[lug] TV-out on a NTSC CRT TV

Thu Dec 30 17:02:27 MST 2010

> Don't know if borrowing one from work would be possible or worthwhile....

Not possible. They are short on projectors already for work purposes,
lending them for personal uses is out of question.

> 1) Set the S-video output resolution for NTSC instead of PAL:
>       xrandr --output S-video --mode 640x480 --rate 60

I actually have already tried it, even with --rate 30 and it doesn't
help at all. I tried to guess some lower resolution modelines, without
serious success - at best, if I stopped the heavy flickering, I get
two images one above the other (vertically) probably missing some
pieces.
I suspect that playing with these modelines might be the solution, but
I've exhausted my guesses and didn't find a proper way to find the
right one.

> 2) turn off the LCD panel if possible using the Fn keys, or
>   try xrandr --output VGA-0 --off
VGA was already off and thus this had no effect. I turned off LVDS
too, and it had no effect on the tv (it did turn off the display on
the laptop).

> 3) adjust the TV sync/roll settings to get a stable picture.

The TV has not any sync/roll knob. It's CRT but I not that old - I
guess it tries to set them automatically (there isn't any setting on
its OSD menu either)

> If that doesn't work, try setting VGA-0 to 640x480 also.
Same as 2)

> Make sure
> to move desktop items in from the edges in the high res mode before
> you switch to low res, otherwise you might not be able to get to them.

Thanks for this suggestion too (although I already knew this myself)

If everybody has run out of ideas, I guess I'll give up on this project

Thanks a lot anyway and Happy New Year,
Davide

>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Dav
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Davide
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 12:07, Davide Del Vento
>>>> <davide.del.vento at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> The machine is running Ubuntu 8.04 and that doesn't show anything on the TV.
>>>>> I tried a couple of distro I had on live CD and the one those worked (sort
>>>>> of). It is Ubuntu 10.04 but is not prompting me for any proprietary driver.
>>>>>
>>>>> I thought that since I was seeing *something* (and I don't care about the
>>>>> resolution, 320x200 would be ok for me :-) this was something more about the
>>>>> TV than about the video card. Since it is a very old laptop (at least 5
>>>>> years, probably 10), I have no idea about what hw is inside, beside the
>>>>> disk, which I replaced myself. I know is an HP, only because the logo is
>>>>> very noticeable :-)
>>>>> Anyway tonight I'll check the make/model of the video section (and I'll
>>>>> Google possible solutions before bothering you).
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for the advice,
>>>>> ;Dav
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 21:48, John Hernandez <jph at jph.net> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Davide, it would help to know more specifics about the video
>>>>>> hardware (lspci output) and the Linux distro/version.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This may be dated information, but I think the proprietary driver was
>>>>>> the fastest (perhaps only?) path to TV-out success with nVidia
>>>>>> systems.  I don't recall ever doing that with older ATI or Intel
>>>>>> hardware, but I bet someone here did...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 11:23 AM, Davide Del Vento
>>>>>> <davide.del.vento at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>> I'm trying to have a TV (not-too-old, but CRT) working with the TV-out
>>>>>>> of my media laptop (a very old HP bought in Italy). Purpose: show the
>>>>>>> kids some cartoons on a larger screen.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm struggling to have it working: I do see the image, but it is never
>>>>>>> good enough. The autodetected default call the "monitor" unknown, and
>>>>>>> use an non-interlaced mode which shows double images, partially
>>>>>>> overlapping in vertical, and some flickering.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I tried these:
>>>>>>> http://www.arachnoid.com/modelines/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Modeline_Database#NTSC525_itu-r.2Fbt:_470_601_656
>>>>>>> http://smackmini.dax.nu/tv-out.html (I know, this is PAL)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> without any success, besides understanding what follows:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 1) I figured out that using an interlaced mode, stops the flicker and
>>>>>>> completely separates the images, so I can see two images (squeezed in
>>>>>>> the vertical direction), one on top of the other - with a relatively
>>>>>>> large black area in between (and probably part of the images out of
>>>>>>> the screen). From here, I tried to play with the other numbers, to see
>>>>>>> if I could move one image out of the screen and enlarge the other one,
>>>>>>> but...
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 2) the other numbers of the modelines, don't seem to have any
>>>>>>> noticeable effect, maybe the TV is "autocorrecting" whatever it is
>>>>>>> receiving to what it thinks is the right way?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Any suggestion on what to do?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>> Davide
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>
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