TV-Out and 50Hz

[wasima]

Hello,
I have a GEForce 4MX card and have installed the 1.0-4363 drivers. I can finally start using AGP which is great! However I still have this little problem with TV-Out.

As I'm in the UK we have a 50Hz TV system, but it seems as though I'm only allowed to specify a 60Hz TV in the configuration. I believe this is why, when watching dvds with a lot of action, often the bottom half of the screen lags the top half by a frame - very unsettling!

I haven't found anything through google on this matter that I can use (nvtv does not seem to like the card very much). Any help would be much appreciated.

BTW, here's the device section from my XF86Config-4:

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVidia GE-Force 4MX"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NvAGP" "1"
Option "UseEdidFreqs" "true"
Option "CursorShadow" "true"
Option "TwinView"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
# Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT, TV"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-I"
# Option "TVOutFormat" "Composite"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option "MetaModes" "1600x1200,800x600; 1280x1024,800x600; 1024x768,800x600; 800x600,800x600; 640x480,640x480"
EndSection

Thanks,

Wasim.

[Andy Mecham]

What happens when you specify 50Hz as the refresh? Can you provide a verbose X log?

--andy

[wasima]

That was a quick reply! I've attached the log as produced when I change 60 to 50. In simplest terms, "it don't work"!

Thanks,

Wasim.

[alien999999999]

maybe try to add a valid modeline for you TV.

use 'gtf 800 600 50' & 'gtf 640 480 50' i think that's the command name, not sure about that, it seems to me that that would most likely help your situation

Alien

[kow]

If he does a modeline, he'll probably have to tag on "Interlace" on the end (I think PAL is interlaced, right?).

There are a couple issues with this, though. Only some of the Nvidia chipset-based cards support that interlace option (the list was specified in one of the old driver readmes, maybe 4191 otherwise earlier). The second issue is that the interlace mode support in the drivers has been broken.

I would suggest trying Andy's thing again, but using the ignore EDID option in your config file(you'll have to reference the readme for the specific line). I'm no pro though, so don't put some weird setting in and blow up your screens.

[wasima]

I've tried using IgnoreEDID - still no luck :-(

I'm editing the XF86Config-4 file to use 2 different displays (app-r in the readme) - I'll report if it works or not. It's not the most fascinating file to edit!

Thanks,

Wasim.

[wasima]

Still no luck :-(

With the Config attached the log file tells me:

(II) NVIDIA(1): Not using mode "800x600@50" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan)

BTW I have a GeForce4 MX 440SE

and then goes ahead and uses 1024x768@60Hz (I thought 800x600 was the maximum for TV-Out)

Setting the refresh rate to 50Hz does not even get me into X.

Any ideas, or do I accept defeat graciously? It seems that with the new AGP8x, or due to some other change, there appears to be a little less of that split screen momentary glitch, but it's still there.

Thanks,

Wasim.

[kow]

Where's the log for your original config file? I guess I didn't pay enough attention to your original post, but now that I look at it I don't know if I buy into your theory about the card popping out a 60hz interlaced signal when you specified the pal-i standard. If it was doing that, I'd expect you'd be getting wacky video all of the time and not just when movie action gets intense.

[alien999999999]

Originally posted by wasima
Still no luck :-(

With the Config attached the log file tells me:

(II) NVIDIA(1): Not using mode "800x600@50" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan)

BTW I have a GeForce4 MX 440SE

and then goes ahead and uses 1024x768@60Hz (I thought 800x600 was the maximum for TV-Out)

Setting the refresh rate to 50Hz does not even get me into X.

Any ideas, or do I accept defeat graciously? It seems that with the new AGP8x, or due to some other change, there appears to be a little less of that split screen momentary glitch, but it's still there.

Thanks,

Wasim.


Idon't know if it is me, but you have way too much devices, monitors, ...

you want TV as a only display right?

use:

connectedMonitor "null, TV"
twinview
twinview orientation "clone"

secondmonitorvertrefresh 50-60 !this should help alot
secondmonitorhoriz 30-70


and do get different XFconfig files...

try not to get everythin in one file....
just copy the one you need over the XFConfig-4

good luck

[wasima]

I've attached the log file that I get with the original config, but with VertRefresh 50-60. It seems to say that it's running the TV at 60Hz. Incidentally there is some flicker under normal circumstances that makes reading almost impossible, but general film scenes are watchable. It's really when there is action that there are problems. The same scenes on the monitor (either when using clone or separately) appear perfectly fine - so it shouldn't be a processing speed issue.

I've only got a monitor and a tv. I'm really trying to get both working together. I'll try out the suggestion with one display at a time to see if it helps. Though it's not really what I wanted, I guess I can exit X between watching films and doing work. It's a hard choice which version to run :-)

Wasim.

[ollelgn]

Try adding the following line to your Monitor Section:

# PAL 50
ModeLine "800x600x50" 33.1584 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628

And to your device or screen-section:
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "50-85"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024,800x600x50; 1024x768,800x600x50; 800x600, 80
0x600x50"

Works fine for me with PAL-B, the xfree logs tells me that valid modes for TV are 800x600 in 50 Hz