[SOLVED] 8500GT tv-out woes

[DaveFP]

Hello Ubuntu forums!

I have a problem. I have an old(ish) PC that I've been using as a general purpose (headless) server for a while now. I recently decided that I wanted to hook it up to my TV in order to play videos/DVDs etc in my living room. I bought a video card for it today (ASUS 8500GT), upgraded to 8.04 from 7.04 (that took a while!) and plugged everything in to see what would happen. Turns out I'm having a hard time getting my PC to display properly on my TV. Here's what I've tried:

-Hooking up my regular monitor to the PC, installing NVidia proprietary drivers. This worked, I can get all my fancy display stuff working on my regular monitor.

-Connecting both the TV and the monitor to the PC and splitting the desktop across them using the NVidia drivers. I could detect my TV, but when I enabled it nothing showed up, I just got half my desktop on the monitor.

-Connecting my TV only to the PC. Without the NVidia drivers, I can get to a desktop. Woohoo! Trouble is it only starts in low graphics mode because it can't detect my display properly. Hmm. I tried installing the NVidia drivers and rebooting. Now I get a display all the way up to the splash screen, but after that I get nothing.

I'm a little bit disappointed, because I had this TV working waaay back when this PC was my main desktop and I had an older graphics card (7600GS). Has anyone had a similar experience, or have an idea what I may be doing wrong? Xorg.conf is below, and it's probably also useful to know that I'm running the 64 bit version of 8.04


# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen "Default Screen"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

[NT4usB]

This new fangled xorg in Hardy is pretty much useless afaiac.
When you say splitting the desktop across them using the NVidia drivers are you referring to nvidia-settings? If not, (install and) run:sudo nvidia-settings with the TV and monitor hooked up.
Should be able to configure two xsessions and get them both set up the way you want... At least, get started on a xorg that we can tweak from there.
You'll want to use the advanced features to set up two xscreens.
How are you connecting the TV? S-Video, composite, component?
Here's a example of a xorg I've been using since Dapper days for a LCD and TV setup. All the configs will be different for you but the format will be similar.Section "ServerLayout"

Identifier "Simple Layout"

Screen 0 "Screen[0]" 0 0

Screen 1 "Screen[1]" RightOf "Screen[0]"

InputDevice "Generic Keyboard" "CoreKeyboard"

InputDevice "Configured Mouse" "CorePointer"

EndSection



Section "Files"

# path to defoma fonts

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc"

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/cyrillic"

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1"

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi"

FontPath "/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi"

FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"

EndSection



Section "Module"

Load "i2c"

Load "bitmap"

Load "ddc"

Load "extmod"

Load "freetype"

Load "glx"

Load "int10"

Load "type1"

Load "vbe"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Generic Keyboard"

Driver "kbd"

Option "CoreKeyboard"

Option "XkbRules" "xorg"

Option "XkbModel" "pc104"

Option "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Configured Mouse"

Driver "mouse"

Option "CorePointer"

Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"

Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"

Option "Buttons" "8"

Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"

Option "ButtonMapping" "1 6 3 2 4 5"

Option "Resolution" "100"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

#LCD

Identifier "Monitor[0]"

HorizSync 30.0 - 62.0

VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0

Option "DPMS"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

#TV

Identifier "Monitor[1]"

HorizSync 30.0 - 50.0

VertRefresh 60.0 - 60.0

EndSection



Section "Device"

Identifier "Device[0]"

Driver "nvidia"

BusID "PCI:1:0:0"

Screen 0

EndSection



Section "Device"

#adjust using 'lspci' or cat /proc/pci EndSection

Identifier "Device[1]"

Driver "nvidia"

BusID "PCI:1:0:0"

Screen 1

EndSection



Section "Screen"

Identifier "Screen[0]"

Device "Device[0]"

Monitor "Monitor[0]"

DefaultDepth 24

SubSection "Display"

Depth 24

Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"

EndSubSection

EndSection



Section "Screen"

Identifier "Screen[1]"

Device "Device[1]"

Monitor "Monitor[1]"

DefaultDepth 24

Option "TVOutFormat" "Composite" #or SVIDEO Composite etc

Option "TVStandard" "HD480i" # "NTSC"

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "Monitor[1]"

SubSection "Display"

Depth 24

Modes "1024x768_60" "720x576_60" "720x480_60" "640x480_60" "480x320_60"

EndSubSection

EndSection

[cariboo907]

Another thing you can try is nvtv, it is in the repositories and can be installed using synaptic.

Jim

[DaveFP]

Haha, fixed it!

Thanks for the advice, NT4usB. For some reason it hadn't occurred to me to set up the monitors as separate x-sessions, I was using twinview and getting nowhere. Once I did that I ended up with an Xorg similar to yours, but with some of the options missing on the TVs 'screen' section. I added an entry to set the output format to s-video and lo and behold on re-starting X it worked like a charm :D

The next step is to disconnect the LCD that I'm using and make sure everything works as planned with the TV as the primary. It'll probably take a bit more tweaking but I'll post back here when I'm done (probably sometime tomorrow, it's pretty late here now). Thanks again!

UPDATE: TV works on it's own, case closed. I'm having overscan issues now, but that's a problem for another thread :D

[fenx7]

Hi, I know this is an old post, but I am interested in using the Asus 8500GT for s-video tv out initially and later hd tvout. The cable supplied allows component tv out, how did you get s-video tvout. Was it as simple as plugging in an svideo cable and all was autodetected?

[DaveFP]

Hi, I know this is an old post, but I am interested in using the Asus 8500GT for s-video tv out initially and later hd tvout. The cable supplied allows component tv out, how did you get s-video tvout. Was it as simple as plugging in an svideo cable and all was autodetected?

Pretty much. If you look at the xorg that NT4usB posted earlier in the thread, he has an entry in his 'screen' section that sets the format of the screen:
Option "TVOutFormat" "Composite" #or SVIDEO Composite etc
That was all that was neccessary to get the output on s-video as I recall.

[wingnux]

Did you get any output on your TV before the xorg.conf tweaks? I have a new videocard (GF 8800GS) hooked to my CRT monitor and via an "s-video to composite" (don't know if it's right but it's that yellow video-in plug) cable and all I see on my tv screen is "No signal". I'm pretty sure I could see the POST and boot screens on my tv when I had a tv-out setup on my ati and nvidia cards back in the day...

[DaveFP]

As far as I recall, I was getting POST and other boot info on the TV before sorting out my xorg.conf.

Seeing as Ubuntu hasn't been loaded when the POST is being displayed, it is not responsible for video output at that time. Before the OS is loaded, I believe that the bios is responsible for deciding which monitors display what. Usually every connected monitor gets output, so I don't know what could be causing the problem you're seeing.

As a first step, I'd test the cable and adapter you're using elsewhere if you can, or put your monitor on a different machine (again, only if that's an option). Beyond that I don't know what to tell you, I'm afraid.

[wingnux]

I've tested both cables and they work just fine on my dvd.