Originally posted by S_D_J
I don't know how other TV's work, but I can tell you from my experience all LCDs will never be alike, not even the ones from the same manufacter
Mine is an LG. and it fares pretty well in all resolutions, even 480p (I'm not all that picky) what I did found out, messing with settings, you can fine tune it to your liking. Most of the times LCDs use propietary engines to sharpen, enhanced or sometimes mess up the incoming signal, turn it on/off or dial it up/down a bit until you find the kind of picture you like (color, brightness, edge enhancement and so on)
Sony uses it's Bravia engine, for what I hear they're not all alike, it depends on the model of your TV, those with XBR (series S, X...) are the best (better than most LCD), they're also the most expensive... while other budget-price SONY LCDs (like series M, L...) are not so good.
just mess with the picture settings until you find the proper one
I don't know how Optimum(Optimal) Resolutions works with SONY's TVs, but mine means the maximum (and Native) resolution the TV displays... and I think it should mean the same with all TV's
If your TV displays 1366x768 than that's your TV Native Resolution...
It has nothing to do with your HDMI Cable, remember the HDMI can carry bigger resolutions than 1080p.
I don't know how you were able to output 1366x768 via Component, that has never been an option with my XBOX, it had only become available when I used the HDMI with the XBOX.. (it also unlock 1080p on my XBOX)
don't worry about those 3/6 lines your missing... my tv for examples cuts off more than 6 lines in all diretions (up, down, left and right) with anything that's hook up to it... except via HDMI. but for what I understand its because of the picture enhancing engine my TV's got (though I haven't properly tried with other TV's).
When I switch it to DVI (HDMI for PC's) than I get all the missing lines, plus the native resolutions, but I CAN NOT change many of the picture settings as I used to, and I'm left with a dimmed down picture, not so vibrant colors and a bit too much brightness for my linking than what I desired...
strangely enough, my friend has a SONY BRAVIA TV (720p 32" M series) and whenever we play with his PS3, I noticed its picture settings are pretty much like mine trough DVI, the kind of dimmed down picture I don't like... I tried to mess up with the settings but there weren't that many and he didn't like me messing up with his TV
I have the L series since 26" comes in only that.
There's a "Wide" mode in my TV's "PC Settings" and that made up for the 3 missing verticals on the sides
(actually it was more like 4 on one side and 3 on the other
but that is probably wrong since it said 1360 not 1359) and lol @ your friend telling you to stop messing with his TV.