[mythtv-users] overscan problems with nvidia 8400 GS

[Dale Pontius]

Tortise wrote:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Dale Pontius" <DEPontius at edgehp.net>
> To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2009 8:31 AM
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] overscan problems with nvidia 8400 GS
> 
> 
> Paul Bender wrote:
>> Dale Pontius wrote:
>>> Sorry, still don't buy it.  We need only 3 data points at the moment.
>>> Barely mentioning various other appliances that also display correctly
>>> through this TV.
>>>
>>> 1: IBM R50 ThinkPad with Radeon Mobility (using "radeon" driver)
>>>   DISPLAYS CORRECTLY
>>> 2: Daughter's boyfriend's Mac Laptop (details unknown)
>>>   DISPLAYS CORRECTLY
>>> 3: nVidia 8400GS
>>>   DISPLAYS WRONG
>> I am late to this thread, so forgive if this has already been answered.
>>
>> What NVIDIA driver version are you using?
>>
>> I ask because I noticed that the 190.18 driver does not do overscan on
>> the S-Video output (at least not in the same way as the 185 and earlier
>> drivers). As a result, I cannot use the 190.18 driver when connecting to
>> my television using S-Video. However, overscan on HDMI appears to be fine.
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> Just tried 185.18.14...
> 
> Overscan situation is unchanged.  Furthermore, Mythfrontend doesn't come
> up all the way.  I get the background, but no menu items.  Tried
> kill/restart several times, no good.
> 
> Back to 180.60.
> 
> 
> Hi Dale
> Without checking I assume your TV is a SD TV?  (Yet it has HDMI input?)

SDTV with svideo, composite, and component video inputs.  I'm trying to
use the component video.  The Mythbox has PCI-Express, and I don't have
any other PCI-Express (or straight PCI) with TV-Out.  Can you recommend
something, say under $50?

Incidentally, and I mentioned this elsewhere, the 8400GS makes a
framebuffer so I can watch the system boot, and the framebuffer sizing
and position is perfect.  I don't even get perfect framebuffer/text mode
sizing and position on all of my straight VGA connections to monitors,
but I do with 8400GS-to-TV.  Then X starts, and the excessive overscan
kicks in.  So the hardware can do it, which is also why I'm blaming the
drivers.

In 2 more years when college graduations start and the nest starts
emptying, the first kid to leave gets a Sony CRT TV, and we get a new
flat panel.  Then hopefully all of this will be a thing of the past.
Now to get there, but financially and Myth-wise.

Dale Pontius
> If so why not use an older (?pre 8xxx series or even earlier) card and use the older driver which has overscan correction abilities?
> I'd like to also acknowledge your comments about apportioning blame, there are threads on NVIDIA's site about this and the one I was 
> following has yet to enjoy a response from NVIDIA, as best as I can tell it seems unlikely to get one now.
> I have not tested beyond NVIDIA cards and your observations are interesting.  It suggests to me the "good" machines do have overscan 
> correction built in, and presuming this to be the case it seems another competitive reason for NVIDIA to match what the competition 
> do - or risk sales.... It may be that other branded cards may be better for these problematic TV's and will enjoy increased support? 
> I've not looked into the overscan corrective abilities of other branded cards, can anyone clarify? Maybe we should have a new thread 
> simply called Overscan correction? 
> 
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