Ati Radeon and TV-out using S-Video

**orbital** · September 13th, 2009

I have Ati Radeon X1400 graphics card and would like to connect my laptop to a TV using S-Video. With XP everything works smoothly, how can I set up tv-out connection for Ubuntu? Any help appreciated.

**frogotronic** · September 26th, 2009

Originally Posted by orbital

I have Ati Radeon X1400 graphics card and would like to connect my laptop to a TV using S-Video. With XP everything works smoothly, how can I set up tv-out connection for Ubuntu? Any help appreciated.

same problem here

**dlowerre** · February 18th, 2010

This issue has frustrated me greatly. I have a friend using Windows (Friends don't let friends...) so I have been trying to switch him to Ubuntu. Problem is he likes to use a TV as his monitor.

I have wrestled with the Display settings every which way, and cannot get his TV to work RELIABLY.

The scorcher is that windows does this perfectly without any intervention. Very embarrassing.

**frogotronic** · February 18th, 2010

it only works with the FGLRX driver; not the open source driver.

**sturmey** · July 8th, 2010

According to the wiki, the open source radeon driver is supposed to work with the s-video out on almost every card.

The problem is that it doesn't. if you try to search for an answer, you get 500 responses related to the proprietary drivers and ubuntu 7.x or 8.x

What we really need is a way to search these posts and ignore anything that's not related to the new version, and maybe lock out the old version threads when the new version is released.

Does anyone actually know how to get the Radeon drivers (open source) to output s-video?

**xtrakt** · July 26th, 2010

Use this script to enable S-Video:

/usr/bin/tvon

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Enable S-Video at 800x600
xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600 && xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600 --pos 200x200 && xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 1

It takes an 800x600 portion of your screen and ouputs it via S-Video.

Use this to disable S-Video:

/usr/bin/tvoff

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Disable S-Video
xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 0 && xrandr --output S-video --off

Use this for a dual screen setup:

/usr/bin/dualscreen

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Enable dual screen
xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600 --right-of VGA-0

Replace VGA-0 with your primary output name. You can also replace right with left.

The two first scripts are taken from the Internet. I made the last one myself. It requires you to add "Virtual" option to xorg.conf, like this:

Code:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Virtual          2080 1024
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Calculate the virtual resolution like this: Sum the X resolution of S-Video (800) and your primary display (mine is 1280). Then compare the Y resolutions of your screen and S-Video (600) and pick the higher one (most likely your primary screen). Hope this helps.

If these scripts give any errors, please run

Code:

sudo apt-get install xrandr

Naturally you need to make the scripts executable:

Code:

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/tvon
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/tvoff
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/dualscreen

**iblazev** · July 29th, 2010

Hello ppl

Just to join in on a subject

I tried all those things u mentioned, xtrakt, but there isn't much improvement. I do have picture on TV via S-Video but it's scrambled although u can see somewhat of the desktop.

Funny thing is that when I tried restarting X, sometimes I do get normal pic on TV but lately even that doesn't work. Maybe it was because of some updates but how can one tell:/

Any other ideas?

**drogve** · July 6th, 2012

Originally Posted by xtrakt

Use this script to enable S-Video:

/usr/bin/tvon

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Enable S-Video at 800x600
xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600 && xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600 --pos 200x200 && xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 1

It takes an 800x600 portion of your screen and ouputs it via S-Video.

Use this to disable S-Video:

/usr/bin/tvoff

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Disable S-Video
xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 0 && xrandr --output S-video --off

Use this for a dual screen setup:

/usr/bin/dualscreen

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Enable dual screen
xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600 --right-of VGA-0

Replace VGA-0 with your primary output name. You can also replace right with left.

The two first scripts are taken from the Internet. I made the last one myself. It requires you to add "Virtual" option to xorg.conf, like this:

Code:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection "Display"
                Virtual          2080 1024
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Calculate the virtual resolution like this: Sum the X resolution of S-Video (800) and your primary display (mine is 1280). Then compare the Y resolutions of your screen and S-Video (600) and pick the higher one (most likely your primary screen). Hope this helps.

If these scripts give any errors, please run

Code:

sudo apt-get install xrandr

Naturally you need to make the scripts executable:

Code:

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/tvon
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/tvoff
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/dualscreen

Well I a Linux noob but I gat a mirror image on the tv, so at least I can watch Movies thnx bud..If I knew what I wass doing Id say you post is rihgt on but I only used the dual screen setup comand for now