Thinking about replacing my Dell/Trinitron 19" CRT with a flat panel monitor, and have a couple of issues I'm trying to noodle out. My understanding is that for best results, any gaming titles should be run at the native resolution. That being the case, based on a review of the supported resolution in the handful of games that I have, a native resolution of 1600X1200 or 1280X1024 seem to be my best options, as those are the "lowest common denominators" between those games and the supported resolutions of my video card (X800XT). I'd hoped to spring for a widescreen, but based on the supported resolutions, that does not seem like a viable option.

I also have a question about DVD playback (WinDVD). I have some titles that are 4:3 and some that are widescreen. My assumption is that the 4:3 titles would display normally on a 4:3 monitor and that widescreen titles would display "widescreen", centered on the monitor, with blank, black "space" at top and bottom, w/o distortion. I don't see an adjustment for resolution in WinDVD so assume that it would handle the display as described above.

I'd appreciate any feedback/advice on the foregoing, as I'm still somewhat in the dark about some of these flat panel issues and want to be sure I have a full understanding of the technology before making a purchase decision.

TIA...

Ed