John,

Well, I don't have a widescreen PC monitor, so I don't know about the available adjustments, etc. My boss has one, though, and all his icons that should be square are oblong, and his "wallpaper" photo is similarly stetched out of proportion.

I understand exactly where you're coming from about using the additional monitor-space to keep more multiple windows open with less overlap. That's how I would like to use extra monitor area. Of course, if you allow every image, every window, to be stretched out disproportinally wide, you lose every advantage of extra space that you might have enjoyed. You just have a distorted image of the same layout you would have had with your old monitor.

But then, some people are just stupid.

Kat,

I don't think you'd mind the black "framing" once you realize that you can always get the largest image possible, and without distortion. You simply have to occasionally adjust your "format" setting, instead of leaving it set to "automatic." After a while, you shouldn't notice the unused portion of your screen.

And of course, for any program intended for widescreen viewing, whether broadcast in "letterbox" format or recorded on DVD or any such medium, you can make use of the entire area of your nice new big screen.

There is plenty of programming availble that correctly "fits" the widescreen shape, with much more to come in the near future. I'm not absolutely sure, but I believe that ALL HDTV transmission is in widescreen format. Certainly, most receivers (TV sets) equipped to receive HD signals come with a wide-format viewing screen.