Mac Laptop to External Monitor/TV

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[chilese]

My wonderful daughter has moved on to the LA area.

She is setting up there and asked her dad to pick out
the best monitor for her to use as both an external
monitor and TV/DVD player.

I am hoping one of you IT types will have a few
good suggestions about what to buy, including
all the silly connection wire doohickeys.

Can she use HDMI?
Do you need to know what Mac laptop she has?
(I think it's about a 2 year old Macbook Pro)

Help me to keep her thinking her dad knows
everything, please.. 

http://www.frankenfactory.com/aboutfrankenfactory/index.html

And for you uber-detail freaks...
Yes, that is an original 1984 Star Rider Video Game T-shirt she is wearing.

[Ca Ike]

Hey John. She can pretty much use any flat screen monitor out there as an external.  THe one I have now I like even though its a samsung (i have had really bad luck with samsung products lately).  Samsung Syncmaster SA550 27 inch LED monitor.  IT has both VGA and HDMI inputs so for her to use it on her Mac she will need and ADC to VGA adapter or an ADC to HDMI cable.  THe nice thing about the LED monitors is you don't have to worry about dropped pixels, they tend to have truer color than LCD, better contrast/brightness range and a lot better  viewing angle range without shadowing out (getting darker the greater the angle you view at).

If she really wants to go big she can get a regular flat screen tv and just hook up to the HDMI port with the proper cable and then the budget is the limit.  The only other thing she might need is a dock for the laptop depending on which mac book model she has, but if hers has the external dual link dvi port  then its just a simple cable or adapter thats needed.  I would recommend looking into the HDMI option though since it takes a lot of load off the graphics card and uses the monitors converter to process the picture which can save the lap top a lot of stress.

Here's a tech review using the 23 inch syncmaster on a mac book pro for you to peruse.  GIves you a good review of the monitor itself as well as how to hook it up to her mac book. http://techshift.net/samsung-syncmaster-sa550-full-review-and-final-impressions/

[mikenchico]

Can't help with specific rec's since i haven't been in the market for one lately but ...

Like Anthony pointed outt, do look at the TV option. Some companies do use the same panel in their monitor and TV's. And just like cashews (roasted/salted are cheaper then raw) when they leave stuff out the price goes up. Getting the TV tuner and another dozen input/output options is a bonus. You might even find a TV with wireless and Netflix streaming cheaper then a stand alone monitor these days.