PS3 Video for Newbies

[billb]

Once you have Fedora 7 installed on your PS3, you'll probably want to adjust your video mode to best fit your display and preferences. You may have noticed that the System -> Preferences -> Hardware -> Screen Resolution menu item doesn't provide any options.

You need to use the ps3videomode command to help determine which mode works best on your TV / display.

To test various video modes, hit Ctrl-Alt-F1. That puts you in text mode (Ctrl-Alt-F7 gets you back to graphic mode). It's possible to run the ps3videomode command in a terminal without switching to text mode, but you'll likely end up with a garbled display in graphic mode very quickly.

So, switch to text mode using Ctrl-Alt-F1. Log in as root at the localhost login prompt.

root
<password>

The ps3videomode command by itself will show your current mode. Note that the Up and Down arrow keys cycle through previously entered commands.

ps3videomode -? will show help for the command.

Usage is ps3videomode -v [options]. If you end up in a mode your display doesn't support and can't see the screen, you can hit the Up arrow key once, use backspace to delete the old mode number, then enter a known working number and hit enter. You might want to try this while you can see the screen to see how it works.

You add 128 to the mode number for fullscreen mode.

For example, to test 720p mode with borders you would use:

ps3videomode -v 3

For 720p mode without borders (fullscreen), you would use:

ps3videomode -v 131

Again, to list the modes available, show help for ps3videomode using this command:

ps3videomode -?

Once you find the best mode for your display, you need to modify this file:
/etc/yaboot.conf

You can do this while you're still in text mode and logged in as root. Enter this command to start a text mode editor and open the /etc/yaboot.conf file:

nano /etc/yaboot.conf

Look for the this line, and use the arrow keys to move to it in the editor:

append="rhgb quiet"

Change it so it looks like this:

append="video=ps3fb:mode:# rhgb quiet"
(where # is the ps3videomode number you're using)

For example, if you're using mode 131 for 720p fullscreen:

append="video=ps3fb:mode:131 rhgb quiet"

Now hit Ctrl-X, then press Y, then Enter. (Ctrl-X tells the editor to Exit, it asks if you want to save your changes and you say Yes, it shows the file name it is writing to and you confirm by pressing Enter)

That should take you back to the [root@localhost ~]# prompt. You won't see any change until you reboot, so reboot now.

reboot

(the PS3 may not completely shutdown and reboot -- in this case just turn off the power switch on the back, turn it back on, and press the power button)

Display Configuration:
Most LCD TV's appear to overscan the image so that a small portion (around 5%) is cut off. While this may not be noticed using the Game OS / playing games, if you're running Linux a portion of your menu bar(s) and windows won't be visible in full-screen mode.

Some LCD TVs will have a setting called Dot by Dot, Native Mode, Just Scan, or possibly another name, that will scale the image so that it fits entirely within the borders of the screen. Some don't have this type of mode and all 720p/1080i/1080p input is overscanned.

Displays that aren't meant to receive HDTV signals may not use overscanning at all, so they won't have (or need) any settings like that, either.

For more information, Terrasoft Solutions has a useful guide with more links here:
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/su...eo-intro.shtml

[Jayorr]

Thanks for the post...the best size for me seems to be 1080i or 1080p but when I press Ctrl-Alt-F7, the size of the screen looks good but the colour is messed up! Is that what it would look like if I set that as my default?

[Jayorr]

Yeah, I just tried it there...the size is perfect but the picture is terrible

[billb]

Thanks for the post...the best size for me seems to be 1080i or 1080p but when I press Ctrl-Alt-F7, the size of the screen looks good but the colour is messed up! Is that what it would look like if I set that as my default?

Have you tried both color spaces for that resolution using the ps3videomode command? I haven't had that problem on my display, but maybe that would help -- I'm not sure.

YUV 60Hz 1: 480i 2: 480p 3: 720p 4: 1080i 5: 1080p
YUV 50Hz 6: 576i 7: 576p 8: 720p 9: 1080i 10: 1080p
RGB 60Hz 33: 480i 34: 480p 35: 720p 36: 1080i 37: 1080p
RGB 50Hz 38: 576i 39: 576p 40: 720p 41: 1080i 42: 1080p
VESA 11: WXGA 12: SXGA 13: WUXGA

For example, your options for 1080p are:

YUV 50Hz 1080p = 10
YUV 60Hz 1080p = 5
RGB 50Hz 1080p = 42
RGB 60Hz 1080p = 37

Note:
http://www.cellperformance.com/publi...Utilities.html
"The signal from HDMI port supports RGB color space regardless of video mode ID."

[Jayorr]

Hmmm, I'm confused now because when I double checked there, the size was different but the colour was perfect! Maybe I'll just try changing the yaboot.conf file loads of different times and boot into it to see what it looks like, Ill let you know how I get on!

[LLaumgui]

Most LCD TV's appear to overscan the image so that a small portion (around 5%) is cut off. While this may not be noticed using the Game OS / playing games, if you're running Linux a portion of your menu bar(s) and windows won't be visible in full-screen mode.

Is there a solution if my LCD don't have "Dot by Dot" function ?

[billb]

Is there a solution if my LCD don't have "Dot by Dot" function ?

I would call it a "workaround" rather than a "solution", but you could add 4 extra Gnome panels, one on each side of the screen. Resize the panels so they are just at the edge of the visible area of your screen. Since windows won't overlap them, you'd be able to maximize windows without them going outside the visible area.

This would not help for full screen applications, of course.