Chipset documentation for Maven and MGA-VCO64FSB

[madmac]

Hej !

I would need to get hold of the official chipset programming documentation (or any other docs) about the video outputs chips "Maven" (on the G400 and Marvel G200) and the
MGA-VCO64FSB (used on the Rainbow Runner upgrades) ... they would be needed for the Marvel G200/Linux project - someone who can hint me where I can find more info ?

Thanks in advance ! :-) /Gernot

[This_Idiot]

Maven is Matrox own chipset, so by registering with their Developer Relations team you should be able to get the info : http://www.matrox.com/mga/dev_relations/home.htm

I believe that the TV-O on the original RR-S was a Phillips chip.

[madmac]

OK, thanks for the info !

Actually, it is not possible to get hold of the Maven chipset docs on Matrox homepage, they haven't released it openly yet - but it will be released "indirectly" with the new XFree 4.0-drivers for DualHeadsupport in Linux in late summer... so I was "impatient"

It would be perfect if the TV-out on my Rainbow Runner-upgrade for the G200 would be a Philips chip - this is actually what I am used to from my Iomega Buz (which we already have full support for) ... but unfortunately I wasn't able to find my output chip on the decoder yet.... maybe it is below the HF-protection, I will find it out somehow

[This_Idiot]

The TV-O for the G-series cards is on the "host", not the Rainbow Runner. That is either the G200Mystique, or in the case of the G200Millennium a seperate TV-O module is required. And it will be the Maven chip.

The original RR-S had it's own TV-O, this is the Phillips unit I was referring to.

[madmac]

Duh !

I just realized that when I put in my video card ... well, then I can go over to make the Rainbow Runner Video4Linux compatible ! :-)

BTW: Do you happen to know what could be wrong if my Rainbow Runner can receive TV, but has green vertical, thick stripes over the TV screen ?

I really do hope that my card isn't broken ... got it all the way from the UK to Sweden, sending it back is expensive :-/

[This_Idiot]

Sounds like either the tuning is slightly off or you've got the wrong video standard selected.

Hmm - If you are trying to use a UK card in Sweden, I suspect that this could be the problem. Certainly the G-RRs came in different PAL flavours for the UK and the rest of Europe

[madmac]

It's an international version, I had a look at that when I bought it from there (shop.matrox.com) ... what is really worrying me is that it doesn't work in Line in, either - I get thick black stripes in between ...
maybe you can have a look at it
at http://www.lysator.liu.se/~gz/new.jpeg

This was recorded in 16 bit colour depth, it looks different (kind of interlaced), but not correct in 32 bits ... Maybe the driver tries to write into 16 Megs of graphics memory, but I just have 8 Megs on my card ...

I will now examine the problem in Linux, but that's hairy ... I would really have liked to test it in Windows first ...

[This_Idiot]

now THAT looks weird - I've never seen anything like it.

I can't believe it's to do with video memory, this shouldn't come into the equation at all since the HW codec is compressing and shoving the datastream out to disk. The videocard is "only" being used for overlay. Besides, G200 Marvels are 8Mb.

Have you got any other type of video board attached or any odd codecs lurking around ?

Also, what settings are you using for capture ?

[madmac]

I got the solution now:
The G200's connector sockets are broken !
I just tested it with another G200 from a friend of mine, and it works _perfectly_ with that one !!!!!

Thanks for your help !