Is it possible to play games on an HDTV?

[Thasp]

I have been using my computer as a hi-fi source due to how much cheaper it is(no preamp required, just a quality soundcard), and as a TV. So I decided a few months ago, why not buy a TV for it.

 

I had to use a third party piece of software called powerstrip to set the resolution, since ATI's software doesn't allow me to adjust for overscan on a 1080p TV. I got about 1816x1014 or 1824x1020.. which is about right. All HDTVs overscan, so 5% is about right.

 

I play WC3 fine in 1280x1024, I miss the bottom four pixels, but there's nothing important there anyway.

 

I haven't gotten much into gaming after the disappointments on a) How I suck at BF2 B) How boring FEAR got after about 20 minutes, but WC3 is getting rather boring now... I don't have the best graphics card, it is an x800gto2 with 16 pipes.

 

Is it possible to play a videogame on an HDTV, 16:9? Or is 1680x1050 the only sort of new LCD that has become supported?

 

Are there any good demos out there for modern games that let me adjust video settings so I can experiment and see if it is possible? I'm admittedly clueless when it comes to the PC gaming world.

 

The alternative is a 9 year old 17" Dell Trinitron that only gets used for looking in the BIOS/for GUIless computer.. I would rather not use this for anything but text.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Smoken Joe]

Errr the original FEAR demmo had tons of diffrent RES supported part of it is what your card reports. You can manually edit this either in the profile which some times doesnt seem to take or with most games you can edit the configuration file. usually with notepad, Ruight now it is almost a requirment to be able to edit and if you do a search for any one game you can find a 'How To'. Note the configuration files are often *.cfg or something like that. You should back up wile you are getting started though if it is a demo you can just reinstall.

 

left click open with and notepad. There are tons of people gaming at 1680x1050 right now. I am looking at getting a TV 1900 1080 for my computer when the prices next go down.

[mkw87]

I've play CS:S, BF2, etc on our 50" plasma several times. I have a DVI to HDMI cable that I use to hook it up. It looks freaking amazing, I love it

 

However, I haven't done it in a while because of the uncomfortable situation of sitting on the couch to game, and my gfx card is a 7600gt so such a large resolution cuts the frames a bit (CS:S was always fine on it though).