Hardware Building an Ion-powered Linux Media PC

If you get Overscan issues (you cant see all the desktop) on your TV OR you cant get the screen to the correct resolution for your TV then you can fix these probles using Mode Lines which are initialised in your Xorg.conf file.

X is the window server so the Xorg.conf file tells X how to display your desktop on the screen youve chosen.
In my case, my samsung has a physical resolution of 1366 x 768 however the TV would never allow me to connect at that res!
Using This link I discovered all the resolutions that my TV can physically accept without blowing up etc.

To my pleasent suprise i found this...

So i entered the following line (as per the instructions in the link)

A restart later (and adding in two more Mode Lines for the different frequencies i wanted) and i now have the resolution i wanted, with no overscan and smoooooth video.

Im no linux expert but obviously google is our friend, and i didnt mind reading. Good luck tho. And My thanks to the XBMC bods who know a hell of a lot more than me!
If you want me to copy my Xorg.conf file and post it ill gladly do that if it helps

 

Compare and contrast...

Yup that GUI is a real boon when things don't do exactly what one expects of them.

Emphais added to the required steps...

 

Ah, yes, I see what you've done, there, Steve, you've carefully just missed out some of the required steps for the linux version, haven't you?

And what's more:

No thankyou I'll use professionally-written graphics software so that it works without any of this needless shenanigans...

 

Just to be clear, my system was working fine and dandy with the overscan issues. XBMC (as well as Boxee) have a GUI setting inside them that allows you to tell it where the edges of the screen are. Its elegent and nice and simple, i just wanted to play!
My graphics drivers ARE professionally-written by Nvidia. Im just telling those drivers how i want them to be run with MY samsung TV so that i didnt get overscan. A windows equivalent is going into the screen properties and choosing a different resolution.

I suppose i should go back into the basement but its a bit difficult when you live on the 18th floor.

 

No properly-written user-oriented software solution will ever require you to type "ModeLine "1920x1080@60" 148.35 1920 2008 2052 2200 1080 1084 1089 1125 +hsync +vsync." nvidia didn't provide that "user interface", linux did (or rather: linux didn't bother, which is why you have to type code in manually).

This is a textbook example of the "magic string" thing. The information required to generate that line of stuff isn't even generally published by the people who make the monitors, and you're required to figure it out manually. Change something by a pixel, and "a restart later" you know whether it works or not. Repeat until frustrated. Even if you're reduced to this level in windows (which I have exactly once, ever, in a ten year career of working in video technology, to drive a high end digital cinema projector) you'll generally get a nice UI to do it in which you just click on arrows until everything lines up and you don't even need to care what a front or back porch is.

What I don't get is why it has to be this way. It is obvious - very, very obvious - that the manual creation of modelines is something that belongs to the 1970s. The nvidia UI for defining new screenmodes creates fundamentally the same information; it has to, to do what it needs to do, so it's clearly possible to provide a slightly less brutally hostile interface.

 

i understand your point Phil and yes it shouldnt be that way.
It was my TV that was causing the problem not nvidia.

As for the "nice UI" to adjust the screen. XBMC provides that and it dosnt require a restart. I didnt NEED to play about with Mode Lines i chose to, but then i suppose thats just my personality.

Back to topic.

Does tvcatchup.com provide tv programs like the Beep's iPlayer, or is it just "live" TV? Im tempted to sign up but id rather know if i can select a program from say 5 days ago or if its just watch now and be happy.