Open-Source ATI Driver Gets TV-Out

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Open-Source ATI Driver Gets TV-Out

Thanks to recent commits in the RandR 1.2 branch for the open-source X.Org Radeon driver, it's now possible to use S-Video and composite TV output on your ATI graphics card without any patches. This is not limited to the R200 series but will also work with the R300 series and theoretically any graphics card supported by the xf86-video-ati driver. In this guide have outlined the instructions for enabling TV output support from the Radeon driver git code as well as some of the current limitations.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=10814

[Trek1701]

Hi,

Is the video overlay working properly with this driver?


Trek1701

[yoshi314]

but of course.

[lynn]

Hi,

I'm having trouble building the driver. autogen.sh runs smoothly, but when I use the make command I get this:

make all-recursive
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lynn/Desktop/xf86-video-ati'
Making all in src
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/lynn/Desktop/xf86-video-ati/src'
/bin/bash ../libtool --tag=CC --mode=compile gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.. -I/usr/include/xorg -I/usr/include/drm -I/usr/include/X11/dri -g -O2 -MT ati.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/ati.Tpo -c -o ati.lo ati.c
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I.. -I/usr/include/xorg -I/usr/include/drm -I/usr/include/X11/dri -g -O2 -MT ati.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/ati.Tpo -c ati.c -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/ati.o
In file included from ati.c:65:
radeon_probe.h:46:22: error: xf86Crtc.h: No such file or directory
In file included from ati.c:65:
radeon_probe.h:225: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before 'xf86CrtcPtr'
ati.c:228: error: 'PACKAGE_VERSION_MAJOR' undeclared here (not in a function)
ati.c:228: error: 'PACKAGE_VERSION_MINOR' undeclared here (not in a function)
ati.c:228: error: 'PACKAGE_VERSION_PATCHLEVEL' undeclared here (not in a function)
make[2]: *** [ati.lo] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/lynn/Desktop/xf86-video-ati/src'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lynn/Desktop/xf86-video-ati'
make: *** [all] Error 2


Does anyone know the solution?

Thanks
-Lynn

[mlau]

Hi,

I'm having trouble building the driver. autogen.sh runs smoothly, but when I use the make command I get this:



Does anyone know the solution?


Looks like you're missing some headerfiles from the xorg-server package (and maybe other X libs)
Forgot to install the appropriate -devel package(s)?

[lynn]

Which header files and dev packages, specifically? I've been installing various things that sound related, such as xorg-dev and xlibs-dev, but I keep getting the same make error.

Thanks
-Lynn

[yoshi314]

maybe xorg-server development files would do the trick.

[opera]

Which header files and dev packages, specifically? I've been installing various things that sound related, such as xorg-dev and xlibs-dev, but I keep getting the same make error.

Thanks
-Lynn

Yoshi's right. To find out what's missing, use your distributions package system. For instance, on debian go to http://packages.debian.org/ and at the bottom, search for the missing file - xf86Crtc.h. It tells you that the file exists in the xserver-xorg-dev package.
Now, this is debian. I don't know if this works for you.

[mlau]

Which header files and dev packages, specifically? I've been installing various things that sound related, such as xorg-dev and xlibs-dev, but I keep getting the same make error.


According to gentoo's portage this particular
header belongs to the 'xorg-server' package,
assuming your distro is already using >= X 7.0

[lynn]

Thanks to you guys I have the TV-out working, but now there's another problem. The colors on the TV appear as if their brightness has been inverted. For example, bright orange becomes dark orange and dark blue becomes light blue.

This (http://www.flickr.com/photos/11641978@N04/1150943561/) is my LCD monitor and this (http://www.flickr.com/photos/11641978@N04/1150943571/) is my tv screen. Any ideas?

[garv]

Ok, I keep running into a problem at the autogen.sh stage. aclocal seems to be giving me a problem.

% ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/
Can't exec "aclocal": No such file or directory at /usr/bin/autoreconf line 174.
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/bin/autoreconf line 174.
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal --output=aclocal.m4t
Can't exec "aclocal": No such file or directory at /usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/FileUtils.pm line 288.
autoreconf: failed to run aclocal: No such file or directory


I first received an error involving autoreconf. Turns out it was not installed on my system. I installed the package and now the above output is where I am at now.

[alinefr]

Hi,

I've manage to patch, compile and install the driver. My xorg.conf now shows

(II) RADEON(0): Port0:
Monitor -- AUTO
Connector -- VGA
DAC Type -- Primary
TMDS Type -- None
DDC Type -- VGA_DDC
(II) RADEON(0): Port1:
Monitor -- AUTO
Connector -- DVI-I
DAC Type -- TVDAC/ExtDAC
TMDS Type -- Internal
DDC Type -- DVI_DDC
(II) RADEON(0): Port2:
Monitor -- AUTO
Connector -- STV
DAC Type -- TVDAC/ExtDAC
TMDS Type -- None
DDC Type -- NONE

But I don't know how to setup my xorg.conf. Anyone knows how or could show me a working xorg.conf with vga and tv out working?

[liquidat]

I have a strange configure error:
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
./configure: line 20150: syntax error near unexpected token `XINERAMA,'
./configure: line 20150: `XORG_DRIVER_CHECK_EXT(XINERAMA, xineramaproto)'
And honestly, I have no idea where that comes from.

My machine is a standard Fedora 7 which is up2date so the setup is comparable to the one used in the review/howto. And I have almost all xorg-x11 packages installed, the only ones missing are some drv*devel packages for drivers I do not use.

Does anyone has any idea?

[Michael]

Do you have xorg-x11-server-sdk?

[liquidat]

Argh, that was to easy, I should have known that by myself. Thanks!

[acetonitrile]

Ok, I keep running into a problem at the autogen.sh stage. aclocal seems to be giving me a problem.

I first received an error involving autoreconf. Turns out it was not installed on my system. I installed the package and now the above output is where I am at now.

I also had the same error, which I resolved by installing aclocal and/or automake (don't recall specifically which).

[acetonitrile]

I still have another problem... following the instructions posted, after running ./autogen.sh I get the following results

[root@localhost xf86-video-ati]# ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/
autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf: running: aclocal
autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
autoreconf: configure.ac: not using Libtool
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoconf
autoreconf: running: /usr/bin/autoheader
autoreconf: running: automake --add-missing --copy --no-force
src/Makefile.am:50: Libtool library used but `LIBTOOL' is undefined
src/Makefile.am:50:
src/Makefile.am:50: The usual way to define `LIBTOOL' is to add `AC_PROG_LIBTOOL'
src/Makefile.am:50: to `configure.ac' and run `aclocal' and `autoconf' again.
Makefile.am:24: BUILD_LINUXDOC does not appear in AM_CONDITIONAL
autoreconf: automake failed with exit status: 1


I'm trying to get this running for a MythTV box, running MythDora 4 (Fedora Core 6). Up to this point I've already installed git, autoconf, aclocal, and automake all using the 'yum install' command (so whatever versions have been packaged up for FC6). Am I missing something?

[liquidat]

You might want to install libtool, or, just in case, libtool*.
Anyway, to avoid more of these kind of errors the best would be to do a

yum install groupinstall "Development Tools" "Development Libraries"
This will install most of the stuff usually used for such things.

[captain-murphy]

Please help me. I'm somewhat-new to Linux but really want to make my s-video out to work.
I'm running Fiesty Fawn 7.04 on an hp pavilion ze4200 that has ati Radeon IGP 340M. Supposedly, the fix on this page should work, however when I go into the termnal and type
" git-clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati"
cd xf86-video-ati
git checkout origin/randr-1.2"
I get:
"error: pathspec 'origin/randr-1.2' did not match any."
And I don't know where to find this.

Same for the second set up steps
When I type
"git-clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/app/xrandr
cd xrandr
./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/"
I get:
"./autogen.sh: 9: autoreconf: not found"

Can anyone who knows what to do/ has done this, help me out?

[Michael]

For the first one, you no longer need to do the git checkout origin/randr-1.2 as the randr-1.2 branch was merged into the master branch. So just skip that step.


For the second one, make sure you have autoreconf/autoconf installed. Also, for Ubuntu 7.04 you will need to update to Xserver 1.3 in order to use the driver.

[captain-murphy]

Thanks for responding so fast.

Sorry to be so inept at this but can you give me some pointers as how to:

update to Xserver 1.3 in order to use the driver.

I looked on synaptic but I couldn't figure out what exactly to get.

Also when I skip
"git checkout origin/randr-1.2"
and type
"./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/"
inside "~/xf86-video-ati$"
I get

"Can't exec "aclocal": No such file or directory at /usr/bin/autoreconf2.50 line 182.
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/bin/autoreconf2.50 line 182.
Can't exec "automake": No such file or directory at /usr/bin/autoreconf2.50 line 183.
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at /usr/bin/autoreconf2.50 line 183.
autoreconf2.50: Entering directory `.'
autoreconf2.50: configure.ac: not using Gettext
autoreconf2.50: running: aclocal --output=aclocal.m4t
Can't exec "aclocal": No such file or directory at /usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/FileUtils.pm line 290.
autoreconf2.50: failed to run aclocal: No such file or directory"

Don't really know what means...

[liquidat]

Can't exec "aclocal": No such file or directory at /usr/share/autoconf/Autom4te/FileUtils.pm line 290.
You might want to make sure that the following packages are installed:
* GNU make
* autoconf 2.58 (or newer)
* automake 1.8
* libtool 1.5
* m4
You should also check for other versions of automake and install them as well, if supported by Ubuntu. Afterwards, try again.

[Michael]

Xserver 1.3 needs to be downloaded from a Gutsy repository or upgrade to a Gutsy testing release.

[captain-murphy]

Thanks both of you for helping.
I got all the packages you recomended and figured out how to get gusty in my respositories and then get x server 1.3, and things got a little bit further...

however I can't figure out why it doesn't work.
For example for the first step: after

"xf86-video-ati: ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/"

The commands:
"make"
and
"make install"
Don't know what to do so they stop. Thus I don't know if the xf86 video ati is really installed at all.

I got 'make' and 'make install' to work for xrandr, however when I type the commands

xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600

It just accepts them and nothing happens. Nothing is being sent to me tv from my S-video...

[Michael]

Did you restart your computer (or X) after the make install of the radeon driver?

[captain-murphy]

Yes I turned it off and then started it back up and tried to type the
"xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600"
but nothing happened.

What exactly does "xf86-video-ati" do and how do I know if it's installed/working correctly?

[Michael]

What exactly does "xf86-video-ati" do and how do I know if it's installed/working correctly?

That is the actual driver itself... It sounded like you may have installed it correctly. Can you post your xorg.0.log from /var/log/ ?

[captain-murphy]

Yes, it's very long though, so I uploaded it to my old geocities account I had from hs.
http://www.geocities.com/kofflera/Xorg.0.log
thats the log.

[sorenkrabbe]

I seem to be stuck at the same place as captain-murphy

I have successfully compiled the and installed the xf86-video-ati driver and randr as described in the how-to referred to from the first post of this thread.

When I try to enable the tv-out manually by executing:
xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600
... the following error occurs:
xrandr: cannot find crtc for output S-video
However, this error seems to be solved by disabling the DVI (My live monitor is connected to the VGA port) by
xrandr --output DVI-0 --off

But when I again try to enable the tv-out, the command seems to be accepted (no errors in the prompt) but my monitor picture increases the brightness a lot, and still no tv-out :(

I cannot understand the clues that might be in my x-server log, except the final lines look promising. Therefore I've posted my Xorg.0.log here (http://pastebin.com/m31b03700), as it looks after a reboot and an attempt of manually enabling the tv-out as described above.

I will appreciate any comments a lot - Thanks :)

Background: I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 on my Asus Pundit-r which has an onboard ATI Radeon 9100 IGP graphics card. I connect to my TV using an s-video cable and the described error occurs no matter if the TV-out is forced from the BIOS or not. Oh, and I'm in a PAL-B/G-land

[Footfish]

I have been waiting for this for years. Thanks, guys, keep up the good work.

[wildchild]

Hi folks!

I run Gutsy Gibbon and want to use the TV-out feature of the opensource radeon drivers with my radeon 8500 card. I have successfully compiled and installed drivers, but no matter what, I cannot get a sane picture on my TV. Also xrandr doesn't report that S-video is even connected.

I have tried with GATOS drivers, they give a clear picture on the TV, but whenever I try to watch some video or run mythtv, my TV-screen turns completely green!

I am all out of ideas what to try next. I have googled for hours without finding help on this.

If you have any suggestions or clue, please help!

Thanks in advance
/w

[wildchild]

Hi folks!

I run Gutsy Gibbon and want to use the TV-out feature of the opensource radeon drivers with my radeon 8500 card. I have successfully compiled and installed drivers, but no matter what, I cannot get a sane picture on my TV. Also xrandr doesn't report that S-video is even connected.

I have tried with GATOS drivers, they give a clear picture on the TV, but whenever I try to watch some video or run mythtv, my TV-screen turns completely green!

I am all out of ideas what to try next. I have googled for hours without finding help on this.

If you have any suggestions or clue, please help!

Thanks in advance
/w

Well, I found a solution that worked. I removed the radeon card and literally broke it in 2 pieces, bought myself an nvidia-card. Now tv-out works as it should.

[klarfuzzy]

When i use this line ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/

I get this error

./configure: line 20660: syntax error near unexpected token `XINERAMA,'
./configure: line 20660: `XORG_DRIVER_CHECK_EXT(XINERAMA, xineramaproto)'

Im using ubuntu 8.04 , an i installed the driver about two weeks ago and all whent fine then but now i reinstalled ubuntu and i get this error ....
I installed and reinstalled all the stuf neded (automake libtool ... )
Please help me

Never mind seams to work with this error ... I don`t know how .... linux is so unpredictebel (sorry for the bad speling)

[agd5f]

When i use this line ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/

I get this error

./configure: line 20660: syntax error near unexpected token `XINERAMA,'
./configure: line 20660: `XORG_DRIVER_CHECK_EXT(XINERAMA, xineramaproto)'


You need to install the xorg macros. I'm not sure what ubuntu package supplies them off hand. In general you need to install the xorg and xserver devel pacakges when building the drivers from git.

[xeros]

First of all sorry for bringing back old topic but I really need to get TV-Out via S-video working on my AGP Radeon 9600 (RV350).
I'm trying to enable S-video output for years...
It was working before on Kubuntu 6.06 without problems but then in every(?) Kubuntu release after that it doesn't work.
I've spent already few hours at some day between some months to get this working...

3 days ago I've done it! And it was working even after reboot but the day after it stopped working and I've get it working yesterday, too but then after reboot it stopped working :(
I'm doing everytime the same commands, I've checked every pin in the cable (even it's resistance - my S-video cable is 10M long), I've plugged the S-video cable from graphic card to TV card in the same computer to check if it's not the TV problem...

I need pure PAL signal on S-video (no matter if the resolution of the display is 640x480, 800x600 or 1024x768) cloned from DVI-0. The problem is that xrandr gets the only working mode for S-video 800x600 with 59.9Hz rate (I think my TV needs 50Hz).

I've written a simple script with commands to enable TV-Out:

#!/bin/bash
xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 800x600 #???
xrandr --output S-video --set load_detection 1
xrandr --output S-video --set tv_standard pal
xrandr --newmode "800x600_50.00" 31.15 800 824 904 1008 600 601 604 618 -HSync +Vsync # get with "gtf 800 600 50"
xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600_50.00
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600_50.00
xrandr --newmode "720x576_50.00" 26.57 720 736 808 896 576 577 580 593 -HSync +Vsync # "gtf 720 576 50" - cannot add it to S-video
xrandr --newmode "768x576" 50.00 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630 # this modeline I've found on some forums, but I can't add it to S-video, too
xrandr --output S-video --crtc 1
#sudo atitvout -r detect # it's not needed anymore?
#sudo atitvout -f t
#sudo atitvout -r vbe


And it was working 3 days ago - I've tested it ~10 times (even after reboot it worked) but it doesn't work anymore (even if I get the same "xrandr --verbose" and "xrandr --prop" output as before:

$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 800 x 600, maximum 1280 x 1280
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-0 connected 800x600+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 330mm x 270mm
1280x1024 60.0 +
1024x768 60.0
800x600 60.3*
640x480 59.9
S-video connected 800x600+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
800x600 59.9 +
800x600_50.00 50.0*
720x576_50.00 (0x87) 26.6MHz
h: width 720 start 736 end 808 total 896 skew 0 clock 29.7KHz
v: height 576 start 577 end 580 total 593 clock 50.0Hz
768x576 (0x88) 50.0MHz
h: width 768 start 832 end 846 total 1000 skew 0 clock 50.0KHz
v: height 576 start 590 end 595 total 630 clock 79.4Hz


I've found that I could bind CRTC 0 to both VGA-0 and S-video before (if I've done the same modeline for VGA-0 and S-video) and now I can't but I've used CRTC 0 for VGA-0/DVI-0 and CRTC 1 for S-video.

Logs from working S-video output (after running script):
xrandr (http://pastebin.com/f2f8a6645)
xrandr --prop (http://pastebin.com/f3858bbf1)
xrandr --verbose (http://pastebin.com/f745cee9f)

Logs from not working S-video output (after running script):
xrandr --verbose (http://pastebin.com/f5a1b3921)
dmesg (http://pastebin.com/f30751c4e)
/var/log/Xorg.0.log (http://pastebin.com/f79338532) (cut some redundant logs at the end for it's size)

Too bad I don't have Xorg.0.log with working S-video.
I've tried enabling PAL, PAL-60, PAL-M, NTSC standards on both video card and TV (input) card to check it (my TV (not TV card) supports only PAL) but even it could be set I had no proper display from TV card just something that looked like out of sync.

It's important to me to enable cloned display on S-video as I've bought my daughter USB Dance Pad for it's 5-th birthday and I don't have space for it in the room where's PC.

Edit:
Distribution: Kubuntu 9.10
$ uname -a
Linux Wiolusia 2.6.31-15-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 10 14:54:29 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

Packages:
linux-image-2.6.31-15-generic_2.6.31-15.50_i386
xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1_i386
xserver-xorg-video-radeon_6.12.99+git20090929.7968e1fb-0ubuntu1_i386
xserver-xorg_7.4+3ubuntu7_i386

$ sudo lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT880 Ultra/PT894 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT894 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT894 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT890 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT894 Host Bridge
00:00.5 PIC: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT894 I/O APIC Interrupt Controller
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT894 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:02.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. PT890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
00:0a.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 02)
00:0a.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 02)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:11.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 80)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600]
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AP [Radeon 9600] (Secondary)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 5B60 [Radeon X300 (PCIE)]
02:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV370 [Radeon X300SE]

(I'm using second graphic card - Radeon X300SE at PCI-E (my motherboard has both PCI-E and AGP slots) for dualseat - I'm running second Xorg for second graphic card and AGP Radeon 9600 is my primary card)

[agd5f]

The modeline for tv-out is just a placeholder. The driver always outputs native timing for the selected TV standard (PAL, NTSC, etc.). "modes" with respect to TV only represent the size of the desktop downscaled to the native TV res. On your chip the only "mode" supported on tv-out is 800x600 at the moment (800x600 area of the desktop downscaled to pal resolution). The only thing you need to worry about is turning the output on. If load detection fails, you may have to manually add an 800x600 mode and manually turn the output on with xrandr. There are also driver options for your xorg.conf if you want to force tv-out to be always connected, to set the default tv standard, and to enable load detection on the tv dac by default. E.g.,
Option "TVStandard" "pal"
Option "ForceTVOut" "TRUE"
Option "TVDACLoadDetect" "TRUE"
in the device section of your config.
To configure it with xrandr, assuming the driver detects the output as connected:
xrandr --output S-video --auto
or
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600
If load detection doesn't work, you'll have to force it on:
xrandr --newmode 800x600 38.25 800 832 912 1024 600 603 607 624 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600
Again, the modeline timing doesn't matter as long as it's 800x600.

[xeros]

I apreciate for yours suggestions but it didn't help.

Now I'm getting 800x600 on DVI-0 even at KDM (I can change resolution by xrandr) and S-video is forced on but the display on S-video is as before but it looks like it sends "something" through S-video:
http://94.40.99.93/wwww/S-video1.jpg
http://94.40.99.93/wwww/S-video2.jpg
It's picture taken from LCD monitor with tvtime getting S-video signal from TV card. The cards (Video and TV) are connected with (~50cm length) S-video <-> S-video cable (4 pin (luminecity and chromacity) + ground).
The picture on TV is the same, but there is 10m lenght S-video <-> S-video cable connected to S-video <-> EURO(Scart) at TV side and it's connected to the Scart input which supports S-video in signal (I was having color PAL signal there from my Radeon 9600 card).

Any thoughts?

Edit:
Maybe it worked because I've been trying many times to change TV standard, resolution, refresh... (even 'xrandr' commands in 'for i in `seq ...`' loop in bash to check if it's really changing something)?
Both NTSC and PAL standards are changing but both are something like of of sync(?) like on the pictures above.

[xeros]

Yes, it's the xrandr in the loop!
I've get by running:
for i in `seq 100`; do ./tvout-wlacz.sh; sleep 3; ./tvout-wylacz.sh; sleep 3; done

The "tvout-wlacz.sh" script is the one I've post here before for enabling tvout and "tvout-wylacz.sh" is for disabling load_detection and changing DVI-0 mode to 1280x1024 (my LCD native resolution):

#!/bin/bash
xrandr --output S-video --set load_detection 0
xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 1280x1024


I've been running tvtime all the time loop was working. After few flickers I've get S-video output signal in tvtime window.

Edit:
Xorg.0.log.bz2 (http://94.40.99.93/wwww/tvout-Xorg.0.log.bz2) taken just after the S-video has put the right signal.
Does it look as the driver bug? How can I trace it? I've been even thought that the S-video card connector was broken but it's not - I've been switching cables and the signal is still there (on TV and TV card, too).

Edit2:
Now (as I have S-video signal) I can change resolution on DVI-0 and even change refresh on S-video (default 800x600 with 59.9Hz got just after set load_detection=1 works just like the manually inserted modeline for 50Hz).
Too bad, "dmesg", "Xorg.0.log" and "xrandr" doesn't say anything special when there's the proper S-video signal.

Edit3:
Just like before - S-video works even after reboot but if I turn off PC and switch off power then it doesn't work. Now after few hundred times the loop has worked before I've get proper S-video signal (loop with changing tv_standard, resolution, refresh rate, --auto, --same-as, and even --off) - it took ~35-40 minutes (with one reboot before next loop run).
I thought it might be a workaround for now but it seems it's not. There has to be something different.

[agd5f]

If you are using a compositor like compiz does disabling it help?

[xeros]

No, it doesn't help either. I'm using KDE 4.3.3 with KWin desktop effects [OT: I'd like to say desktop effects on yours open source driver work a LOT better than in binary FGLRX driver before they dropped support for R300-R500 or even binary Nvidia drivers on other hardware - more FPS and less FPS drop on using effects] but it doesn't matter if it's enabled or disabled it's the same issue (I'm using shortcut ALT+Shift+F12 do enable or disable them).
I'm "enabling" S-video output by this workaround loop with xrandr commands separated by 1s sleep time and I get proper output after 30-60 minutes. After it gets proper output it's working even after reboot (by both using shutdown/reboot, ALT+SysRq[S,U,B], or even hardware reset switch) - it's not enabled at BIOS or boot time but just once enabling by xrandr it's working. The problem gets back after I cut of power to computer after shutdown (even for few seconds). Could it be driver or hardware problem?

Edit:
I thought about connecting S-video to the other card in my PC (Radeon X300SE PCI-E (RV370)) to check if it's software/driver problem but unfortunately it has only composite RCA output. If this test could be useful after all I could get a cable to connect it to TV card composite input.