Im running my gtx285 on my 1080P (whatever that means) lcd LGW2261V with native res 1920x1080.... Brilliant, perfect screen, however... when i got to play games at anything less than the native like 1280x1024 or something i get those terrible black bars on either side. I know this is cause of the aspect ration being different and its trying to preserve it to stop it from being stretched and blurry and what not but is there anyway around this?

Nvidia drivers have several options and the most appealing is to use the Nvidia scaling which is to fit the screen regardless of aspect ratio which is me perfect, but when i click the button it just defaults to using my own lcd's flat panel scaling. Apparantly its something to do with the drivers having no control over my screen or something. Does anyone have any clue what im talking about or anyway to get around it? i really wanna play my old games that take up the whole screen even if they look terrible.

thanks in advance! 

i tryed it with a gtx280  on a 42" toshiba tv 1080p and had to run games and desktop at 1880 x 1036 for them to fit on the screen

That's because your HDTV does overscan which is what any HDTV that doesn't have native PC resolution support or DVI or VGA inputs will do. The overscan is there because when Sony and other manufacturers 1st created the widescreen DVD specs/resolutions they encountered problems with image edge distortion. Their solution was to just not display anywhere from 5-7% or the image edge. The problem is when you output windows or games via component or HDMI they will try to use all of resolution for the desktop, which will result in 10-15% of the desktop edges or image being offscreen. Luckily both Nvidia and ATI graphics cards allow for overscan compensation.

Both of you should be able to get a 1280x720 resolution or an overscan compensated 720p resolution . I only run an overscan compensated (1136x664) 720p on my PC as my HDTV only does 1080i -1920x1080 @ 30 fps- and I really like to be above 30 frames for racing and flight sims. Besides my gaming rig is too wimpy in the specs department to handle such a high resolution.

Satain, since your able to get a perfectly displayed 1080p I'd recommend trying 1280x720 if you want a lower resolution. If you have a DVI or VGA input on your HDTV you should always use it as that allow for the native PC resolutions - there's no advantage of connecting via component or HDMI.

im not going back to the hdmi on p ill stick with a proper monitor . saves all the hastle then

Can't blame you, even a HDTV with DVI or VGA inputs usually won't match the image quality of an equivalent PC LCD. I have a lot of wireless gear for my gaming rig, so I've gotten to like sitting on my couch and gaming on a 34" display. Racing and flight sims are a bit of a challenge, but I built a decent gaming table to make it easier. I'd love to have an equivalent sized PC LCD, but if I was to spend the $ on one I'd never hear the end of it around my household.