[mythtv-users] G400 Questions

[Joe V]

Matt,

I started off with instructions from the mailing list
archive for getting the G200 working.  Here's the
link:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/perl/mailarc/gforum.cgi?post=47700;search_string=g400%20howto;guest=894428&t=search_engine#47700
(Note: This is a link to a reply earlier in the
thread, scroll to the top of the page.  It's the only
one I was able to bookmark.)

>From there, through trial and error (lots of both), I
decided on a resolution of 800x600 (there was a quirk
with MythVideo, where it wouldn't scale my 720x480
DivX files when the resolution was set to 640x480).

Once you have the kernel setup as in the post, add
these lines to your /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit (RedHat 9,
might work with other distributions):
/usr/local/bin/matroxset -f /dev/fb1 -m 0
/usr/local/bin/matroxset -f /dev/fb0 -m 3
/usr/local/bin/matroxset -f /dev/fb0 -o 1 2

These lines setup the second head to display the image
on the TV.

Then once you've entered into X (preferably after you
login), you'll need to set the screen size and colors.
 You can't do this before X is fully initialized,
because my experience has shown that these parameters
will be reset when the X sercer comes up.
Here's my fbset:
fbset -fb /dev/fb0 -left 46 -right 2 -upper 83 -lower
14 -hslen 29 -vslen -15

Here's what I use to set the colors:
/usr/local/bin/matrox 0x1e 0xc0
/usr/local/bin/matrox 0x20 0xaf
/usr/local/bin/matrox 0x22 0x88

I got the colors and fbset from other messages in the
archives, and just tweaked them.

Given that my MythTV machine isn't quite fully
functional (it does backend and frontend on a slower
machine), these settings are quite acceptable. 
However, once I get a new motherboard/CPU combo I'll
have to give up the G400, since I don't think it will
work with an 8X AGP slot.  At that point, I'll
probably be going the scan converter route, since I've
had enough screwing around with card parameters, and
I'd have to do the same with a GeForce card.

-- Joe

--- Matt <matt at solecize.com> wrote:
> Yes the G400 xv does work, you can verify X-video
> extensions with the 
> "xvinfo" command.
> 
> Joe, I was curious how well your setup was working. 
> Did you come up 
> with any tweaks that might be helpful to the rest of
> us?
> 
> Joe V wrote:
> 
> >Jason,
> >
> >I'm using a G400 right now.  I'm using the
> framebuffer
> >method, and it's working well.
> >
> >I tried using the proprietary Matrox driver, but
> could
> >never get it to work.  Powerdesk just didn't want
> to
> >work for me in trying to configure the TV-out head,
> >and I couldn't manually configure it.
> >
> >I would just setup the monitor to use the same
> >resolution that you plan on using the TV-out.  I
> find
> >that in my MythTV setup, the PC is near the TV
> (will
> >be in the TV stand cabinet once I get an ATX
> desktop
> >case), so I never have a monitor hooked up to it. 
> >Luckily I never have any problems during bootup. 
> :)
> >
> >To work around the TV-out not being available
> during
> >the boot sequence, I put the instructions to put
> the
> >image on the second head in /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
> >(RedHat 9), so I can at least see the part of the
> boot
> >where daemons start loading.
> >
> >One other thing that I was never certain of - is Xv
> >supported on the TV-out head with the Matrox
> >proprietary driver?  It seems to be used on the
> >framebuffer, which helps out with scaling immensely
> >(otherwise scaling has to be done in software).
> >
> >-- Joe
> >
> >--- Jason White <axtools at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>1.  I'm a little unsure of whether or not to use
> the
> >>Matrox beta driver, the
> >>default linux driver with the mplayer framebuffer
> >>hacks, or some combination
> >>of the two.  In looking at the archives it seems
> >>like a lot of people are
> >>having success with the latter.  I've currently
> got
> >>the beta driver
> >>installed.  What's better (ie. what works!)?  I'm
> >>able to see my desktop on
> >>the TV out but currently I'm not sending duplicate
> >>output to both cards.
> >>
> >>Which brings me to my next question
> >>
> >>2.  Is it possible to use the TV output just for
> my
> >>mythTV display and use
> >>the monitor output in a higher resolution mode? 
> Or
> >>would I be better off to
> >>just cut my losses and set the TV-out to duplicate
> >>what's being displayed on
> >>my monitor?
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> >>
>
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> >
> >
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