[mythtv-users] (Some) success report with NVidia 6111 drivers

[Zachary Bedell]

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Hello all!

I wanted to post some details about my (partial) success with the 
newest NVidia drivers (6111).  I found I had to make one change to my 
XF86Config file to make the annoying "not a valid TV mode" go away (or 
at least be a little more intelligent).

I've read on the list in the last few days that the new drivers were 
working with a wider range of resolutions, but I was still having zero 
luck with them.  What finally got things going for me was removing the 
ConnectedMonitor option line from the Device section in my config.  I 
had previously had:

Section "Device"
...
	Option      "ConnectedMonitor"   "TV"
...
EndSection

With that line present, nothing but 640x480 seemed to work.  After 
removing that line, I was able to use 720x480, and many other modes are 
now listed as valid in my XFree86.log.  Here's the relevant sections 
from XF86Config:

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier		"NTSC_TV"
	HorizSync			30-68
	VertRefresh		50-120
	DisplaySize		120 90 # 540 405 is actual size.
			# Fudging it smaller makes fonts readable.
	Mode "720x480"
		# D: 34.563 MHz, H: 37.244 kHz, V: 73.897 Hz
		DotClock 34.564
		HTimings 720 752 840 928
		VTimings 480 484 488 504
		Flags    "-HSync" "-VSync"
	EndMode
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"NVidia GeForce"
	  # It's a PNY GeForce 4 MX 440 PCI
	Driver		"nvidia"
	VideoRam		65536
	Option		"TVStandard"		"NTSC-M"
	#  Option		"TVOverScan"		"0.979"
	  # I'm using the nvidia-settings tool to set overscan.
	#  Option		"ConnectedMonitor"	"TV"
	  # Leaving ConnectedMonitor gives "Not a valid TV mode"
	Option		"TVOutFormat"		"SVIDEO"
	Option		"NoLogo"    		"Yes"
	BusID		"PCI:1:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier  	"TV_Screen"
	Device      	"NVidia GeForce"
	Monitor     	"NTSC_TV"
	DefaultDepth 	24
	
	Subsection "Display"
		Depth	24
		Modes	"720x480"
		ViewPort	0 0
	EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier		"Simple Layout"
	Screen			"TV_Screen"
	InputDevice		"Mouse1"    	"CorePointer"
	InputDevice		"Keyboard1"		"CoreKeyboard"

	Option			"Xinerama"		"off"
	Option			"Clone"			"off"
EndSection

Unfortunately I'm still not at all happy with the output from this 
thing.  There are two things I wish I could get resolved.  The first I 
think is related to scaling to some degree.  I get periodic artifacts 
on the screen whenever there's motion (including navigating menus in 
Myth's interface).  The artifacts are 1-2 pixels high and maybe 20-30 
pixels wide.  They only last for an instant (probably only one 60Hz 
frame), but they're noticeable enough to make watching a movie 
annoying.

The second problem is ever-present foggy vertical lines on the screen.  
They're indistinct, not really a dark visible line.  There are four or 
five of them spaced across the width of the screen with more appearing 
on the left side than the right.  The lines are most noticeable when 
the screen is black, but oddly they're not present at all when the 
system's displaying a console or just a black screen in X (I set my 
root window to black instead of the checker pattern since the moire was 
almost painful to look at!)  It seems like the lines only start to 
appear once XV is initialized, and they're visible in the Myth 
interface, MPlayer, and Xine.  It looks to me almost like analog noise, 
but since they're only there in XV, I tend to wonder.

I hope the ConnectedMonitor bit helps someone else out there, and I'd 
love to hear any ideas on how to make the remainder of my headaches go 
away...

Here's the vitals if anyone can help me troubleshoot this thing:

Shuttle SB-52G system w/ P4-2.4, 512MB.  NOT using the on-board video 
or audio.  SB Live Value w/ SPDIF outs and a PNY GeForce 4 MX 440 PCI 
S-Video out for TV.  Running Gentoo w/ their 2.4.25 kernel.  Currently 
running XFree 4.3.0.1.  Myth is built from CVS as of about 14-Aug-2004.

Best regards,
Zac Bedell

======================================================
Never look up when dragons fly overhead.

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