Selecting a screen

The most modern LCD monitors may have two or more HDMIs, or one HDMI and one DVI or DisplayPort—a much newer display standard). The Pi supports a single HDMI connection and a much more primitive composite video connection, neither of which can connect to VGA directly.

The Pi HDMI interface supports up to 1920 x 1200 pixels and provides the best possible desktop resolution. It may also support sound output over HDMI if the monitor includes speakers.

A composite video connection on the Pi can support up to 800 x 600 pixels depending on the monitor, most of which will typically only work at 640 x 480 pixels. However, a composite image could show some artifacts such as position errors or visible shading lines or bars. Composite monitors, ...

Get Raspberry Pi Essentials now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.