Composite monitor

Video monitors are used for displaying computer output, closed-circuit television (e.g. security cameras) and other applications requiring a two-dimensional monochrome or colour image.

A composite monitor must have a two-dimensional approximately flat display device with circuitry to accept a composite signal with picture and synchronisation information, process it into monochrome chrominance and luminance, or the red, green, and blue of RGB, plus synchronisation pulses, and display it on a screen, which was predominantly a CRT until the 21st century, and then a thin panel using LCD or other technology.

Early computers, both commercial and amateur, mostly used teleprinters for output; simple home models might simply display an array of lights to be interpreted as binary information.

From the late 1970s stand-alone composite monitors came into use, including by the Apple II,[1] VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit computers, IBM PC with CGA card,[2] some IBM PC compatibles, Hewlett-Packard 200 series,[3] and other home and business computers of the 1980s.

During the same time period, home game consoles chose to stick with RF modulation since many people had color televisions without composite video inputs.

Absence of certain video inputs may require purchase of signal adapters to reuse electronics that are otherwise incompatible.