ATI rage128 tv-out on mdk 9.0 [WAS: Re: [MPlayer-users] Re: RH8: Can't Use VESA, Even As Root]

[Jaanek Oja]

Hi Dan,

Thanks very much for your instructions. I tried the first one but didn't 
succeed.

Anyway I can see some motion (I say motion because it rolls & flickers.) 
on the tv screen after running the
"./mplayer -vo vesa:vidix movie.avi" (being in init 3 level & also in 
level 5 (with X)). Nevertheless, on that motion on the TV screen the 
characters are not recognizeable (even whether they are characters). 
Only comparing the the basic motion on PC screen & TV screen it is 
sensible that the same disturbed signal actually is shown on TV.

What I have done is that I have connected the ATI RCA (composite) out 
with my TV antenna input (not Video in with RCA plug) with tv antenna 
cable. Or should I connect into Video in (RCA plug on TV side)? But if I 
do that then I cannot see a thing, also no motion anymore that was if 
connected ATI RCA out with TV antenna in. Maybe someone can comment 
whether this is right way to connect card with PC? I assume the correct 
way is connect ATI RCA out with TV Video in (RCA plug) but as I said I 
cannot see nothing if connected so. P.S. I can see video via VCR.

Dan, you said that you can see text messages on TV screen as your PC 
boots? I cannot see anything if my system boots, I see the above 
mentioned motion after I execute the above mplayer command. Before that 
there is only a rustle on my TV screen & also after the mplayer command 
finishes.
I seems you have installed some kind of video driver that can activate 
also Video out in boot time?

The ATI card initialization snapshot from XFree.0.log. I cannot see any 
that kind of info from /var/log/messages file. How can I make the kernel 
to use this driver also so that the tv-out is activated on boot time. Or 
is it even possible?

...
(II) R128(0): initializing int10 (nil)
(II) R128(0): Primary V_BIOS segment is: 0xc000
(--) R128(0): Chipset: "ATI Rage 128 Pro ULTRA TF (AGP)" (ChipID = 0x5446)
(--) R128(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xe4000000
(--) R128(0): MMIO registers at 0xe8020000
(--) R128(0): VideoRAM: 32768 kByte (128-bit SDR SGRAM 1:1)
(WW) R128(0): Can't determine panel dimensions, and none 
specified.                           Disabling programming of FP registers.
(II) R128(0): PLL parameters: rf=2950 rd=65 min=12500 max=35000; xclk=12000
(II) Loading sub module "ddc"
(II) LoadModule: "ddc"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libddc.a
(II) Module ddc: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
        compiled for 4.2.1, module version = 1.0.0
        ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.5
(II) Loading sub module "vbe"
(II) LoadModule: "vbe"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvbe.a
(II) Module vbe: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
        compiled for 4.2.1, module version = 1.0.0
        ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.5
(II) R128(0): VESA BIOS detected
(II) R128(0): VESA VBE Version 2.0
(II) R128(0): VESA VBE Total Mem: 32768 kB
(II) R128(0): VESA VBE OEM: ATI RAGE128
(II) R128(0): VESA VBE OEM Software Rev: 1.0
(II) R128(0): VESA VBE OEM Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
(II) R128(0): VESA VBE OEM Product: R128
(II) R128(0): VESA VBE OEM Product Rev: 01.00
...

\Jaanek

Dan8827 wrote:

>[Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
>On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 11:10, Jaanek Oja wrote:
>  
>
>>[Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
>>Hi,
>>
>>I had the same problem with my mandrake 9.0 using the vesa output as 
>>Xavier described in his posts.
>>I could finally run mplayer using vesa output after I had downgraded my 
>>glibc-2.2.5 -> glibc-2.2.4 .
>>
>>I have one problem through, I couldn't get my tv-out working with ATI 
>>Rage 128 card. I plugged the cable into TV after booting the system.
>>    
>>
>
>I've never tried plugging or unplugging the tv-out cable while the
>system is running; I only do that when the system is off.  The ATI cards
>(mine at least - Rage Fury Pro) will automatically activate the TV-out
>function until told to turn it off, if a cable is plugged into that port
>when the system is booted.  Unfortunately, TV-out is not compatible with
>most of the common ways that we all configure X (probably the
>resolution, refresh rate, etc.), so the whole display crashes as soon as
>X starts, and a hard reboot is required.
>
>So, if you turn the system on with a cable in, you need to ensure one of
>the following:
>
>*You're booting to a text console (run level 3).
>*You're booting to X, and have it configured to be compatible with
>Tv-out (call out the VESA driver and a 640 x 480 resolution in your
>XF86Config file, for instance).
>*You turn tv-out off somewhere in your boot up process, before X
>starts.  I have the command "atitvout  c" in my /etc/rc.local file.
>
>There may be other solutions, but those are the three that I've had
>success with.
>
>With any of the above, I can see the initial text messages on my TV
>screen as the computer boots, so that's how you might confirm that the
>cable is or isn't the problem.
>
>So, ironically, the most useful function of atitvout (for me at least)
>is the ability to turn TV-out OFF at just the right time!
>
>--
>Damian
>Increasing The Entropy Of The Universe Since 1972
>
>
>
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