7

I run the commands

/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -o<br>
/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -c "PAL 4:3"

and the screen changes from the default "no signal" screen to a black screen. This shows me that the Raspberry Pi is sending a signal but it is just a black screen. I am using a Raspberry Pi B+ running on raspbian. I am using the composite port. How can I fix this?

Ghanima
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Kyriazis
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3 Answers3

6

This seems to be a problem with the noob release - previous versions would default to the composite video if nothing was connected to the HDMI port.

To correct this do the following:

  1. Connect your keyboard and TV to the Pi.
  2. Insert your SD card.
  3. Power on the TV.
  4. Power up the Pi and hold down the SHIFT key, until the green LED stops flickering This will force the Pi into recovery mode).
  5. If the screen is still blank try pressing the 1, 2 3, 4 keys in succession (one of these will direct the output to the composite video port. You should now have the noobs menu on the screen.
  6. If you haven't already done so choose an OS to install, and reboot. You may need to repeat the above to get back to this menu and continue to the next step.

  7. Once you have an OS installed you will need to edit the config file (there is a link on the noobs menu) to select your TV type. Look for this line:

    #sdtv_mode=0

    remove the leading # and change the number at the end to one of the following:

    based on your TV type

    sdtv_mode=0 # Normal NTSC
    sdtv_mode=1 # Japanese version of NTSC – no pedestal
    sdtv_mode=2 # Normal PAL
    sdtv_mode=3 # Brazilian version of PAL – 525/60 rather than 625/50, different subcarrier

  8. Add the following line to the file:

    hdmi_ignore_hotplug=1

  9. Make sure that the following line

    hdmi_force_hotplug=1

    is commented out (has a # at the start of the line).

10.Press the TAB key.

  1. Click OK

  2. Then hit the ESC key and let the Pi reboot.

Reference and more details can be found here.

Steve Robillard
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4

Edit the config.txt file

The config.txt file is located in /boot directory.

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Go to following line, and place # at start, if already not there:

hdmi_force_hotplug=1

This will make the line like this: 

#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

Then save the file (Ctrl+o) and exit (Ctrl+x)

RPi - Edit config.txt file in by nano

Ghanima
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abcd567
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0

In case someone is stumbling across a just flickering screen [not blue(no signal), not black(consistent signal)]: Double check your connection!

Just found out that Raspberry decided to not stick to commercial 3.5mm 4pin standard. Thought I can use a regular 3.5mm 4pin cable (with composite video), but u can not.

They inverted GND and Video pin:

Sleeve - Composite video (NORMALLY THIS IS GND)
Ring 2 - Ground
Ring 1 - Audio-Right
Tip - Audio-Left

Check out the Schematics here.

n0sr3v
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