My name is Dan Eriksen and I have written a short HOWTO on getting TV-out working on the G450 using Petr Vandrovec's matroxfb driver. I myself have not done anything except collect any info I could and compile it into something more structured. Alot of info came from Petr and people who have submitted corrections/info to me.
FYI Matrox has a linux
forum that is monitored by a tech support person (Ben). I have
collected alot of info from this forum and I encourage you to ask your
Matrox linux questions there (the ones that don't involve TV-out that
is)
Note that I am in no way affiliated with Matrox. I simply own a
G450 that I have wanted to actually use as advertised.
There is a second way to get TV-out. DirectFB has TV-out code
that works for the G400/G450/G550 that is superior in quality for
playing movies. Realize that your first head becomes unusable when
using
this method, so no X while this is active. Pekka Tiittanen has a well
written HOWTO that explains how to use this method. Look below for
links.
Dan Eriksen (matrox_tvout@bglug.ca)
Changelog:
| Sep 18, 2003 |
Some updated info for using newer kernel versions. |
| Apr 28, 2003 |
Rewrote
section 8 (Getting XFree86 to play nicely). Much overdue. |
| Apr 05, 2003 |
Added info on Pekka Tiittanen's new HOWTO on using DirectFB. |
| Mar 17, 2003 |
Removed a bad link and added a couple of minor notes about DirectFB. |
| Feb 19, 2003 |
Note on using v4lctl, fbtv, avoiding the BusID problem and some notes on using DirectFB for really good TV-out. |
| Jan 15, 2003 |
Another small update with a couple of links that are also included at the bottom of this page. |
| Dec 23, 2002 |
Small update. Rewrote my primary/secondary output ident section because it was confusing. Elaborated on the MPlayer "expand" option. |
| Dec 04, 2002 |
Update with a MPlayer tip from Gemes Tibor. Frederic Lespez sent a report of success with the 2.4.20 kernel and mentioned that his G550 also avoided the BusID problem. |
| Nov 07, 2002 | A long overdue update. Thanks to Balázs Bárány for the tip on Primary/Secondary connector confusion. |
| Sep 17, 2002 |
Some updates and fixes, thanks to Per Mattsson and Tim van Erven. Also some more info on the BusID problem. I have a theory that it only affects the G450 and not the G550. I have had two reports of the BusID error not being a problem, both from G550 owners. I have examined their configs and could not see anything that helped get my setup working. |
| Sep 03, 2002 | Changed layout slightly and added "Adjusting the picture" section. The previous layout suggested that v4lctl was only for adjusting the console settings, which isn't true. Thanks to Pontus Edvardsson for pointing out the problem. |
| Sep 02, 2002 | Removed a section of repeated text. |
| Aug 29, 2002 | Added some more PAL info from Maarten ter Huurne. Still not possible to use the mga driver in dual-head with TV-out (the BusID problem). |
| Aug 04, 2002 | Petr Vandrovec has released a new version of the tv-out patch (2.4.19-rc5). No new features, but should compile with less fuss. |
Name Last modified Size Description
g450.jpg 29-Dec-2002 19:28 24K layout of g450 (contributed by Safranka Tamás)
g450_tvout_howto.html 18-Sep-2003 22:53 32K newest version of tv-out howto
g450_tvout_howto.txt 18-Sep-2003 22:53 20K newest version of tv-out howto