Do PC screen resolutions work differently on LCD displays? CRT hardware can change the number of lines of pixels, and does not intrinsically have a number of columns, at least at the last stages of the displaying process. Is it different for the new “flat panel” displays, for for laptops? Do they support different resolutions? Do things that worked on the older CRT type, display modes or DOS screens or the like, ever just not work on the LCD type?
Most LCD monitors and laptop displays can handle different resolutions by interpolating the signal. Some displays can’t resize images, and when you try to display at a lower resolution it will only use a small section of the display.
Of course the best results are obtained when you match the signal resolution with the intrinsic resolution of the LCD panel. Also if you use an analog signal, you need to calibrate the monitor so that pixels in the signal is aligned to pixels on the screen. Most monitors can do this automatically - you display a supplied calibration image (or any desktop or image with sufficient contrast and detail) and hit the “auto” button. With a digital interface (all laptops and many stand-alone LCD monitors) this isn’t an issue.