Life is easy now.  A standard connector on the back of the computer takes the cable from the monitor.  The only variable is the memory dedicated to video (VRAM). The more you have, the better the resolution (the number of dots you can display on the screen) and the greater the number of colors that can be displayed (for a given monitor).  It's worth spending a little extra when buying a new system if it helps the appearance.  You will be looking at it every day. Fortunately, like all memory chips, VRAM has plunged in price.

Televisions may not be used comfortably as computer monitors. TVs have a relatively small number of horizontal display lines which are separated into two sets, odds and evens. One set is redrawn, then the other, which helps smooth screen motion. On a steady display, such as of an even green field, you will notice flicker at 30 cycles per second in North America and Asia (most counties, including Japan), who use the NTSC TV standard (also known as 'Never The Same Color'). Europe, Australasia, Africa, South America (most), the Middle East, India and China use PAL ('People Are Lavender'), which refreshes the screen 25 times a second. This flicker is uncomfortable over long periods looking at a static image. Computer monitors refresh the whole screen at rates of up to 75 times per second. You will notice a stroboscopic effect if you drag your mouse quickly across the screen, but there is no noticeable, tiring flicker.

The cheap, typical ancient office stand-alone monitor displayed 640x480 pixels (dots) on a 14" screen.  Over the last few years, as graphics and media have become more at home on computers, larger sizes have become the norm.  Even a 17" monitor displaying up to 1280x1024 pixels at millions of colors now costs under $200, with its flat-panel version perhaps $300.  And they can make a useful small TV if you wish, with a quality only limited by the source material, if you add a tuner to your computer.

The wildly successful iMac introduced an integrated screen once more, and a maximum resolution of 1024x768 pixels, which has since increased.  This resolution is fast becoming a standard minimum for multimedia.  Our site, www.stereosociety.com, is optimized for that resolution.

Flat panel displays fell rapidly in price, and displaced the conventional TV-type tube monitors in 2005. They take up much less desk space and can hang on the wall. Eventually, we may expect to watch TV and monitor computers on the same screen, but standardization discussions often stall due to standoffs between the TV and computer industries. These are complicated by the (painfully slow) progress towards HDTV (high-definition TV, with a wider screen more like the movies) and digital TV broadcasting.