Output Devices

The process for the installation and configuration of certain output devices varies almost as widely as the number of models within a given category. Nevertheless, certain high-level steps must be taken with nearly each such device. The devices in the following sections are each covered in eye-opening detail elsewhere in this book; two of the three have chapters dedicated to them alone:

• Printers (Chapter 10, “Installing and Configuring Printers”)
• Speakers
• Display devices (Chapter 4)

The following sections introduce each of the device categories and any specific issues that exist with their installation and configuration without delving too deeply yet.

Printers

Often immediately behind your monitor in output-device importance, the one or more printers you have attached to your computer become invaluable when you need to produce a hard copy for distribution or for inclusion in a report, for instance. Chapter 10 will detail the various families of printer, such as impact, inkjet, and laser, as well as the details involved in their installation, including connectivity and driver installation. This chapter gives you copious information regarding the interfaces used today and throughout personal-computing history, such as parallel, serial, SCSI, USB, and FireWire.

Speakers

The various audio-related discussions in this chapter present concepts surrounding speakers and their connection to the computer or other device, such as surround-sound processors or A/V receivers. Your operating system’s audio controls have settings that can be manipulated, sometimes in very complex ways, to produce software configurations that derive the best performance from the speakers you have installed.

Display Devices

The next chapter presents a wide array of pertinent information on this subject. This chapter also contains considerable interface and cabling information on video display technology. As output devices, the connectivity of display devices can be fixed, with a single type of connection to a video source, or variable, sometimes supporting the connection of multiple sources through similar or different interfaces. In the latter case, input selection is generally a fairly simple process, most often accessible directly from the display device’s remote control. In the case of interfaces that have options, such as HDMI, a small amount of onscreen configuration might be in order. In most cases, however, configuration is Plug and Play in nature.