T i m  wrote:
> Hence why I was wondering if it might be a 'good idea' to make it a
> default (and am not sure why it isn't in the first place. I mean, now
> many people use composite video (fir it to be the default)? I know it
> might be the lowest common denominator etc but ...

I think the issue is that the Pi can detect the presence of an HDMI cable,
but not composite video[1].  Hence:

HDMI cable detected: output on HDMI
else
output on composite video

means in practice you can plug in either before boot and it'll work without
any config.

If you default to HDMI you then have a chicken-and-egg problem because the
composite video user can't see anything to change the setting to that port.
(pulling the SD card and hacking config.txt on another machine isn't very
friendly to the novice user)

It is only in the case of post-boot HDMI connection that the default is
- unhelpful and you can change the hotplug setting for that since you can
boot with HDMI attached and then see to change the setting.

I don't know if the Pi can run both HDMI and composite at the same time, but
if so it would't be very useful - resolution would be limited to 640x480.
So practically you do have to select one.

Theo

[1] while some boards have it as a TRRS jack that might have a switch to
detect a plug, on others it's just a pin header.

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