Linux HOW-TO achieve perfect playback at 23.97 or 59.94 Hz with NVIDIA GPU hardware

I was getting the same errors as a few others, where xrandr kept returning the following errors:

Rate 24.0 Hz not available for this size
Rate 60.0 Hz not available for this size

Even though I could use nvidia-settings to manually change to those refresh rates! No matter what steps I took, I couldn't get xrandr to see anything except 50hz. I spent a while trying to get modelines working but didn't have much luck either.

In the end, this is how I solved my problem:

Removed xorg.conf
Ran nvidia-xconfig to generate a new one
Edited the xorg.conf and replaced the Device, Screen and Extensions sections with the ones posted at the start of this thread
Followed the rest of the guide

Important:
These steps alone would not work - the key was changing the refresh rates. Although the xorg log reported the following refresh rates
HorizSync : 15.000-68.000 kHz
VertRefresh : 23.000-61.000 Hz

I needed to use the refresh rates from my TV's manual, which are
HorizSync 31.0 - 69.0
VertRefresh 59.0 - 86.0

I saved xorg.conf, rebooted and everything worked perfectly.

For reference I am using an Asus GT520 and Panasonic TH-P54VT20A.
One more point is that I connected the HDMI directly from the PC to the TV during this process, to avoid the AVR complicating matters. After it was all working, I put it back through the AVR and all still working.

Hope this helps someone, as it took me ages to figure it out, but looking great now!
Cheers

Here is my xorg.conf

The Script is outdatet. It does not work with Pre-Eden Builds.

My Problem is that i switched my tv set but the edid that the script reads are the edids from my old tv. Is there a methode to reset and get the edids from my new tv set?

I deleted the old xorg.0.log but after a reboot x does not create a new one...

it does not work with eden builds

how can I solve this? please help!

below info:
sh nvidia.sh
1/6 Backing up settings
2/6 Applying Xorg settings
3/6 Restarting Xorg to find available modes
stop: Unknown instance:
xbmc-live start/running, process 1967
4/6 Adding 23.97Hz and 59.94Hz to xorg.conf
stop: Unknown instance:
xbmc-live start/running, process 2079
5/6 Applying NVIDIA settings

update:

actually it does work after a reboot, it just cannot stop xorg...
i can play after a reboot on 24hz..

gjergji Wrote:it does not work with eden builds

how can I solve this? please help!

below info:
sh nvidia.sh
1/6 Backing up settings
2/6 Applying Xorg settings
3/6 Restarting Xorg to find available modes
stop: Unknown instance:
xbmc-live start/running, process 1967
4/6 Adding 23.97Hz and 59.94Hz to xorg.conf
stop: Unknown instance:
xbmc-live start/running, process 2079
5/6 Applying NVIDIA settings

as I am using ubuntu oneiric 11.10 which uses lightdm I simply modified the script, changing the script twice from

Quote:if [ -f /var/run/gdm.pid ]; then
sudo service gdm restart

to

Quote:if [ -f /var/run/lightdm.pid ]; then
sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart

after running the script, I have new entries in /etc/X11/xorg.conf as well as a the following:
# - Modes in ModePool for SAMSUNG (DFP-0) ---
# vidia-auto-select" : 1920 x 1080 @ 60.0 Hz
# 920x1080" : 1920 x 1080 @ 60.0 Hz
# 920x1080_60" : 1920 x 1080 @ 60.0 Hz
# 920x1080_60_0" : 1920 x 1080 @ 59.94/60 Hz (CEA-861B Format 16)
# 920x1080_50" : 1920 x 1080 @ 50.0 Hz
[...]
# - End of ModePool for SAMSUNG (DFP-0): ---
so I assume with all supported lines of my display as it seems, so I assume this works just fine, just wanted to share this

Hello and thanks for this nice tutorial.

I currently have a problem with overscanning on my TV. It's a LG 42PC1R, HD Ready, no 24hz.
Using your tutorial, I wanted to set my box to output 720p or 1080i (I tried both), I have overscanning problem on both resolution.

Here are the settings accepted from the EDID of the TV:

I have tried with xorg.conf to use 1920x1080_50i or 1280x720_50 (I'm in France and 50hz is the default here).
Anyway, with those resolutions, I have a lot of overscanning, everywhere around the screen! So I tried with modelines, but the problem is the same (from what I've understood, modelines is used to move the picture, not to resize it (since I want to use 1280x720)).

Since I dont have settings for overscan and 1:1 pixel on my TV, the solution I have found atm is to use the overscanning compensation of nvidia-settings, its set to 90.

My xorg.conf:


Does anyone have another solution than using nvidia overscanning compensation & keeping same resolution (720p, I think its better for movies) ?

eldo Wrote:I was getting the same errors as a few others, where xrandr kept returning the following errors:

Rate 24.0 Hz not available for this size
Rate 60.0 Hz not available for this size

Even though I could use nvidia-settings to manually change to those refresh rates! No matter what steps I took, I couldn't get xrandr to see anything except 50hz. I spent a while trying to get modelines working but didn't have much luck either.

In the end, this is how I solved my problem:

Removed xorg.conf
Ran nvidia-xconfig to generate a new one
Edited the xorg.conf and replaced the Device, Screen and Extensions sections with the ones posted at the start of this thread
Followed the rest of the guide

Important:
These steps alone would not work - the key was changing the refresh rates. Although the xorg log reported the following refresh rates
HorizSync : 15.000-68.000 kHz
VertRefresh : 23.000-61.000 Hz

I needed to use the refresh rates from my TV's manual, which are
HorizSync 31.0 - 69.0
VertRefresh 59.0 - 86.0

I saved xorg.conf, rebooted and everything worked perfectly.

For reference I am using an Asus GT520 and Panasonic TH-P54VT20A.
One more point is that I connected the HDMI directly from the PC to the TV during this process, to avoid the AVR complicating matters. After it was all working, I put it back through the AVR and all still working.

Hope this helps someone, as it took me ages to figure it out, but looking great now!
Cheers

Here is my xorg.conf

Code:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 270.41.06  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-07.nvidia.com)  Mon Apr 18 15:15:12 PDT 2011

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 69.0
    VertRefresh     59.0 - 86.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
        Option  "NoLogo"              "true"
        Option  "DynamicTwinView"     "false"
        Option  "NoFlip"              "false"
        Option  "FlatPanelProperties" "Scaling = Native"
        Option  "ModeValidation"      "NoVesaModes, NoXServerModes"
        Option  "UseDisplayDevice"    "DFP-1"
        Option  "ModeDebug"           "true"
        Option  "HWCursor"            "false"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    Modes "1920x1080_60_0" "1920x1080_24"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option  "Composite"           "false"
EndSection

That worked beautifully! Thanks.

First of all: Thank you for this tutorial!

I used to have Windows 7 with XBMC and it worked brillianty, but for the sake of supporting open source software I switched to Ubuntu 11.04 with XBMC pre-eden.

Under Windows the TV (Panasonic TX-P46U20) would switch automatically with source input to the correct freq. with this setting in XBMC. However under Ubuntu it didn't. So I started reading about modelines and I created a beautiful xorg.conf with all the supported modelines I could come up with... but still I didn't have smooth playback.

Untill I found this topic and decided that the approach in the topicstart was better, so I followed it and hoped that I would get buttersmooth playback. All my setting were correct and the 24Hz and 60Hz settings would report back 23.97Hz and 59.94Hz and XBMC would switch correctly to these freqs. However, I still didn't have smooth playback although no frames were dropped. I would see however that the fps of the movie/series was far from constant and would switch between ~22fps and ~25fps for a 23.97fps source.

I was so fed up with it that I almost reinstalled Windows 7... :mad:

Last saturday I decided to read this entire topic for more information and noticed that some people saw a improvement when they turned off "flipping" in their drivers. So I tried this and now the fps of a source is much more stable. But more importantly, the playback is perfect! Without judder etc. I have no idea what this setting does and why it works. But maybe more people can benefit from this info.

Setup:
Panasonic TX-P46U20
Nvidia 430GT card with proprietary drivers
connected directly through HDMI
Ubuntu 11.04
XBMC pre-eden

I'm using a computer monitor (Acer 26" LCD) with XBMC, am I affected by this? How can I tell? My playback seems perfectly fine, but just curious. Thanks.

I guess if your playback is fine then don't start messing with it

My playback had small glitches, about 2-3 a minute where the video seemed to pause or hickup without frame loss. It drove me crazy but my boyfriend didn't seem to notice.