Wide screen monitors can be a real *!@&$(# to set up in X Windows, so I expected some manual labour when I bought a new LG L204WT FLATRON LCD Wide Screen monitor yesterday after my 19" CRT finally gave out after 11 years (it could no longer switch resolutions with the video card when going from X Windows to pure command line, although the picture was still clear and sharp).

Sure enough I had to do some modeline testing to get X Windows running on Linux in 16:9 aspect but now it works beautifully:

http://www.user.dccnet.com/jonleblanc/L204WT.html

LG's product page:

http://www.lge.com/products/model/detail/l204wt.jhtml

Just a minor note, you meant 16:10 right?

Its much closer to 16:9...

16 / 10 = 1.6

16 / 9 = 1.777

1240 / 720 = 1.722

Now with my ATSC cards I'll configure this machine and some surround speakers for OTA HDTV. :)

Sorry, I assumed you would be running its native pixel resolution of 1680 x 1050. I find that the resampled image is fuzzy at any resolution other than native. If you find the text hard to read just goose-up your theme settings.

Doh! I just realized you are running Linux. Forget that last part.

I couldn't seem to get a good modeline for 1680 x 1050 but it would be nice. I'll do some more experimenting.

I can change all the fonts and settings in KDE to suit the size differences, BTW. :)

Welcome to the dark side of Linux and MythTV. Ah, the joys of xorg.conf. It can be a mighty pain. What type of HDTV are you trying to use? What output/input cable are you trying to use? Do you at least see some output during your initial system startup with the picture disappearing once the video card starts outputting the X server settings? (My NVIDIA card at least did that until things were working... which at least gave me signs I was on the right track.)

I've been running MythTV successfully for over 6 months now on Ubuntu. I even played around with two PCHDTV tuners for a while. (Kinda pointless at the time as I was only using rabbit ears - but it did work.)

I'm running a combo frontend/backend MythTV box, but I'm about to setup a backend box in the utility room with two pcHDTV cards (one pcHDTV hd-300 and one pcHDTV hd-5500). I just want a smaller frontend near the TV with all the bigger stuff hidden away.

using my RPTV as the monitor, I'm having a very difficult time getting the NVIDIA graphics card's xorg.conf set up properly for it.

Otherwise everything is great!

Are you trying to set up an oddball resolution like 1366x768? If so, check the site http://koala.ilog.fr/cgi-bin/nph-colas-modelines for a quick calculation for your modeline. You need to know the vertical and horizontal frequency ranges for your monitor. You need to turn javascript on for this site.

check the site http://koala.ilog.fr/cgi-bin/nph-colas-modelines for a quick calculation for your modelineNot sure if you're asking me or zounder1, but I've always used gtf on the command line, which is what the web-based tools are based on. I've been getting Linux and *BSD working on obscure Sun, HP, DEC, and other monitors for years... :D

The gtf syntax is like this:

/usr/X11R6/bin/gtf 1280 720 60 -x

and what you get back is a cut-and-paste modeline that is ready for the xorg.conf or x86config file (depending on which X server you're running). In the example above you'd get a modeline for 1280x720 progressive scan at 60 Hz.

That's just the first step, because you'll likely have to try a bunch of modelines to get it "just so". ;)

Getting my RTPV to display X Windows output is a "nice to have" thing, not a necessity, but I'll keep trying out a few things.

I couldn't seem to get a good modeline for 1680 x 1050 but it would be nice. I'll do some more experimenting.
Another interesting website is http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl

To get a 1680x1050 display at 60 hz requires
Modeline "1680x1050@60" 154.20 1680 1712 2296 2328 1050 1071 1081 1103
with 66.23 khz horizontal refresh.

If that's too hard on the monitor, you can try interlacing. That gives 33.13 khz horizontal refresh at...
Modeline "1680x1050@60i" 66.01 1680 1712 1960 1992 1050 1074 1079 1103 interlace

Are you using DVI or VGA? I think 1680x1050 rez over DVI on L204WT works only with CVT+reduced blanking...

Are you using DVI or VGA? I think 1680x1050 rez over DVI on L204WT works only with CVT+reduced blanking...DVI-D, so its just a matter of testing further, I guess. Tell me more about CVT+reduced blanking...

DVI-D, so its just a matter of testing further, I guess. Tell me more about CVT+reduced blanking...
Here is the link to VESA's CVT timing spreadsheet:

http://www.vesa.org/Public/CVT/CVTd6r1.xls

Here is the link to VESA's CVT timing spreadsheet:GACK! Its an Excel spreadsheet! :mad: Oh, that's okay, I've got OO2.0... :D

EDIT: Just opened it in OO2.0... does that spreadsheet have macros in it? I'd hate to have to find a Windoze box with Office to view it.

I found this web site on CVT timings:

http://www.uruk.org/~erich/projects/cvt/

Look what I discovered on my Mandriva 2006 x86_64 box:$which vesa-cvt
/usr/bin/vesa-cvt

$vesa-cvt -h

usage: vesa-cvt x y refresh [-v|--verbose] [--reduced-blanking] [-f|--fbmode] [-x|--xorgmode]

x : the desired horizontal resolution (required)
y : the desired vertical resolution (required)
refresh : the desired refresh rate (required)
-v|--verbose : enable verbose printouts (traces each step of the computation)
--reduced-blanking : if you want reduced blanking
-f|--fbmode : output an fbset(8)-style mode description
-x|--xorgmode : output an Xorg-style mode description (this is the default
if no mode description is requested)It looks like I'll be bidding the old GTF tool goodbye once I figure this one out.

Thanks for the info, testikoff!

At this early stage it seems that the best I can get with CVT is:$vesa-cvt 1240 720 60 -v --reduced-blanking

# 1240x720 @ 59.76 Hz (CVT - Reduced Blanking) hsync: 44.29 kHz; pclk: 62.00 MHz
Modeline "1240x720_59.76" 62.00 1240 1288 1320 1400 720 723 733 741 -HSync +VsyncAnything higher fails. Unfortunately that includes the native mode for the monitor too:$vesa-cvt 1680 1050 60 -v --reduced-blanking

# 1680x1050 @ 59.88 Hz (CVT - Reduced Blanking) hsync: 64.67 kHz; pclk: 119.00 MHz
Modeline "1680x1050_59.88" 119.00 1680 1728 1760 1840 1050 1053 1059 1080 -HSync +VsyncOn X startup it reverts to "1024x768" and shows up in /var/log/Xorg.0.log as an invalidated mode:$cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log|grep -i valid

(WW) NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "1680x1050_59.88"; removing.
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Unable to validate any modes; falling back to the default modeThe LG's pixel clock does 140 so I don't think that 119 is the problem.

KDE would prefer "1152x720_59.92" to get circles properly round and squares properly square. OTOH 16:9 video looks just about perfect in the "1240x720 @ 59.76" mode. I can generate a proper working 16:9 "1280x720" modeline but the exaggerated circles and squares are a bit unpleasant in the KDE UI, and the fonts start to get too skinny.

So, for now its "1240x720 @ 59.76"... :)

I had L204WT for a few days and was able to run it with nVidia FX 5200 card in Windows XP using DVI-D and 1680x1050@60 with CVT-RB (driver version was 91.31). Not sure why it would not work in Linux though... BTW this monitor is HDCP-compliant and accepts HDTV signal from Rogers HD STB over DVI-D (720p only, not 1080i; unfortunately it stretches 720p picture vertically and presents it in 16:10 aspect ratio).

I was wondering if it might be card limitation, but I'm running an FX5600GT card that has already run 1920 x 1080i on that big commercial OS before on an HDTV RPTV.

I was wondering if it might be card limitation, but I'm running an FX5600GT card that has already run 1920 x 1080i on that big commercial OS before on an HDTV RPTV.
Did you try *INTERLACED* mode as per http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl

That's often used to get a resolution that the monitor can't handle in progressive scan mode.

Did you try *INTERLACED* mode I was using that when experimenting with my RPTV - its worth a try.

On advice from testikoff I've switched modeline generators from GTF (General Timing Formula), which is suited to CRTs, to CVT, which is more suited to LCDs. So far I'm only able to feed 720p into this monitor.

On Mandriva 2006 I used /usr/X11R6/bin/gtf to get this working modeline:

# 1240x720 @ 60.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 44.76 kHz; pclk: 72.69 MHz
Modeline "1240x720_60" 72.69 1240 1304 1432 1624 720 721 724 746 -HSync +Vsync

On Mandriva 2006 I used /usr/bin/vesa-cvt to get this working modeline:

# 1240x720 @ 59.76 Hz (CVT - Reduced Blanking) hsync: 44.29 kHz; pclk: 62.00 MHz
Modeline "1240x720_59.76" 62.00 1240 1288 1320 1400 720 723 733 741 -HSync +Vsync

I've tried the -INTERLACE option as Walter suggested, but with a variety of modelines it is not accepted.

Another person suggested in an email that he was using XGL to get the monitor's native 1680x1050 working for him. I haven't tried that yet, although XGL has some really great features.