Chapter 15. Configuring TV-Out

NVIDIA GPU-based graphics cards with a TV-Out connector can use a television as another display device (the same way that it would use 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 graphics 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 card. 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: