Computer Monitor vs Plasma

I am going to assume by "high quality" you are referring to color saturation instead of clarity.

Generally speaking LCD monitors with matte finish screens have colors that are considered to be "flat" or "don't pop". That is the nature of matte finish an it is used in nearly all LCD monitors especially those that are geared towards professional graphics usage. Glossy finish will give that saturated look to colors, but it can throw off color accuracy. That's something you don't want in a professional graphics monitor. I prefer matte finishes on both my LCD monitors and LCD HDTV... I simply do not like reflections that you would be getting from a glossy screen.

Colors on a plasma screen are more saturated or vibrant compared to an LCD and it this way it is closer to being a CRT monitor/TV than an LCD would be.

I don't know what I'm referring to. All I know is the picture is way more sharp on the plasma. It almost looks cartoon like on the monitor.

The picture should look plenty sharp on the LCD. The colors may not be as nice, and the contrast may be worse as well, but if the sharpness is worse, then something is wrong.

with a resolution of 1920x1200 you will have black bars at the top and bottom of your screen. if you dont (and stretch the video to fit) you will notice distortion on 1080p content.

lcd technology does not have the contrast ratios that plasma technology does. however, lcd panels also typically last much longer hence the phase-out of plasma. this means that usually on a lcd "black" is more of a "dark grey" if using an even backlight or "panel color" if using zone backlighting found on some new lcd tvs. across the board the contrast is noticible between the two technologies.

as far as sharpness is concerned televisions may come with options you can change to "sharpen" an image. this alters the original content. perhaps you are comparing "original content" with this "altered-state content". if you want the image to be a little more crisp you can change settings on your computer to reflect this.

as stated by the others a glossy screen will make colors look more vibrant and in general make everything look nice, however, this reflectivity can make the screen hard to see in areas with direct lighting (sunlight for example). matte screens are much easier to see even in brightly lit areas. however, they don't have the "vivid" nature to the colors that glossy screens do.

What are the settings I would need to change to make the image more crisp?

i know its under nvidia control panel for all nvidia products... i'm not sure where it will be for ati but most likely in a similar place.

the items are labeled in a way that you should be able to figure out what you want to change (also remember some of these also can be adjusted using your monitors face panel).

brightness, contrast, ...etc are of this sort

you might have "image sharpening" on your pc settings but i'm not sure if monitors have that built in.

just take a look around, play around with settings. remember you can always default if you dont like the changes.

Played with the settings on the monitor and in CCC. Don't make any difference. Picture just isn't vary sharp?

are you comparing them at the same time directly using the same video feed, image or gameplay?

on paper the monitor should be better. if it is not performing then maybe there is something wrong with the monitor or its just a bad model. you know you always have the option of returning it and getting something which you are happy with. testing products out before you buy them in a store is always a great idea before buying (online or otherwise).

I watched a downloaded movie (AVI). I then took the same movie and hooked my laptop up to my TV via a HDMI cable. The movie is noticeably sharper on the TV. Games web pages and text are perfect on the monitor however.