X/Config/SVideo - Ubuntu Wiki

Setting up S-Video

Most drivers aren't able to correctly detect when stuff is attached to the S-Video port, so to avoid problems it's shipped off by default for most cases. There's several ways to enable it:

Option A. Turn load detection back on:

xrandr --output S-video --set load_detection 1

Option B. To turn load detection back on permanently so it persists between reboots, add this to your xorg.conf:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
        ...
        Option "TVDACLoadDetect" "TRUE"
EndSection

Option C. Force S-Video on:

xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600

Fixing Video Playback with Desktop Effects

If you find that corruption displays in video playback when moving the video player with desktop effects are enabled, you may find better behavior by disabiling video overlay in your video player.

For gstreamer-based players such as totem, run gstreamer-properties, then on the Video tab set the video output to "X Window System (No Xv)"
For mplayer, add this line to ~/.mplayer/config (and/or ~/.mplayer/mplayerplug-in.conf):

    vo=x11

For xine, go to the settings menu, set your configuration experience level to "Advanced", then go to the video tab and change "video driver to use" to "xshm" for x11 / xshm output or "openGL" for OpenGL output.
- Alternatively, you can use these console commands.
  - For x11 / xshm output:

    perl -pi -e 's|#video.driver:auto|video.driver:xshm|' ~/.xine/config

For OpenGL output:

    perl -pi -e 's|#video.driver:auto|video.driver:openGL|' ~/.xine/config

For Kaffeine, go to the settings menu, select "Xine backend configuration" and in the video tab change the driver to "xshm" for x11 / xshm output or "openGL" for OpenGL output.
For Totem in Xine mode, run one of the following commands:
- For x11 / xshm output:

    perl -pi -e 's|#video.driver:auto|video.driver:xshm|' ~/.gnome2/totem_config

Or this command for OpenGL output:

perl -pi -e 's|#video.driver:auto|video.driver:openGL|' ~/.gnome2/totem_config

For x11 / xshm output in KMplayer, go to Settings -> Configure KMplayer. Then in the "General Options" section go to the Output tab. In this section change Video Driver to "X11Shm".