I have this LCD monitor and my Sony CRT hooked up. Nvidia control panel says the Sony TV screen name is <brutus:0.1> Running
mplayer -display brutus:0.1 *
doesn't work. It says 'no video'.

Where does it say 'no video'? Could you post mplayer's output (because maybe it's playing an audio file, lol)?

e.g. (:D):
guest@localhost ~/ZOIDS $ mplayer -display localhost:0 *
MPlayer dev-SVN-rUNKNOWN-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.60GHz (Family: 15, Model: 2, Stepping: 9)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing Midnight Star - Freakazoid.mp3.
Audio file file format detected.
============================================================ ==============
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
============================================================ ==============
[AO OSS] audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...
mpg123: Can't rewind stream by 48 bits!1.7%
mpg123: Can't rewind stream by 47 bits!1.7%
mpg123: Can't rewind stream by 143 bits!.7%
big_values too large! 365.0 (06:05.0) 1.7%
big_values too large!
big_values too large!
mpg123: Can't rewind stream by 1809 bits!
mpg123: Can't rewind stream by 74 bits!
A: 365.7 (06:05.7) of 365.0 (06:05.0) 1.7%

Exiting... (End of file)
guest@localhost ~/ZOIDS $

Just playing, video works fine in a window on this monitor:

chaz@brutus:~/Videos/Torrents/CowboyBebop$ mplayer *
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.3 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5400+ (Family: 15, Model: 107, Stepping: 2)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing [KB]_Cowboy_Bebop_Remix_01.DVD_(H264.AC3_5.1)[0B265C96].mkv.
[mkv] Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC), -vid 0
[mkv] Track ID 2: audio (A_AC3) "Japanese AC3 5.1", -aid 0, -alang jpn
[mkv] Track ID 3: subtitles (S_TEXT/ASS) "English ASS", -sid 0, -slang eng
[mkv] Will play video track 1.
Matroska file format detected.
VIDEO: [avc1] 640x480 24bpp 23.976 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
xscreensaver_disable: Could not find XScreenSaver window.
GNOME screensaver disabled
============================================================ ==============
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
============================================================ ==============
============================================================ ==============
Forced audio codec: mad
Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52
Using SSE optimized IMDCT transform
Using MMX optimized resampler
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 448.0 kbit/29.17% (ratio: 56000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52)
============================================================ ==============
AO: [pulse] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 640x480 => 640x480 Planar YV12
GNOME screensaver enabled.000 ct: 0.000 218/218 10% 2% 0.7% 0 0

Exiting... (Quit)
chaz@brutus:~/Videos/Torrents/CowboyBebop$

trying to display on TV:

chaz@brutus:~/Videos/Torrents/CowboyBebop$ mplayer -display brutus:0.1 *
MPlayer 1.0rc2-4.2.3 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5400+ (Family: 15, Model: 107, Stepping: 2)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing [KB]_Cowboy_Bebop_Remix_01.DVD_(H264.AC3_5.1)[0B265C96].mkv.
[mkv] Track ID 1: video (V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC), -vid 0
[mkv] Track ID 2: audio (A_AC3) "Japanese AC3 5.1", -aid 0, -alang jpn
[mkv] Track ID 3: subtitles (S_TEXT/ASS) "English ASS", -sid 0, -slang eng
[mkv] Will play video track 1.
Matroska file format detected.
VIDEO: [avc1] 640x480 24bpp 23.976 fps 0.0 kbps ( 0.0 kbyte/s)
vo: couldn't open the X11 display (brutus:0.1)!
Error opening/initializing the selected video_out (-vo) device.
============================================================ ==============
Forced audio codec: mad
Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52
Using SSE optimized IMDCT transform
Using MMX optimized resampler
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 448.0 kbit/29.17% (ratio: 56000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52)
============================================================ ==============
AO: [pulse] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
===== PAUSE =====
A: 18.2 (18.1) of 1482.6 (24:42.6) 0.7%

OK. Let's see your xorg.conf file:
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

EDIT: Also, what have you been able to successfully display on that device?

The desktop with the Hardy Heron image shows up, and I can see my mouse cursor. I can't drag windows over there though, not that I want to. Before, it appeared fine, today for some reason it is juddering up and down and morphing a bit at the top. If I try to put my mouse cursor on the desktop and use the scroll wheel, which usually flips the desktop cube, th image tears and disappears, and then reappears as before. Right-clicking on the desktop also causes tearing to appear until I get rid of the context menu that appears. I don't really care to have compiz running on the TV; is there any way I can turn it off?

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@vernadsky) Tue Mar 4 20:24:34 UTC 2008

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "dvorak"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "vmmouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "BenQ FP91G+"
HorizSync 31.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "SONY TV"
HorizSync 15.0 - 46.0
VertRefresh 59.0 - 61.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a"
BusID "PCI:0:18:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a"
BusID "PCI:0:18:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "Defaultdepth" "24"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Am I reading this correctly? Do you have both Xinerama and TwinView disabled?

I don't intend to. From what I understand, Xinerama will treat the two displays as one big area. I don't want that. However, Twinview is what i'm going for, correct? I only want to display fullscreen video on the CRT for home theater purposes.

What I did was, use the Nvidia gui control panel, but when I clicked on 'write to config file' it said it couldn't make a backup and the writing failed. So I copied the complete 'preview' of the xorg.conf and manually pasted that into my xorg.conf; i haven't made any manual changes.

Here's the pertinent sections of my xorg.conf. This provides me with two separate displays, each coming out of a DVI port on a single 8800GT:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 8800 GT"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 8800 GT"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: 1920x1200_60 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP-1: 1280x1024_60 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

-Trouble

I don't intend to. From what I understand, Xinerama will treat the two displays as one big area. I don't want that. However, Twinview is what i'm going for, correct? I only want to display fullscreen video on the CRT for home theater purposes.

What I did was, use the Nvidia gui control panel, but when I clicked on 'write to config file' it said it couldn't make a backup and the writing failed. So I copied the complete 'preview' of the xorg.conf and manually pasted that into my xorg.conf; i haven't made any manual changes.

Yeah, I was thinking TwinView might help you, but I see that Troubleshooter has his working without it. Your user needs write permissions for /etc/X11 in order for the gui panel to backup and save changes to xorg.conf.

EDIT: The easiest way to do that is to temporarily take ownership of the directory. For example, if your user is fred:
sudo chown fred -R /etc/X11
And then when you're done:
sudo chown root -R /etc/X11

From this point on, I'm not going to be able to help you much, because the only time I set up dual displays, I just "cloned" the desktop.

There should be enough info here for someone else with more experience to help you, though. Good luck :)

I have two different monitors hooked to my myth machines. One is for tweaking (15" LCD) and the other my 1080p PJ. I used "sudo nvidia-settings" to set them up. Use detect to find the displays and then decide how you want them (left,right,above. etc). I chose to have only one active so I used the "configure" button to disable one of the displays and then save the Xorg.conf as xorg.conf.mon1 and then enable the other display mon2 (and disable the prev. monitor) and save as xorg.conf.mon2.
You simple do a "sudo cp xorg.conf.mon1 xorg.conf" or use .mon2 and that is your primary monitor. When booting, I select "recovery" from grub and you can cd /etc/X11 and do it without sudoing since "recovery" is single user and you are a root. When I tweak I don't want to use my PJ (bulbs are expensive) so I use the LCD setup and when I am not tweaking and all is good, I use the PJ setup.
If you have stuttering or other issues, use nvidia-settings and change the vblanking, etc. These control if the frames are put out at you specified rate of your monitor or at full speed. You can use "glxgears" to see how it works!
Hope this is not to confusing - ALWAYS save your working xorg.conf before experimenting and you can use the "recovery" technique to save your bacon! Also, when changing xorg.conf you can cntrl+alt+backsp to reload the GDM so you don't have to reboot to see your handy work :)

Thanks for the advice, but I need both my LCD monitor and my CRT working at the same time; this is my work computer, I merely want to use the HDMI output to go to my TV. Why this has to be this hard, I have do idea; why can't it just work?

First thing, when I use Nvidia Settings to un-disable my Sony TV, should I tell it to use Twinview or Separate X screen?

Should I 'force full GPU scaling'?

I keep restoring my xorg.conf and using the Nvidia settings to enable the Sony as a separate X screen, which is the only thing that works for me right now. The TV is still displaying a desktop and mouse pointer but it's juddering up and down and morphing at the top. Checking the 'sync o Vblank' checkboxes doesn't seem to do anything at all, I can't even see where you click to apply them, and if they just immediately take effect they don't work.

The really odd thing is, the first time I tried this, the TV wasn't juddering and it displayed the Nvidia splash upon an X restart. Now it's juddering and doesn't display the Nvidia splash, and I can't see what I've done diffrently. GLXgears and compiz run perfectly on my VGA-connected LCD, regardless.

Under OpenGL settings - Performance Sync to Vblank will change the fps of glxgears BUT you have to exit glxgears and reload to see the difference. I think the screens copy the settings at load and are ran as seperate x objects. I would disable compiz if you have it loaded - it will cause more problems than its worth running video. You can disable compiz through system>preference>appearance select the visual effects tab and select none!
I think you want separate X windows and you need to launch the app in that window. You can't drag between them! Twinview give you an expanded screen and you can drag windows between the screen and clone, well clones. You should be able to set up seperate X windows via nvidia-settings and then use apply to test and if ok save the xorg.conf. I think the main programs load in default screen 0 but you can change that as well in xorg.conf or launch manually. I had this working as you are wanting and I believe I used seperate X windows.

Sorry to confuse you with TwinView. You definitely want to use separate X screens.

I think I have gotten somewhere. Extremely frustrated, I turned off my computer. I rebooted it later, and for kicks I turned on the TV first. Oddly, the TV showed all the bootup info and stuff, and went straight to the desktop. Compiz works fine. I don't know if it's the reboot, or the booting the TV and computer together?

The taskbars are off the screen, but starting an instance of mplayer via konsole on the TV seems to run fullscreen video fine. I still can't get video to output to the TV from the computer monitor using the -display option, but I don't care anymore. My subtitles were getting chopped off the bottom so I'm not sure if it's cropping my video, but if it is, it's not much; I just moved the subtitles up a bit.

Incidentally, all my taskbar dock icons (amarok, ktorrent, update notifier, etc) are now homeless since I accidentally removed the dock from the panel (I was intending to just remove the update notifier icon, but I guess it though I meant the whole dock). Now he little widget icons are homeless on my desktop, very annoyingly, when I reboot. Any ideas how to restore them?


# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 1.0 (buildd@vernadsky) Tue Mar 4 20:24:34 UTC 2008

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Screen 1 "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "dvorak"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "vmmouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "BenQ FP91G+"
HorizSync 31.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor1"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "SONY TV"
HorizSync 15.0 - 46.0
VertRefresh 59.0 - 61.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a"
BusID "PCI:0:18:0"
Screen 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a"
BusID "PCI:0:18:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "Defaultdepth" "24"
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Removed Option "TwinView" "1"
# Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard1"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen1"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor1"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

My setup sploded again. As I type this the TV is displaying a most bizzare splash of color, scanlines and, underneath it all, my desktop. Spinning the desktop cube sometimes reduces it to merely the juddering and morphing mess it was before.

Nothing has changed in my Xorg.conf, I cross-checked it with the one posted above. Since nothing has changed, could it be the hardware, such as a bad cable or something with my TV? What could cause different behavior with no changes to the xorg.conf? Could it even be the motherboard? I tried rebooting, this time the TV didn't show the bootup info so I knew I was in for it.

edit: I rebooted once more, and now my TV is showing nothing. Bizarro.

Have you tried a different cable? Cables cause weird things when they start going bad or aren't connected well.

I started my computer up this morning, and it worked properly, and is now working as I type this. It's leading me to believe the reason it works after being turned off for a few hours is my graphics card has cooled down. It stands to reason. Last time it worked was after I turned my computer back on after taking a break fiddling with it. Could it be that I have a bad motherboard? But what should I do?