Unfortunately the hardware in my Ultrabook is not powerful enough for its 1080p display. I need to buy a new TV anyway and found a very interesting Plasma model.

And this model only supports 1024x768 or HD ready in 16:9. But I thought that HD ready is 1280x720.

Could I play games on this TV with the resolution 1024x768 in 16:9 or do I have to use 1280x720?

I'm lost a bit. Are you saying that your Ultrabook comes with a screen at a native resolution of 1920x1080 but the GPU doesn't have the power to run games at that resolution? If so, then you can often lower the resolution of whatever game you're trying to play and the screen should adjust accordingly. It won't be quite as nice looking but this has gotten much better the last 5 years or so, so it isn't some huge penalty to play games at, say, 1280x720.

As for the TV, kinda hard to say without knowing what brand and model. And then you can likely find the manual online and look up the info for the resolutions it will support.

Don't get a plasma they suck... get an LCD tv or monitor

In most cases, using the native panel resolution of 1024x768 would make the game look squashed. You can use 1280x720 for the input signal, which is going to be scaled down to 1024x768 (and will look bad for different reasons for some types of games). Another issue is the slow response time of the setup. I would not recommend getting a TV like that for gaming in general.

Indeed. I learned that lesson years ago and it cost me $3k. Go LED or LCD.

Is this a joke?

Plasma is basically dead now. Various manufacturers have abandoned it already.

Thanks for the answers.

The processor is ULV i5 dualcare with HD4000 graphics. So I guess 1080p is not possible for some games I want to play.
Most LED TVs have 1080p displays so I would have the same problem.

This plasma TV got many good reviews but I dont understand why plasma screens have this strange resolution of 1024x768 even though they have a 16:9 ratio.

So if I understand it right I should not run in 1024x768 but also 1280x720 is also not good.

Arent there TVs with a native resolution of 1280x720 so I can avoid these problems?

Native 720p might be a little tougher to find but I'd look in the budget section of a local electronics store. A full 1080p screen shouldn't have any problem playing at 1280x720 since 720 technically IS HD, and should still look decent if it's a decent screen to begin with.

Not all of them do.

Edit: Alternative removed since it might not reliable.

As far as I've read Plasma is good if you can afford high-end but with more money your options are larger. Doing research is necessary either way.

DigitalVersus is a decent site who's reviewers are using professional equipment to test produts, quite insightful.

I'm using a 32" LG LED TV, a bit pricey but it does the job very well, though with this large panels 1080p while still razorsharp I can see individual pixels, so maybe go for even higher resolution.

I agree with not buy plasma, LED is as good and uses a lot less electricity.

Since I have a plasma TV with such a panel, let me just clear things up a little.

A 1024x768 input signal with an aspect ratio of 4:3 will look distorted on a 16:9 panel running at a native resolution of 1024x768. There will be no black bars at native resolution.

It is possible to generate a signal that corrects the aspect ratio, but most games (or indeed, operating systems) are not prepared for non-square pixels.

What you say makes sense. I removed the explanation I found.

I use a LCD for games/anime and using the vga input I use the maximum 1360x768 resolution and it looks dandy :D Bi natter how you dice it 1024x768 in widescreen is an ugly hack, stay away from such products and look for ones with 1280 or more vertical pixels.