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Nvidia TV-Out for Newbies

Special thanks to tseliot for writing the guide: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=98456

Configuring Xorg.conf

Open a terminal

Open xorg.conf - Run one of the following commands, based on what distro you are running:

Ubuntu: 

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Kubuntu: 

kdesu kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Other: 

sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Editing the Monitor-section

Warning /!\ Find the Section “Monitor” section and change the identifier to “Monitor[0]”:

Before: (example) 

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Standard Monitor"
        Option          "DPMS"
        HorizSync       30-90
        VertRefresh     50-60
EndSection

After: (example) 

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Monitor[0]" #Primary display
        Option          "DPMS"
        HorizSync       30-90
        VertRefresh     50-60
EndSection

Now, add your TV as the second monitor. Place the following lines just below the default Section "Monitor" section. 

Section "Monitor" 
        Identifier "Monitor[1]" #TV
        HorizSync 30-50
        VertRefresh 60
EndSection

If you wish, you can change the HorizSync and VertRefresh, but the values should work fine on most TVs.

Editing the Device-section

Warning /!\ Find the Section “Device” section and change the identifier to “Device[0]” and add the parameter "screen 0":

Before: (example) 

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "NVIDIA Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5500]"
        Driver          "nvidia"
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

After: (example) 

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Device[0]"
        Driver          "nvidia"
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
        screen 0
EndSection

Now, add TV-OUT as another device. Place the following lines just below the default Section "Device" section. 

Section "Device" 
        Driver          "nvidia" 
        Identifier      "Device[1]" 
        Screen 1 
        Option          "TVOutFormat" "Composite" #or SVIDEO etc 
        Option          "TVStandard" "PAL-G" #or NTSC etc 
        Option          "ConnectedMonitor" "Monitor[1]" 
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0" #adjust using 'lspci' or cat /proc/pci 
EndSection

Warning /!\ You might want to change 2 things in the example above:

1)You can change "Composite" to “SVIDEO” (according to the type of video cable you use)

2)You can change your TVstandard from “PAL-G” to “NTSC-M” or "NTSC-J" according to your tv.

To find out, please check the "Finding the right TV-standard" part of the howto. (at the bottom)

Editing the Screen-section

Warning /!\ Find the Section “Screen” section and change the identifier to “Screen[0]”, device to Device[0] and monitor to Monitor[0]:

Warning /!\ Beware: not the whole section is shown!

Before: (example) 

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Device          "NVIDIA Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5500]"
        Monitor         "AL1715"
...
...
...
...

After: (example) 

Section "Screen"
        Identifier  "Screen[0]" 
        Device      "Device[0]" 
        Monitor     "Monitor[0]"
...
...
...
...

Now, add the TV as another screen. Place the following lines just below the default Section "Screen" section. 

Section "Screen" 
        Device "Device[1]" 
        Identifier "Screen[1]" 
        Monitor "Monitor[1]" 
        DefaultDepth 24 
        SubSection "Display" 
               Depth 24 
               Modes "1024x768_60" 
        EndSubSection    
EndSection

Warning /!\ NOTE if your TV does not support a refresh rate of 60Hz you might want to set this line "Modes "1024x768_60"" as "Modes "1024x768_50"" in order to set the refresh rate to 50Hz

Editing the ServerLayout-section

Warning /!\ Find the Section “ServerLayout” section and delete the Screen-line and insert 2 new lines:

Before: (example) 

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier  "Simple Layout"
        Screen "Default Screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

After deleting the Screen-line, and adding this instead: 

        Screen 0 "Screen[0]"
        Screen 1 "Screen[1]" RightOf "Screen[0]"

...it should look something like this:

After: (example) 

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier  "Simple Layout"
        Screen 0 "Screen[0]"
        Screen 1 "Screen[1]" RightOf "Screen[0]"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Now save the xorg.conf file, and exit the editor.

Giving it a try

Connect your computer to the tv. Restart the computer. (Or just restart X, by logging out and back in)

Login, and check if a desktop appears on the tv.

To change the "active" display, simply move your mouse to the extreme right of the PC-monitor, and it should appear on the TV, and move it to the extreme left, to get it back on the PC-monitor.

Finding the right TVStandard

PAL-B

Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Guinea, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland

PAL-D

China and North Korea

PAL-G

Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland

PAL-H

Belgium

PAL-I

Hong Kong, Ireland, and United Kingdom

PAL-K1

Guinea

PAL-M

Brazil

PAL-N

France, Paraguay, and Uruguay

PAL-NC

Argentina

NTSC-J

Japan

NTSC-M

Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Taiwan, United States of America, and Venezuela

HD480i

480 line interlaced

HD480p

480 line progressive

HD720p

720 line progressive

HD1080i

1080 line interlaced

HD1080p

1080 line progressive

HD576i

576 line interlace

HD576p

576 line progressive

Tweaking KDE to make it easy to open a movie on the TV

You can add a shortcut to the "Actions"-menu very easily - Run these commands:

Adding a Kaffeine entry: 

wget http://www.dallerweb.dk/ubuntu/servicemenu/TV-kaffeine.desktop

Adding an Mplayer entry: 

wget http://www.dallerweb.dk/ubuntu/servicemenu/TV-mplayer.desktop

Applying above entries: 

cp TV-*.desktop ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/

This will add the shortcut! - You don't even have to restart anything Big Grin :)

NvidiaTVOutNewbieEdition (last edited 2017-09-04 16:15:08 by ckimes)