Need a new monitor (want HD quality and Widescreen) - Help!

The minimum HDTV resolution is 720p, but the new standard seems to be 1080i and 1080p.

720 = 1280 x 720
1080 = 1920 x 1080

i = interlaced
p = progress

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD movies will support all of the above mentioned resolutions. Any widescreen LCD monitor will play back 720p movies, however not all will correctly play back 1080i/p resolution movies.

22" LCDs maxes out at 1680 x 1050. That's lower than 1920 x 1080 for 1080i/p which means image quality will be degraded because the movie would need to be scaled down.

You will need to buy a 24" LCD monitor which has a native resolution of 1920 x 1200 and will be able to play back 1080i/p resolution movies without having to scale down the video.

All 24" LCD monitors used to be 8-bit panels of some sort whether the are P-MVA, S-PVA or S-IPS (or their derivatives). Basically they give great image quality, color accuracy, and viewing angles (amongst others), but they are relatively expensive. These monitors are typically at least $600 and have response times of 6ms. S-IPS are higher end panels, and LCD monitors usings these will start off near the $1000 mark.

Recently, 6-bit TN panels have started to invade the 24" LCD market. They are not as good as 8-bit panels but they start at about $500 and have 5ms response times.

There will be 20" LCD released later this year that will have 1920 x 1200 native resolution, but I don't know if they will use 6-bit or 8-bit panels.

All 22" LCD monitors use 6-bit TN panels.

Now it all boils down to how much you can spend and how much image quality you are willing to give up.

Less than $400 = 22" LCDs with response times as fast as 2ms.

Less than $600 = 6-bit 24" LCD with 5ms response time.

At least $600 = 8-bit 24" LCD with 6ms response time.

You may want to be more specific about what your budget is so that people may give more accurate suggestions. That being said, I just bought a 24" Dell a month ago and it is fantastic. I watch quite a lot of movies and HDTV on it and it is great.

Another note about HD resolutions, it is quite difficult to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at such a small screen size (less than 40" ). Also, HDTV usually comes in at 720p anyway so gettiing full 1080p isn't required by any means. However, if you are a videophile (or can't afford the higher resolutions) and want to minimize scaling it is a nice feature.