HDMI tearing and fontsize

[OrangeOne]

Hi everyone,

I own a mobility radeon 3650 (Dell Studio 17 laptop). After trying the latest catalyst drivers (9.6) I decided to install the radeonhd. I was not convinced by the quality of the hdmi display when watching a movie (gl output). Furthermore I had a lot of tearing on the hdmi (when playing a movie) thing that i don't have on my laptop screen. I installed the radeonhd 1.2.5 driver (+git20090617) from a ppa on my Kubuntu 9.04. I configured my xorg.conf the best I could. My laptop screen allows a 1440*900 resolution while my Sony Bravia 46w5500 allows a 1920*1080 resolution. I managed to get Xvideo acceleration and hdmi audio sound. I declared a virtual desktop composed of the two monitors. However i encounter two issues: the first one is the fontsize and the second issue is the tearing (horizontal line appears every 5 seconds). On my kde desktop all my applications (including non-kde applications) have their text displayed with a font that looks like a 3 dpi one. That makes them unreadable. Regarding the tearing, it only happens when I use the hdmi connection.


grep -i dpi /var/log/Xorg.0.log
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
(**) RADEONHD(0): DPI set to (230, 218)



xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3360 x 1080, maximum 3360 x 1980
PANEL connected 1440x900+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 367mm x 230mm
1440x900 60.0*+
2560x1600Scaled 60.5
2048x1536Scaled 60.5
1920x1200Scaled 60.4
1920x1080Scaled 60.5
1600x1200Scaled 60.4
1680x1050Scaled 60.3
1400x1050Scaled 60.3
1440x960Scaled 60.4
1280x1024Scaled 60.5
1280x960Scaled 60.4
1280x854Scaled 60.4
1280x720Scaled 60.4
1152x768Scaled 60.3
1024x768Scaled 60.4
800x600Scaled 60.3
768x576Scaled 60.4
854x480Scaled 59.8
720x480Scaled 59.8
640x480Scaled 60.1
320x240Scaled 57.6
320x200Scaled 55.7
VGA_1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-D_1 connected 1920x1080+1440+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 1600mm x 900mm
1920x1080 60.0*+
1280x1024 59.9
1280x720 60.0
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3
640x480 60.0




xvinfo
X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
Adaptor #0: "RadeonHD Textured Video"
number of ports: 16
port base: 90
operations supported: PutImage
supported visuals:
depth 24, visualID 0x21
no port attributes defined
maximum XvImage size: 8192 x 8192
Number of image formats: 4
id: 0x32595559 (YUY2)
guid: 59555932-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
bits per pixel: 16
number of planes: 1
type: YUV (packed)
id: 0x32315659 (YV12)
guid: 59563132-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
bits per pixel: 12
number of planes: 3
type: YUV (planar)
id: 0x30323449 (I420)
guid: 49343230-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
bits per pixel: 12
number of planes: 3
type: YUV (planar)
id: 0x59565955 (UYVY)
guid: 55595659-0000-0010-8000-00aa00389b71
bits per pixel: 16
number of planes: 1
type: YUV (packed)



xvattr
Found Xv 2.2
Adaptor: 0
Name: RadeonHD Textured Video
Port: 90
Port: 91
Port: 92
Port: 93
Port: 94
Port: 95
Port: 96
Port: 97
Port: 98
Port: 99
Port: 100
Port: 101
Port: 102
Port: 103
Port: 104
Port: 105


It is quite strange that i can't get any information using xvattr...


Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
# big virtual screen to place
Virtual 3360 1980
EndSubSection

EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "radeonhd"
#Option "DRI" "off"
Option "DRI"
Option "monitor-DVI-D_1" "External"
Option "monitor-PANEL" "Panel"
Option "RROutputOrder" "PANEL"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
Option "Audio" "on"
Option "HDMI" "all"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "External"
Option "RightOf" "Panel"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Panel"
Option "PreferredMode" "1440x900"
EndSection



Section "ServerFlags"
Option "DontZap" "False"
EndSection



TIA

[OrangeOne]

X.Org X Server 1.6.0
Release Date: 2009-2-25
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.24-15-server x86_64 Ubuntu
Current Operating System: Linux FairyTail 2.6.28-13-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 2 07:55:09 UTC 2009 x86_64
Build Date: 09 April 2009 02:11:54AM
xorg-server 2:1.6.0-0ubuntu14 (buildd@crested.buildd)
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sat Jun 20 20:04:02 2009
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) No Layout section. Using the first Screen section.
(**) |-->Screen "Default Screen" (0)
(**) | |-->Monitor "Configured Monitor"
(**) | |-->Device "Configured Video Device"
(**) Option "DontZap" "False"
(==) Automatically adding devices
(==) Automatically enabling devices
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
Entry deleted from font path.
(==) FontPath set to:
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,
built-ins
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
(II) Cannot locate a core pointer device.
(II) Cannot locate a core keyboard device.
(II) The server relies on HAL to provide the list of input devices.
If no devices become available, reconfigure HAL or disable AllowEmptyInput.
(II) Loader magic: 0xb40
(II) Module ABI versions:
X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
X.Org Video Driver: 5.0
X.Org XInput driver : 4.0
X.Org Server Extension : 2.0
(II) Loader running on linux
(++) using VT number 7

(--) PCI:*(0@1:0:0) ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 3650 rev 0, Mem @ 0xd0000000/268435456, 0xcfef0000/6
5536, I/O @ 0x00002000/256, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072


(II) Loading extension DRI2
(II) LoadModule: "radeonhd"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//radeonhd_drv.so
(II) Module radeonhd: vendor="AMD GPG"
compiled for 1.6.0, module version = 1.2.5
Module class: X.Org Video Driver
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 5.0
(II) RADEONHD: X driver for the following AMD GPG (ATI) graphics devices:


I didn't want to put my whole xorg.conf (I didn't want to pollute) but if anything important is missing please feel free to say so.

TIA

[forum1793]

Regarding your font size: I noticed a similar issue going from PC LCD to big TV LCD. With KDE you can increase it. In KDE 4.2, open System Settings -> Appearance -> Fonts and then change Force fonts DPI: to 96 DPI. If you still need bigger try the next one (125 I think). I never figured how to do this in xfce. Maybe in one of the .hidden files.

I don't remember how this is done in kde3 but it would b similar. K(start) button - settings..etc.

Not sure about your tearing issue. My guess is you'll have better performance with the catalyst driver. I'm using an HD3200 with fglrx and even with compiz on the system works well, until I play a dvd and then have blinking problems until turn compiz off.

Radeonhd works OK for me in 2D, you may also have to use newer libdrm and mesa but I'm not sure for your hardware. I would imagine a HD3600 would be faster than a HD3200 so your system should be fast enough.

what does the following output

cat /var/log/X*log | grep EE
cat /var/log/X*log | grep WW

[chithanh]

I was not convinced by the quality of the hdmi display when watching a movie (gl output). Furthermore I had a lot of tearing on the hdmi (when playing a movie) thing that i don't have on my laptop screen.What do you mean by "gl output"? If that refers to the OpenGL output of mplayer etc. then this will probably not work properly. The correct output is xv.
Also does the tearing disappear if you disable the internal panel or switch to 1920x1080Scaled mode with xrandr during playback?

[OrangeOne]

Thanks for your quick reply!

grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib/dri/r600_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/dri/r600_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
(EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib/dri/r600_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/dri/r600_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
(EE) XKB: No components provided for device Virtual core keyboard
(EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib/dri/r600_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/dri/r600_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
(EE) XKB: No components provided for device Virtual core keyboard



grep WW /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Direct rendering for R600 and up forced on - This is NOT officially supported yet and may cause instabilityor lockups
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) Couldn't load XKB keymap, falling back to pre-XKB keymap
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) Couldn't load XKB keymap, falling back to pre-XKB keymap
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0
(WW) RADEONHD(0): Unknown vendor-specific block 0


When I used the gl output i meant the OpenGl output. The correct output may be xv but when I used the catalyst driver I experencied tearing and flickering everytime the xv output was used (on the laptop screen and on the tv). The OpenGl output was the only one i could use without crying.
I will try to disable the panel with xrandr.

Regarding the fontsize problem forum1793 was right. Forcing the font to 96 dpi did the trick. BTW kubuntu 9.04 is shipped with KDE 4.2.

My aim is to be able to watch videos without any tearing or flickering effect on my laptop screen and on my tv (but not necessarily at the same time). I don't care if the driver i have to use lacks 3D as I don't play. From the few tests I did, the 2D acceleration of the radeonhd may be better than the fglrx one.

[OrangeOne]

Unfortunately disabling the panel (xrandr --output PANEL --off) had no effect on the tearing. :(

[suokko]

You should disable composite window manager and try again without it. Kwin does Xrender composite so it an be enabled without 3D support. Composite wm happens to be most like reason to tearing with randeon/radeonhd. (btw, Does radeon work instead of radeonhd?)

Also try to run
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

That will clean your xorg.conf from fglrx stuff (you should back up it in case you want to install fglrx back)

PS. http://pastebin.com

[bridgman]

If you're running fglrx then using gl output works best. If you are running radeon or radeonhd on a 6xx/7xx then Xv should work fine without tearing, and since the 3D driver is still in development you can't use GL output anyways.

[OrangeOne]

Before switching to the radeonhd driver I uninstalled the fglrx driver (using the provided uninstall script). Then I executed the command "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg".

As far as I know I'm not using Windows composite nor any kde effect (they are
disabled).

I haven't tried radeon instead of radeonhd as there is no use: I want hdmi output. Furthermore I only get tearing when playing a video using the hdmi output (on my tv). So far everything is perfect on my laptop screen.

[bridgman]

Just in case it helps, the difference between radeon and radeonhd w.r.t. hdmi is the ability to output audio over hdmi - both of them output video over hdmi.

I'm starting to think your tearing problem might be as simple as the tear-free code syncing video to your laptop screen's timing rather than to your external screen. I think the logic is a bit different in radeon, but all I remember for sure is agd5f specifically talking about how the multi-screen case was handled for tear-free in radeon vs not hearing a similar discussion for radeonhd. The code could be identical, I don't know, but it wouldn't hurt to see if radeon handles tearing on the second screen any better. If it does, then that's an easy clue for radeonhd...

[OrangeOne]

Hmmm... I didn't change anything from my xorg.conf except that I substituted the keyword radeonhd to radeon. It seems that the virtual didn't have any effect anymore (I think the radeon driver version is 6.12.1 (the one shipped with kubuntu 9.04)). The results are that I don't have overlay on my tv screen anymore. The resolution of my tv screen has decreased. It is now the same as my laptop screen (1440*900). I also lost my audio sound (which was expected). I forgot to say that the tearing still exists on the tv...

[OrangeOne]

Still no luck. :(

What I tried so far:
- try the radeon driver (see previous post)
- play a video with no sound (-ao null in mplayer)
- force the vsync in mplayer
- Adapt my xorg.conf (added the option triplebuffer but the log says that it's not used)

- Does anyone watch videos via HDMI (connected in 1080p mode)?
- Why doesn't the xvattr command give me any detail except the port numbers? I would like to check the attributes that refer to the vsync...
- What are the xorg.conf options that can be set to change anything linked to the vertical synchronisation?
- Should i try to change the frequency (xrandr gives me 60hz)?
- Does anyone know any FAQ on hdmi output (xorg.conf/radeonhd)?

TIA

[bridgman]

My recollection was that only the radeon driver (not radeonhd) had xvattr attributes hooked up. The ones for radeon (from the man page) are :

XV_VSYNC (defaults to on)
XV_BICUBIC (defaults to auto, doesn't work with hue, contrast, brightness attributes)

The text associated with XV_BICUBIC kind of implies that some standard attributes (Hue, Contrast, Brightess) are hooked up as well. These may also be hooked up with radeonhd, not sure.

Sync to vblank should be on by default. If you are using an XRender-based compositor then vsync probably gets mucked up again unless you add Option "EXAVsync" "on".

You mentioned radeonhd a couple of times; just to confirm, are you using radeon or radeonhd right now ?

[OrangeOne]

Sync to vblank should be on by default. If you are using an XRender-based compositor then vsync probably gets mucked up again unless you add Option "EXAVsync" "on".


Just to be sure I added the lines


Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection


Nothing changed.


You mentioned radeonhd a couple of times; just to confirm, are you using radeon or radeonhd right now ?

I'm using radeonhd. You said that I should try the radeon driver to see if the tearing still existed with this driver. It was a test to check that the vsync wasn't screwed up because of the hdmi audio. I only tried the radeon driver once.

[ivanovic]

Okay, I can confirm that is see basically the same problem regarding tearing when attaching an HDMI device. To sum things up:

I have an AMD/ATI HD3850 in my box, use kernel 2.6.30, xorg server 1.6.2-rc2. I use a very recent git version of radeon (branch: master; some days old, commit ac4bd24a66c1bdda0293f770a3f891e2b88cc8ee). 2D acceleration as well as well as Xv do work nicely. No obvious/specific errors beside the classical "can't do 3d" (which is known since there is no 3D support for this card in the open drivers so far). As Desktop I use kde 4.2.4 with kwin for Desktop effects (XRender backend). My main display is running in 1920x1200@60Hz, my TV is running at 1920x1080@60Hz.

When watching a video in fullscreen (kaffeine 1.0-pre1 with xine backend) I get no tearing on my main display, but I get tearing on the TV. The xrandr setting for the TV is:
xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 1920x1080 --refresh 60.0 --pos 0x60

Now to the interesting part, some bits from my xorg.conf (not everything, only stuff related to video/display stuff):
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection
Load "record"
Load "dbe"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
DisplaySize 517 325 # mm
Identifier "LCD-Desktop"
VendorName "DEL"
ModelName "DELL 2405FPW"
HorizSync 30.0 - 81.0
VertRefresh 56.0 - 76.0
Option "DPMS"
Option "Position" "0 0"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1200" # Preferred resolution for the monitor
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
#DisplaySize 1600 900 #mm
Identifier "LCD-TV"
VendorName "SNY"
ModelName "SONY TV XV"
HorizSync 14.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 48.0 - 62.0
Option "DPMS"
Option "Position" "0 60"
Option "PreferredMode" "1920x1080" # Preferred resolution for the monitor
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "RV670PRO [Radeon HD 3850]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Driver "radeon"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA" # default shadowfb
Option "DRI" "on"
Option "EXAVSync" "on"
#XrandR 1.2 setup:
#radeon
Option "monitor-DVI-1" "LCD-Desktop"
Option "monitor-DVI-0" "LCD-TV"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "LCD-Desktop"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Virtual 1920 1200
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
# Access to OpenGL ICD is allowed for all users:
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "on"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Option "BlankTime" "0" #do not turn display off...
Option "StandbyTime" "0" #do not turn display off...
Option "SuspendTime" "0" #do not turn display off...
Option "OffTime" "0" #do not turn display off...
Option "DontZap" "false" #allow ctrl+alt+backspace to shutdown >=xorg-server-1.6
EndSection

And since you won't believe that there is nothing really problematic in the logs unless I paste the stuff, here is some nice grep:
$ grep -e 'WW' -e 'EE' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(EE) Failed to load module "xtrap" (module does not exist, 0)
(WW) RADEON(0): DRI init changed memory map, adjusting ...
(WW) RADEON(0): MC_FB_LOCATION was: 0x00ef00d0 is: 0x00ef00d0
(WW) RADEON(0): MC_AGP_LOCATION was: 0x003f0000 is: 0x00030000
(WW) RADEON(0): Option "Position" is not used
(WW) RADEON(0): Option "PreferredMode" is not used
(EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib64/dri/r600_dri.so failed (/usr/lib64/dri/r600_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering

So what do you think, is it a problem with the setup or is there some strange problem in the driver preventing vsync via hdmi from working?

[bridgman]

Does the TV sync properly if you disable desktop effects ?

I know there's been a fair amount of testing for Xv sync-to-vblank but don't know if any time has been spent on tear-free video playback through an EXA compositor.

[ivanovic]

Does the TV sync properly if you disable desktop effects ?

I know there's been a fair amount of testing for Xv sync-to-vblank but don't know if any time has been spent on tear-free video playback through an EXA compositor.

Tuning off Desktop effects makes no difference at all. Like I said, at exactly the same time the display connected via DVI is tear free, the one via HDMI (DVI->HDMI Adapter used) is not tear free.

[agd5f]

radeonhd only supports anti-tearing features on crtc 0 at the moment, so if the output in question is being driven by crtc 1, it won't be enabled.
Only radeon supports both crtcs and the other Xv attributes. The anti-tearing features only work with non-composited desktops so if you are running desktop effects or compiz, etc. you may still get tearing. For radeon make sure you are using 6.12.2 or newer. For the additional Xv attributes (brightness, contrast, etc.), you'll need radeon from git master.

EXAVsync is also only implemented in radeon and only on r1xx-r5xx chips. It has no effect on r6xx or r7xx chips. Also, EXAVsync only affects EXA, not Xv.

[agd5f]

Tuning off Desktop effects makes no difference at all. Like I said, at exactly the same time the display connected via DVI is tear free, the one via HDMI (DVI->HDMI Adapter used) is not tear free.

If you are running in clone mode, (i.e, both outputs scanning out the same image or part of the image), you can only sync to one crtc or the other; not both.

[ivanovic]

radeonhd only supports anti-tearing features on crtc 0 at the moment, so if the output in question is being driven by crtc 1, it won't be enabled.
I only tested with radeon, not radeonhd since I heard that there was no tear free video in there so far.

Only radeon supports both crtcs and the other Xv attributes. The anti-tearing features only work with non-composited desktops so if you are running desktop effects or compiz, etc. you may still get tearing. For radeon make sure you are using 6.12.2 or newer. For the additional Xv attributes (brightness, contrast, etc.), you'll need radeon from git master.
After deactivating desktop effects (alt+shift+F12), Xv on the hdmi screen still tears and yeah, since I am using radeon right out of git-master (rebuilt it today, so am at current head) all stuff needed for tearfree video *should* be there, but it is not working. I have not changed any of the Xv attributes and xvattr shows that XV_VSYNC is set for all modes.

EXAVsync is also only implemented in radeon and only on r1xx-r5xx chips. It has no effect on r6xx or r7xx chips. Also, EXAVsync only affects EXA, not Xv.
Good to know.

[ivanovic]

If you are running in clone mode, (i.e, both outputs scanning out the same image or part of the image), you can only sync to one crtc or the other; not both.

Argh, okay, this explains it. Is there some way to maybe in future allow this if both output devices run at the same refresh rate (which is the case over here)? How to specify which one to use for vsync? Is there a way to dynamically switch it?

[agd5f]

Argh, okay, this explains it. Is there some way to maybe in future allow this if both output devices run at the same refresh rate (which is the case over here)? How to specify which one to use for vsync? Is there a way to dynamically switch it?

It currently syncs to which ever crtc more of the image is on. For now, you can just specify that crtc 0 drives the head you want no tearing on with xrandr (e.g., crtc0 drives HMDI or crtc0 drives DVI and crtc 1 drives the other output). Alternatively, one could add an Xv attribute to select which crtc the image is synced pretty easily.

I will also just work if you use the same crtc to drive both outputs, however, in that case both outputs have to be drawn using the same timing and must be at the same framebuffer offset which wouldn't work with your current setup since you have an offset on one crtc.

Another alternative would be to set up dualhead (desktop spread across both monitors) and run the videos on one head or the other.

[ivanovic]

It currently syncs to which ever crtc more of the image is on. For now, you can just specify that crtc 0 drives the head you want no tearing on with xrandr (e.g., crtc0 drives HMDI or crtc0 drives DVI and crtc 1 drives the other output). Alternatively, one could add an Xv attribute to select which crtc the image is synced pretty easily.
Hmm, such an attribute might be a nice addition in the future.

I will also just work if you use the same crtc to drive both outputs, however, in that case both outputs have to be drawn using the same timing and must be at the same framebuffer offset which wouldn't work with your current setup since you have an offset on one crtc.
If both were at the same position (okay, pretty bad since this way always 120 pixel at the bottom were missing...), how to setup this, is there some example setup documented somewhere?

Another alternative would be to set up dualhead (desktop spread across both monitors) and run the videos on one head or the other.
Ahh, you know, this I don't really want. The main thing is that atm I can relax on my bed, use the remote to toggle fullscreen in the media player and just have a short look at the latest stuff in irc without having to get up.

Thanks for your replies and clarifying that tearfree video is not really possible (unless some very specific circumstances are met) when using clone mode.

[bridgman]

I think agd5f said that for now you could accomplish the same thing as the attribute by associating the output you are watching with crtc0 using xrandr.

I'm not sure what the exact commands are, unfortunately.

[agd5f]

You can toggle the crtc used to drive each output using the --crtc option with xrandr. xrandr --verbose will show you which crtc is driving which output. One crtc can also drive more than one output assuming both monitors support the exact same modeline. As bridgman noted, selecting which crtc drives which output has the same effect as an Xv attribute, its just not as convenient. If need be you can use xrandr to add the appropriate modeline to the other monitor. See this page for more info on xrandr:
http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce/HowToRandR12
Additionally the xrandr man page has a documentation on how to use xrandr.

[ghost_o]

I have been using the tips here in this forum to get my 1st ATI card working in Linux...

I have successful HDMI audio and video working with the radeonhd driver, but I need a virtual desktop larger that the supported max (2 1080p displays)..

Is this possible with xrandr, or am I going to have to go back to 2 separate desktops to accomplish this? I rather like dragging between physical screens now that I have experienced it.

Thanks

-Greg

[agd5f]

I have been using the tips here in this forum to get my 1st ATI card working in Linux...

I have successful HDMI audio and video working with the radeonhd driver, but I need a virtual desktop larger that the supported max (2 1080p displays)..

Is this possible with xrandr, or am I going to have to go back to 2 separate desktops to accomplish this? I rather like dragging between physical screens now that I have experienced it.

Thanks

-Greg

The max surface/texture size on r6xx/r7xx is 8k. Just set a virtual parameter in your config for a screen as large as you need. Allocating desktop space for dualhead is manual right now. this is one of the things that the kms/mm code addresses. See this page for more info:
http://wiki.debian.org/XStrikeForce/HowToRandR12

[OrangeOne]

Hi everyone

I'm sorry I couldn't write earlier (I was in holidays and didn't have any access to the Internet).
I no longer have any issue regarding the tearing. Indeed the solution lies in the crt option. Most tips came from the IRC (many thanks to Zajec and agd5f).

Only the crtc0 can be tear-free so we need to switch. This is done (in my case) by the following command:


xrandr --output PANEL --crtc 1 --mode 1440x900 --output DVI-D_1 --crtc 0 --mode 1920x1080


Beware of the order