DisplayLink external DVI/VGA display WORKS! Now on to fine tuning it.

[NearTao]

I like your style!


I might have to check this out at some point when I get some time. I've been considering an attempt to moving to a pandora based office setup, and this might make it more workable.

 

[skeezix]

Very cool! I'd wondered if this would work, with multi-screen and so on.


jeff

 

[Kumaki]

OK...maybe I'm an idiot or something, but couldn't you just plug a usb monitor into the usb hub currently on Pandy to get a big screen experience?

 

[F_Slim]

OK...maybe I'm an idiot or something, but couldn't you just plug a usb monitor into the usb hub currently on Pandy to get a big screen experience?

Well, if you already have a (normal) monitor or you are looking for a solution to attach it to a beamer at a conference, then a USB monitor is not really an option. Also I expect you would face the same/similar difficulties with a USB monitor? I don't know anything about this, but I'd expect the DisplayLink works in principle the same way as an USB monitor, the only difference is that it doesn't have a monitor build-in but instead passes the signal to a VGA-port. I could be wrong about that though.

 

[dsleaf67]

Do TV out cables not work well enough (with say Svideo) to use for presentations at conferences? I asked because I was considering getting one of those svideo to VGA converters to hook up to my monitors at home. Has anyone tried those? Are they worth it?

 

[TrashyMG]

Do TV out cables not work well enough (with say Svideo) to use for presentations at conferences? I asked because I was considering getting one of those svideo to VGA converters to hook up to my monitors at home. Has anyone tried those? Are they worth it?

With the regular s-video It's not too bad but limited to SD tv resolution, but it will display games and video at full speed. these VGA converters are limited to the bandwidth of the USB 2.0 port.. even on a regular desktop/laptop they can't handle anything with fast motion.. but it can drive a higher resolution than s-video, just don't expect to play games or video through it..


I've used the s-video with the TV out cable on the Pandora to watch Netflix on my DLP projector and it wasn't bad..


EDIT: Oh you mean an S-video to VGA adapter.. not USB to VGA... I found most of those adapter have poor video conversion quality..

 

[Kumaki]

But could you use the TV out cables to play games?


And COULD you actually get a USB monitor to work, just plugging into the USB hub on the Pandy?


Me, I'm just curious....

 

[TrashyMG]

But could you use the TV out cables to play games?


And COULD you actually get a USB monitor to work, just plugging into the USB hub on the Pandy?


Me, I'm just curious....

I made my own S-video TV-out cable about a year ago. I hitch up my Pandora to my DLP projector and use my n64 Controller to USB adapter.and occasionally play Zelda: OOT on the big screen.. It looks great IMO..


Although un-related to the TV out with the new kernel version I've have had trouble mapping analog control from any external USB controller with Mupen64's input plugin (blight's input plugin).


From what I'm seeing in the original post you can run a USB monitor with a little bit of work.. just wouldn't be good for games.

 

[Kumaki]

Hummm. Well, was just curious. the problem is, a lot of people are basically speaking in GREEK and I have no idea what the heck they are even talking about. Need someone to explain some of this stuff in ways simpletons like me can understand, LOL.


I only know just enough to be dangerous...

 

[skeezix]

A TV-out means the device already is sending TV-signal onto a port, and you just need a cable/adapter to make it fit into your display.


A USB-TV is a TV that plugs into USB.. and USB is just a carrier (a wire, with standardized protocols so people can code for them easily.) So a USB TV has a protocol to show TV on it, but the operating system and software have to do the work in converting and sending to the USB device; someone has to bring over that code to make it work.. thats what is being done here more or less.


Also note that a TV-out shows what is on your display, on the TV-out; a display extension like above, or USB-TV, can do differen tthings.. show somethign else than is on the display, or be a secondf display that joins onto the first so you have a bigger single display as far as the system is concerned, or other tricks.


Its not greek, its just technical, you have to look into it; if you don't know mucvh about cameras and go to a camera forum, it'll be all greek.. its not magic, just something you dot' know yet; so either look into it, or continue to be mystified

 

[Kumaki]

Well, if they used language I ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND...to explain it...I mean, it doesn't do any good if I have to keep breaking off from what I'm reading to look up what A B and C mean!


I mean, seriously...sometimes, I really think some people think everyone is born knowing this stuff...or at least they write as if they think that!


I'm just looking for a VERY SIMPLE solution to hook my Pandy into a TV or a computer monitor, thru either the USB or some other cables, I don't understand all this coding gobbledygook, I just want to be able to plug in and go.

 

[TrashyMG]

Well if you could happen to get a TV-Out cable.. which plugs into that odd connector (EXT connector) next to the USB connectors.. which you may of wondered what it's used for.. Right now these TV cables are not being produced as they're still working out how and where they will be built. Most companies have a ridiculously high minimum order amount for cables (Think ED said 10,000 or 100,000)... which either way would be too much to pay for at once..


However a year or two ago someone bought 1,000 of the EXT connectors and sold them off to the Pandora community, so a few people with soldering skills could make our cables from scratch.. My attempt looks like the Frankenstien monster tripped on some electrical tape.. but it works...


The TV out works pretty simple you just enable it in the settings and there is an easy launcher in the xfce menu too.

 

[hmc]

...and the same is planned for DisplayLink (USB to VGA or DVI monitor), too.


Plug it in, then open some small utility to configure / enable it, click OK and go.


But we aren't there yet.


And it seems form my research so far, that true hotplug while X is still running won't be possible with current versions of the kernel and X. I fear at least an X restart will be necessary (that means, all running programs have to be closed, saving open documents, and after X restart you need to open them again).


But still, it would be a very appealing feature to have.

 

[Asmo]

Well, if they used language I ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND...to explain it..

The TV-out (from the AV socket) is provided by the Pandora's hardware, so using it (which requires a still rare Pandora TV out cable) means you can output, at standard TV resolution, what you see on the Pandora's screen. It doesn't require any processing power, just the appropriate cable. Games, video, whatever, all smooth and fluid as on the Pandora's display.


Output over USB is different, it requires additional processing power to output a video signal over the USB cable - because that is something that isn't there normally. So using a USB video device needs a piece of software ('driver') to send video out over the cable, and it takes a hefty bit of the available CPU power. End result (including other factors) is that USB is not suitable for any display with lots of movement, games or video in particular, because it won't be able to update the display fast enough.

 

[hmc]

Asmo's posting sounded a bit like TV-Out is much better than DisplayLink USB. Let me explain, why we want to have DisplayLink anyway:


TV-Out has a big disadvantage: While quick movement of screen contents causes problems for DisplayLink, it's actually the reason why TV-Out works so well: Moved content conceals the blurriness of the TV-Out display. Mainly static output, that requires a certain resolution to be watched in a convenient way, e.g. writing text in a text processor, looks awful on a TV connected using TV-Out. Here is the advantage of DisplayLink, as this type of connection allows for maximum display quality, similar to a standard VGA or DVI connection.


So for watching movies and for gaming, TV-out is better,


and for working in a desktop or laptop manner, DisplayLink is better.

 

[Asmo]

I hoped mentioning 'at standard TV resolution' would cover that limitation


Maybe a more accurate description would be 'classic ancient pre-HD era interlaced CRT TV resolution' - I guess a lot of people now may not have any memory of TV as it was before 1080p flat panels came along!

 

[Kumaki]

Thank you, Asmo...THAT was the sort of language I needed in order to understand what was going on. No, for my purposes, a nice TV-Out cable would do just fine as I would just want to watch movies, or play games with it.


What's the chances I could get anyone with skillz to make up a working TV out Cable?


And where exactly does it plug in? there's two ports on the back of my Pandy to the left of the USB as you look at it - one is wider than the other.


On the other side of the USB there's where the charge cord goes, and a square-shaped hole that I'm not sure is anything at all.

 

[hmc]

The wider one, next to the large USB port, is the TV-Out.


The smaller one is a Mini-USB port with USB-OTG (USB-OnTheGo) functionality.

 

[Cyberworm]

I guess this could work with my USB-Touchscreen, too, which also uses the DisplayLink drivers. I already got it to work with my Raspberry Pi:

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Should work indeed.