Mac, PC and my Plasma TV

I'm not really sure if anyone here would have any input on this question, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

I want to use my Macbook or my Dell PC to play HD content over my plasma. I have an LG 42" Plasma TV. The resolution on the TV is 1024x768, which is a 4:3 aspect ratio. I have read around and I know that the pixels on the TV are not square, which is supposed to make up for the difference, but I have found this is not true. I have connected my laptop and my PC to my TV using VGA and ran 1024x768 resolution to it. However the picture is indeed stretched and distorted. What can I do to fix this problem? I have tried custom resolutions but my TV will not accept them. I seem to be stuck.. anyone know what to do?

Are you sure the TV is 1024X768? If it is a High Def TV the normal res is 1280x720. Does your TV have a DVI or HDMI input. My 30 " CRT 1080i TV has HDMI and I plug my imac in and it automatically sends the correct res out 1920X1080i I use a DVI to HDMI converter.

This works really well for frontrow.

no, the resolution of the TV is definately 1024x768. Plasma pixels are wider than LCD pixels, which is supposed to make up for the difference. However my picture is still distorted, while it looks great with OTA HD or other HD sources.

plasma pixels are not wider. all pixels are the same size, and the correct resolution is 1920x720. hence you get a 720p resolution.

Actually, the 720p resolution is 1280x720p. It is indeed true that plasma pixels are wider than they are tall, which makes 1024x768 a 16:9 resolution on a plasma TV. When given a 720p signal, the TV automatically scales it to the resolution it supports. Although about 20% of the horizontal resolution is lost, the picture is still displayed correctly, not distorted. However a PC or Mac connected via the VGA input does not scale correctly.. it displays a 1024x768 picture that looks distorted since it is designed to be displayed on a LCD or CRT monitor, not a Plasma.

the pixels are the same, or else the picture would be very distorted while watching hd programming. it wouldn't make any sense if they were wider, just thinkn about it. all widescreen tv's would have to have the same size pixels or else the picture would not look right. and DLP is the way to go for a hdtv