Has Anyone Here Got RGB out of a Laptop?

[adder]

hi all, i have until now been using SVIDEO OUT from a laptop

i would prefer to use RGB, and will buy a new laptop soon

may i ask, has anyone got RGB out of a Laptop? (using 15-pin VGA port)
It seems to be easier using a desktop PC which gives more options (eg. using nvidia and ati cards...)
however i would prefer to use a laptop if possible (but of course laptop often has less features/basic onboard video setup)

if anyone managed to get RGB from a laptop can you let me know how you did it/hardware/setup etc (eg. which onboard video do you use? perhaps intel GMA, or onboard nvidia, etc)

thanks!

[SailorSat]

using a hp nc6000 as testpattern generator. radeon 9600 works just as fine as any deskopt card would.

[adder]

hi many thanks for your answer, it sounds perhaps i must try to buy a laptop only with nvidia or ati onboard then, this is good to know   (however, if anyone managed to get rgb out of a laptop which does not use nvidia or ati onboard, please share how you did it, many thanks)

[Gray_Area]

You need to do a lot of reading.

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oops i notice i didnt even mention that i want to output to a scart tv

[matsadona]

Hm… since VGA is RGB I assume you are referring to a 15kHz output?
As stated before, it is a matter of having a good combination of hardware and driver. And you are correct that there are less options with a laptop since the gfx card is integrated in the motherboard.
But there are a lot of them out there with chipsets similar to the one you will find on PCI/AGP cards. There is a list out there somewhere (too lazy to search for it right now) with all compatible cards and drivers. If you have the same chipset in the laptop you should be good to go 

[adder]

Hm… since VGA is RGB I assume you are referring to a 15kHz output?

yessir, that's correct

ok i think i understand now then, i will simply try to get a laptop with nvidia or ati onboard (to stand more of a chance of success with soft15khz, powerstrip, etc), and avoid garbage like intel gma!

[MonMotha]

I know most of the Intel GMA stuff can do it.  The drivers on Windows may be less than helpful, though.

Actually, in general, most PC graphics controllers can do this.  The Windows drivers just assume you'll never want to and so don't provide the option to configure it.

The Linux drivers are generally much more likely to let you do anything the hardware is capable of, and the ability to specify arbitrary timings has been standard since the dawn of X11 (or earlier).  In fact, X is where the modeline format used by Soft15k and others comes from.  If you're willing to use Linux, you may be able to drastically increase your number of hardware options in terms of graphics that are capable of what you want.  Now, whether or not you know how to make Linux do this is another thing entirely.

[adder]

> The drivers on Windows may be less than helpful, though.

understatement

> Now, whether or not you know how to make Linux do this is another thing entirely.

i still think linux is a character from charlie brown...

[MonMotha]

Hey, assuming your drivers work on the Linux side (there was a big problem with this on ATI a couple years ago, but most distros have long since picked up the fix)...

1. Start up X normally on the onboard monitor
2. Bring up a console
3. Figure out what the driver named your external output.  It'll probably be something like VGA-0 or just VGA.  Also note the name of your internal monitor (probably LVDS-0 or just LVDS).

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xrandr4. Define your preferred modeline.  Example is 640x480@60Hz (ATSC timings) using negative separate sync.

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xrandr --newmode "ATSC-480-60i" 11.97 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace -Hsync -Vsync5. Add the new mode to the output you identified above.

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xrandr --addmode VGA-0 ATSC-480-60i6. Activate that output using that mode and cloning your onboard monitor.

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xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode ATSC-480-60i --same-as LVDS-0
Now, assuming all your drivers are happy, you should have on your VGA connector a version of your onboard monitor scaled down to 640x480 and interlaced (i.e. 15kHz).  The downscaling doesn't always work right.  You can instead specify that it's another head of a dual monitor configuration using --left-of, --right-of, etc.  You can also use any modeline that your card is capable of, and you can name it whatever you want.  I don't think there's a practical limit on the number of installed modes, but if there is, it's easy to script swapping them out on the fly.

As a note, you can also do monitor flipping, etc. using the xrandr command (it means Rotate AND Resize).  Handy for cocktails or if you've got a monitor installed upside-down or bouncing off a mirror and don't want to / can't (e.g. LCD) flip the yoke connectors.

Now, if all this works, you probably want it permanent.  For that, you have to modify xorg.conf.  I can give you a syntax example if you like.

IIRC, somebody makes a Linux distro pre-tweaked for all this.  Check the forums around here.

And before you rail on me for Linux being arcane and requiring weird commands for this, consider that the only way to do it on Windows is with driver-specific registry hacking.  Soft15k and friends just automate that for you

[adder]

many thanks for your help, i have never even seen a linux os let alone use one, but i could take a look i suppose

note: i use, and will only use, mameuifx. hmm, does that even work in linux??

EDIT: damn, i cant find that linux distro thing u mentioned, let me know if u find where it's at plz

[MonMotha]

I think maybe it was GroovyArcade: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,107620.0.html

I don't know if it's actively maintained, but it looks like somebody's keeping it up to date.

In general, the popular frontends are unfortunately Windows only.  You MIGHT be able to get them running under WINE...if you're a real masochist.  MAME itself is cross platform works reasonably well on Linux, but they do seem to be focusing on the Windows port these days.

[adder]

update: i just bought a cheap used desktop pc on ebay which has ati video in it and should work ok for soft15khz etc, so my laptop worries are now over (at least for now anyway aha...)

[Gray_Area]

update: i just bought a cheap used desktop pc on ebay which has ati video in it and should work ok for soft15khz etc, so my laptop worries are now over (at least for now anyway aha...)

Doesn't mean you won't need to know a lot of the same things.