I have read the forums and looked all over the wiki, I am very new to the nvtv idea and cannot seem to get it to work at all. I have tried each of the XFree86 configs and none of those output to the TV at all.

I have a catch in my system hw. I run the svideo from my mythbox to a video/audio switch then to my TV. I read that sometimes linux doesn't like to play nice with the switches.

I have just done a fresh reinstall. So I am up for some suggestions!

I have a similar card and do all my installs via the TV with no monitor connected. Try disconnecting the monitor, reboot your PC and see if you can see your PC POST (power on self test) on the TV. If you can't try plugging directly to the TV.

nope that doesn't work, it just sets at a black screen.

I have done before in Windows, I don't know if maybe the linux drivers just won't let me?

Linux and Windows should have nothing to do with whether or not you can see the POST (generated by the BIOS) on the TV because at that stage, no operating system has even been attempted to be loaded.

You did disconnect your monitor didn't you? The graphics card can tell if it is connected and probably wont activate svideo out if it is.

I use an svideo to composite dongle that I think came with the card.

You did connect directly to the tv without going through a switch didn't you? The graphics card may not be detecting that it is connected to a tv and again, as a result not enabling the TV out.

Going straight to the TV works like a champ!

Now I have black bars on the side of my picture and the screen is smashed. Any suggestions? I think this is where nvtv will probably come in handy? yes/no?

Yes, nvtv will help. Have another look at the Wiki.

I followed the steps from http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=TVOverScanHowto

and it didn't change anything. I added the two lines in .fluxbox/apps and nothing is different.

Have you tried commands like this:

These should change the amount of overscan/underscan.

The exact comand i used is:

[startup] {nvtv -r 800,600 -s Huge# -m -S NTSC}
[startup] {nvtv -r 800,600 -s Huge# -t -S NTSC}

you need to either run the commands as root or make sure that you have run ntvtd as root first.

Running nvtvd as root. I ran the command however it garbled the video

Which command garbled the video? Perhaps some overscan settiongs are out of the range that your TV will sync to. Did you try all of the commands I suggested?

I'm having the same problem I think, When I use 800x600 Normal or Huge, the video looks like it is horribly interlaced.. 800x600 Small is the only mode that seems to work and I still have black bars down the side of the screen.
(Normal also has a huge black bar at the top of the screen and Huge seems to fill the screen but seems to go too far.. so the right side is cut off)

If the default overscan sizes dont suit your display, you need to run the gui so that you can adjust the overscan to all values supported by the card. To do this, apt-get nvtv to get a version that is compiled with the gui.

Then you have to create a patch for nvtv so that your settings are supported at the command line. The wiki describes how to do this.

Before you do all of that, you may wish to try the patch I have placed on the wiki for getting my display right (although it is for PAL 800x576).

This may not sound easy, but if you want easy, just buy an FX 5200 graphics card. This is what I have now done and i'm quite happy with it for svideo output.