flicker in picture. Tv out.

[andmar20]

Hi!

When playing a DivX movie or other movies
on my Tv set (Sharp 28HW-53E), the picture flickers or is jerky, when there is some movement in the screen.

My graphics card is a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 from
Pixelview.

I had the exact same problem when I had
a Geforce 2MX and an old Tv with Scart.
On my Sharp I connect using both S-video from the Geforce4, and the S-video in in the
front panel.

I'm using TwinView, and I notice that the
flicker in the picture is also present on my monitor. I have also tried Tv-out in Windows, with the same result.

Waching a movie on my monitor without connecting a TV is perfectly fine.

This problem has really bothered me for
a long time, and was part of the reason why I upgraded to a Geforce 4.
Could a low-quality S-video cable produce
such a result ?

I have included my XF86Config below:

Option "TwinView"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
Option "MetaModes" "800x600,800x600;1280x1024,NULL"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"

Martin.

[ernestus]

Hmmm, having a look I think the problem is that

Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"

may not give good results with

Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"

You are choosing an European colour encoding (PAL-B) with an U.S.A. frequency (60Hz). I don't know where you live, but try "NTSC" as TVStandard (I supose you live in the States).

Luck
E.

[ernestus]

Oops, you're from Denmark, good, try 50 as refresh rate.
E.

[andmar20]

Hi!

Thx for helping out.

I changed the Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60" to

Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "50"

But then the X-server exited with the error
"No modes remaining for display device 1"

In the manual for my Sharp Tv it states "Field
frequency: Pal 50/60 Hz Capability"

And yes I do live in Denmark :-)

Martin.

[ernestus]

Okay, that's becouse there aren't any modeline available for 50 Hz, never mind, if sharp says it is 60Hz & PAL capable that's not the problem.

Well, may be I didn't understand the case:
Do you mean the image is stable if no movement is present and it becomes unstable if there is movement? (all screen messed or synchronism lost...)

Or you mean that appears pixelation or other artifacts? (squares, lost pixels, extrange colors).

I'm trying to dilucidate if it is a hardware related issue (don't panic, I mean hardware configuration) or a mere software problem.

I've got a Danish friend, she's called Siri. I haven't seen her for a long time, may be I call her ;)

E.

[andmar20]

The picure quality is good, that is the colours
are good, there are no pixelations or artifacts.

The problem happens when there is movement in the picture.
Lets say the camera moves in the vertical
direction. Then I will not see a smooth transition, but a jerky one.
This is quite annoying.

Thx.

Martin.

[ernestus]

Well, it seems like you are having problems with a X extension, surely Xv. That later is used for video output (things like colour expansion, scaling and so are then made in hardware, otherwise are "softwarised"). May be your app isn't well configured and don't recognize Xv (btw, witch one are you using?).
Somewhere I read that some versions of Ogle didn't use Xv (I don't know if it's true).
I watch DVD movies on my GF4 w/o any problems using the latest Xine.

Other possibility is you haven't enabled DMA for your DVD/CDROM device, check it. That's very usual (once it happened to me:D )

Luck!
E

[andmar20]

Hi again !

I'm using Xine as my primary movieplayer, but
the same problem is there while using mplayer
or aviplay. The system is a 1Ghz Athlon and Redhat 7.3. The disk is a 80 Gb Barracuda IV.
I'm watching divx's directly from disk. No problem with data access since the picture is smooth while only using the monitor.

Here is what xine outputs when starting a divx
with only one screen (Samsung 950p):


video_out_xv: using Xv port 119 from adaptor NV10 Video Overlay for hardware colorspace conversion and scaling.
video_out_xv: double buffering mode = 1
video_out_xv: port attribute XV_COLORKEY value is 66046
video_out_xv: port attribute XV_AUTOPAINT_COLORKEY value is 1
video_out_xv: port attribute XV_BRIGHTNESS value is 0
video_out_xv: port attribute XV_CONTRAST value is 4096
video_out_xv: port attribute XV_SATURATION value is 4096
video_out_xv: port attribute XV_HUE value is 0
video_out_xv: this adaptor supports the yuy2 format.
video_out_xv: this adaptor supports the yv12 format.
load_plugins: video output plugin Xv successfully loaded.


And Xine when both screens are active:

video_out_xv: using Xv port 119 from adaptor NV05 Video Blitter for hardware colorspace conversion and scaling.
video_out_xv: no port attributes defined.
video_out_xv: this adaptor supports the yuy2 format.
video_out_xv: this adaptor supports the yv12 format.
load_plugins: video output plugin Xv successfully loaded.

Thx again for your efforts.

Martin.

[ernestus]

My only guess is by some reason the second screen is not supported in hardware (although I see a correct xine log). :confused: I thing it's time for a nVidia support query :( .

Sorry,
have luck!
E.

[ikke]

Hi, there

I'm having the same problems. I also use PAL-B (tried most of ther others too). I have picture on the TV, but an unsharp. It's difficult to watch the subtitles when playing DVD's.
I also tried different horizontal and vertical refresh rates but the problem remains. I have the same problem under Windows.
I also have a portable with tv-SVIDEO out (S3 savage 4 chipset). When using my portable, I get an good and sharp picture. Since I use it on the same TV and with the same s-video cable, it must be a card issue (I think).
On my laptop I switch to TV with a keyboard shortcut. I therefor think that there no good mode in the xfree base.

Things I still need to try: look in my TV-manual for settings(?) and examing the xfree-logfile on my laptop for the used modes.

This reply isn't probally very helpfull, but it might....

cya l8r

[feffemannen]

I've got the same problem: When I've got TwinView enabled (with a Tv as second monitor) the screen (both on the CRT and TV) gets horizontal lines when playing movies (divx) with lots of motion. To me this looks like some kind of sync-problem, but I'm far from an expert.

Also, when I only use the TV (without TwinView) everything works just fine!!!

Anyone got any ideas?

(Using GeForce 4 MX 400)

/Fredrik

[thormj]

From the Readme, it says certain things that work only with one
display will not work in TwinView.

I assume that includes Overlays, XV, and some other things...

I'm attempting to get TV-Out working just on the TV (maybe a separate X server for the VGA) to avoid this problem --
so far MythTV & Ogle are ok, but I'm trying to get fullscreen to be
10% overscanned or so...

[startail]

I have the same problem

Whenever I try to do something on the TV the screen gets all flickery and jerky.
It has worked great in previous versions of the driver. Like 4496 (I think it was)
But now whenever something birght (white etc) comes in the picture it starts to jump and it's impossible to work with it.

I've tried OverScane "0.0" and up to "1.0" but no effect.

It's a Nvidia Riva TNT2, 32Mb with TV-Out over SVideo.


Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX (generic)"
Option "TwinView"
Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option "TVOverScan" "0.0"
# Option "NoLogo" "1"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024,800x600; 1280x960,800x600; 1024x768,800x600; 800x600,800x600; 640x480,640x480"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT, TV"
EndSection

[toz]

Hello there. I have also flickering tv-out when watching a movie with a lot movement.

My Hardware is this.
P4 2,4Ghz
Intel 850 motherboard
Geforce FX5600 (MSI with VIVO)
1024Mb RD-ram.

I have configured my tv-out as a second X monitor, (not using twinview).
I think that it says in the README-file for the nvidia-driver that hardware acceleration is only supported on the first screen (screen 0).

From the readme-flie:
"While there are several disadvantages to this approach as compared to
TwinView (eg: windows cannot be dragged between X screens, hardware
accelerated OpenGL cannot span the two X screens), it does offer several
advantages over TwinView:

o If each display device is a separate X screen, then properties
that may vary between X screens may vary between displays (eg:
depth, root window size, etc).

o Hardware that can only be used on one display at a time (eg:
video overlays, hardware accelerated RGB overlays), and which
consequently cannot be used at all when in TwinView, can be
exposed on the first X screen when each display is a separate
X screen.

o The 1-to-1 association of display devices to X screens is
more historically in line with X."


When watching a movie (mpeg or avi) with mplayer or xine, on my monitor the quality is perfect but when I start mplayer and use DISPLAY=:0.1 to get the movie on the tv-out it flickers.

Is there any possibility to get th TV-out as the first monitor and use VGA as second.

Sorry for my bad english.

[xmichael]

I hate this, using my 440 & TV-OUT the screen is very flickery, doing things like watching movies, surfing the web, well just about anything....

I fought with the various modes and overscan. Really the problem is caused by NVidia not having exposed anti-flicker features via the Linux drivers!

Man... Nvidia's linux strategy... blew...

Who do I write to complain?

[startail]

What I posted earlier in this thread I think I've solved, but I'm not happy really.

I tested another tv to see if it was my card that was getting damaged or the tv, and the other tv worked just fine. It's an older tv, must be 5 or 7 years old I think. But it worked on it. So I think my tv is damaged on the Svideo-In port.

I've read on most part of this forum that most people that has flickering problems have had flat screen (plasma or tft screens) and my tv is a "normal" samsung tv. So I guess I just have to get a new tv again.

[pdawlall]

Did anyone manage to solve the problem, when i play movies i get a line running through the picture at certain intervals.
I think that it may be an interlace problem but how do we solve it. I have a geforce fx 5200.
Whatever help will b appreciated

[xmichael]

Only Nvidia can solve the problem by providing flicker reduction features in the driver...

To bad there support email doesn't respond...

Nvidia!!! Give us linux geeks flicker reduction for TV OUT please