From http://theducks.livejournal.com/492985.html

But back to the title. I hang out on a number of modding boards around the internet. The "Holy Grail" is people posting and expecting an easy answer about re-using the LCD out of their old laptop (see http://www.applefritter.com/holygrail ). The response is generally "blah blah needs a custom controllers blah blah too hard blah blah". To an extent, it's right. You do need a controller, and it's not that easy. But it's not as hard as they tend to make it out to be. There are two main types of signalling - TTL and LVDS. Newer stuff (last 8 years or so) is all LVDS. LVDS comes in four flavours - 8 bit 2 channel, 8 bit 1 channel, 6 bit 2 channel and 6 bit 1 channel. The more bits/channels, the more data can be thrown at the LCD. Then the hard part is getting a cable. If you check the right datasheets, you may find that panels/controllers can be swapped around pretty easily.

The products: http://www.aitendo.co.jp/product/395 (LVDS and TTL) and http://www.aitendo.co.jp/product/797 (LVDS and TTL - no DVI/Sound) - with these two products (maybe a few adaptors too), and a bit of time and skills, you could almost certainly get any LCD shipped in a laptop or desktop in the last 10 years working. But look at the price, and the fact you'd need to ship them in from Japan. Is it /really/ worth it? I don't think so.

I'm personally waiting for 20 and 24 inch iMacs to start becoming obselete (mm 2012 maybe? :P) and see who is first to market with a kit to turn them into regular LCDs. Extra kudos for keeping the iSight working.