What we're watching tonight:

• CBS (1080i) has Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at 8 p.m. followed by Grammy Nomination Countdown at 9 p.m. and The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show at 10 p.m.
• ABC (720p) lines up Pushing Daisies at 8 p.m. followed by Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money
• NBC (1080i) presents Christmas in Rockefeller Center at 8 p.m., followed by Life at 9 p.m. and Law & Order at 10 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) has Time Warp at 8 & 8:30 p.m., along with Protoype This at 10 p.m.
• MyNetworkTV (720p) presents Eyes on Kenya at 8 p.m.
• DirecTV (1080i) has Friday Night Lights at 9 p.m.
• Showtime (1080i) has Inside the NFL at 9 p.m.
• Versus (1080i) has the season premiere of The Contender at 10 p.m.
• TBS (1080i) brings the season premiere of House of Payne at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
• Sci Fi (1080i) drops in Ghost Hunters at 9 p.m. and Estate of Panic at 10 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Indiana/Wake Forest college basketball at 7:15 p.m. and North Carolina/Michigan State at 9:15 p.m.

Wide Open West delivered three high-def stations to its markets in September, and now it's about to followup with three more in December. Effective December 18th, WOW! subscribers in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Evansville will be treated to ESPN2 HD, ABC Family HD and Disney HD, and NFL Network will be relocating from the HD Pak to the HD lineup on Digital Basic Cable. Let's just call it an early present, shall we?

[Thanks, Wes and David]

Okay, so Denon wares aren't exactly "cheap," but you can't knock it for trying to innovate. Despite that fact that about eight people on this Earth still care about their beloved SACD / DVD-Audio collections, Denon has developed a Blu-ray player specifically for them. The DVD-A1UD is hailed as the world's first universal BD deck, and it features a black (shown after the break) or silver motif, SD / SDHC card slot, DivX support, HDMI 1.3, 1080p60 / 1080p24 output, internal decoding of DTS-HD Master Audio / Dolby TrueHD, 7.1-channel analog outputs, Denon LINK and all sorts of sophisticated pixel / audio restoration technologies. Better still, users who buy in can look forward to a Profile 2.0 update in the near future. Not surprisingly, the decked-out player will ship in Japan next month for a patently astounding ¥546,000 ($5,860), so you'll probably be stuck dreaming about it unless your ship rolls in.

[Via Impress]

Ah, is it that time of year again already? Seems like just yesterday that we were kicking back in our sofa, wondering how the New Year would treat HD DVD and sipping a hot cocoa while enjoying the faux warmth of an HD Yule Log. This year, iN DEMAND's high-def version of the famed Christmas classic will be coming to HD VOD systems on Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. In addition, iN DEMAND has created two other holiday offerings for viewers to enjoy in Winter Green and Snowman, both of which were filmed with HD cameras and are to be presented in 1080i with 5.1-channel audio. The fun begins nationwide on December 8th; full release is after the break.

[Image courtesy of ByrdHouse]

Nearly half a year ago, Pittsburgh residents were cheering as Comcast ushered in a new slate of high-definition options. Now, it's time for yet another round of golf claps, as the carrier has just added in SPEED HD (219), Fox News HD (202) and FX HD (199) while replacing the now-defunct MOJO HD with Fox Sports Pittsburgh (226). And hey Comcast, tipster Steve says you should seriously consider adding ESPNU HD soon (and we're in agreement).

[Thanks, Steve]

We've seen a couple of Panasonic's plasmas reviewed in recent months, but the 50-inch TH-50PZ85OU has somehow eluded us thus far. The cats over at E-Gear just got ahold of this very unit and spent the bulk of its time testing things out over the Thanksgiving holiday. Right from the top, the HDTV was praised for its image quality, with critics noting that it "soared above most of the competition, both in feature offerings and in performance." Blacks were black, Blu-ray Discs were stunning and the colors were vivid. Sure, the bundled remote left a bit to be desired, but it's not like you don't have a universal remote to handle that "on / off stuff" anyway, right? We must say, we're a bit shocked that a Panny PDP was regarded this highly, but it's good to see the current king bringing out the best in all of the rivals.

DirecTV's taking a break from its usual HD rollout escapades to focus specifically on PBS. Millions of subscribers will now be able to enjoy Public Broadcasting Service content in glistening high-definition, with 14 markets going live today and more planned before the year's end. As of now, customers in Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City-Dubuque, Iowa; Chicago; Davenport, Iowa-Rock Island-Moline, Ill.; Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, Norfolk-Newport News, Va.; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Rochester, N.Y.; and Waco-Temple-Bryan, Texas have access, and the rest of ya will just have to wait.

We know, this whole "digital age" is quite confusing, but what you're looking at above is one of the first Digital Transport Adapters (a Pace DC50X) doled out by Comcast. First and foremost, this box has nothing to do with the impending analog shutoff of broadcast networks in February of next year; instead, Comcast (like many other programming providers) is choosing to push many markets to "all digital" in order to free up bandwidth currently hogged by analog stations. Enter the DTA, which is being used to allow older TVs to still receive channels without the need for a pricey HD DVR. Even the unboxer notes that it's pretty unimpressive, but check the gallery in the read link if you're so inclined.

[Thanks, cypherstream]

So, you're one of those "build your own multi-channel surround system" folks, are you? If so, we'll bet you're a lot like Jeff (and you didn't even know it).

"I'm in the process of assembling a 5.1 system for my den, but I'm really concerned about making the right decision on a subwoofer. I'm putting a cap of $500 on it, but I want the most boom (and tightest boom) for my buck. I haven't purchased my towers or surrounds yet, so I'm open to any brand / model / etc."

Ah, starting with the low-end, are we? Probably not a bad place to begin, quite honestly, and we're hoping that you readers can chime in with a few recommendations for this here bass lover. Rumble away in comments below.

Man, we're beginning to sound like a broken record when referring to BD-P1500 firmware updates. Back in June, we were miffed when a Profile 2.0-less update hit; if you'll recall, it was months later before BD-Live capabilities were added. Today, we've seen the deck's more flamboyant siblings receive updates that bring along the highly anticipated HD Netflix stream, yet the corresponding v2.1 BD-P1500 upgrade offers only "improved playback compatibility of some movie titles." 'Course, we never heard specifically that said feature was destined for this player, but wouldn't it be nice? Yes, yes it would.

Back from Thanksgiving, and Netflix's addition of certain Samsung and LG Blu-ray players to the Watch Instantly HD party shows it hasn't slowed down its HD rollout. This makes us wonder where Blockbuster's own offering fits between Netflix and VUDU -- three may be a crowd in this case. Speaking of VUDU, they're back again; this time with capabilities that just manage to lift the device from its "one trick pony" pigeonhole. We talk a bit about Blu-ray disc pricing, which leads us to the natural topic of whether we see The Dark Knight as a must-buy. ESPN's purchase of the BCS starting in 2011 gets us talking about whether they'd really want to lose the OTA-only eyeballs. We also find time to shoot off on the BCS tangent, of course. This week's MOTO award goes to the study that concludes that pay-TV should keep an eye on digital downloads coming up in the rearview mirror. We wrap up with news of full screen Flash support on the PS3, SageTV's new HD200 media streamer and a long response to a short listener question about getting HD streamed wirelessly from a computer to a TV.


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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh and Steve Kim

Producer: Trent Wolbe

Program
01:03 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 113 - 11.26.2008
04:21 - HD Netflix streaming coming to Samsung's BD-P2500 / BD-P2550 Blu-ray players
06:05 - LG's BD300 next in line for HD Netflix streaming
07:10 - Blockbuster CEO talks up 2Wire MediaPoint, says rentals coming to BD decks in Q1 2009
11:23 - VUDU rolls out YouTube, Flickr, Picasa and games
14:28 - Hey Hollywood, how about some Blu-ray Disc price cuts?
19:09 - The Dark Knight Blu-ray Disc review roundup
20:49 - ESPN snaps up BCS rights starting in 2011, antenna viewers SOL?
27:52 - Survey finds over half of football fans would take an HDTV over vacation
27:52 - Report asserts that pay-TV should watch out for digital downloads
31:23 - Full screen Flash-enabling v2.53 PS3 firmware available now
35:01 - SageTV launches HD Theater (HD200) media streamer


LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)
LISTEN (OGG)

Apparently through with its legal issues, Tzero's decided now is the time to show its second generation UWB-based wireless HDMI technology. ZeroWire 2.0 is sending out 1080p (24/56/30/60fps) video with 16ms or less "sub-frame latency" suitable for lag-free high definition gaming, 7.1 audio support, and 480Mbps transfer rate with ranges of greater than 20 meters. The most important number is a $50 per unit price, with all that wireless magic performed via UltraMIMO signal technology and h.264 compression (replacing the old JPEG2000 system seen in Hitachi's Wooo HDTVs and Gefen wireless extenders) in the TZC7200 chipset. Impress Watch caught one of the demos currently going on in Japan and were told this is well below the price of other technologies like Wireless HD and WHDI, while enjoying wirelessly connected gaming on conveniently located PlayStation 3 consoles. With the previous generation's external antennas also getting the ax, we'll see if a leaner, cheaper technology can stand up to the competition (and convince us there's a reason to play Rock Band from way across the room) next year.

[Via Tzero]

Not that we haven't seen websites hacked in good fun before, but this is downright disturbing. Just hours after getting word that the many faces of Tweeter were all fading away into the sunset (to put it nicely), an apparently disgruntled employee has showcased his / her 1337 hax0r skills by totally transforming Tweeter.com's main page. Let's just say it's less than becoming (and the block censor is ours), but the full screen grab is down below if you care to indulge. Hey, if you're going to burn a bridge, you might as well leave it in ruins, right?

[Thanks, Jason]

Update: Fun while it lasted! Now surfing over to Tweeter.com takes you to... nowhere. Check a cached page in the gallery below for a long lasting memory.

The day before Thanksgiving seems so far away now, doesn't it? For those that can think back pre-feast, Samsung promised that a firmware update was on the way in order to bring HD Netflix streaming to its BD-P2500 / BD-P2550 Blu-ray players. Exactly one week later, it's here. Officially, the firmware v2.1 adds support for "Netflix VC1-AP HD Streaming" and "improves playback compatibility of some movie titles." We needn't tell you how urgent it is you download this and give it a try -- but be on the lookout for less-than-stellar image quality. Best of luck, brave ones.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Resolution+. Super Resolution Technology. Upscaling. Upconverting. You've heard it all, but what does it all really mean? Home Cinema Choice has taken the liberty of breaking down the art of upscaling to explain in-depth what's going on when pixels become slightly-more-detailed pixels. We'll leave the dirty work to the read link, but if you've been wondering just how good SD content could look (or if these upconverting technologies were simply sophisticated bottles of snake oil), you owe it to yourself to give this a look. As you could likely glean, the end-all statement is that upscaled material still can't match bona fide high-def, but it's still worth understanding the who's, what's and why's behind making your current DVD collection and SD shows look their best.