X11 / fglrx equivalent for "Pixel Format" (ATI CCC)?

[Roman2K]

Hi,

I am in the process of switching from Windows to Gentoo Linux as my main OS.

While under Windows, initially I had a problem with my Philips LCD monitor / TV: every 10 to 30 minutes, the screen flashes blank, turns all colors into a mix of pink, green and cyan for a good 5 to 10 minutes, then flashes once again and switches colors back to normal... until the next flash. A right PITA, one of the most frustrating defects I have ever encountered. Other people with AMD graphics cards and Philips TVs have encountered the same issue and posted on forums about it (I don't have the links anymore).

These forums post are where I got a 100% working solution from (under Windows at least): going into the ATI Catalyst Control Center, displaying the list of monitors, editing the Philips one's properties, and switching the "Pixel Format" from the default YCbCr to either "RGB Full (4:4:4)" or "RGB Limited (4:4:4)".

I am now running X11 with AMD's proprietary drivers: "fglrx" (ebuild "ati-drivers"). To my dismay, after this switch, the fix mentioned above not being applied yet, the problem is back and frustration is building up like within the first days of owning that Philips TV.

My problem is: I haven't found how to set the "Pixel Format" to "RGB Full (4:4:4)" (or "Limited") under X11, like I used to do in the ATI Catalyst Control Center under Windows.

Relevant specifications of the computer:

Graphics card: AMD Radeon HD 5970 (reference PCB design)
Monitor (LCD TV): Philips 32PFL7604/H (not sure about the last 3 characters of the model number, sorry)
Setup:

• One of the two DVI outputs is fitted with AMD's DVI-to-HDMI adapter
• There's a male-to-male HDMI cable connecting the adapter to the first HDMI input of the monitor / TV
• The monitor / TV is configured in "PC mode"

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen1" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
	Identifier      "Keyboard Defaults"
	MatchIsKeyboard "yes"
	Option	    "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "fr"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor1"
	VendorName   "PHL"
	ModelName    "Philips FTV"
	DisplaySize  1920	1080
	HorizSync    15.0 - 70.0
	VertRefresh  48.0 - 62.0

	# Attempt 1:
	#
	#Option "TVOutputFormat" "RGB"
        
	Option	    "PreferredMode" "1920x1080"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "UseFastTLS" "2"
	Option	    "TVOverscan" "on"
	BusID       "PCI:8:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Card1"
	Driver      "fglrx"
	Option	    "UseFastTLS" "2"
	BusID       "PCI:9:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     1
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     4
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     8
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     15
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen1"
	Device     "Card1"
	Monitor    "Monitor1"
        
	# Attempt 2:
	#
	#Option		"ColorSpace" "RGB"
	#Option		"ColorRange" "Limited"

	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     1
	EndSubSection

	# Attempt 3:
	#
	#SubSection "Display"
	#	Viewport   0 0
	#	Weight  4 4 4
	#EndSubSection

	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     4
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     8
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     15
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

I also had to execute the following command to get rid of the thick black border frame, setting the overscan to 100% / underscan to 0%:

# aticonfig --set-pcs-val=MCIL,DigitalHDTVDefaultUnderscan,0

From the results Google yielded during my research, I attempted 3 different configuration changes, each has its own corresponding commented-out block in the xorg.conf contents pasted above -- all failed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Note: I originally posted this message on Gentoo forums but I have had no replies yet, and since Phoronix proves a very valuable resource for graphics card and driver tests, I figured their forum members might be more able to help me out.

[Roman2K]

Bump?