Does anyone have Component Video working?

[rdvaughan]

I am trying to get my ATI X1800 displaying on my HDTV through my cards Component Video cables.

I am running:
Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy
ATI 8.42.3 drivers

My crt1 runs perfectly including Compiz 0.10.3

Also ATI Catalyst Control Center runs but does not display any HDTV supported formats for me to select.

I know that my Component video (cv) does not return any EDID information from the /var/log/Xorg.0.log

I have tried a number of combinations for the command line:
--add-cvmode=WIDTH,HEIGHT,FLAGS,BASEWIDTH,BASEDHEIGHT,RE FRESH.

All of the combinations "fail" and therefore are not added to my xorg.conf

At times I have forced "TV" on but that also has no effect.

My /var/log/Xorg.0.log shows that Component Video is detected but gets disabled:
(II) fglrx(0): Connected Display2: Component Video [cv]
(II) fglrx(0): Display2: No EDID information from DDC.
(II) fglrx(0): Display2: Failed to get EDID information.
(WW) fglrx(0): DALEnableDriverInstance on secondary failed: 9
(II) fglrx(0): For single mode, Component Video is disabled

What I would like is better documentation for "aticonfig" option:
--add-cvmode=WIDTH,HEIGHT,FLAGS,BASEWIDTH,BASEDHEIGHT,RE FRESH.

What are "FLAGS" and what are valid values? An example or two would go along way.

I have assumed the option would like something like:
aticonfig --validate-cvmode=1280,720,0x00,1280,720,60.0

That one failed but 1280x720@60Hz works no problem under Windows Vista. In fact under Windows Vista the ATI Catalyst Control Center makes displaying on my HDTV a snap.

Any help would be appreciated.

[rdvaughan]

Attempted using ATI Support for Component Video help

As I have not received any forum help to get my HDTV connected via the Component Video I opened a ticket with ATI support requesting the following:
1) Better aticonfig documentation for ?--validate-cvmode? argument including a few examples. Examples are the most important.
2) A ?xorg.conf? file for a working component video configuration. (e.g. crt1 and a component video 1280x720p@60Hz HDTV output)

The support ticket details included most of the information in my Phoronix posting above. I also added the incentive that I would post ATI?s response on Phoronix and Ubuntu forums so that it would reduce additional support tickets.

Here is the first response to the support request:
----- Original Message -----
From: AMD - Customer Care
To: my email address
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 10:32 AM
Subject: Ticket #737-1282161 (How-To for Component Video output)

The Linux drivers available from ATI are provide are "as is".
You may be able to get further assistance from the Linux community
at the links below:

http://www.linux.org/help/index.html

http://www.linuxdoc.org/

http://www.xfree86.org/

To report issues with Linux drivers you can submit an online ticket using
the "Linux Driver Feedback" Category, and your report will be
received and reviewed/tested by our driver team. Please note that your report
will only be responded to if we require additional information.


Ticket Information:
Ticket #: 737-1282161
Date Created: 10/25/2007 10:30 AM EDT
Category: Solve a Problem
To update or check the status of this Ticket:
- Go to: http://support.ati.com/ics/support/d...cketID=1282161

- Log in, and you will be automatically taken to the Ticket page.

Customer Care
ATI Technologies Inc.
ati.com
------------------------------------

Ok, I already understood that the drivers are ?as is? but I wanted to know how a feature that is suppose to work in ATI?s own driver release notes is set up. As requested I re-submitted the same information request as a ?Linux Driver Feedback? ticket. I just received an auto-response:

Dear AMD Customer,


This is an Auto-Response based
on the fields you selected when submitting your Ticket. Our Auto-Responses
resolve most of our customer?s queries.

Please try the suggestions below in order to resolve the issue you are
facing.

To respond to your ticket, visit http://support.ati.com and
login to ?My Support.?




SOLUTION
Information about Linux support for Radeon and All in wonder products can
be found in link below:

https://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=28027

If the information above does not resolve your issue, please respond to your
ticket in order to get assistance from our qualified support representatives.
Thank you for choosing AMD!

AMD Global Customer Care for ATI products

Ticket Information:
Ticket #: 737-1282171
Date Created: 10/25/2007 11:09 AM EDT
Category: Linux Driver Feedback
To update or check the status of this Ticket:
- Go to: http://support.ati.com/ics/support/d...cketID=1282171

- Log in, and you will be automatically taken to the Ticket page.

Customer Care
ATI Technologies Inc.
ati.com
-------------------------------------

I am left shaking my head. The web linked referenced in the response above contains 4 other web links. The first is to information that has not been updated since 2004 and the second is a dead link the last links are generic Linux sites.

If AMD/ATI is serious about Linux support it can at least provide adequate information on features ATI claims that it?s drivers support. To test a feature they would have to have information on my two requests.
1) Better aticonfig documentation for ?--validate-cvmode? argument including a few examples. Examples are the most important.
2) A ?xorg.conf? file for a working component video configuration. (e.g. crt1 and a component video 1280x720p@60Hz HDTV output)

I just hope an AMD/ATI driver developer sees this posting and responds. As I have observed I am not the only one asking these questions.

I have update both tickets stating that the responses did not help. I do not have much hope but at least the tickets are still open.

[mutsu]

I also sent a support case to ATI about getting component out to work an got the same cookie-cutter "go away" response.

I'm using a BI x1250 that has component out from the MB.

I have noticed that if I go to the ctrl-alt-F1 console the screen on my tv shows distorted information.

ati-config --tv-info also shows that the TV is connected.
But if I run the same commands from inside X, It doesn't show the TV exists. Kinda weird.

If you happen to get any additional information, please let me know.

[rdvaughan]

Sounds like you are a little ahead of me as the aticonfig command like does not show any TV on my configuration.

I suspect that component video is not enabled unless your HDTV returns EDID information on its supported HDTV formats. Until that information is available the Catalyst Control Center will not support component video output.

This situation just kills me as I want to dump Windows Vista badly.

I can only hope someone posts the appropriate documentation or examples as I have requested or ATI extends the Catalyst Control center to be as capable as the equivalent on the Windows platform.

[mutsu]

update

In another thread someone made the comment that 8.43.2 seem to have a bug that disabled tv-out as it appeared to be working in the previous version.

I also sent back a message indicating that I wanted a bit more information.

The response was a bit more helpful and included the following links:

http://www.ati.com/products/catalyst/linux.html

which contains the expected features.

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Main_Page

to which some of the engineers unofficially contribute.

http://www.rage3d.com/content/articles/atilinuxhowto/Linux_ATI.html#SECTION000140000000000000000

which discuss dual screen.

The last link is:

http://support.ati.com/ics/survey/survey.asp?deptID=894&surveyID=508&type=web

which is a Linux Driver Feedback link :-)

I have submitted information to them and am hoping for a response.

For all who submit, honey works better.

I'll let you know what I find out.

[rdvaughan]

Thanks for the information and any you get through the driver feedback submission.

Actually the postings I made in this thread was from a driver feedback submission (8.40 at the time). I had previously looked at the other links you referenced.

I agree with you in not blasting a company when you are asking for help. I do not think it is too much to express disappointment though.

Right now I am in a hold pattern hoping ATI will add functionality to either aticonfig or Catalyst Control Center enabling component video even when an HDTV does not return EDID information.

Every few days I boot into Ubuntu with a monitor, apply any updates and tweek the configuration or functionality for my eventual HTPC environment. All in the hope of dumping Vista one day. It is like a race between Microsoft fixing Vista and ATI completing it's support of Linux.

Hopefully you get a better response than I received.

[mutsu]

New driver update (7-11)

Plus:
Yay, I have tv out through component cables. :-)
Minus:
It's only blue in X. lol

At the console, I get a distorted screen with color, in X (using fluxbox) it shows up with out the RG portion of RGB.


When I get a chance, I'm going to try the other cable types and see if there is a difference.

Either way, progress is good. (If there are any ATI folks reading this, Thank you.)

[mutsu]

update.
Color is fine with a SVHS cable.
It must be just component out that has issues.

[bridgman]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but component is not RGB, it's YPrPb or something like that -- luminance plus a couple of colour differences. Are you hooking it up to an RGB display or a "component as the home theater folks define it" display ?

If you hook a component out signal to an RGB monitor and have Y connected to blue, and if the sync works (I thought sync was normally on green) you would get a blue display.

Again, just guessing here.

[mutsu]

Thank you for the suggestion.

It is actually component video (YPrPb).
It's built in to the MB. :-)
I have it hooked into a receiver. I believe that I have it hooked up correctly. Well, more than believe :-) On boot it shows the correct colors for the boot screen and if I don't start X by default, the console screen shows the colors that I have set up for the LC_COLORS env variable. (Although the screen is distorted)
It appears to be a thing specific to X.

However, I did try juggling the cables (hoping they mislabeled the connections) but to no avail. I'm going to stick with the SVHS cable until the next iteration of the drivers.