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Hardware/AtiCards

Site Index:

  1. Radeon 7000
    1. Easy
    2. Harder
  2. Radeon 7500
  3. Radeon 8500
    1. Radeonfb

Radeon 7000

From TJ O'Connor's email:

Reference the radeon TV-Out issue:

I've got a complex and an easy solution for you:

Easy

Replace the line driver="radeon" in your XF86Config-4 file with driver="vesa". In the display section, ensure you have modes of "800x600" and "640x480" at least for output to tv (my tv can take an 800x600 but when running through my vcr, I can only display 640x480.)

In your /etc/lilo.conf set your vga=791 and run lilo. Or make the same change in your grub.conf if you use grub as a bootloader. Then turn off your machine and restart with the tv plugged in and turned on. Once logged in change to "800x600", using CTRL-ALT-MINUS to change to the applicable resolution.

When you get to one of the modes such as "800x600", you should see the display on your screen. Then run freevo fullscreen and it should look pretty.

Harder

Same concept. But run 2 separate X Servers. One with your normal resolution such as 1400x1050 or whatever. Then run a second X Server on virtual terminal 8 using only an 800x600 mode in the "display" section. You can then leave freevo running fulltime on vt8 and do your normal work on vt7. Switch between the two screens using CTRL-ALT-F7/F8.

For an added benefit, buy a cheap IR receiver from Zapway or Irman and program power button on your universal television remote control to use the command '/usr/bin/switchto vt8' to "power on freevo." Then tag the off button on the remote to '/usr/bin/switchto vt7', which will not be visible on the tv screen. Anyways, hope it make sense.

Here is a Radeon7000SimpleConfig for /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 that will work only in "800x600", you can modify it from there.

Radeon 7500

I tried a few different things to get TV-Out working, the GATOS project ([WWW] http://gatos.sf.net) kept crashing my X server, and changing the driver to 'vesa' (as stated below) wouldn't allow me to use 3D hardware acceleration.

I managed to use the ATI Radeon (fbdev) driver, setting my monitor to 640x480 @ 60Hz and setting my screen resolution to 640x480 - 16bit.

I tried setting the monitor to a larger size, but it each time it would result in 640x480. This worked fine going first through a VCR then to my television. Enjoy!

Andrew Paranczuk (andrew dot paranczuk at utoronto dot ca)

Radeon 8500

Radeonfb

In the first half of 2003, radeonfb was becoming stable. The cards are fast, but TV-out with the radeonfb was basically impossible due to licensing of Macrovision etc. A fine card if you don't want TV-out or you accept going with X+TV-out in previous section.

last edited 2004-12-31 13:26:33 by BHeremans
current version: http://freevo.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/doc/Hardware/AtiCards