I just did an auto-upgrade from R5F27-->R5.5. Everything seems OK except the text. The menu text is not good and the xterm is barely legible. If this has been experienced by others, I'll gladly search for the posts. However, I don't know what search terms to use.

Image #1: Poor menu text appearance + weird stuff seen between "Screen Setup" and "TV Settings"



Image #2: Xterm is barely legible.



Is this common? If so, what search terms should I use to find a solution?

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R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

What resolution and driver are you using? (Check your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file.) What are you connected to as a display? What customizations have you done?

1. I'm not sure what part of Xorg.0.log indicates the driver or active resolution. If you give some further direction, I'll gladly post the information. Alternatively, I posted most of it on a blogger web page, if you can take a look at it.

http://ihatetivo.blogspot.com/2008/08/xorg_22.html

2. The display is a Pioneer plasma capable of 1080i (PRO-1110HD)

Screen Size 50 in.
Aspect Ratio 16:9
Resolution 1280 x 768

3. No customizations. I've gone through many versions of Knoppmyth without dealing with modelines, etc. Its always "just worked" until this latest update to 5.5.

_________________
R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

Thanks! Here is the result:

_________________
R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

How do you have your video card connected to your TV? Are you using TV-out? 800x600 would be an odd mode to use if you were connected directly via VGA or DVI...

EDIT: Looked at your blog page. It looks like you're connected via VGA, otherwise your monitor wouldn't be reporting back on what modes it can run at.

However, it looks like your TV is saying it could do lots of much better modes than 800x600... 1280x720 would be good, for instance. But then it looks like the only modes you have set in your xorg.conf file are 1024x768, 800x600, and 640x480... it rejects 1024x768 as not being possible, then uses the next available one at 800x600.

You should try to adjust your xorg.conf file to give it a good widescreen mode, like 1280x720. There is a way with the nVidia driver to specify preset HD modes like that, without having to mess with modelines. It's called meta modes or macro modes or something. Sorry I can't be more specific; it's late and I have to wrap this up. But I'm pretty sure your monitor isn't liking running at 800x600 even though it can, and giving it a good HD mode will help.

Actually, I'm using HDMI. My video card has an HDMI output, which goes straight to my TV. I'm using HDMI, despite the fact I only watch/record SDTV. This is because both -my card and TV have it.

By the way, recorded TV and live TV looks just fine. However, xterm and the Myth menu seem less than perfect.

_________________
R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

You should definitely be using a mode that matches the native resolution of a DFP display.

I have a sinking feeling. Does this mean I need to edit a modeline in XF86Config? I see this entry from the wiki: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=HDTVSetupHowTo

However, after 2 years of using the same Mythbox & same TV, I've never had to do such a thing. That seems a bit daunting for my skill level. Any further advice will be most appreciated. Perhaps you are familiar with the "meta modes" that ceenvee703 just mentioned?

_________________
R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

OK, back and have some time to write.

Here's a short example on the MythTV wiki on the Nvidia "macro" modes for HDTV:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Co ... dia_macros

The key parts for editing what you already have (of course, make a backup of your current /etc/X11/xorg.conf file first):

The "Device" section of your xorg.conf should contain the "UseEvents" "True" option.

Then in Section "Screen" you should make sure DefaultDepth is 24

In Subsection "Display" make sure Depth is 24, then include ONLY ONE Modes line: "Modes 1280x720_60". Get rid of any other values you currently have in that line.

If that line works, then you can try out other options, but 1280x720_60 is probably your best bet.

Let us know if it works.

EDIT: Here's another link that discusses the Nvidia "modepool"

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Mo ... r_ModePool

While editing mode lines is a moderately scary business, editing your xorg.conf really shouldn't be, even if you're adding a mode line you got from somewhere. It's just a text file. If you avoid things like editing it on a MS-Windows machine, it's no harder than writing a forum posting and getting the spelling, punctuation and capitalization right.

And just to emphasize the point of my message, using the built-in Nvidia modes keeps you from having to find or modify the tons of modelines out there. All you do is enter the resolution and frequency you want, and it does the work for you.

Doh! I've been feverishly searching my Xorg.0.log file for the sections you mentioned. Now, I noticed that it is xorg.conf that must be modified. My mistake. I will try to post the result tomorrow.

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R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

I (hopefully correctly) followed your instructions. Here is the code remaining in the SubSection Display:

I chose 1280x768, since I found it specifically mentioned in my TV's manual. Here is an excerpt:

Anyway, the result was good and bad.

1. Good News: xterm text is readable.



2. Bad News: the Myth frontend menu is very small and does not fill my screen.



I tried some different resolutions, but they only made the menu too small or too huge.

By the way, here is a more complete excerpt of my xorg.conf files

BEFORE: http://ihatetivo.blogspot.com/2008/08/xorgconf-before.html

AFTER: http://ihatetivo.blogspot.com/2008/08/xorgconf-after.html

As you can see, I not only modified the one "modes line" but also removed the other Depth subsections (1, 4, 8, 15, 16, 32). Perhaps this was incorrect. (I made a backup, so I can restore this if necessary)

Any recommendations for my next step?

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R5.5; PVR-250; FX5200; Dell 4300 with Intel Pentium 4 (1.5 GHz);
BIOS Revision A02; 512MB RAM; 500GB PATA HDD

Utilities / Setup -> Setup -> Appearance

On page 2 GUI width and GUI height

If you set both to zero, the frontend then scales to your screen. Values can be put in these if you have an overscan problem and can't see all of the menu screen (from the screenshot it looks like there is a little). I think Utilities / Setup -> Setup -> Screen Setup ... has a gui front end for setting these values visually.