[mythtv-users] HD1080i or HD480i? 6600 Component out

Drew Tomlinson drew at mykitchentable.net
Wed Feb 8 00:38:04 UTC 2006


On 2/6/2006 1:40 PM Steve Skarda wrote:
>
> On 2/2/06, *Steve Skarda* < steveskarda at gmail.com 
> <mailto:steveskarda at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>     *HD1080i or HD480i? 6600 Component out*
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>     Long-time reader, first time poster.
>
>     I am a newbie running MythTV from SVN on Ubuntu outputting
>     component out via a fanless Nvidia 6600. Reading some old posts
>     from Jarod and others, I was able to output to my TV (which
>     accepts 1080I, not 720p on a 4:3 screen) with the line in my xorg:
>     Option "TVStandardard" "HD480i" No modelines required.
>
>     While this works great, it obviously isn't HDTV which was my
>     primary purpose for MythTV. (Can't wait to sell my Tivo!). When I
>     add the line Option "TVStandard" "HD1080i" I get a small desktop
>     on what appears to be a 1080i resolution. I can see that Nvidia is
>     outputting a wide screen resolution but the desktop is
>     significantly narrower and shorter than the NVidia output and is
>     centered in the screen. I have tried the Windows/Powerstrip route
>     and gotten modlines that should work but don't seem to help. Also,
>     when MythTV kicks into watching a show under this mode, the system
>     freezes and requires a reboot.
>
>     Second question. Considering that I have a 4:3 HDTV (16:9 didn't
>     fit in my entertainment center but I will be buying a front
>     projection in the near future), will 1080i output ever be able to
>     fill the screen for shows that are 4:3? Probably doesn't matter
>     since those shows aren't HDTV anyway but I don't think I can
>     change Xorg.conf from one mode HD480i to the other HD1080i on the
>     fly. Or can I?
>
>     Sorry for the newbie questions. BTW, I appreciate all of the folks
>     that respond on this and other forums. I took a little different
>     route setting up my first MythTV system on Ubuntu with a Fusion 5
>     Gold card and 6600 component output. While this is probably
>     trivial for some folks, it was a great challenge (and a ton of
>     fun) for someone that has never worked on Linux before. I had
>     many, many problems all of which I was able to solve (except this
>     one) by reading through this and other forums. For the active
>     posters/problem solvers: Thanks! Not to mention the developers!
>
>
> For anyone trying to do 1080i component out on NVidia 6200 or 6600, I 
> struggled to get this to work so thought I'd post my solution for 
> other's benefit.   Most posts in the past suggest to use tvstandard 
> HD480i (not HDTV) when using component out directly from a 6200 or 
> 6600.  I was able to get HD1080i to work on my 6600 with no modelines 
> by doing the following:
>
> Nvidia 7676
>
> In my xorg.conf:
> Under device settings:
> Option "TVStandard" "HD1080i"
>
> Under screen:
> modes "HD1080i"
>
> This got me to a full 1080i display with 1080i desktop but X locked up 
> upon playing video.   To fix that:
>
> Open nvidia-settings and set vsync-to-blank to unchecked (not 
> default).  (could also modify the nvidia settings file directly - I 
> did both but assume along would work)
> Everytime X loads, type:
> $ nvidia-settings -l
>
> The only problem is that this is still horribly overscanned.   Will 
> probably play with modelines in the future to see if I can fix this.  
> Have read posts that say there is no answer short of getting a TV 
> technician to change the TV.  I got the nvidia-settings -l command 
> from posts on NVNews and they suggest you need to type that command 
> every time X loads.   I also found that to be true.  People smarter 
> than I am could probably suggest how to get the line for 
> nvidia-settings -l to load on every startup. I am still typing 
> mythbackend, sudo lirc, and mythfrontend everytime I boot my 
> computer.  Just haven't worked on this yet.  The basic instructions 
> didn't work for me. 

I have a wide-screen HDTV with only component in.  I'm using a 
VGA-component converter.  Not knowing my "native resolution" but knowing 
the set accepts 1080i, I used the Modeline Generator at 
http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl and started with 
1920x1080.  This created a modeline with the horrible overscan you 
mention.  After a little fiddling around, I found that 1760x990 
resolution worked for me.  Here is my modeline:

# My 1920x1080i mode
        Mode "1920x1080i"
                DotClock 74.25
                HTimings 1760 1928 1984 2204
                VTimings 990 1034 1040 1113
                Flags "-HSync" "-VSync" "Interlace"
        EndMode

There's also a tool with Xorg (I can't remember the name) that will 
allow you to adjust your screen for perfect fit and then give you the 
exact modeline.  Use that for fine tuning.

HTH,

Drew

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