[ydl-gen] Video Monitors--2

[Warren Nagourney]

Using Apple's Xwindow server on a Powerbook to talk to the PS3 works  
very well, in view of the fact that the link is an 801.11g connection  
(not to the ps3 - more's the pity - but to a LinkSys router). Both  
systems have 1000baseT which should speed things up a bit. I am quite  
pleased with this configuration.

-wn


On Jan 9, 2007, at 7:56 PM, Warren Nagourney wrote:

> I have decided on a somewhat different approach from all of the ones
> discussed here. Since my chief motivation for using the PS3 is to do
> Cell development, I decided that I would attach an absolutely minimum
> monitor to the PS3 (for system management) and do everything using
> Xwindows or ssh from another computer. I have a sense that the PS3
> doesn't deserve an expensive or sophisticated video solution until
> some reasonable fraction of the GPU power is made available to linux
> users. I attached a surplus 30-year old BW monitor (worth about $5)
> to the composite video port and made ydltextmode the default. It
> works fine - with all the flicker of a interlaced BW monitor it is
> actually easier on the eyes than a scaled LCD display - and the
> abysmal graphics speed is not a problem (it scrolls very fast!).
>
> I will keep attuned to the ps3-video developments with great
> interest. I am glad this list has recently become very active -
> perhaps some combination of TSS and Sony might chose to improve the
> graphics situation if they sense reasonable interest in the community.
>
> -wn
>
>
> On Jan 9, 2007, at 4:40 PM, David Seikel wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 9 Jan 2007 08:44:56 -0800 jmzorko at mac.com wrote:
>>
>>>> I have been reading quite a few postings about video performance
>>>> from the PS3 that is not very impressive.  Is their anyone that is
>>>> using a monitor with the PS3 that is achieving 1080p results.  Has
>>>> anyone tried
>>>> the BenQ 24" monitor?  Any input would be greatly appreciated.
>>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> My display for the PS3 is a Samsung 23" HDTV that does 720p and
>>> 1080i.  YDL always seems to use 720p, which isn't so bad I guess ...
>>> but I think Enlightenment is using anti-aliasing on the screen
>>> fonts, which definitely accounts for some blurriness on my system
>>> (most notable in terminal windows, which is basically where I live,
>>> so i'm really interested in figuring how to turn this off).
>>
>> E17 uses font hinting.  Go to the control panel and start the font
>> config dialog, then select Advanced.  Around about the middle you  
>> will
>> see a section for controlling the font hinting.  Try playing with  
>> that
>> and see if it gets better.  I get no blurriness on my monitor.
>>
>>
>> I have just noticed that having a HDMI to DVI cable plugged in, even
>> though you cant use it if your DVI monitor does not support HDCP, can
>> help a bit.  As I stated before, I use a component to VGA cable to my
>> LCD monitor.  This monitor cant do 480i, which is a problem because
>> kboot defaults to 480i, and the GameOS factory default is 480i.  The
>> first is a problem, because I cant use kboot, I have to wait for
>> YDL to
>> boot.  The second one is a problem if you turn it on by holding down
>> the power button for five seconds.  In either case, I can feed
>> composite into the TV capture card on my other computer, but it looks
>> awful, kboot is barely readable.
>>
>> On the other hand, with the HDMI to DVI cable plugged in, the PS3  
>> uses
>> it to negotiate with the monitor, the monitor says "I can't do 480i,
>> but I can do 480p", so kboot starts up in 480p, and it is much more
>> usable.  The bad news is that GameOS still defaults to 480i.  B-(
>>
>>
>> I am still experimenting.  The resolution takes up the first 5  
>> bits of
>> the video mode, the rest are various flags.  There are at least three
>> of these flags, fullscreen / overscan, RGB / YUV, dither on /  
>> off.  By
>> the looks of it there are a total of at least 12 bits, but it may be
>> 16.  Thats a lot of bit space to search, especially since I leave ten
>> seconds between tests to give my monitor time to sync, and me time to
>> inspect the results.  It's tiring, since there is no way to automate
>> testing the final result, you have to stare at the screen to see if
>> something useful happens.  There are also a few different cable
>> combinations I can try, and over the next two weeks, I will have a
>> variety of monitor / TV types to try out.
>>
>> I think I can ignore the RGB and dither bits, one just makes the
>> colours all wrong, the other doesn't seem to make any difference.  I
>> can also just leave the fullscreen bit turned on, it doesn't change
>> the
>> sync rates, so I should get a result either way.
>>
>> I am writing a script to automate these tests as much as possible.
>> I'll put it in here later today.
>>
>> So far I have found an undocumented mode - 19.  It doesn't get me any
>> better results though, just 720p.
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