[mythtv-users] twinview and mythTV (menu bar problems)

Misty P mistyp at thekorn.net
Fri Apr 25 18:27:01 UTC 2008


MythTV wrote:
> You probably saw my post:
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/269593

Yup, saw that one.  (Among a few others, but that's one I remember!)

> I never found a solution.  I would still love to have a solution if
> someone will help us.
>
> Please, if someone has a suggestion about how to use TwinView but
> maintain our original non-TwinView resolution, we'd love to hear
> about it.

Well, I did a lot of futzin' with it, and I think I have a sort-of solution. 
It's not perfectly optimal, but it works well enough that I'm happy with it 
for a secondary screen.

It *seems* as though the problem really stems from gnome losing its mind 
when the secondary display has more vertical pixels than the primary 
display.  Nvidia automatically chose 1024x768 as the svideo output 
resolution, which was fine, except that my projector is 1280x720.  So the 
secondary card had an extra 48 pixels of vertical information, which 
apparently just confuses the heck out of gnome.

So the solution that I stumbled upon was to manually override the s-video 
output resolution to 800x600, then forcing it over enough pixels and down 
enough so that it was centered in the PE7700's display.  (That'll make sense 
if you're looking at the nvidia-settings admin panel thingie.)

It's not perfectly optimal because in addition to cutting off the sides 
(regular 16x9 to 4x3 chop), it will cut off a little from the top and the 
bottom.  Since it's a secondary display and not really intended for critical 
viewing, I'm much more OK with that than having the menu bars permanently 
displayed on the projector!  (eyyyuck!)

Also, for some unknown reason I had xinerama turned off.  Wasn't a big deal 
with mythtv, except when I would launch a video full screen mplayer would 
wind up zooming output to the *smaller* (800x600) resolution.  Turning 
xinerama back on fixed that problem.

Finally, I've had it running twinview with XvMC for about 16 hours as a 
litmus test.  So far, no crashes!  Cross your fingers!  :)


Here's the xorg.conf file I'm using.  Note that I *force* detection of a DFP 
and s-video, so that if my frontend reboots while both screens are OFF (say 
if the power dipped while on vacation), both screens will be initialized 
anyway.  Without that, if the front end would reboot neither screen would 
have any video on it!


Hope this helps.  Use your brain while editing of course, and back up your 
original xorg.conf file before playing around.  (Your mileage may vary.  I'm 
not a doctor and I don't play one on TV.  May cause anal leakage or sudden 
urge to fornicate with the newspaper.  Not responsible for lost winnings. 
Don't drive heavy machinery after ingestation.)



Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Generic Keyboard"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbRules" "xorg"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc104"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Configured Mouse"
    Driver         "vmmouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "BenQ PE7700"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 7300 LE"
    Option         "UseFBDev" "true"
    Option         "NoLogo" "true"
    Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
#    Option "TVStandard" "HD720p"
    Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
    Option      "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP,TV"
    Option         "CoolBits" "1"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    Option         "TwinView" "1"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: 1280x720 +0+0, TV: 800x600 +240+60"
#    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, TV: 800x600 
+240+60"
#    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, TV: 
nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"

#       Option          "Composite"     "Enable"
    Option         "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection





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