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

[Fabio Stumbo]

> > 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.

It seems that you got the core of the question: after your suggestion, I 
searched on ati site and I got:

--
OVERLAY UNAVAILABLE ON SECONDARY DISPLAY:

In general overlay will only be available on the primary display adapter 
under Windows 98. If the TV tuner is being used with a secondary adapter 
then the overlay feature required by the ATI Video Player will not be 
available.  To correct this the graphics card the TV tuner is used with 
must be configured as the primary display adapter.
--

This should explain why if I start windows booting on the tv reproduction 
is smooth, whereas in clone mode it is not.
As for linux, from a naif point of view it seems that it should be 
sufficient to set, in the aticontrolpanel, the tv-out as primary display 
and the monitor as secondary, then restart X: in this way, I should have 
the convers: blue screen on the monitor, full movie playback on the tv (I 
speak conditional because I can't verify up to next week, at least :-( )

I don't know if there is a vo mode similar to the one you have on the GF2: 
I will check this also.

BTW: I am what is exactly the overlay? 

Thank you very much

Fabio