Tv preview advice?

[firehawk]

I have a rather dumb question.*
I have an nvidia quadro 4000 video card I'm using with windows vista 64 running adobe premiere cs5.
I have 1 computer monitor connected to it but I want to connect a tv also in order to see what the video looks like as I'm working on it..color, etc. My monitor is a 20 in apple cinema but it's not big enough and I find that finished videos don't end up matching up great with how the footage looks on the monitor. I'd like to get a better idea of what it is going to look like, or at least another, bigger idea so I can estimate between the monitor and tv when doing color work,

Does it need to be a 1080p tv if I work on both 720p and 1080 projects?
I don't know what would happen if trying to view 1080 signal/material on a 720 tv.

Sorry for the dumb question. I dont own an HD tv at all.

 

[Alex H.]

For truly critical monitoring, you need both a calibrated broadcast monitor and a calibrated video output from your NLE. In reality, there is a cheaper option that will get you remarkably close: the Matrox MXO2 Mini can send an HDMI signal out to a flat-panel HD TV or monitor, and offers color calibration to get the monitor as close to a broadcast monitor as possible.

And if you're working in both 720p and 1080p, you'd be best served by having a 1080p display.