HOWTO: Watch videos with TV-Out from Xrandr

[eumetaxas]

After recently updating to 9.04 and despite the other problems of the update thankfully my s-video out finally worked. One less reason to boot into legacy system
Some minor problems like the ones listed above, are present, but at least s-video works!
Thank you

[ricsi-pontaz]

Hello!

Thanks for the tutorial, but it doesn't work for me.

When I type this command:

xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 1

I've got this message:

Found Xv 2.2
XV_CRTC set to 1

Is this okay?

So when I connect my notebook (Ubuntu 9.04, ATI Xpress 1100, Open ATI Driver) with the TV, I only see a blank screen with white vibration. (Is different from the basic screen, so something is turn on, but not in the right way, I think).

What is the problem?

[ricsi-pontaz]

What player are you using? I had the fullscreen problem with Totem and VLC, but Mplayer and SMplayer work fine.

As for the static problem, I've gotten around it by adjusting the brightness down in gxvattr. The problem is that I have to do it each time a video starts; it doesn't seem to "stick."

I should probably update the first post.

I solved my previous problem, but now I've got the same problem as you. How can I adjust down the brightness in gxvattr?

[CarpKing]

I solved my previous problem, but now I've got the same problem as you. How can I adjust down the brightness in gxvattr?

In my script I have:

xvattr -a XV_BRIGHTNESS -v -30

Since upgrading to Jaunty this seems to actually stay in effect. If you want to use the graphical tool (gxvattr), XV_BRIGHTNESS is about halfway down. Keep in mind that this only affects Xv outputs, so if you're watching flash video or your player is set to use OpenGL or something else, this command will not affect it.

On a brighter note, I think I saw a post on the Phoronix forums implying that the underlying problem with the white areas had been fixed in the driver. Hopefully the driver in Karmic is new enough to contain this fix. Then we wouldn't have to worry about this at all.

When I watch a movie on my TV, the movie window doesn't use the entire TV width. There is an about 2 cm black area to the left of the movie. Does anybode else have this problem, and how is it solved?

That's the result of a lack of overscan. I'm not sure what cards support overscan, but I know some at least have controls for it in their Windows configuration programs. I also have this issue in Windows, but the black area is split between both sides of the output instead of on one side like in Linux.

I don't know if it can be solved currently, but "overscan" is the term for it, if that helps you find out more.

[CarpKing]

Here's the script I use to start and stop my TV output. I'm not sure where I got the first line from, otherwise I'd cite the post. You'll have to set it to executable. I put a launcher for it on my panel.

#!/bin/sh

#checks to see if TV display is already on
if xrandr --prop | grep -q '800x600+0+0'
	then
	#sets Xv overlay to computer
	xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 0

	#shuts off TV output
	xrandr --output S-video --off
else
	#enables TV output
	xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600

	#if using VLC with an upper panel, add --pos 200x200
	xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600 --crtc 1
	#if enough virtual output space is available, make displays side by side instead:
	#xrandr --output S-video --right-of VGA-1 --mode 800x600 --crtc 1

	#sets Xv overlay to TV and adjusts brightness
	xvattr -a XV_CRTC -v 1
	xvattr -a XV_BRIGHTNESS -v -30
fi

[kmedioman]

Thanks, it works great with my ATI IGP340m on HP nx9010.

I just found easier to set a new user in 800x600 mode and send tvout directly without modifying VLC window size and position.
Surprisingly in 800x600 laptop screen the script doesn't work as it is but I have to do this sequence of operations:

0. Set the laptop screen in 1024x768
1. Execute the script and send signal on TV screen, works correctly
2. Set the laptop in 800x600, TV screen blanks
3. Execute not the complete script but only the command

 xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600 --crtc 1

and it works great! Any idea on how to have the script working in 800x600 directly? Thanks