annotate DOCS/TVout-G400 @ 664:50cca1591b15

Matrox TV-out HOWTO

MPlayer TV-out with G400
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(this was a reply at the mplayer-matrox list)

> What I'd love to see in mplayer is the the same feature that I see in my
> windows box. When I start a movie in windows (in a window or in full screen)
> the movie is also redirected to the tv-out and I can also see it full screen
> on my tv. I love this feature and was wondering how hard it would be to add
> such a feature to mplayer.

It's a driver limitation. BES (Back-End Scaler, it's the overlay generator
and YUV scaling engine of G200/G400/G450 cards) works only with CRTC1.
Normally, CRTC1 (textmode, every bpp gfx and BES) is routed to HEAD1,
and CRTC2 (only 16/32bpp gfx) is routed to HEAD2 (TV-out).

Under linux, you have two choices to get TV-out working:

1. Using X 4.0.x + the HAL driver from matrox, so you'll get dual-head
   support, and you'll be able to redirect second output to the TV.
   Unfortunately it has Macrovision encryption enabled, so it will
   only work on directly-connected TV, no through VCR.
   Other problem is that Xv doesn't work on the second head.
   (I don't know how Windows solve it, maybe it swaps the CRTCs between
   the heads, or just uses YUV framebuffer of second DAC with some trick)

2. Using matroxfb with dual-head support enabled (2.4.x kernels).
   You'll be able to get a framebuffer console (using CRTC2, so it's
   slow), and TV-out (using CRTC1, with BES support).
   You have to forget X while using this kind of TV-out! :(

   How to enable?

-  Compile all the matrox-related things to modules in the kernel.
   (you MUST compile them to modules, at least I couldn't get them
   working built-in yet)
   [reboot to new kernel & install modules, but don't load them yet!]

-  Run the 'modules' script from the TV-out directory of mplayer.
   It will switch your console to framebuffer.
   Change to tty1 (ALT+F1)!
   Now run the script 'independent', it will set up your tty's:
     tty 1,2:      fb console, CRTC2, head 1 (monitor)
     tty 3,4,5...: framebuffer+BES, CRTC1, head 2 (TV-out)
   You should run the scripts TV-* and Mon-* to set up resolutions:
     change to tty1 (ALT+F1), and run Mon-* (one of them)
     change to tty3 (ALT+F3) and then back to tty1 (ALT+F1)
       (this change will select tty3 on /dev/fb1 - tricky)
     run TV-* (one of them)
       (now you'll get a console on your PAL TV - don't know about NTSC)

   Now if you start mplayer (on tty1), the picture will show up on
   the tty3, so you'll see it on your TV or second monitor.

Yes, it is a bit 'hack' now. But I'm waiting for the marvel
project to be finished, it will provide real TV-out drivers, I hope.

My current problem is that BES is working only with CRTC1. So picture
will always shown up on head routed to CRTC1 (normaly the monitor),
so i have to swap CRTC's, but this way your console will framebuffer
(CRTC2 can't do text-mode) and a bit slow (no acceleration). :(


> anyway i also just get monochrome output on the tv ...
Maybe you have NTSC TV? Or just didn't run one of TV-* scripts.


A'rpi / Astral & ESP-team