Difference between revisions of "How to get TV-Out working on ATI graphic cards"
(move xrandr method up, as it is the preferred method) |
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{{NOTE|This page is not applicable to recent ATI Radeon Mobility chips. See [[ATI Mobility Radeon X300]] for a discussion.}} | {{NOTE|This page is not applicable to recent ATI Radeon Mobility chips. See [[ATI Mobility Radeon X300]] for a discussion.}} | ||
| + | == Using Xrandr (preferred) == | ||
| + | To use the TVout on Radeon 7500 type following: | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{ cmduser | xrandr --output S-video --set load_detection 1 }} | ||
| + | {{ cmduser | xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600 }} | ||
| + | {{ cmduser | xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600 }} | ||
| + | |||
| + | And set mode PAL or NTSC with: | ||
| + | {{cmduser | xrandr --output S-video --set tv_standard ntsc }} | ||
| + | |||
| + | If you want to use XVideo overlay on TV, try following command: | ||
| + | {{ cmduser | xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 1 }} | ||
==Using atitvout== | ==Using atitvout== | ||
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If you have problems with weird colors when moving the mouse or pressing Alt, either switch to a terminal and back, or just disable hardware cursor in you X config. | If you have problems with weird colors when moving the mouse or pressing Alt, either switch to a terminal and back, or just disable hardware cursor in you X config. | ||
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=== ThinkPads/Other laptops this has been successfully tested on === | === ThinkPads/Other laptops this has been successfully tested on === | ||
Revision as of 14:06, 20 April 2009
This HOWTO should help you enable TV-Out support on your ATI Radeon or ATI Rage based ThinkPad.
Using Xrandr (preferred)
To use the TVout on Radeon 7500 type following:
$ xrandr --output S-video --set load_detection 1$ xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600$ xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600
And set mode PAL or NTSC with:
$ xrandr --output S-video --set tv_standard ntsc
If you want to use XVideo overlay on TV, try following command:
$ xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 1
Using atitvout
Another approach is by using the atitvout tool provided (but no longer maintained) by Lennart Poettering.
The provided archive contains a source release which can be compiled and installed by # make && make install within the extracted directory. The atitvout tool will then be installed to /usr/local/sbin/atitvout.
The tool uses the VESA Bios Extensions (VBE) which are initialized only once during power on. So if you want to use the TV-out, be sure to get the corresponding video device such as a tv connected before powering your ThinkPad. Under some circumstances the tool fails to communicate properly with the VBE Bios. By issuing $ atitvout -f t you activate the SVideo output port. The command $ atitvout -f l you change the graphics output back to the LCD.
The atitvout doesn't seem to work on higher resolutions. To send a Xserver to a connected video device, it is possible to start a second Xserver e.g. with $ startx -- :1 -xf86config XF86Config-4_reduced-resolution. For resolutions up to 1024x768 the switching should work fine.
While this works very well for ordinary X applications, playing video files, say with mplayer or xine might result in wrong aspect ratio or otherwise distorted output.
Switch to a text console (preferably a non framebufferd one) and issue an $ atitvout -f t. Then start $ mplayer -vo svga and the filename and other options needed. After enjoying the show, switch back with $ atitvout -f l.
If you have problems with weird colors when moving the mouse or pressing Alt, either switch to a terminal and back, or just disable hardware cursor in you X config.
