[mythtv-users] video driver problems PLEASE HELP

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Fri, Oct 12, 2007 at 01:48:30PM +0000, sabruner3 at juno.com wrote:
> I have been having a lot of video driver problems. I am using mythdora
> for my install. I used the latest nvidia drivers 9xxx on the install
> and on my VGA monitor all worked fine. When I set tvout using the
> common tv settings what I was getting looked a lot like very low
> resolution 8-bit color. (sort of like an Xray)
>
> I read another post that an older version of the driver might work
> better so I uninstalled the 9XXX driver and then installed an 8XXX
> driver (8755 I think).
>
> I an fx5200 card. I have used it on a previous mythtv box runing 18.1
> and it worked fine.
>
> Now if I use the nvidia setting in the xorg.conf nothing happends and
> x11 does not load.
>
> If I use nv it will load X11 but TV will lock the machine.

I believe the canonical answer is "that's a proprietary driver, go ask
nVidia for help".  :-)

That said, while you'll get a lot of people telling you that nVidia
blows ATI out of the water, my experience has been the opposite.  I
upgraded my sis's box to SuSE 10.2 and the newest RPM myth (20.2)
recently, and the ATI (proprietary :-) drivers went in fine and worked
on the Sapphire Radeon 9600XT card I put in with only two problems: 

The hardware jumper was set to PAL, and is unlabeled on the silkscreen,
and there's a "xv scans twice as tall as it's supposed to" problem that
there's a hack-around for on the wiki.

Your most cost effective solution may just be to change video
vendors...  Especially if you have an ATI laying around.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                   Baylink                      jra at baylink.com
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