All of these comments will come from an American perspective - I'm not quite sure how Japan factors into this. There's an analog HD signal that I know nothing about, and I'm not sure what the digital plans are over there. Having said that . . . .
I'd guess two differences between a "monitor" and a "television". 1) A governmental tax or subsidy on one side or the other for whatever reason. (For instance when I bought my current TV 16:9 aspect ratios tube sets were HORRENDOUSLY expensive because those tubes were only made in China and there was a huge tariff on them. A 30" direct view CRT cost about as much as my 65" rear projection set.) 2) the scaler and the native resolution.
Remember that all LCD's have a "native resolution" and anything else fed in will be scaled/converted/whatever to the native resolution. The monitor might have one good resolution (the native - say 1024 x 768) and a really shitty scaler - so 640x480 (NTSC) will look like crap. Perhaps the TV is expecting a wider range of inputs so has a better scaler? (That seems a little backward to me, but hey!) I'd suggest checking three aspect ratios before any purchase.
1) NTSC/480i/480p - Use a DVD for source material.
2) Your desktop resolution of choice. For 15" I'd guess either 1024 x 768 or 1600 x 1200 depending on eyesight. This will come from a PC.
3) 1080i - this is 16 x 9 of course and might be the most US-centric suggestion. I honestly don't know what Japan's analog is here. But the thought is to check the HD standard.
Lastly of course you want to consider inputs. The winner at the moment seems to be HDMI (make sure it also supports HDCP which is a software protocol - look here for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI). This connector is also compatible with DVI with a simple dongle so you're set for that connector as well. Firewire might be nice but it seems like HDMI is going to supplant Firewire pretty damn quickly.
Component and SVideo would also be bonus naturally. How bonus versus required is a matter for you to examine for your particular device set. Basically HDMI is likely to be what you want in the FUTCHAR (where you already live), but you probably want to connect your PSX and so forth.
And like I said - you may want to run all this by somebody who understands the Japanese TV situation. I'd stand by this information for US - but Japanese HD may require some other widget.
no subject
I'd guess two differences between a "monitor" and a "television". 1) A governmental tax or subsidy on one side or the other for whatever reason. (For instance when I bought my current TV 16:9 aspect ratios tube sets were HORRENDOUSLY expensive because those tubes were only made in China and there was a huge tariff on them. A 30" direct view CRT cost about as much as my 65" rear projection set.) 2) the scaler and the native resolution.
Remember that all LCD's have a "native resolution" and anything else fed in will be scaled/converted/whatever to the native resolution. The monitor might have one good resolution (the native - say 1024 x 768) and a really shitty scaler - so 640x480 (NTSC) will look like crap. Perhaps the TV is expecting a wider range of inputs so has a better scaler? (That seems a little backward to me, but hey!) I'd suggest checking three aspect ratios before any purchase.
1) NTSC/480i/480p - Use a DVD for source material.
2) Your desktop resolution of choice. For 15" I'd guess either 1024 x 768 or 1600 x 1200 depending on eyesight. This will come from a PC.
3) 1080i - this is 16 x 9 of course and might be the most US-centric suggestion. I honestly don't know what Japan's analog is here. But the thought is to check the HD standard.
Lastly of course you want to consider inputs. The winner at the moment seems to be HDMI (make sure it also supports HDCP which is a software protocol - look here for more info http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI). This connector is also compatible with DVI with a simple dongle so you're set for that connector as well. Firewire might be nice but it seems like HDMI is going to supplant Firewire pretty damn quickly.
Component and SVideo would also be bonus naturally. How bonus versus required is a matter for you to examine for your particular device set. Basically HDMI is likely to be what you want in the FUTCHAR (where you already live), but you probably want to connect your PSX and so forth.
And like I said - you may want to run all this by somebody who understands the Japanese TV situation. I'd stand by this information for US - but Japanese HD may require some other widget.