Anyone ever tried a 4:3 HDTV?

[Duster72]

I just noticed this Insignia TV at Best Buy:

Link

It's 4:3, but it displays up to 1080i.  This would be perfect for me, because I could run my Xbox/PS2/Gamecube over component video, and the XBox has several 720p titles.

My question is about passing video from the computer over component video or DVI.  I currently have an ATI Radeon 9550 and could buy a component video adapter.  Should I do that, or should I get a DVI-HDMI cable?  Would that work?  What resolution can I output to look the best on that monitor?


Any help would be appreciated.

[Hudson187]

Just incase you didnt know, 720p and 1080i will display in widescreen. I have a 40" Sony XBR 4:3 Tube tv and whenever I go into those 2 resolutions with my xb (or my 360) they go into widescreen mode. So, it will display 16:9 in a 4:3 display.

[mhermann]

So did you try it? How would a PC image display on this? Would this be a good PC monitor?

I am wondering if connecting a pc would force it to widescreen or not. May have to buy one to see. I think Bestbuy has a 30 day return policy.

[Hudson187]

I hooked my computer up for the hell of it to my tv via component. 480i dispalyed in full 4:3... while 720 and 1080 forced widescreen.

[Harry Potter]

If you pass it through the HDMI (Using a DVI to HDMI converter $$$), you'll get very close to native resolution (As native as you can get on a tube telly).

Through HDMI it shouldn't go widescreen but there should also be a setting on the TV itself to force all signals into 4:3

[Duster72]

Okay,

So I bought the TV (I know, it was a couple months ago that I asked this).  It's a Insignia NS-27HTV.  I had some extra home theater stuff laying around, so I used a DVI-HDMI cable and have the PC hooked up via HDMI.  It worked immediately, which made me happy.

Now on to the problems:

1) I have a really bad flicker.  I am thinking it has something to do with the refresh rate, I don't know.

a) I have the ATI set up for a flat panel display.  It reads the TV as a 800x600 1080i flat panel

b) I set it to 60Hz

c) It let me change the resolution once and I tried a high resolution, but the fonts were too small, so I cancelled it and now it won't let me change the resolution anymore


2) I have really bad overscan -- I can't see the start menu logo or anything in the system tray.  Is this a problem with the display or the video card???


I really need some good help here, guys.  If I can get Windows working correctly it seems like the rest wouldn't be too bad. 

The good news is that I'm running HDMI!  Pretty awesome, IMHO.

[Duster72]

I think the problem is that the ATI software is forcing me to run 720x480.  I have to enable stretching in order to get anything big enough to see.

So how do I get the stupid ATI software to allow me to chage the resolution of a FPD.....