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maemo.org - Talk (https://talk.maemo.org/index.php)
-   Nokia N900 (https://talk.maemo.org/forumdisplay.php?f=44)
-   -   N900 TV Out as secondary display? (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=69489)

qole 2011-02-08 04:38
N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
Hi All,

I just purchased a little adapter that converts composite out to VGA, and I began to wonder what exactly the TV Out of the N900 is displaying.

Is it simply a hardware thing, it shows whatever is on the internal display, no matter what? Or is it display :1 or some other user-modifiable output?

The fact that Maemo can display something different on the TV when you're watching video suggests that you can use the TV Out as a secondary display.

If you can throw something else up there, I of course want to be able to throw a secondary X display onto it.

Any ideas?

woody14619 2011-02-08 05:00
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
I'm betting it is. Try this: Do a video playback, then send a text message (or something that activates a yellow "swoop in" message). You'll see the message on the device screen, but NOT on the video output. That implies to me they're two separate things. (Or one doesn't support a layer the other does?)

qole 2011-02-08 05:02
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
Yes, if it is just some kind of raw video overlay, it isn't very interesting (unless there's some hackish way to put a second display on that overlay ;))

Joseph.skb 2011-02-08 05:06
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
I think it's only suitable for what the sales pack says "Video sharing and playback".
TV out (PAL and NTSC) with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U)

Can't imagine working on the N900 and a secondary display like I do on laptops. Also, a mouse/pointer would be necessary. And the hassle to work and manage calls with a wire to the monitor would be troublesome.

sulu 2011-02-08 09:54
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
In my early N900-days when I played with the TV cable and my TV I got a call just when I had my N900 screen on the TV. Usually the screen should turn off during a call but the TV screen didn't turn black.
Additionally the output can be switched between PAL and NTSC and both produce slightly different images on the TV screen (my TV can handle both).

So I'm pretty sure that the TV out is handled seperately. But the question remains if the GPU can handle more than one display. I can't check right now, do you see any useful output in Easy Debian when you connect your N900 to the TV and issue the following in a Debian terminal:
Code:
xrandr -q --verbose

WhiteWolf 2011-02-08 10:07
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
I have one of these devices to use the N900 on monitors.

Using it as a 2 nd monitor should be possible, since mplayer used "xinerama" and you can see a video output to the TV and see the emails in the N900 screen.

I hope you get to make it possible for any application.

One idea is to use the media player controls on the screen of the N900 and the movie on the TV output.

sulu 2011-02-08 22:07
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
i just checked xrandr and this is what i got from maemo using xrandr from easy debian:
Code:
Screen 0: minimum 480 x 480, current 800 x 480, maximum 800 x 800
LCD connected 800x480+0+0 (0x3e) normal (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
        Identifier: 0x3d
        Timestamp:  10839
        Subpixel:  unknown
        Clones:   
        CRTC:      0
        CRTCs:      0
        Transform:  1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
                    0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
                    0.000000 0.000000 1.000000
                  filter:
        SignalFormat:        LVDS
        ConnectorType:        Panel
  800x480 (0x3e)  24.0MHz -HSync -VSync -CSync *current +preferred
        h: width  800 start  824 end  828 total  856 skew    0 clock  28.0KHz
        v: height  480 start  484 end  487 total  490          clock  57.2Hz
so it seems like there is only one screen detected which has a maximum resolution of 800x800.
i have no explanation for the xinerama/mplayer thing.

Edit:
Just for clarification, this was the output when my TV was connected, but it's the same when the TV is not connected.

qole 2011-02-08 23:10
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
As far as I understand, xinerama is used to stretch a single work area across two X displays; why is that used to display the video overlay on a second display?

I had an nVidia graphics card that had this same feature. You could have it display just the video on the second display. But it also could be configured to use the two displays as one big work area (xinerama).

anidel 2011-02-09 20:56
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
As this old HowTo says:

Quote:
"TV-out is an area that is neglected by the XFree86 developers, mostly leaving it up to third parties to provide extra drivers etc."
BUT MythTV has a bit more info:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/XorgConfMonitorSectionForTV

qole 2011-02-09 21:02
Re: N900 TV Out as secondary display?
 
Oooh, you think it could be that easy?
EDIT: I don't think it is that easy (just adding a Monitor section to an xorg.conf file)


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