F8x86_64 on the Acer Ferrari 3400LMi
performance. The tests has been run with the default size (1400x1200) and with 3000x2000, but no difference has been noticed. However, increasing the virtual screen to more than 3000x2000 will disable hardware acceleration and of course cripple performance completely.
These observations verifies that hardware 3D acceleration is really working and that the radeon driver is taking care of business the way we want it to.
10.4 TV-out
TV output is available through the Svideo connector on the rear of the Ferrari. Furthermore, no special settings are needed in order to use it. It is immediate available and may be controlled by xrandr. However, the tips below might help to get you started.
10.4.1 Load detection
The external outputs have a property called load_detection, that controls whether RandR should try to autodetect the output or not. Usually it is a good thing to be able to autodetect the different output features. However, there are situations when you do not want autodetection.
Remember that we have three outputs, but only two rendering pipelines (CRTCs). What would then happen if we try to autodetect and configure all available outputs, xrandr auto, with both VGA0 and Svideo connected? We actually do not know. The internal display may only use the first pipeline, CRTC 0, but that might be allocated by either VGA0 or Svideo. Furthermore, we will have a race condition between the two remaining outputs for the second pipeline, CRTC 1. In order to avoid potential conflicts like that, autodetection is disabled by default for Svideo.
Thus, we first have to enable load_detection in order to use the TVoutput. That is done by:
# xrandr output set load_detect 1
10.4.2 NTSC or PAL
The graphics chip defaults to NTSC, so those of us how want PAL need to explicitly specify this. To change the TV mode to PAL use:
# xrandr output Svideo set tv_standard pal
10.4.3 Initialization
The script for dual head management presented in Appendix B assumes that all external outputs may be autodetected. Thus, if you want the script to consider TVout as a possible external output you need to enable autodetection for TV out.
Consequently, we need to initialize some settings before TVout is automatically
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