I bought this card recently because it has TV out. My end goal is to have my MythTV box (running KnoppMyth R5A16) to be hooked solely to the TV. The only input I will have will be my ATI Remote Wonder.

My main problem is that while I can display the menus and text on both my monitor and the TV I cannot get the overlay going to the TV. All that is displayed is a blue area. I have also attempted to boot the computer without having a monitor on it and as soon as X-Windows comes up all video on the TV goes away and is simply black.

I am capable and willing to hack the assorted XF86Config files and do anything else necessary. I am also willing to admit while I have been searching for answers on the web for the past several days that I may have missed something blatantly obvious. Also if I need to buy a different card I will do that. Perhaps mine isn't doing what I need it to do.

My guess is that I either need to change the default XF86Config-4 file to accommodate the TV on the SVIDEO out connection or somehow make my TV (via the tv-out connector) the default monitor so the overlay will work there.

I have a few other issues to crack as well, but getting the video sorted out is my top priority.

did you make any changes to your config file to attempt to get twinview going? xv will only work on one display. You will have a MUCH easier time of it if you forget about the monitor and just use the tv. Have you loaded the nvidia drivers? search the wiki for tvout there is a pretty good page about setting up tvou. there is also a sample tvout XF86Config file, though many people have problems with the modelines it uses.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

For example, look for posts by me that mention "Modeline". Several of these have TV only walk throughs for installing or upgrading, not to mention alternate XF86Config files that work with my TV... This becomes even easier if you have another box that you can ssh into the KnoppMyth setup from.

Xsecrets and tjc, thank you for responding. I'm going to be checking that out in the next little bit. I'll ssh into the box (I have been using putty for that) again and hack away with what you have told me. (I haven't had to hack Modeline settings since 1995. Crap.)

If you're in the US or other NTSC territory you should be able to just use the samples provided. These work for me:

I think I was stupid, or am about to do something stupid (doubtful as I've done this before). I just used the standard kernel driver "nv" rather than downloading the binary nvidia kernal and using it. But I am getting these errors when I attempt to install it on a default KnoppMyth box:

No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; would you like the installer to attempt to download a kernel interface for your kernel from the NVIDIA ftp site (ftp://download.nvidia.com)?

No matching precompiled kernel interface was found on the NVIDIA ftp site; this means that the installer will need to compile a kernel interface for your kernel.

ERROR: Unable to find the kernel source tree for the currently running kernel. Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your kernel; on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sure you have the 'kernel-source' rpm installed. If you know the correct kernel source files are installed, you may specify the kernel source path with the '--kernel-source-path' commandline option.

This means that I need to download source for the kernel (after finding out which one is being used in R5A16). Sigh.

At least progress is being made. I'll be able to work more on it tomorrow.

I am getting TV-out to work, just the overlay (for the live tv and videos) isn't making it there when it is plugged into my SVIDEO port on my video card. I'm hopeful that this will solve that issue. I can see the video fine on the monitor, though.

Why are you doing that? This is dealt with... Run:

This is covered in the directions.

why didn't you just use the install-nvidia script? it uses the binary nvidia drivers that are already downloaded on the system, and unpacks and links the kernel sources which are already there for you.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

I didn't do it that way because I am apparently having an issue with my brain today. That and I made the false assumption that KnoppMyth was going to run the binary kernel driver instead of the open source version.

You mentioned that it is covered in the directions. Which directions should I choose? I looked at these instructions and didn't find anything pertaining to my having to run the install-nvidia-7174-debian.sh (or related) file.

I guess I'm getting frustrated as it seems that I need to know what to look for. Once I know that it isn't running the closed source driver and that better performance can be found thusly it becomes very obvious what I need to do.

Now I simply love MythTV and am comitted to getting it up and running. I have several friends that would be interested in this but they would already be crying at the installation because they are not familar at all with Linux. I am going through this not only for myself but for them.

My notes are copius and I will be making some custom scripts (if possible) to streamline the KnoppMyth tweaking after the initial setup has been done. I wouldn't want to spend three days getting it right just to have them have some nasty issue with it in the future and my having to learn it all over again. My end installation should be fdisking the system I am working on and then running my scripts to fix everything I need to be fixed for the hardware that I am running. Total raw install time should be under 30 minutes if it all goes well.

those are mythtv instructions try having a look at the knoppmyth instructions. you should be able to find them the same place you downloaded the file, or there is a somewhat modified version over on the wiki.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

See: http://www.mysettopbox.tv/doc.html

Or: http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=KnoppMythInstall

I think I've posted these links 3-4 times just tonight...

Now I just need to spread the word on which particular set of instructions to go look at. KnoppMythWiki cured my problem.

Replaced the open source nv driver with the proprietary and included nvidia driver then replaced the XF86Config-4 with the default XF86Config-4.nvidia-tvout.sample file and I rebooted.

Just. That. Easy.

Thank you guys. Now I need to go hack away at alsamixer to see if I can fix my sound issue. If I become defeated I'll come back here, grovel before thee, and pose my problem.

You. Guys. Rock. Thanks again!

The honesty there is both refreshing and amusing at the same time. I too sometimes can only revert to that particular excuse.

-brendan