[MPlayer-users] ATI Radeon 9000 and tv-out

[Adam Nielsen]

> Now that I think at this, I realized that under windows I have the 
> following: if I use clone mode, dvd reproduction is bad, if I use only 
> tvout (using the tv at boot time), it is ok. Does this has any meaning?

I've got an nVidia GeForce2, and I'm pretty sure it has the same limitation, 
so if the Radeon is anything like the GF2, Windows will "fake" the overlay by 
drawing the picture on the screen manually if the overlay is unavailable 
(like the -vo x11 driver does.)  This way if you've got hardware acceleration 
(i.e. the overlay) it'll use it, but if not it'll try its best to give you a 
picture anyway.

The GF2 does however, have another video out mode where the *contents* of the 
video overlay are sent to TV-out.  So you can load your player and watch the 
movie in a window, but have the actual movie running full-screen on a TV.  I 
have a feeling you can do the same with ATI cards, but having never used one 
I wouldn't know where to start.  But it might be worth looking into - check 
the driver FAQ on ATI's website.

Cheers,
Adam.