TV out through VGA? ATI X1400 with fglrx driver

[Dotan Cohen]

On 14/01/2008, Rick Bilonick <rab at nauticom.net> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 2008-01-13 at 18:18 +0200, Dotan Cohen wrote:
> > I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 / E1505 laptop with an ATI X1400 graphics
> > card. I use the fglrx driver as I run Compiz-Fusion, currently under
> > both Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu 7.04. The hardware has both VGA and
> > S-video outputs. In the past (I don't remember under what distro or
> > drivers, I've played around too much) I have successfully gotten video
> > out of the VGA to a CRT monitor, but never S-Video to a television.
> >
> > I am considering purchasing a VGA-to-RCA adaptor, such as one of these two:
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/1-5M-HIGH-QUALITY-VGA-MALE-TO-RGB-COMPONENT-CABLE_W0QQitemZ190189958468QQihZ009QQcategoryZ3704QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
> > http://cgi.ebay.com/VGA-To-S-VIDEO-RCA-Composite-Adapter-Connector-Cable-PC_W0QQitemZ190188539672QQihZ009QQcategoryZ31531QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
> >
> > The first one does not list any prerequisites, however the second one says this:
> > "Notes: the VGA must has TV out directly through VGA port function.
> > Please refer VGA card's user manual (not included) before you use."
> >
> > Of course, the seller, nor ATI, are very helpful in the manner. What
> > do the experienced folk here think? I express my gratitude in advance
> > for any advice.
> >
> > Dotan Cohen
> >
> > http://what-is-what.com
> > http://gibberish.co.il
>  <א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת
>
> Are you planning to connect to an old-fashioned (circa 20th century)
> analog NTSC television or a digital ATSC television?

Well, it would be a PAL box seeing how I'm not in N.America. But I'm
not limiting myself to one type of TV, rather, I'd like to be able to
get where I'm going and show the family photos on their TV instead of
the laptop's tiny screen. Everyone has a different TV, I'd assume.

> The details will
> differ but you should be able to configure the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file
> with the appropriate mode line(s), horizontal and vertical frequencies,
> etc. of what you are connecting to.

I'd love to see examples. This is rather hard to google for, do you
maybe have a working xorg.conf that I could see for ideas?

> I have nvidia cards that are
> configured to output to HDTVs via 1920x1080i mode lines. A simple
> connector/adapter will NOT change the output signal. I use a
> VGA-to-components adapter. It does NOT do any conversion - the output
> through the VGA port has to be ATSC 1920x1080i (or other HDTV format)
> for this to work. The output via VGA must match what your TV is able to
> handle as input. If it is an analog TV, then you need something like
> NTSC 680x480i or similar.

It won't make much of an impression of Linux if I need to edit
xorg.conf and experiment to get TV-out while everyone is waiting...

> You can buy real scan converters - I sold a
> unit I had for scan converting VGA to analog TV (no software is needed
> given it's doing scan conversion).

I'll look for one of these, then.

> (I believe there are HDTV type scan
> convertors which are more expensive than what I had.) But if you
> configure your video card correctly using xorg.conf and assuming your
> video card is capable, all you need is a simple connector from VGA to
> your TV's input port. An analog TV typically has a composite port (RCA
> type connector). Better analog TV's include an S-Video port for a
> slightly better picture (S-Video was what the venerable Commodore 64
> could output). Digital HDTV's typically have component inputs (3 RCA
> type connectors) which are analog. The newest HDTV's also include
> digital inputs.

With no DVI ports on the laptop, that doesn't help.

Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il
א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת

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