Dell 2300MP projector and Display Aspect Question

Question

I am thinking about purchasing a dell 2300mp projector. I have used one before and I know it supports both 4:3 and 16:9 aspects. My decision is trying to figure out the best possible screen for this model. I was thinking of buying a 16:9 screen and just running everything through this projector at 16:9. How does 4:3 get displayed in 16:9 mode? Does it just squish everything or does it try to only stretch the left and right side of the images like many TVs do?

This setup will be primarily for home theatre use, but I will like to watch some TV on it from time to time. So I would be nice to display a 4:3 without too much distortion. I know I could get a 4:3 screen and just flip it over to 16:9 during movies, but I really would like to use the 16:9 screen. It just looks nicer and I would mostly use it in that format anyways. What did everyone else do? TIA.

sonisame · Answer

If you are primarily going to watch HDTV on 16:9 consider one of the projectors which have 1280x720 (i.e 16:9) native resolution. This one is 1024x768 (i.e 4:3). Any HDTV material or 16:9 will be scaled down to fit native display on this proj.Check out projectorpeople.com or avs forums for detail articles about aspect ratios to see how many pixels you will loose if you display 16:9 image on a native 4:3 display.The regualr tv on 16:9 mode will look square with blacks bar on right and left. For normal pc/gaming use this one is a great projector

Sonisame