Hi All,

After a couple of months of work, I believe I now have my KM system running just as I want it to - yaaay. Now it is time to face the real challenge & put it into 'production' (i.e. hand it off to the wife and kids; scary, I know).

But before I take this drastic step I need to make sure it will work on our SD TV. All along I have it hooked up to a 15" monitor but that is only during setup. I am using an FX5200 nVidia GFX card with svideo out on R5F1. I don't want to plug it into my TV yet as I am worried it might fry it if the refresh rate is too high etc. Currently it is outputting 1024 X 768 X 75Hz to my monitor which strikes me as being a potential problem (but I don't know how to chg this).

xorg.conf currently has

HorizSync 30 - 63 # DDC-probed
VertRefresh 56 - 76 # DDC-probed

in it, this makes me a wee bit nervous. I was contemplating putting the following lines in:

Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option "NoLogo" "1"
Option "TVOverScan" "0.8"
Option "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE"
Option "DPI" "100 x 100"
HorizSync 30.0 - 50.0 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors
VertRefresh 60.0 # Very conservative. May flicker.

which I got from the xorg.conf.nvidia.tv.out.sample file.

I have run the backup from the menu and saved off the tar files BTW. Also, as yet, I have not actually changed anything.

All looks ok so far but my big fear is that I will make these edits and my monitor will no longer display & neither will the TV. I realize that this is doubtful but it would be a disaster. That plus I'm simply not really sure what I'm doing or if there's a better way so before I do this drastic measure I thought I would seek some advice on the subject.

Please let me know if you think the above looks ok or if there's a better way or what. All feedback appreciated.

I have searched the wiki & this forum but haven't found a how-to..

TIA,

Paul

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Paul O'Flynn

The 'sample tv out' file always worked for me. An FX 5200 (I use) should be no problem.

But if you're worried about a black screen, SAVE your old (working) monitor setup under a different name. Practice ssh into your mythbox from another computer on your network. In the long run, you'll get more work done by ssh than on the computer itself.

Worst comes to worst if a graphic interface can't start, it should stop at a log in for non-graphics... log in and rename the monitor setup back (make note of the filenames & commands now) to the active xorg filename & reboot.

If you keep the scan rates as shown there (H 30-50, V 60-60) the TV will be fine. Those are the safe range for a NTSC TV. You can even stretch the vert rate a couple Hz to 59-61 with no real risk.

My other bit of advice is to drop the TVOverScan and use the nvidia-serttings utility to deal with that. It's far easier to get it right and make other adjustments using that. My monitor section looks like this:

and has been driving my old 27" Panasonic TV for over 3 years now without issues.

Thanks for the advice so far...

So just now I successfully hooked up my R5F1 system to my SD TV via the s-video out on my FX5200. Works great, I'm impressed at how viewable the text is (on a terminal screen, I'm running 800 X 600).

But, the screen seems larger than what my TV can display (i.e. edges cut off). So 'no problem' you say, just use nvidia-settings. Well, I run that and can adjust the overscan nicely but I can't seem to find a place to put "nvidia-settings --load-config-only" that works. I tried the options suggested in the nvidia wiki page and elsewhere in this BB but either those locations don't exist (e.g. /etc/gdm/Xsession) or they simply didn't work.

Any suggestions?

TIA

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Paul O'Flynn

Add a line to /home/mythtv/.fluxbox/apps with the other "[startup]" lines that says:

Right now long story but I am back with just a monitor & no TV so nvidia just gives me a bunch of errors as it is looking for the TV but I assume this is working now, thanks!

Also, i updated the wiki and included the release # (I wish ppl would do this more often).

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Paul O'Flynn

The best thing that could happen to that page (and any number of others) would be lots and lots and lots of deleting and a link to the previous revision for people with archaic versions.

I've given up on maintaining more than a handful of wiki pages, since it seems like so few people can either find them on their own or bother reading them, even when they are current, correct and widely advertised.