IN ENGLISH, How do I use an LCD tv as a computer monitor?

There are three basic ways to hook up a monitor to a computer. The old way is with VGA. These connectors are usually blue with 24 pins. The VGA connector has a lot of identical pins on it. A fairly modern way is with DVI. These connectors are usually white and have various pins with different shapes. The lasts way is with HDMI. That's the new standard for HD video and HD audio in the same cable. You laptop probably does not have HDMI. It probably does allow a VGA monitor to be attached, and it might allow DVI. Current HD TV/monitors allow ALL of these connections. Thus, check what kind of connector your laptop allows for an external monitor. Then make sure that the HD TV/monitor you buy has that kind of connector on the back. The TV should come with the cable you need. When you buy the new TV/monitor, make sure it supports Full HD rather than just HD. Full HD is 1080p (1080 lines of progressive scan) whereas HD is 720p or sometimes 1080i (720 lines of progressive scan or 1080 lines interlaced). Full HD TV/monotors are very reasonably priced and are much chaper than the huge Full HD screens being market as the new TV even though they are essentially the same technology.

just buy a hdmi cable and link the 2 together with the software that will come with your laptop. one end plugs into your tv and the other in your laptop,

Alright, I will be a freshman in college in the fall too, and am doing the same thing. Basically, you want to look for an LCD TV with a connection for a computer, that is called VGA, and would have something on the TV that looks like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/SVGA_port.jpg If you go with the Sony laptop, or any decent windows computer, it should have that port too, and you just need to buy a cord to connect them. Any best buy, fry's, radio shack, and etc can help you with this. If you buy the Mac, you would need a little converter to hook it up, which you can buy online or at an apple store. You would only need an HDMI cable if you wanted to hook your TV up to a Playstation 3, blu ray player, or something else to watch high definition. That TV is a very nice little TV for 400 dollars. Depending on what you want to do. If you just want to watch the occasional high definition movie, and mostly just watch TV and use it as a moniter, then that's fine. 720p is HD, but 1080p is of course a little better if you wanted to watch a lot of high def movies. Also, the TV says it's 60hz. This is the picture refresh rate. That should be fine unless you are watching James Bond type movies with lots of action, in which you might notice it every once in a while. If that doesn't matter to you then this TV is great, and you can't go wrong with a Sony. In terms of the laptop, I'm not sure your price range, but I would definitely go for the Macbook Pro, it's a great laptop that will last you all of college. While it's a little more expensive then others, it's well worth it. Hope this helped!

your LCD tv will come with a variety of ports (holes that cables plug into). To connect your laptop to your tv you will be able to use the following: VGA (the blue one) or possibly HDMI, the trapezium shaped one, (if your laptop has one) ports. your tv will definately have HDMI and possibly VGA ports. So now your thinking "What if my tv has HDMI only and my laptop has VGA only"? well you can get a cable which has the blue VGA at one end and the HDMI on the other. Plug them into to the appropriate ports, then turn the laptop on. It will auto detect the cable plugged in and output the image to the tv, and not use the laptop monitor. you can change this so it uses both screens later. You will need to set the resolution of the signal the laptop is sending to the TV to the one your TV likes best. this will most likely be 1360*768 or 1920*1080. look on the box of the tv it will say. this makes the picture alot clearer. If your laptop has VGA and HDMI, and your TV has VGA and HDMI, use the HDMI port. HDMI sends out a higher quality signal than VGA, and HDMI can also carry sound so your music will come out of your TV speakers as well as (or instead of) the rubbish laptop ones. I think you should get the Windows laptop for better compatibility with your colleges software. when it comes to submitting work online and you dont have ".docx" (MS word 2007) files, you will regret getting the Mac. also, the colleges intranet may only support Windows. I have no idea if there will be any problems connecting a Mac laptop to a TV. I image it will be just as easy or easier.