Re: more nvidia fx5700 TV out problems

On Sat, 6 Mar 2004 19:13:42 +0000 Peter McEvoy  wrote:
| On Sat, Mar 06, 2004 at 06:47:27PM +0000, John P. Looney wrote:

| >  After taking configs from all you kind helper monkeys, and beating them
| > into new and unusual shapes, I still don't have this working. This upsets
| > me.

| You dont have screen sections for both devices (monitor & tv) under
| ServerLayout, also you should have 2 "screen" sections in the config to
| match the 2 "device" sections you should have, with the bus id of the
| card listed in the device section. 
| Dont expect great resolutions from your tv either. I have a 32" 100hz tv
| and i run it at 720x576.
| Dunno if you looked at it, but my config is at
| http://zoidberg.yerma.org/nvidia/XF86Config-4

This leads me to ask, if you are going for two distinct displays (as 
opposed to 'cloned' ones), how do you arrange to route input to the second 
display? As it is, my mental picture of how this would work has me using 
the TV as the sole display.

On the resolution side, has anybody found a usable resolution closer to 
16:9? 1024x576 would seem to be about right as would 720x400. My gut 
feeling tells me the hardware problem is more to do with the number of 
lines, so perhaps 1024x576 is doable.

On the modelines level, I seem to be able to get 1024x768 (and it looks 
pretty dire) by specifying:
        HorizSync    30 - 50
        VertRefresh  60
in the monitor section. Has XFree86 gotten cute enough to do this unaided?

At a plugs and leads level, has anyone any views on what works 'best' for 
them? Is it worth extra shekels to go S-Video end to end? If I hook it 
into my AV amp will it perform as well (better, worse) as if I'd hooked it 
into the TV? Is the S/PDIF output on my SBLive, compatible with the co-ax 
PCM input on the amp? Does _that_ have special needs? What are the maximum 
lengths for those? Given my main PC is about 10m (as the cable runs) away
from the TV and so on, I'm fairly sure the two aren't going to talk a 
whole lot.

Applications. Well, obviously Ogle. Some sort of tivoesque solution. 
Music, what applications have good high visibility playlist management?
If you get large volumes of internet delivered to your door[1] and a 
halfway decent camera (camcorder routed to composite in on the TV card, 
perhaps?) gnomemeeting might be worth a thought.
        Paul
[1] In which case, I hate you. Eircom appear to be saying March '05 at the 
    moment for me.

-- 
Irish Linux Users' Group
http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug/