Home audio & video: HD Programming on a PC?

Read up on Home Theater PCs...

That's what these devices are designed to do. You *might* find something out there that can accomplish what you're asking today, but Windows apparently won't do this.

Windows Media Center Edition includes the ability to capture programming like a DVR, but HDTV can only be captured over-the-air so far. Presumably this may be possible in Vista, but I haven't read anything definitive yet and the real Vista is still on the horizon.

I wonder if a Linux-based computer or a Mac might be capable of doing this. I haven't pushed the issue far enogh to find out for myself, but the fundamental job of recording HDTV singals seems within the realm of technical possibility.

Assuming you can do the recording, outputting video to your plasma should be the relatively easier part. Check your plasma's manual if you're not sure how you can hook up a computer. Not all TVs are designed to accept PC input. If your plasma does take a PC input, then you're in the clear. If not, you might be able to fake it with a DVI connection provided your computer will output the right resolution & refresh rate. Even then, you'll probably run into the problem of overscan, which is where the TV trims the edge of he picture off so that the full screen displays a picture. There are utilities available to correct for this, but I don't remember what they're called. If you hit that point just google "overscan" and you'll probably start to find stuff.

Cheers!
Speleo.