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TV-Out config (Toshiba Sat A30)


Havin_it
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Hi all,

 

I've had generally pretty good experiences so far with this laptop, and I'm now trying to realise some of those last un-looked-at lappy functions. ACPI is all working pretty well, but I've not thought about the TV-out function yet.

 

I figure since my DVD playback is a bit smoother on Linux, it'd be great if I can output it to TV. The output is SVHS, and activated from an easy-button on the case. There are also some playback control buttons on the case so the lid can be kept shut while streaming.

 

The graphics card is a builtin Intel 82855GME 64MB.

 

Any pointers on how I might get this working? I could of course just push the button, but experience suggests that alone won't do the trick.

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What laptop have you got? Why not try pushing the button anyway? Maybe it does work.

 

Also checkout www.linux-on-laptops.com and find your laptop - this will take you to a page with how to set everything up for your specific model.

 

But before you do anything - just try it. Might work and can't hurt ;)

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Hey, thanks for droppin' in. I should get to try it out tomorrow as the GF's away from HER TV - it's kinda hard to get airtime yet.

 

Can't say I'm all that confident really - if the power button is anything to go by (the best I can get out of that is a regular shutdown, no hibernate) the TV-out button will probably make me some cheese on toast or something.

 

...mmm....cheese....

 

Um, well I'll let you know anyways.

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Well, no joy there. It kinda made the TV screen flash, but that was all.

 

The drivers seem to match my card, but is it possible there'd be another more recent set out there? Will see if I can find out on Intel site....

 

Not that it'll be happening too soon anyway, as I just fried my Mandrake install after trying to hibernate. So that's minus one point for the 'just push the button, can't hurt' school of thought.

 

The linuxon-laptops site had two articles for my model, except it wasn't my model (system specs were considerably different), and neither had info about ACPI/easy-button config.

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  • 3 months later...

<BUMP>

 

I had a kinda 'enforced' holiday from this Q, since mucking about with ACPI ended with me reinstalling everything, then laptop got ill again and had to go to doctor.

 

Since I started this thread, I've moved up from 10.0 to 10.1OE, and on install I was prompted during XOrg setup to configure 2 'heads' [monitors?]. So I guess Mandy knows the TV-Out is there, but I have no idea how to use it. I configured the 2nd head as 'Plug & Play' as it seemed the safest option.

 

As before, pushing the button does nothing more than making both screens flicker for an instant. I remember Windows behaving like this at one point, but it went away and I never learned the cause.

 

Anyone out there with experience in this area? I still can't find info anywhere about this.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest raulzito22

Sorry, I know that you rather read some sort of usefull info about how to solve the problem, but I am here to ask if you had any success on making the bloddy thing work. I have the same one-flash-no-sight-of-the-film problem.

Too bad I use windows not linux... Any news on how to make it work?

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Uh, are you saying it does the same thing on Windows?

 

That did happen to me in Windows at one point, but I never figured out what the problem (nor the solution) was. One 'maybe' - try variations of connecting cables and turning the TV on/off before pushing the button.

 

I think a good starter, if anyone knows, would be what resolution, Hz etc. should be set for television output. I guess the Intel Display manager in Windows works this out by itself, as I've never had to mess with it, so maybe what's missing is to give XOrg the correct information...

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  • 1 month later...

UPDATE:

 

I have had a small sliver of progress with this. I dropped to shell (Ctrl+F1) and used Fn+F5 to do the screen swap. This, actually works! Display swaps to the TV, and stays there.

 

UNFORTUNATELY: If I then Ctrl+F7 back to where I was, it bounces back to the LCD. So still not much hope of playing any video through it.

 

It does lend weight, I think, to the idea that correct XOrg configuration is what's missing. How I wish there was a readable (to the average idiot) guide to xorg.conf stuff. The whole X server paradigm's just alien to me as a Windows refugee...

 

Still hoping for any tips on what a config for TV output *should* look like. I can post the current stuff if it's any help.

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In my experience as a windows user.

 

Whenever a desktop is switch to tv output or tv/monitor output the resolution is forced to 640X480. changing to a higher resolution after turning on tv output either caused the tv output to be turned off or the display on the tv to become distorted beyond comprehension.

 

maybe lowering your resolution will fix the problem. I don't know for sure though. Never had linux on a pc with tv out. Or you could get a PC-to-TV convertor. I did a quick look around to see if I had the right name(I had it wrong tried CRT-to-TV) and found this one for $47. I think that's pricey but it could be an easier solution.

http://www.sundialmicro.com/pc_to_tv_conve...0_1706_166.html

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Hi, thanks for looking in. I never would have realised that TV resolution was so small! I'll have a look at my xorg.conf and see if anything jumps out at me. Maybe I should just post it all here, but it is quite lengthy...

 

About the format: the actual TV-out format is S-VHS (I guess that's what is meant by 'pc') and my telly doesn't support this, so yes I did have to buy an inline convertor to 'Composite' format (standard analogue TV signal I think). Audio output is separate, from my earphone jack to the hi-fi. It was slightly cheaper than the above, which has a few more functions.

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Latest: I tried hitting the switch right after the GRUB menu, before X started, and was able to get the desktop on my screen - albeit at too high a resolution for the TV.

 

Unfortunately, when I tried to play an AVI movie, it puked so badly I couldn't restore the display to EITHER screen, and had to do a hard poweroff.

 

So - progress, but not a lot. I need to learn the dark arts of XOrg monitor configuration, anyone got any suggestions?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm hoping someone can explain what actually the X-server does (or should do) when you signal to switch to TV-out. Clearly the hardware understands the physical instruction (dedicated button or Fn+F5), but the OS is not able to properly implement it.

 

I'm thinking if I can get XOrg configured right, I could solve this - but if that's unlikely, please let me know. This is getting really annoying because I have almost everything else on my laptop geared for Linux, but this alone holds me back!

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I found this line in xorg.conf (in a 'ServerFlags' section) - could it be a factor?

 

 

#DontZoom # disable <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)

 

If I understand right, the hash means this whole line is ignored. But what does the key combination mean? What are KP_+ and KP_- ?

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