xv overlay - cinema mode

[Alex Deucher]

On 3/22/07, Wesley S. <profox at ubuntu-nl.org> wrote:
> 2007/3/22, Alex Deucher <alexdeucher at gmail.com>:
> > On 3/22/07, Wesley S. <profox at ubuntu-nl.org> wrote:
> > > This question has been running around in my head for months now.
> > >
> > > Is it possible to use xv overlay to play a movie fullscreen on my TV,
> but
> > > windowed on my computer? (or even minimized on my computer)
> > > [...]
> > >
> >
> > Just set up dualhead and play the video on one head while you work on
> > the other.  That's all the "cinema" mode does I suspect.
> >
> > Alex
> >
>
> Thanks for your answer, Alex. But unfortunately this is not what I am
> looking for.
> It's a workaround, but not a real solution for me.
>
> I have already set up dualhead as a workaround, but it is not what I am
> looking for.
>

Well, they may wrap it in some special API, but at the hardware level,
it's implemented the same as dualhead.  You could set up a
non-xinerama dualhead display and start you video app on the other
head (:0.0 vs. :0.1).  that might be more of what you are looking for.

> However, I have done some more research and it seems to be that only ATI and
> NVidia cards support this kind of thing. ATI calls it "Theatre Mode" and
> NVidia calls it "Video Mirroring"
>
> Come to think of it. I used to have another laptop with an ATI card in it,
> and I was using "Theatre Mode". So this Theatre Mode/Video Mirroring thing
> might also be impossible to do in Windows with this Intel card. Too bad.
>
> I still have the ATI laptop (radeon 7500) but I can't even get proper TV-out
> to work on linux, so let alone configure it for some sort of Theatre Mode.
> If someone knows if this is possible with the open source linux drivers
> (tv-out + theatre mode) please let me know. Also let me know if someone can
> get it to work with the proprietary fglrx driver, because I have a laptop
> with that one lying around too (and TV-out works there, but I can't get a
> "Theatre Mode" to run in linux)
>

there's no open source tv-out support for ati or nvidia cards that the moment.

> Last but not least, I have an NVidia (Geforce 3 ti 200) pc, I am not using
> it for TV-out (although it has a TV-out connector) but if someone is able to
> get Theatre Mode (Video Mirroring) to work on it, I might use that computer.
> (I haven't tried TV-out yet on that pc though, so I'm not even sure if that
> works)
>
> I am pretty sure that I won't have much chance of finding this functionality
> in linux, because I have already looked everywhere, and I found it nowhere.
> So this is sort of my last try. But hey, if it doesn't work, I'll just keep
> using the dualhead option. It's not as nice as theatre mode, but it's
> workable..
>
> All this stuff brings me to a new question though. How hard would it be to
> do this through software? Wouldn't the computer be able to copy the contents
> of a playing video on screen 1 to screen 2? I suppose the hardest part is
> keeping it working even when the video is minimized. I guess I am dreaming
> anyway.
>
> Thanks anyway. I appreciate your time and effort, Alex.
> I'll just keep working with a dualhead setup for now.
>

It's just non-xinerama dualhead.  Source the overlay to crtc2 and it
will take care of the scaling and such.  You could implement the
necessary code in your favorite movie player.

Alex