Hey guys. I'm brand new to the forum, in fact, this is my first post. I have a very novice question, and I'm sure it gets asked quite frequently. I am putting together a CCTV system, and was wondering why (if for any reason) it would be necessary to spend the extra money to purchase a "CCTV Monitor" rather than just going down to the electronics store, and buying a regular 13" TV? I'm sure someone knows a good reason why, but I have yet to figure it out.

Two reasons, Most good Monitors have a longer life as they are DESIGNED to run 24Hrs a day where a TV is not.. the second reason is that a Monitor usually has higher TV Lines so the resolution is better and lastly a Monitor correctly terminates a signal where not all TV's will.

Firstly... Secondly... Lastly...
That would be three reasons. Good thing we come to you for help with CCTV, not arithmetic :D Guess that's what you get for working on a Sunday

With 'low end' plastic cased monitors and T.V.'s, you can very occasionaly get problems with picture interference (either generated, or received), whereas higher spec. metal cased monitors are generally more stable, and in terms of quality brands, significantly more reliable.

Deponds the budget for the system.

On the "donut shop" style jobs we usally put in a 13" TV with built in VCR ($99) for backup and on the "real" jobs we put in CCTV monitors.

If the budget only calls for $75 cameras, a hi res monitor is hardly going to make that much of a difference.