[mythtv-users] Widescreen switching

[William]

> I've almost got my Mythtv picture perfect, with a little help 
> from xvattr and nvidia-settings. The last step is to get the 
> FX5200 card to output a WSS signal to make the TV go into 
> widescreen mode. Anyone know how?
> 

For me the trick was to use a modeline that was 16:9 by design. Unfortunely
mythtv does not seem to recognize this so I also had to add a explicit
definition of the screen size and now everything works as expected. I just
wish there was a way to automatically detect the formal of of the 4:3 versus
letterbox broadcasts and to switch mode when letterbox is detected. This
problem will iron itself out as the stations all switch to the new
standards. 

I have attached parts of my xorg.conf file for clarity. If the modeline
numbers look confusing it is because I am using a resolution-in-a-resolution
which scales the picture to perfectly fit my screen while maintaining the
timings required by my monitor. The biggest pain was geting the overall
timing correct so that I had a stable picture that my monitor would accept.
After that it was simply a matter of playing with the visible portion of the
picture and the sync pulse timings to get everything where it should be. I
overscan by about 6 pixels so that the edges of the picture are not visible.
I do not use any overscan features of myth. I find I get a MUCH better
picture doing it this way. With kernel deint turned on I get a better
picture than my monitor produces with its own scaling features.
-------------------------
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "RGB-hv hi-def monitor/tv"
	HorizSync    31.0 - 77.0
	VertRefresh  55.0 - 120.0
	#Option	    "dpms"
	Option      "NoLogo" "1"
	Option      "NoDDC" "1"
	#Option      "RenderAccel" "1"
	ModeLine    "540" 37.26 824 944 1048 1104 468 514 528 563 +hsync
+vsync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     24
		Modes     "540"
		Virtual 824 468
	EndSubSection
EndSection