30" Dell at non-native resolutions?

[Elokan]

I am planning to buy a 24" LCD (probably LG) for games, work, web, etc and a 32" television for some gaming, tv and movies. However, it seems that for more or less the same price, I can just get the 30" LCD which will serve me as both. The only problem, of course, is the insanely high native resolution. I have a 8800GTX which might handle a few games at that resolution, but for the most part, I can't rely on that.

My question: How does it look when playing games at a non-native resolution, stretched across the screen? How does it look when displaying a shitty 480i TV signal?

Should I get the 30" or go with the original 24 + 32 plan? Or maybe buy a 27" 1920X1200 monitor...

 

[Lack]

You can play on 1280x800 resolution (so any one pixel will be made from 2x2) on the 30".

The 24-27" sreens are just more versatile when it comes to screen resolutions and inputs.

 

[Godmachine]

The 30 inch Dell's are pretty bad with non-native resolutions since they lack a 1:1 pixel mapper to help deal with the distortion. If however , you have a decent Nvidia card then you can tell your card to act as a pixel mapper and it will allow you to get the same effect.

For anything like Xbox 360/PS3 or HDTV cable/sat you are sadly screwed since you only get 1280x800 (a non-native resolution) to use which wont make you happy. If you want to be able to handle all of those requirements you listed I would highly suggest a 37 inch Westy which has a native resolution of 1920x1200 and has a huge amount of inputs plus a great pixel mapper to handle any resolution.