I'm just wondering why people get pro monitors. Sorry to ask a stupid question, but a buddy of mine has a jvc-sony-whatever 13" monitor that cost over $800... You pro guys know what I mean. It's basically a 13" tv in a beige metal case.

I'd ask my buddy, but I don't want to offend him.

Are the specs that much better then a normal tv? If so wouldn't you want to edit your video for more "normal" output?

I use a pretty nice flat-screen 14" that cost me around $300 which I thought was PLENTY for a small tv... and now you can get a 13" - 15" LCD for around $500... so I'm wondering why people get these relatively big, heavy 13" monitors for nearly a grand?

Please enlighten a fool on this matter.

Long time ago, a good reference monitor was a must...in the mean time TV's got transitorized, and later on got digital signal processing, better picture tubes (or LCD's)...Everithing got better calibrated and ageing dit not affect display parameters like it used to be long time ago...BUT , there are still some differences and options sometimes needed and not available on cons TV sets.
Pro monitors have calibrated (and garanteed) settings for brightness, saturation, bandwoidths, aperture corrections, H and V amplitudes(and "underscan'). Also other more specialize features like "blue only", "puls cross"... are often available and important for broadcastpeople. For prosumers, the advantage is only that you get a ref image if you want to visually evaluate some footage on its "build-in" characteristics, like color levels, visual noise effects, edge processing... For a "pleasing" image you can always adjust yr TV and that's it...no need for a pro monitor.

A pro monitor also has much higher resolution than consumer TVs, well, unless you get into HDTVs.

Matt
I have a 9" JVC and I love it.

The portables aren't very portable.
Don't have switchable aspect ratio or NTSC/PAL
Difficult to calibrate
No bluecheck
No Underscan
My monitor runs on 12 volt DC
Has herds of inputs, most small portables are composite only
Has a metal case and handle
All controls are easily accessable

and last (drum roll please)
I like to waste money, but you already knew that!

One of the most important features today, after you get over the blue-only and stabilized beam current features and ICE phosphors is the underscan feature.

Why?

Because underscan shows you the edge-to-edge image and that is important if your video will be displayed on a projector or almost any of the LCD displays. They don't normally have overscan so they display everything in the visual field.

I find I have to put a black 10 pixel frame around some video to avoid the funny colors and motion that sometimes are found around the edges.

I used to wonder why spend $$$ on a pro monitor too. Then I saw a friend's monitor in action - a 14" Sony - the picture detail and color accuracy are stunning. Having a good monitor keeps you in lvoe with the process in ways you can't imagine until you see the image for yourself.

Thanks guys, that was a very effective barrage of answers. Now I'm going to have to see if I can get some of that... such as underscan... in an LCD... once cash allows.

Alas Beas, I TOO suffer from the techno-piggery... If you read any of my rants on fluorescents then you'll see that I went absolutely nuts on home-made softlighting... then of course those needed stands and hardware... as well as tubes.

Thhhpppt!

I think there are some small LCD screen for on-camera use that
feature the full image (varizoom might have such things). But
I doubt you can trust the color information on those....