Pandora TV cable

I play around with the TV connection of my Pandora. It looks like the resolution is 640×480 “hard coded”. Is there a way to use alternativ resolutions via TV cable? I have MDFs for 720×576, 704×480, 720×480. All this are working with the Display but not with the cable. If I use a bigger resolution then 640×480 the border are cut off.

There’s no support for custom resolutions at the moment.

I might be able to get it working in the future, if I can work out how to fully program the TV-out hardware (I only understand about half of it at the moment)

I wonder what the actual frame buffer size is?
As far as I can determine from the DM320 spec, the device can directly output PAL or NTSC (full frame both), but the internal frame buffer is fixed at 640×480. It is like the chip supports NTSC and PAL is added as an afterthought…

Well, then I no longer try other resolutions. No problem. It works fine with my capture stick.
Maybe Notaz can help explanatory. He gave Ben some good evidence for the SDFS of Pandora (the second slot). From him are the Linux drivers / tools.

As far as I can determine from the DM320 spec

Not sure why you’re looking at the DM320 spec when the Pandora uses the OMAP3530 or DM3730 :)

The TV-out module in the OMAP3 seems to be very flexible (see http://www.ti.com/lit/ug/spruf98y/spruf98y.pdf, page 2154). As far as I know there isn’t any internal frame buffer (it’s fed pixel data from the main overlay mixer, as per the other display outputs), and (apart from the pixel rate?) the display timings and visible display area look to be fully programmable. The only problem is that they don’t explain how all the timing values fit together :)

From the register descriptions and the example PAL/NTSC settings (page 2364) I’ve been able to work out how to calculate about half of the timing registers, but to work out the other half I’ll need to build some kind of test framework so I can manually try different register values until I find the right combination that works.

Maybe Notaz can help explanatory. He gave Ben some good evidence for the SDFS of Pandora (the second slot). From him are the Linux drivers / tools.

I don’t think Linux supports custom resolutions either – it looks like it’s just using the values from the TRM :(

In theory you should be able to use modes up to 720×574 with the current version of RISC OS. But, it looks like I made it so that the overlay position is offset by the border & porch timing values from the MDF (so that *TV can be used to adjust the position). So that’s probably what’s causing the display to be cropped.

Try the following mode and see if it’s any better:

startmode
mode_name:720 x 574
x_res:720
y_res:574
pixel_rate:27000
h_timings:0,0,0,720,0,0
v_timings:0,0,0,574,0,0
sync_pol:3
endmode

I don’t think Linux supports custom resolutions either

That’s right but Linux uses a small number of standard PAL and NTSC resolutions.

Youre mode looks nearly like mine. I use 720×576 (PAL DVD), 704 × 480(NTSC)…
Ich will try and play around with the parameters if I back at home in the evening.

Other question ;-)… witch connection should better work? S-Video or Videocinch or both? I have only try cinch.

That’s right but Linux uses a small number of standard PAL and NTSC resolutions.

At the moment the OS will use the configured territory to decide whether to use PAL or NTSC. So we support NTSC, but there’s no easy way to select it :-)

Other question ;-)… witch connection should better work? S-Video or Videocinch or both? I have only try cinch.

Use S-Video – it will give better picture quality.

Not sure why you’re looking at the DM320 spec when the Pandora uses the OMAP3530 or DM3730 :)

That’s the SoC for which I actually read the video spec (and a lot of other stuff) from end to end. This is why.

Nice the hear that it is a lot more configurable.

That’s right but Linux uses a small number of standard PAL and NTSC resolutions.

I liar… It is long time and any firmware ago, I use the cable with Linux. Now I have try any things with a actually SZ 1.60.
There is a TV configuration inside. My small TV can display 660 × 520 via S-Video without cutting the border. Not sure why.
If I use HDMI or VGA input (try with my xM) I can use the real resolution (1024 × 600).
Played enough. I will use 640×480. Is a standard mode and it looks fine via S-Video.