is xrandr able to set TV-Out to NTSC or PAL-M on Mint with Geforce FX 5200?

gugaLG1974 · 06-02-2012, 01:37 PM

Hello,

I m a bit new to Linux so I suppose I m just spelling wrong the command.

My tv only accepts PAL-M or NTSC-M but all distros I tried come set to PAL.
I've been trying different spells to xrandr and have been receiving different error messages.
I'v seen a few pages and tutorials about xrandr but could not figure out the correct spell. Could anyone please tell me if is it my mistake or a real bug.
I ran xrandr --verbose and it say PAL-M and NTSC-M are supported.
I'm running Mint 9 isadora LXDE w/ nouveau driver on a NVidia FX-5200 card and haven't have any success neither with the command after a plain installation nor after updating as many packages as possible (even some not recommended). I also tried Mint 12 lxde, debian AMD64 LXDE and a few others w/ no success. I also installed some GUI for xrandr but haven't found one that have the option to set tv standard.

Here a few examples of what I tried and the errors messages I got:

gustavo@familiafeliz ~ $ xrandr --addmode output TV-1 --tv_standard NTSC-M
[...full help page]
gustavo@familiafeliz ~ $ xrandr --output TV-1 --mode PAL-M
xrandr: cannot find mode PAL-M
gustavo@familiafeliz ~ $ xrandr --output TV-1 --set TV-MODE PAL-M
X Error of failed request: BadName (named color or font does not exist)
Major opcode of failed request: 150 (RANDR)
Minor opcode of failed request: 11 (RRQueryOutputProperty)
Serial number of failed request: 27
Current serial number in output stream: 27
gustavo@familiafeliz ~ $ xrandr --output TV-1 --set TV-STANDARD PAL-M
X Error of failed request: BadName (named color or font does not exist)
Major opcode of failed request: 150 (RANDR)
Minor opcode of failed request: 11 (RRQueryOutputProperty)
Serial number of failed request: 27
Current serial number in output stream: 27
gustavo@familiafeliz ~ $ xrandr --output TV-1 --set tv_standard pal-m
X Error of failed request: BadName (named color or font does not exist)
Major opcode of failed request: 150 (RANDR)
Minor opcode of failed request: 11 (RRQueryOutputProperty)
Serial number of failed request: 27
Current serial number in output stream: 27

I'll really appreciate if anyone could tell me how to solve that problem.
Apart from that Linux is running PERFECT and has brought back a lot of vitality to my old PC .

Thanks in advance
Gustavo

Didier Spaier · 06-03-2012, 08:30 AM

Hi, welcome to LQ.

A "man xrandr" states in its Description chapter:

Quote:

Xrandr is used to set the size, orientation and/or reflection of the outputs for a screen. It can also set the
screen size.

But AFAIK xrandr is not able to set a TV standard, it's not one of its features.

cascade9 · 06-04-2012, 05:36 AM

I'd get the closed nVidia drivers, and then try running the TV from nvidia-settings.

To get the closed drivers, use the 'hardware drivers' tool. Sorry, I forget wheer it is in the mint 9 menus, but it should be there.

It might not work, PAL-M is an odd setup (does Brazil EVER use standard stuff?). You might have better luck with NTSC-M, though there is every chance that NTSC will display as monochrome.

gugaLG1974 · 06-04-2012, 10:10 PM

Tks a lot for the help

- Didier, I'll go back to try something else.
- Cascade, I tried the Nvidia driver but I'm having some trouble in the installation. The hardware drivers installation GUI doesn't come in LXDE distros. I tried some gnome and kde ones but w/ no success so went back to mint-lxde that is much faster and managed to get the GUI (installing the jockey-gtk pakage) but i get the same problem: NVidia doesn't appear as an option to be installed.
I think I'll have to give another try in the manual instalation.

Regards
Gustavo

cascade9 · 06-04-2012, 11:08 PM

Gah, no nVidia option. Annoying (and IMO totally removes the 'easiness' of ubuntu/mint over debian).

BTW, its possible that the nouveau version in Mint9 is too old to support TV-out, or TV-out with NTSC-M/PAL-M, and newer versions might work.

gugaLG1974 · 06-10-2012, 09:07 PM

Hi Cascade,

I re-tried mint 12 lxde and this time I managed to install NVidia drivers, but when I change any setting in tv out it makes the system unable to load LXDE next time I rebbot.

Tks

cascade9 · 06-11-2012, 06:25 AM

If you change the TV out settings but dont save them, does it work?

gugaLG1974 · 06-16-2012, 12:54 AM

Hi,
I tried this tutorial: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/176
but step 8 did not work, and after a few tries I managed to ruin the hole system.
After that I had to format and start again, I tried some otheresss distros and after a wile Mint LXDE 12 worked, I got the GUI for installing the Nvidia driver. It is installed and runing OK but I confess that I gave up setting to Pal-M; my whife got feed up of waitting to be able to whatch a DVD and bought a external DVD player.

Now my new chalenge is to manage to get TV capture card to record.
Tks