Using HDMI With ATI Linux Drivers

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Using HDMI With ATI Linux Drivers

One of the special abilities of ATI's R600 GPU family is the integrated 5.1 surround sound audio support through HDMI. Many Radeon HD 2000 and HD 3800 series graphics cards also ship with a DVI to HDMI dongle, so that one can experience the full video playback capabilities of these discrete graphics cards. But what level of HDMI support can Linux users expect when using these latest ATI graphics cards? We have done some testing internally and have the initial ATI Linux HDMI video and audio results to report in this article.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=11559

[Kano]

You should install a valid signature file in /etc/ati, any will do...

[pipe13]

We had then manually added a 1920 x 1080 mode in the xorg.conf, but still the RadeonHD driver had turned back to this lower resolution.

I've occasionally worked around similar problems by commenting out all modes in xorg.conf *except* the desired mode. Its best if you have a reasonably good idea the desired mode should work, and are prepared to edit xorg.conf from the raw command line (set default runlevel 3 in /etc/inittab) in case the desired mode just doesn't work.

[DanL]

You should've tried OSSv4 as well. I don't have an HDMI device to test it with, but I know that OSSv4 can at least detect/initialize the ATI HDMI audio output.

[FireBurn]

I'm using a built in HDMI port on an MSI K9AGM2-FIH

It's terrible using both the fglrx driver and there is no support yet on the radeonhd driver (which is at least understandable)

Mike

PS there is no Xv support so video playback is awful

[doubtingben]

This sounds exactly like what I want to do, but when I looked up the Sharp LC37D43U http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16889101106 the Maximum Resolution is 1366 x 768.

How did you get 1920 x 1080?

[Koying]

What is not clear to me is whether the author actually got HDMI sound working?

As for myself, HD 2600, using the git ALSA drivers, the card is recognized, I've got PCM and IEC958 in Alsamixer, but no sound is coming out of my Sony Bravia TV.

Of course, it's working on VISTA.

On a side note, I must say I curse myself for having bought this ATI. My onboard NVIDIA is working flawlessly under Linux, while trying to have the ATI doing anything else thant a single X is a nightmare. I need 2 VT (1 desktop and 1 MythTV) and whenever you try to switch (or logoff, by the way), it's a no display at best, deadlock at worse.
I would advice to stay away from R500/R600 until we got at least a half-featured radeonHD (meaning, for me, HDMI video and Xv support)

[Koying]

This sounds exactly like what I want to do, but when I looked up the Sharp LC37D43U http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16889101106 the Maximum Resolution is 1366 x 768.

How did you get 1920 x 1080?

1920x1080 is fullHD 1080i/p, while 1280x720 is 720p.
All TV set advertised as "HD-ready" are actually capable of 720p only, with some (as my Sony), doing "software" upscaling to 1080i. Their actual pixel resolution is 1366x768.

Check in the Xorg log if your TV reports being capable of 1920x1080.

[Koying]

PS there is no Xv support so video playback is awful

I guess you mean no Xv in radeonHD, because there is in fglrx.
Unfortunately, it's of no use to me because the upscaling causes awful aliasing in the video
Opengl video rendering works quite nice though (with e.g. Mplaver). If only I could have it working in MythTV

[Tsume]

Wait...

so games don't flicker like hell for you with Compiz on? Or do they not flicker with just HDMI.

If you had to disable compiz to play the game, you should note it in the article... with Compiz on here everything using OpenGL flickers like hell, especially video playback.

I have WoW open on my 2nd monitor, and this browser open on this monitor. Every time I scroll or type in this monitor, WoW flickers like mad ... well, more flickering than normal. Even if I don't type it flickers 2x a second.

(I'm talking about the fglrx driver, 7.11- can't speak for RadeonHD)