[Cbe-oss-dev] ps3videomode and monitor

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Sat, 2008-03-01 at 18:14 -0800, Geoff Levand wrote:
> On 03/01/2008 04:16 PM, Paolo Severi wrote:
> > I have installed ubuntu 7.10 in my ps3, that is connected to a 20"
> > monitor (with a 1680x1050/60hz resolution) via hdmi--->dvi
> > 
> > I want to change the resolution but I can only choose between 720p
> > (which is too low) and 1080p (which is too high)
> 
> I don't know which ps3-utils you have, but the recent versions have
> a ps3-video-mode man page, or you can look here:
> 
>   http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/geoff/ps3-utils.git;a=blob;f=ps3-video-mode.8;hb=HEAD
> 
> The listed modes are the only ones available.  Unfortunately, it
> seems your monitor is intended to connect to a PC, not an HD video
> device.

This has nothing to do with the monitor :-)

The problem is that somebody at Sony though it would be a good idea to
hard code limitations in the hypervisor for setting modes to a handful
of "TV" modes, along with a couple of VESA ones, instead of letting the
operating system pick the best mode for the monitor.

There is nothing in the HW that prevents it, it's purely a SW
limitation.

While it makes some sense for gameOS as I suppose game vendors are happy
to only have to deal with 3 well known resolutions, this makes little
sense to linux, and it would be very useful if the interface to the
hypervisor was extended to allow the setting of the detailed timings
based on the monitor EDID in order to be able to use flat panels native
resolutions.

Ben.