[ejtttje]

I have a laptop (32 bit CPU, Radeon Mobility U1 graphics) running Intrepid, using S-video to drive a TV.

My problem is XBMC does not recognize the S-video as an option in the GUI screen config dialog. I get various choices for LVDS (the laptop's LCD screen), PAL, and NTSC (which crash), but no S-video.

So I've created a .xsession to switch to the S-video on login and then run xbmc:

Code:

xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output LVDS --off --output S-video --mode 800x600
xbmc --standalone

The trouble is xbmc tries to set the resolution itself, so it flickers briefly to the TV, and then gets screwed up when xbmc kicks in.

Since xbmc isn't detecting things correctly, I tried to override it with advancedsettings.xml:

Code:

<advancedsettings>
  <calibration>
    <resolution>
      <description>S-video: 800x600 @ 60.3Hz</description>
      <id>16</id>
      <subtitles>540</subtitles>
      <pixelratio>1.000000</pixelratio>
      <refreshrate>60.3</refreshrate>
      <output>S-video</output>
      <xrandrid>0x50</xrandrid>
      <overscan>
    <left>0</left>
    <top>0</top>
    <right>800</right>
    <bottom>600</bottom>
      </overscan>
    </resolution>
  </calibration>

  <videoscreen>
    <resolution>16</resolution>
  </videoscreen>

</advancedsettings>

This does keep things at 800x600 on the S-video, but the remaining problem is the GUI is running at 720x576 window within the 800x600 screen, leaving a border to the bottom and right. (and it seems a non-square aspect ratio)
Screenshot:

So, what's going on? Can I get XBMC to not try to adjust resolution? Why is it only using part of the screen?

Thanks!

[althekiller]

AFAIK s-video is only able to carry a normal PAL or NTSC signal. So no PC or HD resolutions are going to work properly.

[ejtttje]

Well then the video card is doing some down-sampling, but the screen resolution being offered is 800x600. That's the only resolution I've been able to get it to run at (not even 640x480). Maybe there's some tricks to xrandr that I haven't discovered, but this hasn't been a problem before.

One way or another, I have an 800x600 screen, and xbmc is only using a portion. I can mirror the screens and the LCD shows exactly what's in that screenshot. The TV matches, except with a bit of overscan.

[ejtttje]

I removed my advancedsettings.xml, set xbmc to use LVDS 800x600, and configured my .xsession as such:

Code:

xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output LVDS --mode 800x600 --output S-video --mode 800x600
xbmc --standalone &
sleep 5
xrandr --output LVDS --off --output S-video --mode 800x600
wait $!

The key is to let xbmc think it's using 800x600 on the LCD screen, and then switch over to the S-video once it's running. I get a little overscan in the upper left corner (but not bottom right... huh.), but I'm guessing that's normal and easily calibrated in any case.

[Haggy]

you can always calibrate your gui's real estate easily in xbmc itself. just have a look at the video settings. also, overscan normally can be controlled within the gpu driver's settingsdialog.

EDIT: I just lit up a candle for my 300th posting.

[ejtttje]

Yes, I calibrated the overscan very easily.

But if you notice the screenshot, the problem is that the XBMC window is not going full-screen.

So although you can tell XBMC to scale down the interface it draws within its window to fit the visible portion of the TV, you can't expand the window via the calibration... (which isn't its job anyway, this is some kind of bug in the screen size detection when it's setting up the window.)

[Maxim]

Is running the X Server on the svideo out in a native resolution not an option?

800x600 isn't a supported resolution so most likely it squeezes everything down to a native svideo resolution.

Wiki says that svideo outputs in standard definition. Can you make an xrandr entry for one of those resolutions and just let X be native?