Well, I set up my first Mythtv box. Everything is working great on the test bench. Now it is time to install it in the living room.

I am connecting from the DVI out on my Radeon 7000 card to HDMI in on my Magnavox 42mf231d plasma TV with a DVI to HDMI cable.

The problem is that when I boot up everything seem to be working. I see the boot up sequence scroll by on the TV. but once the desktop starts (mythdora 4.0) I get no picture.

I know the Myth box is working because I can switch cables to a regular monitor and see it working.

I have tried all of the different resolutions in the display properties.

I know the cable works. It connects to my Macbook Pro DVI out and displays on the TV just fine. From the Macbook, the TV displays just about any resilution I throw at it.


Could this be some HD-Compliant problem with the video card? Or is it just a matter of proper Linux drivers.

Complete Linux noob here. Absolute first-timer.

Any help or suggestions would be just great.

Thanx
Dave

Your video card is probably picking a resolution/refresh rate that your TV cannot handle. It can handle whatever settings it is using for the boot screen but the resolution changes when you get to your desktop.

Try setting the resolution to 1280x720 and the refresh rate to 60 with your monitor plugged in. Save those settings and reboot with the TV plugged in.

And in general you dont really want an ATI card for Myth or linux in general. Most people use a geforce 5200, which can often be had for free after rebate.

Thanx for the quick reply, I'll give it a go.

Dave

tried khdubya's suggestion. Thanx, but I still get the same thing.

Interesting thing is that when the GUI is loaded I get blank screen.
If I hit CTRL+ALT+F1 to drop into a terminal screen, I can view the terminal just fine. but when I leave the terminal I go back to the blank screen...

Ok. It looks like I have a refresh rate problem.

Manufacture recommends a refresh rate of 60, as khdubya suggests.

I have been watching the refresh rate on a xga monitor. It looks like as it boots it is at 70. but it changes when Mythtv starts to 75. My TV just wont do 75.

I have changed the settings on the desktop and in Mythtv but somehow it seems to want to change back. Is there some config file I can edit that will not allow the video cart to put out anything over 60?

BTW, the ATI Radeon 7000 card is supposed to be Linux compatible, it's one of the few that are. I have one, but its still in its box, so I don't know what its settings are. You should be able to set it for 1280 x720 at 60 Hz, but you will need to get the latest version of the drivers, to get it to work. It sounds like your MythTV isn't set up correctly (I'm too much of a noob here to provide help).

the Radeon 7000 was cheap and works great with any of my monitors. Just getting it to work with my TV via DVI is the trick.

UPDATE:
It seems it is only the GUI (X11) that is not displaying.
Looks like I have to learn about modelines.

I have been reading these sites:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Working_with_Modelines
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=45720
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Modeline_Database
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2089575,00.asp

I'll keep looking.
Any ideas or comments appreciated.

Dave

Another very useful debugging/workaround feature is to enable VNC support on the linux box. Depending on which distro you're using, it may be as easy as turning on remote desktop support in your preferences.

That way, you can view and control your desktop from another PC, and see/adjust the settings. (even after you get it running, it's a great tool to have instead of needing a keyboard/mouse on your HTPC).


On the modelines: I think the newer NVidia drivers have special modeline settings to enable standard HDTV output timings. I am not sure if ATI has the same. Otherwise, try setting a few standard resolutions (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x720) with 60Hz, and cycle among them with Ctrl-Alt-Plus to see the highest your display will synch with.

@tji Thanx for the idea. I didn't know about ctrl-alt-+