We can't say for certain that Netflix is at fault here, but it's beginning to sound like Roku isn't at all / entirely to blame for recent quality issues that have been plaguing users. For weeks now, Roku Netflix Player owners have noticed an almost universal drop in quality dots (which range from 1 to 4 in order to show quality levels), with many finding the new feeds "unwatchable." CNET recently had a talk with Tim Twerdahl, vice president of consumer products at Roku, about the issue, and according to Tim, all he knows is that "Roku didn't make any changes." Furthermore, we've seen comments in our own posts noting that other Netflix-enabled boxes are also seeing the quality drop. The worst part is that there's still no definitive solution in sight, so we suppose our only advice is to kick back and watch Netflix and Roku bicker over who's really to blame.

[Image courtesy of AeonScope, thanks Tyler]

We're still not over Sony's trickeration -- which led us to believe the version 2.53 firmware update was hitting prior to the US Thanksgiving holiday -- but we're not ones to turn down a free update under any circumstances. As of now (as in, right now), Sony's PlayStation 3 can support full screen embedded Flash videos courtesy of the latest firmware, so there's really no excuse for you not firing up the System Update and sucking it down. Get to it!

[Via PS3 Fanboy, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Netgem and French retailer FNAC have jointly announced that they will deliver a hybrid set-top-box and a TV service in early December. The so-called Netbox will deliver triple-play services to up to 12 million homes in France, including TV programming that will include four HD channels from TF1, M6, France 2 and Arte. The box itself will go for €149.90 ($193), while the TV pack will cost €5.90 ($7.60) per month. Who says France is lagging behind in the HD realm?

Although we all still have to wait until next week to finally get our hands on what is almost sure to be the best selling Blu-ray title of all time, the first week of December has a lot to offer the HD movie fan. Universal takes a break from it's normal slate of catch up titles and has the arguably best offering of the week in the way of Wanted. But the best movie this week in our heart -- and many other based on the fact that it is the #1 movie of all time according to IMDB -- is The Shawshank Redemption from Warner. The ol' WB also has the popular Austin Powers Collection as well as the classic Casablanca and the comedy from Bam Margera. Fox has a day and date that many will be interested in with The X Files as well as a few holiday classics like Home Alone. Sony also has a day and date this week mixed in with a few catalog titles with Step Brothers which we're sure is as silly as it is funny.

• Wanted (Universal)
• Assault on Precinct 13 (Image)
• The Shawshank Redemption (Warner)
• Austin Powers Collection: Shagadelic Edition (Warner)
• Bam Margera Presents: Where the #$&% Is Santa? (Warner)
• Casablanca (Warner)
• Children of Men (101)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney)
• The Contract (First Look)
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (Fox)
• Home Alone (Fox)
• Jingle All the Way (Fox)
• The X Files (Fox)
• The X Files: I Want to Believe (Fox)
• Immortal (First Look)
• La Femme Nikita (Sony)
• The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Sony)
• Step Brothers (Sony)
• Stranger Than Fiction (Sony)
• The Longshots (Weinstein)

'Tis the season for giving / sharing, so we're glad to see Auntie Beeb in the festive spirit. Reportedly, BBC HD will be bestowing upon its viewers a whole slew of high-def content for the holiday season, including Shrek The Halls, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and The Chronicles Of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. Onlookers will also be treated to the long-awaited three-part horror story There Was a Crooked House and The 39 Steps, not to mention a handful of other movies you've certainly been waiting eons to see on broadcast TV. Way to step up the game, BBC -- now, how's about everyone else take a note and follow suit?

Believe it or not, this is far from the first we've heard of bringing high-def video to cellphones, and it's not even the first application to dabble in mobile 1080p. Still, we'll take all the innovation we can get in this space, and when the real Touch HD ever arrives, we'll be ready and waiting with Full HD capabilities. Announced at ISSCC 2009 in San Francisco, Renesas Technology is showing off an application processor that enables handsets to process 1,920 x 1,080 resolution video at 30 frames-per-second; the processor's core has a maximum operating frequency of 500MHz and supports MPEG-4 AVC / H.264, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video formats. There's no telling when the 6.4- x 6.5-millimeter chip will be available en masse, but we need the HTCs of the world to get us a 1080p phone and a retina implant or two to read 0.2-size fonts before it even matters.

What we're watching tonight:

• NBC (1080i) lines up Chuck at 8 p.m. followed by Heroes and My Own Worst Enemy
• CW (1080i) has Gossip Girl at 8 p.m. and Privileged at 9 p.m.
• ABC (720p) has Shrek the Halls at 8 p.m. and How the Grinch Stole Christmas at 8:30 p.m., followed by Samantha Who? at 9 p.m. and Boston Legal at 10 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) packs in Little People, Big World at 8 & 8:30 p.m. followed by Jon & Kate Plus 8
• Fox (720p) lines up Terminator: SCC at 8 p.m. and Prison Break at 9 p.m.
• USA (1080i) has WWE Raw at 9 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) presents Monday Night Football with Jaguars/Texans at 8:30 p.m.
• ESPNU (720p) brings Kent State/Kansas college basketball at 9 p.m.
• Versus (1080i) has Colorado/Minnesota NHL action at 8 p.m.

When we had Mitsubishi's 1080p iSP LT-52149 HDTV in our own labs for testing, we weren't exactly thrilled with the image quality, particularly the 120Hz shenanigans. The folks over at Home Entertainment saw a lot of the same flaws we did, though they seemed to think the overall package was palatable after a great deal of tweaking. In fact, they outrightly stated that this set "requires more attention during video setup than other high-end LCDs [it had] tested," but it was worth the effort. The soundbar didn't serve as a 5.1-channel surround sound system or anything, but it did treat the ears more so than most integrated speakers. 'Course, SD material looked pretty terrible, but it did make Blu-ray Discs look fairly excellent. Still, the $4,000+ MSRP is slightly ridiculous in this world of low-cost LCDs, and we still can't see enough jaw-dropping positives here to warrant that kind of sticker.

It's two things that are inevitably tied to one another each Sunday -- LCD TVs and alcohol. Now, Micro Matic is bringing them together like never before, and only the most serious of in-home bartenders need apply. The v-POD comes in a couple of shapes and colors to best suit your needs, with the stainless steel Kool-Rite boasting a half-dozen taps, stereo speakers and an inbuilt 10-inch LCD. Now, if only these were available with slightly larger HDTVs and price tags nowhere near the three grand mark, we'd be talking.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

Remember when high-def discs had to be priced competitively, else the other format would gladly undercut it? Yeah, those were the days. Now that BD is parading around as the lone high-def physical format, the only real competitors are digital downloads, DVDs and internet piracy. All of which are very real threats, by the way. A recent writeup over at The Dallas Morning News brings up an excellent point -- now that Blu-ray player prices are at a reasonable level, when can we expect movies to follow suit? Oh sure, we understand that programming in all that interactivity that eight people care about costs a lot of dough, but seriously, you can't just let admission be next-to-free and then make the rides unattainable. Back in July, we heard that Warner was looking to lower the (pricing) bar this holiday season, but since then, everyone else has been mute. It's about time someone spoke up, no?

[Image courtesy of GamerNode]

Not like we haven't heard about these much anticipated features already, but it's always refreshing to get it straight from the horse's mouth. Or Warner Home Video's mouth, in this case. The Dark Knight marks the studio's very first foray into the controversial world of BD-Live, and what's apt to be the best selling BD of the year will pack quite the interactive punch. Owners with Profile 2.0 players will be able to "host their own Live Community Screenings with friends, record and post user-generated commentaries over the film using My WB Commentary, access more The Dark Knight content exclusive to Warner Bros. BD-Live, get sneak peeks and trailers of upcoming Warner Bros. films, create an online library of Blu-ray movies, manage a wish list for upcoming releases and connect to the WB store." As we've already seen in a number of instances, there's also a hint of a BD-Live-assisted interview with director Christopher Nolan "during a special Live Community Screening." For the full spill, give that read link a gentle tap.

iN DEMAND Networks has heard you loud and clear, and it's giving Three Sheets fanatics at least one more look at Zane Lamprey's blitzed face this New Year's Eve. On the very day that MOJO HD vanished from programming providers everywhere, in flies a release informing us that what's likely the channel's most loved show will be back for another go... online. The second annual Three Sheets New Year's Even Pub Crawl will air this year from London, and it will begin streaming at the stroke of midnight ET on January 1, 2009. The 45-minute special will see Zane dropping by the bar at Duke's Hotel, Green and Red on the East End and Casa Blue (just to name a few). Oh, and if you're really dedicated to the show, you can hit up the Zane Years Eve party in LA, which will include a screening of this very show. We'll keep you posted on anything we hear regarding the show being picked up on another network (hint, hint, networks). Full release is after the break.

The 2Wire-built MediaPoint box has a long ways to go before it's widely viewed as a formidable opponent to the Roku Netflix Player, Xbox 360 or the number of Netflix-enabled Blu-ray players. That said, we're always down for a fun unboxing, and this one's coming to us courtesy of Mr. Dave Zatz. Upon firing it up, he didn't have the greatest experience with Ethernet, but things seemed to get going with WiFi. Granted, he has yet to actually enjoy any material on this here movie STB, but that's likely because he was busy hosting up a litany of photographs for your enjoyment. Speaking of, the whole gallery awaits you in the read link.

It's not that movie critics were bowled over by the storyline of Bolt, it's that most everyone who saw it in 3D came away at least reasonably impressed by the visuals. The film is far from being the first to see a widespread 3D release, but it is one of the first to be marketed as such. Unlike any time that we can remember before, Walt Disney pushed the third-dimension version of this flick hard, and we're interested to see if you felt it was worth sitting through with 3D glasses (and in some cases, paying more for). Like it or not, 3D is here to stay (at least for awhile) -- can you see yourself catching another film in 3D after seeing Bolt?

Read - BigPictureBigSound
Read - Eclipse Magazine
Read - Financial Times
Read - Independent Mall
Read - The Detroit News

Get down with your bad self, Criterion. First you make the totally necessary leap to Blu-ray, and now you've opened your mind to digital distribution. The recently launched Online Cinematheque gives viewers the ability to catch short clips of select films online for free, and if they're really intrigued, they can cough up $5 to watch the whole thing. Afterwards, if they've discovered one of their new favorite films, Criterion will put the $5 rental fee towards the purchase of the title on DVD / BD. Sorry for just providing you with a portal to kill hours upon hours of free time.

[Via Slashfilm]