Hi-Def/Plasma Screen/Media Player 9 Question

[Thomas Holland]

I'm a neophyte to large screen high-definition video, so I'd appreciate any advice/thoughts on this:

I saw a terrific set-up at my local Gateway store... a giant plasma screen connected to a very fast PC running Microsoft's Media Player 9. They were playing a high-definition broadcast off satellite and it looked great. I asked the kid at the store if there was a way to record that broadcast on the PC in high def and he insisted it could be done using Media Player 9... although he couldn't figure out how to show me a demo.

I was very impressed by the Media Player's interface, so here are my questions:

1. Can you record a hi-def signal off satellite onto a PC's hard drive?
2. What type of connection would there be between the PC and the monitor?
3. If I used the new 60" Sony plasma screen as the heart of a system using Media Player 9, what would be your suggested components to go with it (ie. PC, video card, etc.)

Many thanks, Tom.

[Evan Chase]

While plasma displays are nice, I haven't joined the parade rooting for them.

At our local high-end video equipment store, their technicians tell me plasma still is only second-best to the high end CRTs and projection units. They noted that the HDTV signals they input to the plasma units are special demos, and when they switched over to standard satelite feed, the picture quality was not that great. On the other hand, they had an InFocus 7200 projector showing the HDTV live feed from a European sporting event, and the quality was much clearer than the plasma--and much larger picture too!

I'm sure the recording capability of HDTV will soon be here affordable for more people. The only limitation is the standard DVD scanning rate.