Help with TV out cable settings

[EvilDragon]

Just a quick info:

If your TV can do both NTSC and PAL, you should use different settings for different emulators and games.

For example, if you run a 60Hz game on the Pandora and use TV Out with PAL, TV Output will stutter a bit.

So if you plan to play emulators with NTSC or Japanese games, switch TV Out to NTSC.

If you plan to play emulators with PAL games, switch TV Out to PAL.

Amiga and C64 usually run with 50Hz, so use PAL here for smooth scrolling.

As the Pandora usually runs with 60Hz, NTSC will run most normal games without stuttering.

 

[Asmo]

To add to the above, you can choose 50 or 60hz as the fixed refresh rate in PCSX ReArmed, so if you've set it to 60hz for all games then obviously NTSC output in your TV Out settings matches that, even if the game being played is a 'Pal' copy.

 

[PokeParadox]

FWIW -


Tried a few emulators out briefly (so I can't be certain the ones that failed are the most up to date), and found that:


Hatari, Mupen, Fuse, Eduke32 and Vectrex all worked with Main Layer enabled,


PCSX, Picodrive (180), PanMame, Snes9x4p worked with HW Layer


GpSP wouldn't start with TV-Out enabled and UAE4all started but locked all the controls forcing a reset.


Mame4all won't start with it enabled, but I think that was already known.

Gpsp works for me... :S

 

[Asmo]

Any idea which version of Gpsp you used?

 

[PokeParadox]

I just have the latest from the repo... and I am updated to the latest SZ release using the "update" option in the menu only about a week after it was released.

 

[moxie]

Todays weirdness: When I connect my Pandora to my old CRT telly and select, say "PAL Composite Main" from the popup menu, I get no colour. However, if I select the "configure TV Out" and click "Composite", "PAL" and "Main", and then "Write Settings", I get colour. No fiddling with the cable, nothing else. The same goes for all the other valid choices (I've tried NTSC too, and HW Scaler). What is the difference between the presets and the written settings?

 

[TrashyMG]

^Okay, I did see this behavior once with the popup tray when I was at a friends house hitched to his CRT. I don't see it at home with my Projector setup.

Perhaps the Tray isn't running the same commands as the configure TV tool. I know if you use a Composite cable in S-video mode it may show in Black and White. Perhaps it's not switching from S-Video mode in the Tray utility.

 

[Monkfish]

 Here's the log with Picodrive 1.85 :

=======================================================================================


PND             : /media/SD2/pandora/menu/emulators/PicoDrive_185_2.pnd


PND_FSTYPE      : Squashfs


APPDATADIR      : /media/SD2/pandora/appdata/picodrive


APPDD_FSTYPE    : vfat


PND_CPUSPEED    : <unset>


EXENAME         : PicoDrive.sh


ARGUMENTS       : <unset>


=======================================================================================


[ START ]--- Mount the PND ----------


Mounting : mount -t squashfs -o ro "/dev/loop0" "/mnt/utmp/picodrive"


Mounting the Union FS : mount -t aufs -o exec,noplink,dirs="/media/SD2/pandora/appdata/picodrive=rw+nolwh":"/mnt/pnd/picodrive=rr" none "/mnt/utmp/picodrive"


[sUCCESS]--- Mount the PND ----------


[ START ]--- Starting the application ( PicoDrive.sh  ) ----------


hugetlb: 2 pages allocated.


SETUP_MEM: Device or resource busy


failed to set up layer, exiting.


SETUP_MEM: Device or resource busy


open /dev/tty: No such device or address


hugetlb: 0 pages allocated.


[sUCCESS]--- Starting the application ( PicoDrive.sh  ) ----------


[ START ]--- Restoring the frame buffer status ----------


ioctl SETUP_MEM: Device or resource busy


[ FAILED]--- Restoring the frame buffer status ----------


[ START ]--- uMount the PND ----------


[ START ]--- Waiting the Union to be available ----------


[sUCCESS]--- Waiting the Union to be available ----------


auplinklink.c:223: AUFS_CTL_PLINK_MAINT: Inappropriate ioctl for device


rmdir: failed to remove `/mnt/utmp/picodrive': Device or resource busy


[ START ]--- Waiting the PND mount dir to be free ----------


[sUCCESS]--- Waiting the PND mount dir to be free ----------


cleanup done


[sUCCESS]--- uMount the PND ----------


=======================================================================================


Return code is : 3

Guess we'll just have to wait for Picodrive 1.85 to be debugged, i'd rather not switch back to 1.80 as compatibility issues with certain games have been greatly reduced in the latest version.

 

[elvissteinjr]

Perhaps it's not switching from S-Video mode in the Tray utility.

I can confirm this behavior. Seems like the tray applet only switches to S-Video modes.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

You can override all those if you'd like.  You can also create a new configuration and name it whatever you like.  I made a configuration for Drastic and called "Drastic" so every time I want to play Drastic, I just pick Drastic from the applet and it just works.  No need to go through TV configuration every time.

 

[elvissteinjr]

Sounds good, but how?
I haven't dug deep, but I tried just deleting the S-Video configs as I won't need them, which hasn't affected the applet in any way.

 

[TrashyMG]

^ The tray applet will need some re-programming to correct this. For now going through the main TV Settings program seems to be the only solution if you don't want to get your hands dirty in the code.

 

[PokeParadox]

Damn... time flies by. I should dig up that code I was working on that did this...

 

[Neelix]

Perhaps it's not switching from S-Video mode in the Tray utility.

I can confirm this behavior. Seems like the tray applet only switches to S-Video modes.

I checked the source code.   The tray utility doesn't specify Composite or S-Video at all, so it just falls back on the default setting specified in the tv out script.

You can change the default setting by editing /usr/pandora/scripts/op_tvout.sh

Change line 5 from:

conn_type="svideo"

to:

conn_type="composite"


Once done,  the applet will select between composite modes.

Perhaps it would make sense to  move these default settings to a file in /etc/ and include that file into the tv out script.  That way the settings could be adjusted without having to modify the script itself. 

- Neelix

 

[slaeshjag]

Perhaps the TV-out script should pay attention to the selected profile instead?

 

[Neelix]

That makes sense, though it would require that the 'current profile' be recorded somewhere.   If I understand it correctly the profiles in the TV-Out config utility define what the individual settings get set to when the "Write Settings" button is clicked, but once the app is closed the only part that persists is the settings themselves,  so once the profile is changed, there is currently  no way to see what it was set to last.

- Neelix

 

[notaz]

That makes sense, though it would require that the 'current profile' be recorded somewhere.   If I understand it correctly the profiles in the TV-Out config utility define what the individual settings get set to when the "Write Settings" button is clicked, but once the app is closed the only part that persists is the settings themselves,  so once the profile is changed, there is currently  no way to see what it was set to last.

- Neelix

Actually they are written out to tvout-profiles.conf . I've patched the tv_out script today to parse it, try running firmware update.

We have also decided with ED to bind f12 as toggle key between main layer and overlay, try it out.

 

[Neelix]

That seems to work well.  It's correctly reading my composite profile now, and coming up in colour when I change profile via the configbutton,  as it should.

Also the use of  F12 to switch layers worked well in my test.  I started Cannonball with the Main layer selected.   Once Cannonball enabled the HW Scaler and the TV screen went blank I hit F12 and it successfully switched layers, bringing up Cannonball in glorious colour.    I successfully switched back with F12 when I finished.

Many thanks, Notaz.

- Neelix

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

That makes sense, though it would require that the 'current profile' be recorded somewhere.   If I understand it correctly the profiles in the TV-Out config utility define what the individual settings get set to when the "Write Settings" button is clicked, but once the app is closed the only part that persists is the settings themselves,  so once the profile is changed, there is currently  no way to see what it was set to last.

- Neelix

Actually they are written out to tvout-profiles.conf . I've patched the tv_out script today to parse it, try running firmware update.

We have also decided with ED to bind f12 as toggle key between main layer and overlay, try it out.

Wow!  Thanks Mr. notaz!

 

[BAFelton]

@Notaz : thanks. Did you find the problem with TV Out on Picodrive 1.85 ?