Educate a HD noob

[flxnimprtmscl]

My nerd game is sorely lacking in this area. I'm a semi-poor college student at the moment so I probably won't be upgrading any time soon but I'm just kind of curious. Any good sites that explain everything?

Here's my main question, though. From my insanely limited understanding, what differentiates a regular SD tv from an HDTV is resolution and contrast ratio. That being said, what's the difference in image quality of a 1080i (or 1080p) HDTV vs. a LCD computer monitor with a high contrast ratio and a native res of @ 1280 x 1024 or 1600 x 1200 for example?

This is so noobish I didn't think it really belonged in the HT forum Anyone want to fill me in here?

 

[ViRGE]

2 things:

1) Contrast ratio has nothing to do with HD, HD is solely about the resolution.

2) The difference in image quality is going to be that if you're going with a smaller screen like 1600x1200, it won't be large enough to display a full 1080 (1920x1080) stream at its native resolution. Basically the picture will be slightly less clear/defined, as compared to a monitor that does a full 1080 resolution with all other factors held the same.