We like to watch movies at night, so we have a 32" LCD in the bedroom. I bought a laptop a few years ago and found it a lot more convenient and, for us, user friendly because we could do more with it than a TV. In a TD, I'd be looking to a laptop or tablet although, with all the wifi-enabled TVs now, that advantage may be gone.
The TV is still going strong but the hard drive on the laptop eventually packed it in. The monitor was still fine so I figured I'd turn the screen into a stand alone monitor. The problem with doing that is that an LCD screen requires a few boards that are part of the motherboard. With the screen's part number, you can order those boards as a kit on eBay: mine were about $25 IIRC. There are obvious caveats to buying electronics from overseas - certifications, etc.
The electronic side of it took about an hour to do and has been up and running since March in its temporary plywood frame. I'm making a cedar strip housing for mine. The back is done but I'm stuck on how I want to do the face frame - waiting for that bolt of inspiration

What wasn't included in the kit was the power supply. I'm feeding it with a 12V 800mA wall wart right now. It gets pretty warm so, were I intending to use it on AC permanently, I'd look for something on the order of a 3A transformer. As it is, I plan to feed it with 12V from the trailer's battery so it's fine for now.

One of the things I'm trying to figure out about the face frame is how to make up the button panel. I'll use a thin piece of brass over a plastic insulator and a light tube for the bicolor LED but I'm not sure how best to incorporate it into the frame.

The control board for my panel has inputs for 12V in, HDMI and DVI, serial port in, and 2 channel audio in (DVI doesn't carry audio) and out. Because it's just a monitor for me, I don't use the audio. I'll split off the audio at whatever I'm using for a source device and send it to the car audio system that will also be installed. You can see I'm using the big DVI input plug because the only spare cable I had at the time was a DVI-HDMI adapter cable. In the trailer it'll be HDMI simply because it's easier to run the smaller HDMI plug (HDMI is easier to find now anyway).



I've been very happy with it and I'm pretty happy I didn't toss the laptop after it packed it in, despite that nagging voice in the back of my mind that tries to keep me from drowning in broken junk.
Yes, dear

The hardest part of the process was extracting the screen from its original housing. When you do - go slow and don't force it, many of the screws are hidden - it'll have a part number on it that's different from the laptop manufacturer: that's the info you need to order your new boards. I got mine on eBay - I won't post a link because they tend to expire, but here's a direct link to the seller's store that I used.