using LCD TV as monitor?

HI guys,

I have been in to my friends home he is using a LCD TV as his monitor a 42" to be exact. Will this display the same resolution as the normal thin LCD monitor?

42" LCDs can come in a variety of max, or 'native' resolutions. the info - 42" - doesnt tell you what resolutions it will support; could be anywhere from 1024 x 768 up to 1920 x 1080; you have to look at the specific user manual for the TV to see what resolutions it specifically supports ('tv's do not always support every resolution a 'monitor' would).

specific inputs are sometimes limited, too. for some LCDs, using a VGA cord will only allow up to ~ 1280 x 768. hdmi will allow up to 1920 x 1080 on current LCDs. again, the user manual will specify this.

regardless of if its a 'tv' or 'monitor', you should find out what the LCD's maximum resolution is - aka native resolution - and only use that one if you can. any resolution different than an LCD's max resolution will come out a bit blurry (amount of bluriness depends on how far away you get from the max resolution) due to scaling / interpolation.

also not sure about forhad's comments... color accuracy and resolution are independent of each other (you could have a display that yields accurate color but can only display ~720p, and also find a display that yields very inaccurate color but displays 1080p). LCDs are also in general notorious for poor color accuracy / reproduction, and some LCD 'tv's can outperform LCD 'monitors'. everything depends on the specific display / tv / monitor youre considering.

As ashantiqua stated, it's possible to have a high color quality LCD as well, biggest thing you want to keep an eye on is the bit depth which is rarely revealed on TV's. You can shortcut this by watching for openings in the demo display that show gradients, if you see a distorted transition of color you'll know you're working with 6-bit dithering, if the color is smoother you're likely working with 8-bit depth and I really doubt there would be many commercial tv's sporting 10-bit at this point.