XFree86 Video Timings HOWTO

Eric Steven Raymond

Thyrsus Enterprises

esr@thyrsus.com

This is version 5.0

Copyright © 2000 by Eric S. Raymond

$Date: 2000/08/22 02:26:20 $

Revision History
Revision 5.0	21 August 2000	Revised by: esr
First DocBook version.

How to compose a mode line for your card/monitor combination under XFree86. The XFree86 distribution now includes good facilities for configuring most standard combinations; this document is mainly useful if you are tuning a custom mode line for a high-performance monitor or very unusual hardware. It may also help you in using kvideogen to generate mode lines, or xvidtune to tweak a standard mode that is not quite right for your monitor.

Table of Contents

1. Disclaimer

2. Introduction

3. Tools for Automatic Computation

4. How Video Displays Work

5. Basic Things to Know about your Display and Adapter

5.1. The monitor sync frequencies
5.2. The monitor's video bandwidth
5.3. The card's dot clock
5.4. What these basic statistics control

6. Interpreting the Basic Specifications

6.1. About Bandwidth
6.2. Sync Frequencies and the Refresh Rate:

7. Tradeoffs in Configuring your System

8. Memory Requirements

9. Computing Frame Sizes

10. Black Magic and Sync Pulses

10.1. Horizontal Sync:
10.2. Vertical Sync:

11. Putting it All Together

12. Overdriving Your Monitor

13. Using Interlaced Modes

14. Questions and Answers

15. Fixing Problems with the Image.

15.1. The image is displaced to the left or right
15.2. The image is displaced up or down
15.3. The image is too large both horizontally and vertically
15.4. The image is too wide (too narrow) horizontally
15.5. The image is too deep (too shallow) vertically

16. Plotting Monitor Capabilities

17. Credits

		Next
		Disclaimer