I bought an old JATON AGP 3DFORCE MX4000-64 off of Ebay to replace my old GeForce 2 card to take advantage of the overscanning capabilities of the GeForce 4. Overscanning works perfectly, but unfortunately the video out is black and white from both the composite out and svideo out (using an svideo to composite adaptor). This is run into the auxillary input on my vcr. This same setup worked fine with color on the GeForce 2 card.

I followed the directions on the Wiki. The XF86Config-4 file is a copy of XF86Config-4.nvidia-tvout.sample . I've tried changing

Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
to
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"

and vice versa but always the same result: black and white output. Although I have not hooked the card up to a monitor, when I vnc in using X11vnc server, I see color output.

Any ideas on things to try? So close!

Check your X logfile and see what it's using for a color depth... http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=CheckingLogFiles

It appears to be using a depth of 16(?) and TrueColor:



What version of the driver should I be using? I see that there are two to choose from, but how do you know which to use?

I tried bypassing the vcr and still get the same results. When I boot, the graphic that is displayed at the memory check also is in black and white when it should be green. Is the card hardwired to display black and white until it is put in a different 'mode'?

Bizarre... Uhm... Try running nvidia-settings and see if it shows anything funky...

I don't see anything at all. In fact, it appears in color under vnc using X11vnc server ...

Any ideas on what mailing lists would be most appropriate to query? (That is if no one here can help)

Try the other driver... The X log should say which version you're currently running (most likely 7174), whichever it is try the other one (most likely 6629). Note that the 7174 has got some boot time magic to reinstall itself so it will revert unless you diable that.

I tried the other driver. No joy. I'm guessing that this card might be screwed up. Pretty frustrating.

Dinki, where do you live? I have heard others report that they get black and white output when PAL/NTSC is incorrectly set in the XF86Config-4 file. I think the sample is set to NTSC.

mike

_________________
KnoppMyth R5B7
Asus P4P800-VM
P4 2.4 Ghz - 1GB RAM
PVR-150 - HD-5000
Geforce FX 5200

I'm in the US. I thought about that too. I see it's set as NTSC-M . Is that the standard for North America? Can these cards default to PAL rather than NTSC, and can that be changed?

NTSC-M should be fine.

I have also had black and white output if my svideo cable was not plugged in all the way. Since you said you have tried svideo to composite adapter, that would seem to rule things out on your VCR side. I assume your composit to svideo adapter pluggs directly into your card. This would rule out your svideo cable. You might want to take a look at the card side of the svideo connection. Try wiggling the cable on the card side and see if you get a flicker of color. Perhaps the connector is bad or there is a bad solder joint.

Have you tried connecting to anything other than your VCR? Maybe the problem is there.

mike

_________________
KnoppMyth R5B7
Asus P4P800-VM
P4 2.4 Ghz - 1GB RAM
PVR-150 - HD-5000
Geforce FX 5200

Here's an interesting new development: I turned on another tv that is hooked into my video distribution system and the display is in color! It seems that my main tv is having problems with the signal. The odd part is that I've tried two other video cards using either composite or svideo out and they both show color on my main tv (one is the old geforce2 the other is an ATI Radeon 9000 that I am having trouble configuring).

Is there some sort of frequency that I can set to help my main tv out?

Giving it modelines it likes better is probably the best place to start. If you haven't tried the ones from the FX5200 example on the wiki those are worth a shot. Otherwise try the ones in the TV-Out sample under /etc/X11. I actually got a completely blank screen before finding modelines my TV liked, but B&W is certainly a possibility too.

I will definitely try that when I get home this evening. Do you know of a primer for modifying mode lines? Are you suggesting that I might have to 'calculate' a new mode line for my tv? Is there also a way to figure out what values to use for VendorName and BoardName? Does it matter?

Also, when I boot, the green 'Energy Star' logo appears in black and white. I'm assuming that when it gets to starting the xserver that this will magically correct the lack of color issue if the correct mode settings are used?

If you are not getting color at the BIOS level, changes to your X configuration are not going to fix anything. I just re-read your original post and see this card came used from ebay. I suspect that is your culprit. I hope I'm wrong.

mike

_________________
KnoppMyth R5B7
Asus P4P800-VM
P4 2.4 Ghz - 1GB RAM
PVR-150 - HD-5000
Geforce FX 5200

Not to try and question any of the advice given before, but I think that the critical issue here is the fact that the boot (which should have some color) is not in color.

Correcting the settings for mode lines may help, but I think that the key here is that the boot is in black and white.

I'm using a MX4000 in my system at home and saw that the output was in black and white at some stages of my initial setup (I also had to switch to the XF86Config-4.nvidia-tvout.sample). At that point, I think it was due to the svideo to composit adapter. It was an old one that came with a video card I've long since given away. Is there any way you could test this going directly to the TV without the VCR or composite adater? Also, when you tried this on the other TV, did you use the svideo cable without the composite adater? As another random suggestion, have you tried the whole channel 3/4 option? Some VCR's seem to like one better than the other etc...

In my case, I decided I watch more tv than DVD's so I gave the Knopmyth box the svideo cable.



L0o0ky