I'm no TV expert, I'd say maybe try a website for bestbuy or circuitcity and see if you can search for TV's with a price limit of $2500.
As for the monitor question, yes, as long as it supports VGA (which it should). The VGA adaptor kit comes with a VGA cable that has 2 audio jacks, a gender changer, and a little plug in that lets you plug both audio jacks into one socket. Kinda hard to describe, but like this
Audio Jacks go in here
V V
[] []
\ \/ /
\ /
[] <-goes in audio port
So, a monitor with built in speakers would be recommended, just for ease of use. Either that or have a separate speaker system.