[KenWittlief]

The image quality is a function of the compression ratio used. The 160 hours of video (or whatever they are claiming) is with the highest compression ratio, which will give you the lowest image quality.

There are several Mpeg players and recorders out now with 640x480 displays, that will record at 640 resolution with high image quality. The catch is a 90 minute movie will require 3 or 4 Gigs of HD space, so now your 30GB drive will only hold 8 or 10 movies, not 100

the direction the industry is taking with Mpeg video players is twords set-top boxes, like Tivo, that will record programs off the air, compress them to mpeg2 or mpeg4 format, and then you would transfer the content to your portable player, laptop, or desktop PC (wireless of course), and watch it when and where you want.

The two key factors are:

ease of recording and transfer (ie, fast and free $$$)

and image quality. 320x240 images recorded with a high compression ratio, the first time you see them you think "wow this is cool, Im watching a movie on this tiny little gadget". But after a couple movies you start to think "wow, this image quality is terrible".

To put Mpeg compression quality into perspective, DVDs are recorded in high quality Mpeg2 format. The image quality is excellent. Thats the level portable Mpeg players are striving for.

BTW, if you connect one of these players to your TV, with a low quality (high compression) 320 x 240 video, it will look like regular TV with a lousy antenna. Image quality definately shows on the TV monitor. The baseline resolution of a standard TV is approximately 640x480.