let me explain something to you real quick.

the contrast ratio is the worst way to rate a monitor.

Manufactures will test their screens and find the BRIGHTEST pixel and say ok that brightest pixel is 1000 and the lowest is 1, so its 1000:1....... its the contrast difference between white and black.
that means ONE pixel out of the MANY is a high number. its a marketing strategy to make a screen look better than what it is. the average screen is 400-500 to 1, meaning 400:1 or 500:1.. which means if you averaged out the pixel brightness they would fall between 400 and 500 :1

so remember when you see a screen that says 3000:1 it means the brightest pixel they found was 3000 on the scale of contrast/brightness.

so technically a monitor that has 10000:1 could actually have a lower AVERAGE contrast ratio than one with 800:1

 

In a way, it's sorta like basing the quality of a digital camera with megapixels? Even if a cheapo digital camera is 10 megapixels, it's still a piece of crap versus a quality camera with 8 megapixels?

 

^^well in a sense.

but when they say its 10MP the camera actually is 10MP. while this is more like.. guess what its 1000:1 contrast ratio.. but... you won't notice it.. but... big numbers are good so buy it! haha.

put an LCD tv with 1000:1 and another similar LCD tv with 800:1 and tell me if you see the difference, even in a dimly lit room (which is the only time you would ever really notice it if you could notice it)
remember the contrast ratio is the difference in brightness between the brightest white and the darkest black. so if you have 1000:1 the black is 1000 times darker than the brightest white.

its a marketing technique that works. at compusa many people come in and look at the tv's with the high contrast ratio and ignore the lower contrast ratio tv's because they think they are not as good.. its like when you buy a car and they say "26mpg street, 30,mpg freeway" those number are typically tested in unrealistic scenarios like a wind tunnel with no resistance to the car.. giving it the best numbers possible.. so you are expecting this great number but don't actually get it in the real world.. and most consumers don't realize that the MPG is not tested going up hills, sitting in traffic, wind, godzilla, bumps, and other forms of resistance. point of this being.. the manufactures want to tell you a number that you will think is really good, and the reality changes when you actually get it.. technically they are not lying to you as they have produced those numbers.

 

Why would you want 1080p on such a small set? Anything below 42" will not look different 720p or 1080p. I'd personally go with a quality brand since they are all competitively priced in the 26-32 size range.

 

Twice the pixels is twice the pixels. When you are taking about 1080i/p sources, it definitely makes a difference.