've dispensed with the pass thru cable as it kills video quality on the monitor. No stability problems at all and the real magic remote is supported by LIRC.

Mad.

[Kb_cruncher]

The hollywood plus would be nice but i don't think it supports the formats i use most like real video and matroska or am i wrong,if i am it would be a definate consideration and cheaper than a g450.

[((( atom )))]

kb_cruncher,

a media distro from scratch is a very nice idea. go ahead!

if you wat the ultimate in tv-out it's right here: http://wearcam.org/wearhow/tv-x.html

..and if you were capable of bringing this down to the framebuffer-device, i'd hang your portait on my wall!

i have a tv here with vga input and a dvd-player with rgb-output over scart as well. the latter really comes much closer to the resolution and overall-quality of the vga + has more liminance to offer. so for a cheap solution, rgb kicks ass and actually anyone could build it, if we only had the right modelines.

let me know, what you think of it..

[edit]
i have a hollywood plus lying around here as well, but never bothered to put it into my linux-box, since afaik you have to convert all non mpeg1/2 inputs to mpeg1 before sending it to the card. the same applies for dvb cards, wich older revisions btw are also capable of direct rgb-output..

[madluther]

For non mpeg formats a conversion is necessary, xine with a H+/DXR3 is capable of converting on the fly to mpeg 1 provided the original format has appropriate frame rates and frame sizes, requires libfame (http://fame.sourceforge.net/) to be installed.

[Kb_cruncher]

Its all a little beyond me.I don't have vga on my tv although my dvd player does have scart.I'm pretty confident i can get tvout working on my radeon with some hacked drivers.

[((( atom )))]

98% off all tv built beyond 1980 have vgt through scart and hardly anybody knows.. the point is, that a tv internally of course only works with rgb and any input (exept for rgb) has to be translated, so it is no special-feature and thus just built in into practically all tvs.

[Kb_cruncher]

I didn't quite understand the concept at first,but then i found http://www.xmission.com/~howardm/modelines.html and all became clear.
:D