[MPlayer-users] TVout without X.

[Stephen Davies]

On Thu, 3 Oct 2002, D Richard Felker III wrote:

> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> On Thu, Oct 03, 2002 at 01:02:57AM -0500, Jeremy Brenner wrote:
> > I like the mpeg decoding, but I don't want them to skimp on the
> > framebuffer, because you end up using 2x the processor power to play
> > anything that isn't mpeg.  My collection consists of about 140GB of divx
> > and 5GB of mpegs.  I love hardware decoding, but I don't wanna have to
> > reencode all my videos on the way.  I would be happy without hw decoding
> > if I could just find a high quality tv out paired with the ability to
> > play without X.  That and I don't wanna replace my main vid card. 
> 
> Then just make an ntsc encoder (or pal if you prefer) and connect your
> vga port to it, then set the mode timings right for ntsc (or pal).
> It's a little work but it turned out great for me.

Hi Rich,

I guess you have an RGB->NTSC encoder.  If you have a TV with RGB-in
(which is common in Europe) then you don't even need that - you just need
a simple circuit to combine the syncs.

I built one - my circuit is just one transistor and a couple of passive
components.  Yt works really well - except that:

There are not many cards still available that can generate an interlaced
video signal at PAL/NTSC resolution.  Modern card clocks often don't go
low enough, or interlaced output isn't supported, or accelarated video
output (overlay or whatever) isn't supported when they are doing
interlacing.

For instance:
 - my Voodoo3 doesn't do interlace
 - my laptop controller (Tosh Portege) won't do interlace
 - my Matrox G450 won't clock low enough.  Also, no overlay
   mode when in interlaced mode - so no XVideo, mga_vid etc.

Non-interlaced 720x288 worked OK generally but who wants to give away 1/2
the vertical resolution?

What card exactly do you use?

Regards,
Steve