Appendix H. Configuring TV-Out

NVIDIA GPU-based video cards with a TV-Out connector can use a television as another display device, just like a CRT or digital flat panel. The TV can be used by itself, or in conjunction with another display device in a TwinView or multiple X screen configuration. If a TV is the only display device connected to your video card, it will be used as the primary display when you boot your system (i.e. the console will come up on the TV just as if it were a CRT).

The NVIDIA X driver populates the mode pool for the TV with all the mode sizes that the driver supports with the given TV standard and the TV encoder on the graphics board. These modes are given names that correspond to their resolution; e.g., "800x600".

Because these TV modes only depend on the TV encoder and the TV standard, TV modes do not go through normal mode validation. The X configuration options HorizSync and VertRefresh are not used for TV mode validation.

Additionally, the NVIDIA driver contains a hardcoded list of mode sizes that it can drive for each combination of TV encoder and TV standard. Therefore, custom modelines in your X configuration file are ignored for TVs.

To use your TV with X, there are several relevant X configuration options:

The NVIDIA X driver may not restore the console correctly with XFree86 versions older than 4.3 when the console is a TV. This is due to binary incompatibilities between XFree86 int10 modules. If you use a TV as your console it is recommended that you upgrade to XFree86 4.3 or later.