Introduction

Hardware: Matrox G400 32mb AGP.
Software: Debian GNU/Linux Sarge (aka. testing), MPlayer 0.90rc3, Linux kernel 2.4.20.

This guide will show you how to use your Matrox graphics card with TV-Out in Linux. Unfortunately, hardware acceleretion is not available on the second head under Linux :-(

Kernel Configuration

Code maturity level options  --->
  [*] Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers

Processor type and features  --->
  [*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support

Character devices  --->
  I2C support  --->
    <M> I2C support
    <M> I2C bit-banging interfaces

Console drivers  --->
  Frame-buffer support  --->
    [*] Support for frame buffer devices
    <M>   Matrox acceleration
    [*]     G100/G200/G400/G450/G550 support
    <M>       Matrox I2C support
    <M>       G400 second head support

MPlayer Installation

Usage

My shell script for starting MPlayer in the framebuffer-enabled console ("matrox" is maven-prog, which is available at http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/~vana/ftp/pub/linux/matrox-latest/maven-prog.tgz):

#!/bin/sh

if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; then

 # Disable cursor
 setterm -cursor off

 # Disable screen blanking
 setterm -blank 0
 
 # Adjust second head contrast and hue
 ./matrox 0x1e 0xd0
 ./matrox 0x20 0xff
 ./matrox 0x22 0xff

 # Clear the screen
 clear

 # Start MPlayer and load the specified file
 mplayer -vo mga -fs -screenw 640 -screenh 512 $* >/dev/null 2>&1

 # Once MPlayer has exited, turn cursor back on
 setterm -cursor on

else

 echo "Error: Need at least one argument (filename)."
 echo "Usage: $0 [filename]"
 exit

fi

Below is my other shell script for starting a new X server just for TV-out. Fluxbox is my choice of window manager, you probably want to replace that with yours. Also, note that I have separate Fluxbox and XFree86 configuration files for TV-out.

#!/bin/sh

if [ "$#" -gt 0 ]; then

 # Backup existing xinitrc
 mv ~/.xinitrc ~/.xinitrc.bak

 # Generate auto-starting MPlayer
 touch ~/.xinitrc
 echo "fluxbox -rc ~/.fluxbox/init-tvout & wmpid=$!" >> ~/.xinitrc
 echo "mplayer -vo x11 -fs -zoom $* &" >> ~/.xinitrc
 echo "wait $wmpid" >> ~/.xinitrc

 
 # Adjust second head contrast and hue
 ./matrox 0x1e 0xd0
 ./matrox 0x20 0xff
 ./matrox 0x22 0xff 


 # Checks for open displays and starts X on next available
 for display in 0 1 2 3 4 5
 {
    if [ ! -f "/tmp/.X$display-lock" ]
    then
       startx -- :$display -xf86config XF86Config-4-tvout
       break
    fi
 }

 # Restore original xinitrc
 mv ~/.xinitrc.bak ~/.xinitrc
 
else

 echo "Error: Need at least one argument (filename)."
 echo "Usage: $0 [filename]"
 exit

fi

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