[mythtv-users] Double image problem with using Audio Authority 9A60 adapter

[papenfuss at juneau.me.vt.edu]

	It looks to me like you're correct in your assessment that your TV 
doesn't support anything but 480i on the component in.  I would believe that, 
given the wierd double-image thing you describe.  What you need to do is 
generate a 480i signal.  I've read the component video has a tri-level sync as 
opposed to the TTL-like sync of regular video, so that might be a potential 
problem.  The 9A60 might do the interlaced signal though.

	Now the details... you need to generate a bone-fide NTSC (or are you 
PAL?) *interlaced* signal... If your video chipset and X driver supports 
interlaced, you can get an honest NTSC signal with this modeline:

Modeline     "NTSC-480i"  14.318 720 760 824 910 480 484 492 525 interlace

	You may have to play with adding + or - hsync and vsync after the 
interlace if the 9A60 is touchy about that.  If your video chipset won't do 
interlaced (by an indication in the /var/log/XFree86.0.log file with the "(bad 
mode clock/interlace/doublescan)", looks like you're S.O.L.


-Cory

On Mon, 8 Mar 2004, Aaron Levinson wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I mostly finished setting up my first MythTV box over the weekend, and I
> did everything using the VGA output on the motherboard (ASUS P4P800-VM
> with Intel(R) Extreme Graphics 2) connected to my monitor.  I'm using the
> PVR-250 as my video capture device, and I don't have any other video cards
> in the system, so I don't have a TV-out interface.  After reading various
> posts in the mythtv-users archive, I had decided to go with the Audio
> Authority 9A60 adapter based on the higher video quality, according to
> various posts on the subject.
> 
> So, after configuring all the software, I added appropriate "Monitor" and
> "Screen" sections to my XF86Config file based on the information at
> http://www.gossamer-threads.com/perl/mailarc/gforum.cgi?post=82975;search_string=%22audio%20authority%22%20480i;guest=2401469&t=search_engine#82975
> .  Actually, I expanded on the post by creating new "Monitor" and "Screen"  
> sections, leaving my existing "Monitor" and "Screen" sections intact.  
> Then, I created a new "ServerLayout" section and added a new Xserver to
> the Xservers file for kdm, which is located at /etc/X11/kdm/Xservers (or
> someting like that for Fedora) that uses the -layout option to specify the
> new layout.  This way, I would be able to support both my computer monitor
> and television without having to reboot if I needed to bring the computer
> back upstairs to the computer room (hopefully, that made some sense).
> 
> OK, so after making the changes to XF86Config and kdm's Xservers file, I 
> brought the computer downstairs, connected it to my receiver (which is 
> connected to my TV) using component video inputs on the receiver, and 
> powered everything up.
> 
> It "sort of" works.  The main problem is that there are two copies of the 
> video output displayed on the TV, one displayed on the left half and one 
> displayed on the right half.  This is difficult to describe, so I took a 
> picture of the TV, which can be found at 
> http://www.aracnet.com/~alevinsn/dual_image_9A60.jpg .  This is a picture 
> of one of the BIOS screens, but I get the exact same effect at the kdm 
> login screen.  Basically, both the BIOS screens (including the BIOS 
> "splash" screen") and the KDM screen associated with the TV layout that I 
> created in XF86Config display the same way, as demonstrated in the 
> picture.
> 
> I also switched to a virtual terminal (with CTRL-ALT-F1) to see what would
> happen, but then I couldn't read anything.  I got the same effect when
> switching to the other Xserver running (the one for my computer monitor)
> (with CTRL-ALT-F8).  I've seen similar distortion effects when displaying
> a PAL signal on an NTSC TV, although this was far worse than that.
> 
> Also, along with the dual images, each image flickers quite a bit.
> 
> As I indicated, the video device is an Intel Extreme Graphics 2 device
> integrated on the motherboard (actually, part of the Intel(R) 865G
> chipset).  In one mythtv-user post, I read that in order to output 480i,
> the video card must support interlaced video (I cannot find the post at
> the moment, however).  I have not been able to determine if the Extreme 
> Graphics 2 device and/or driver support interlaced video.  I examined the 
> XFree86 log for the server that started up, and I didn't see any warning 
> messages.
> 
> In addition, I think that my television is only capable of supporting 480i
> on its component video input, but again, I cannot verify this using any
> manufacturer-supplied information.  The television is a couple years old,
> and I have successfully used it with the component video outputs of two
> different standard DVD players (both connected to the receiver in the same
> fashion that the 9A60 is connected to it), and this leads me to believe
> that it accepts 480i, but I cannot determine this with certainty.
> 
> Based on the above information, any ideas on what is going wrong?  Any 
> suggestions on what I can do to fix the problem?  Sure, I could get a 
> video card with TV-out, but ideally, I'd like to correct the problem with 
> my current hardware configuration, if possible.
> 
> If my only choice is to get new hardware, I've been researching AGP 
> Digital Display (ADD) cards (discussed at 
> http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel865g/sb/CS-009166.htm ).  
> However, I don't know if the TV-out on these cards is supported on Linux.  
> For it to be supported, I think it would have to be supported in the 
> Extreme Graphics 2 driver (i810), but yet again, I cannot determine 
> whether or not ADD card output is supported based on the driver 
> documentation.  Not to mention, I'm not sure where to buy an ADD card with 
> TV-out.  ASUS apparently makes one, but no one sells it.  ADD cards do not 
> appear to be all that popular based on the various Internet searches that 
> I have done.  If anyone can provide me with information regarding ADD 
> cards on Linux, I would appreciate it.  A search on the XFree86 e-mail 
> lists didn't turn anything up....
> 
> Finally, if I need to get new hardware and an ADD card is not an option, I
> would appreciate recommendations on video cards.  I have an Audio
> Authority 9A60, and ideally, I would like to make use of it if it will
> result in better quality.  As far as video uses go, I intend to use my
> MythTV HTPC to watch and record television, play video files, watch DVDs, 
> and play games.
> 
> Thanks a lot,
> Aaron Levinson
> 
> 

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