# Output to PAL TV problem (Mac OS X)

**URL:** <https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/output-to-pal-tv-problem-mac-os-x/8146>\
**Category:** SDL Development\
**Created:** [January 21, 2003, 12:00pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/output-to-pal-tv-problem-mac-os-x/8146 "2003-01-21T12:00:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Franck\_Roussel\_Rasmu](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/9de053/32.png) [@Franck\_Roussel\_Rasmu](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Franck_Roussel_Rasmu)\
**Post date:** [January 21, 2003, 12:00pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/output-to-pal-tv-problem-mac-os-x/8146/1 "2003-01-21T12:00:02Z")

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Hi

I contacted the developers of Mplayer/Mencoder on Mac OS X asking about a  
problem I have with watching movies on my external PAL TV. He said they used  
SDL and didn’t have any solutions except if it was a bug in SDL.

My question therefore is, if any of you know any bugs in SDL preventing it  
from playing on PAL monitors? And if there is some way to make it work?

If you need more detailed descriptions of the problem, I will be happy to  
give it.

Regards

Franck Roussel

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**Author:** ![Darrell\_Walisser](https://discourse.libsdl.org/user_avatar/discourse.libsdl.org/darrell_walisser/32/588_2.png) [@Darrell\_Walisser](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Darrell_Walisser)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2003, 12:46pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/output-to-pal-tv-problem-mac-os-x/8146/2 "2003-01-22T12:46:01Z")

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> Hi
> 
> I contacted the developers of Mplayer/Mencoder on Mac OS X asking  
> about a  
> problem I have with watching movies on my external PAL TV.

What is the problem? A few weekends ago I used my Radeon PCI to watch  
video on my TV using Mplayer, and had no problems. It was NTSC though.  
This doesn’t seem like a bug in SDL, rather a problem with your video  
card or driver (SDL doesn’t know/care about PAL or NTSC).On Wednesday, January 22, 2003, at 03:01 PM, sdl-request at [libsdl.org](http://libsdl.org) wrote:

> Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2003 20:59:20 +0100  
> From: Franck Roussel Rasmussen   
> To:   
> Subject: [SDL] Output to PAL TV problem (Mac OS X)  
> Reply-To: sdl at [libsdl.org](http://libsdl.org)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Franck\_Roussel\_Rasmu](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/9de053/32.png) [@Franck\_Roussel\_Rasmu](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Franck_Roussel_Rasmu)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 9:09am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/output-to-pal-tv-problem-mac-os-x/8146/3 "2003-01-23T09:09:01Z")

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> What is the problem? A few weekends ago I used my Radeon PCI to watch  
> video on my TV using Mplayer, and had no problems. It was NTSC though.  
> This doesn’t seem like a bug in SDL, rather a problem with your video  
> card or driver (SDL doesn’t know/care about PAL or NTSC).

I have a Rage128 8MB (TiBook 500).

If I set the PAL TV as primary monitor, Mplayer refuses to launch any movies  
what so ever.

If I set the TV as “slave”, I can manually drag the movie over to the TV and  
the movies plays fine, but I can’t set it to be full screen.

If I set the LCD as primary, and play a movie full screen, and while the  
movie is playing changes the TV to be primary, Mplayer (I guess) changes the  
TV output to NTSC…

It works fine as long the as the TV output is set to NTSC, the problem only  
occurs when it is set to PAL (when is kinda frustrating when my TV is PAL 🙂

Franck

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**Author:** ![Darrell\_Walisser](https://discourse.libsdl.org/user_avatar/discourse.libsdl.org/darrell_walisser/32/588_2.png) [@Darrell\_Walisser](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Darrell_Walisser)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/output-to-pal-tv-problem-mac-os-x/8146/4 "2003-01-23T17:37:00Z")

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> Message: 1
> 
> > What is the problem? A few weekends ago I used my Radeon PCI to watch  
> > video on my TV using Mplayer, and had no problems. It was NTSC though.  
> > This doesn’t seem like a bug in SDL, rather a problem with your video  
> > card or driver (SDL doesn’t know/care about PAL or NTSC).
> 
> I have a Rage128 8MB (TiBook 500).
> 
> If I set the PAL TV as primary monitor, Mplayer refuses to launch any  
> movies  
> what so ever.
> 
> If I set the TV as “slave”, I can manually drag the movie over to the  
> TV and  
> the movies plays fine, but I can’t set it to be full screen.
> 
> If I set the LCD as primary, and play a movie full screen, and while  
> the  
> movie is playing changes the TV to be primary, Mplayer (I guess)  
> changes the  
> TV output to NTSC…
> 
> It works fine as long the as the TV output is set to NTSC, the problem  
> only  
> occurs when it is set to PAL (when is kinda frustrating when my TV is  
> PAL 🙂

You might try playing with the -monitoraspect and -screenw, -screenh  
options. Mplayer might be trying to use a resolution that PAL doesn’t  
support, so it fails rather than picking another resolution. When I was  
using it, I set the aspect to 1.5 to get it to use the 720x480 instead  
of 640x480 (in fullscreen mode).On Thursday, January 23, 2003, at 03:01 PM, sdl-request at [libsdl.org](http://libsdl.org) wrote:

> Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 18:08:47 +0100  
> Subject: Re: Subject: [SDL] Output to PAL TV problem (Mac OS X)  
> From: Franck Roussel Rasmussen   
> To:   
> Reply-To: sdl at [libsdl.org](http://libsdl.org)