Digital Visual Interface in the context of Plug and Display

A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls.

The display in modern monitors is typically an LCD with LED backlight, having by the 2010s replaced CCFL backlit LCDs. Before the mid-2000s, most monitors used a cathode-ray tube (CRT) as the image output technology. A monitor is typically connected to its host computer via DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-C, DVI, or VGA. Monitors sometimes use other proprietary connectors and signals to connect to a computer, which is less common.

Digital video is an electronic representation of moving visual images (video) in the form of encoded digital data. This is in contrast to analog video, which represents moving visual images in the form of analog signals. Digital video comprises a series of digital images displayed in rapid succession, usually at 24, 25, 30, or 60 frames per second. Digital video has many advantages, such as easy copying, multicasting, sharing and storage.

Digital video was first introduced commercially in 1986 with the Sony D1 format, which recorded an uncompressed standard-definition component video signal in digital form. In addition to uncompressed formats, popular compressed digital video formats today include MPEG-2, H.264 and AV1. Modern interconnect standards used for playback of digital video include HDMI, DisplayPort, Digital Visual Interface (DVI) and serial digital interface (SDI).

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a brand of proprietary digital interface used to transmit high-quality video and audio signals between devices. It is commonly used to connect devices such as televisions, computer monitors, projectors, gaming consoles, and personal computers. HDMI supports uncompressed video and either compressed or uncompressed digital audio, allowing a single cable to carry both signals.

Introduced in 2003, HDMI largely replaced older analog video standards such as composite video, S-Video, and VGA in consumer electronics. It was developed based on the CEA-861 standard, which was also used with the earlier Digital Visual Interface (DVI). HDMI is electrically compatible with DVI video signals, and adapters allow interoperability between the two without signal conversion or loss of quality. Adapters and active converters are also available for connecting HDMI to other video interfaces, including the older analog formats, as well as digital formats such as DisplayPort.

The Digital Display Working Group (DDWG) was a technological consortium whose purpose was to define and maintain the Digital Visual Interface standard, which was formed in 1998. It was organized by Intel, Silicon Image, Compaq, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, and NEC. The best-known published specification is the DVI standard.

The VESA Digital Flat Panel (DFP) interface standard specifies a video connector and digital TMDS signaling for flat-panel displays. It features 20 pins and uses the PanelLink protocol; the standard is based on the preceding VESA Plug and Display (P&D) standard, ratified in 1997. Unlike the later, electrically-compatible Digital Visual Interface (DVI, 1999), DFP never achieved widespread implementation.

Video in video out (usually seen as the acronym VIVO), commonly pronounced (/ˈvi.voʊ/ VEE-voh), is a graphics port which enables some video cards to have bidirectional (input and output) analog video transfer through a mini-DIN connector, usually of the 9-pin variety, and a specialised splitter cable (which can sometimes also transfer analog audio).

VIVO was found on high-end ATI and NVIDIA computer video cards, sometimes labeled "TV OUT". VIVO on these graphics cards typically supports composite, component, and S-Video as outputs, and composite and S-Video as inputs. Many other video cards only support component and/or S-Video outputs to complement VGA or DVI, typically using a component breakout cable and an S-Video cable. While component-out operation supports high-definition resolutions, it does not support the HDCP standard which would be required for official HDTV support as set out by the EICTA.