How do you connect an iPad to a television or projector to display photos or video? What are the video out differences between iPad models? What formats and resolutions does it support?

There are a number of ways to connect an iPad to a television or projector to display photos or video or give a presentation.

iPad to TV or Projector Adapter Options

As noted on page 131 of the original iPad User's Guide, the original iPad models -- the iPad (Wi-Fi) and iPad (Wi-Fi/3G/A-GPS) -- can be connected to a television or projector to display photo slideshows or video by using "the Apple Composite AV Cable, the Apple Component AV Cable, or the iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter."

The iPad 2 models -- the iPad 2 (Wi-Fi), iPad 2 (Wi-Fi/GSM/GPS), and iPad 2 (Wi-Fi/CDMA/GPS) -- and the current iPad 3rd Gen models -- the iPad 3rd Gen (Wi-Fi Only), iPad 3rd Gen (Wi-Fi/4G LTE AT&T/GPS), and iPad 3rd Gen (Wi-Fi/4G LTE Verizon/GPS) -- support the earlier adapters as well as an HDMI-equipped "Apple Digital AV Adapter." The Apple Digital AV Adapter is compatible with the original iPad models as well.

All iPad models support 480i and 576i via the composite adapter and 480p and 576p via the component adapter. The iPad 2 and iPad 3rd Gen models also support for up to 1080p video out via the VGA adapter or the new HDMI-equipped Apple Digital AV Adapter.

iPad Video Output Differences

The original iPad, iPad 2, and iPad 3rd Gen lines are capable of mirroring the internal display via VGA or HDMI although the capability of the original iPad is more limited compared to its successors.

The User Guide for the original iPad models states:

When the cable is connected to a TV or projector, an application that supports playing video to an external display will automatically use it when playing video. Of the built-in applications, Videos, Photos, and YouTube support external video display.

The iPad 2 and iPad 3rd Gen models, by contrast, support video mirroring of all applications and the operating system (just like on a Mac), which makes it much versatile for presentations.

This video, from the always excellent Insanely Great Mac, demonstrates the differences between video out on the original iPad and the iPad 2 in real-world use:

iPad Photo & Video Support

Every iPad model supports all photo formats that can be synchronized from iTunes -- JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG. The iPad models also support the following video formats:

H.264 video up to 720p [1080p for the iPad 3rd Gen], 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 [High Profile 4.1 for the iPad 3rd Gen] with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

It is hoped that this answer makes it easy for you to understand all of the options to connect your iPad to a television or projector as well as the capabilities of each.