I think i need to see these screens to understand these posts, I dont think you mean the picture is stretched out beyond the sides do you?
It's like this:
There are widescreen display modes available which display fine on a widescreen monitor (and would appear either letterboxed or squished on a 4:3 monitor). But the above are the two possibilities when a 4:3 display mode (like 800x600 or 1024x768) is displayed at 16:10.
how come 52inch plasma screens are ok, they really make the picture wider but console makers dont try and rememdy it by making skinny mode games
A standard 4:3 TV signal displayed on a widescreen TV is either going to be pillarboxed or stretched like the above. A widescreen TV signal will fill the widescreen TV screen correctly but will be letterboxed (have black bars at top and bottom) on a 4:3 TV screen. The same applies to console games: if it's an old title that only supports 4:3, it's either pillarboxed or stretched on a widescreen TV. But newer console games have both 4:3 and widescreen display modes available and so can use the appropriate one.