What we're watching: All-new tonight is the series premiere of Shark on CBS, featuring James Woods as a defense attourney turned prosecutor who doesn't lose his underhanded style of winning cases after switching sides. Our old friend Grey's Anatomy steps into its new night on ABC, first with a series recap and then the season premiere at 9, followed by new series Six Degrees. NBC brings back My Name is Earl, The Office and E.R. for another season, we'll keep our eyes peeled for more easter eggs, you've gotta figure there will be one sooner or later. Damon Wayans' The Underground is new tonight on Showtime, no word on if it's any funnier, while college football lights up ESPN HD as Virginia takes on Georgia Tech.

Our traditional high definition listings continue below.

Everyone loves a good mystery -- for the first few minutes and then it becomes a bore. Daewoo's first Blu-ray drive appeared online a few days ago but we still don't know much about it. Apparently it was shown at IFA 2006 but the only info we can dig up is what's on the display card and according to that, you are peeping a Blu-ray drive/recorder. Now, we aren't quite sure if that implies a built-in hard drive or the Blu-ray drive actually records but nether the less, it's got a built-in DVB-T tuner so it probably does recorded onto something. The rest of the specs are right in the norm of a first gen-device with the notable exception of a DV input which would be very handy if in fact this unit does record onto the Blu-ray disc. Because of the lack of info, we cannot give you a launch date nor price, but if something comes through we will certainly update you.

What we're watching: Two all-new shows tonight in Jericho and Kidnapped (previously seen on Xbox Live). Jericho uses the tried-and-true storyline of a Kansas town on the day of a nuclear explosion that cuts off all communication. Never heard that one before? Try Kidnapped, the kidnapping-show-that's-not-Vanished, this time spending a season on the effort to recover an abducted child. Criminal Minds and CSI: NY are also back for another run starting this evening on CBS. Along with new episodes of Bones and Justice, there's all the sleuthing and mystery you could want. The Tigers and White Sox continue to do battle on ESPN-HD while Arrested Development continues it's run on HDNet.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

Microsoft had a pretty good response (1.5 million individuals downloading 5 million pieces of content over several days certainly qualifies as pretty good) to their Bring Home E3 event on Xbox Live, allowing Xbox 360 owners to download large amounts of trailers, demos and high definition video direct from the show floor, so for the next nine days they'll be doing it all over again. With the Tokyo Game Show and their X06 event in Spain coming in the next few days, they plan on making over 100 pieces of content available including HD video from the show. Since our passes to the shows appear to have been lost in the mail, we're definitely feeling this. Add in the ability to queue up 5 downloads at a time added in the Spring dashboard update and it's even easier to get everything posted for the next nine days. Make sure that you do because some of it will disappear forever after September 29th. We're still playing the Lost Planet demo from E3, as good as reading about all the HD gaming coming our way is, we'll take actually experiencing it at home any day.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

HD DVD may not have had a lot of releases this week but that doesn't mean that the format is slowing down. Three major studios have announced a ton of HD DVD titles that will be released before the end of the year. Oh and there is 2 Blu-ray titles mixed in there too. (labeled as such) HD DVD seems to be keeping that content lead almost everyone thought they wouldn't have as soon as Blu-ray launched.

Warner

• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Blu-ray release too)
  
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
• Syriana
• 16 Blocks

Rhino

• The Eagles: Farewell Tour 1 - Luve in Melbourne
• Cream: Royal Albert Hall
• James Taylor: A MusiCares Person of the Year Tribute

Paramount

• Reds (Blu-ray release too)

Universal

• Dune
• The Mummy
• Meet the Parents
• An American Warewolf in London

All of these titles have been added to our Google Release Calendars

HD DVD


Blu-ray


Read: Warner release
Read: Universal
Read: Rhino
Read: Paramount

What we're watching: A brand new show, Smith, premieres on CBS tonight, with its professional thief-oriented storyline, hopefully it fares better than Heist did. Returning shows with season premieres include fellow CBS shows NCIS and The Unit, Boston Legal on ABC as well as Law & Order CI and Law & Order: SVU on NBC. That's not even mentioning new episodes of Dancing with the Stars, House and Standoff. The only way HDTV tonight could be better is if we had some sports...oh wait we do, with Tigers and White Sox playing a game that could decide the fate of the AL Central and wild card race. Just to get things kicked off properly, Cinemax is airing Saving Private Ryan in HD just after 5. What more could you ask for?


Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

What a great surprise to come home from my week at CEDIA not only to find the LED-powered Samsung DLP review unit waiting for me, but also, my local fox affiliate WSMH 66 out of Flint, MI finally went HD. Fox 66 was waiting on their antennas building permit for a couple of years then once the antenna went up, there was issues with licensing. Who cares now though as they are finally up and running so local viewers like myself can watch the Detroit Lions loss in high-def. Comcast viewers can find the station on 234.

As expected, Warner Home Video has announced Batman Begins and The Polar Express will be coming to HD DVD October 10th. Also coming to HD DVD that day are Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride (previously announced for Blu-ray), and both Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (2006 starring Johnny Depp) and the original Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder. Batman Begins and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory both feature IME sequences, taking viewers into the creative processes of the directors of each movie while the movie continues to play in the background. In addition Warner will release both Syriana and 16 Blocks on Blu-ray the same day, both previously released on HD DVD, giving them over 50 movies total released on both formats. Other than the two IME-enhanced titles all will have the same extras as their DVD counterparts, the HD DVDs carry an MSRP of $28.99 and the Blu-ray discs $34.99. So far Warner's dual-release strategy seems to be working out well as they've got some of the best titles on each format, best features, and have been able to take their VC-1 encoded movies from HD DVD to Blu-ray and vice versa without trouble.

What we're watching: The fall season is really picking up now as NBC premieres Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip tonight, and CBS puts their new show, The Class, in front of the season premieres for returnees How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men, New Adventures of Old Christine and HDBeat readers favorite CSI: Miami. Fox also has new episodes of Prison Break and Vanished, not to mention our old friend Monday Night Football on ESPN-HD now, featuring the defending Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers at the Jacksonville Jaguars. Finally, on HDNet Star Trek: Enterprise premieres in HD.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

Disney's first Blu-ray titles hit the shelves tomorrow and needless to say we are less than impressed. There is only one title we're excited; Jay and Silent Bob Strike back. Sony has a few good titles this week and Universal releases the classic Backdraft.

With another studio releasing titles for Blu-ray and Fox right around the corner we'd expect Blu-ray to catch up to and surpass HD DVD in the shear number of titles, but after two months, we aren't so sure when this might happen.

This brings the total to HD DVD 71 vs Blu-ray 45.

Blu-ray

• The Big Hit (Sony)
• Dinosaur (Buena Vista)
• Eight Below (Buena Vista)
• The Great Raid (Buena Vista)
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (Buena Vista)
• A Knight's Tale (Sony)
• S.W.A.T. (Sony)
• Tears of the Sun (Sony)

HD DVD

• Backdraft (Universal)
• Galaxina (BCI)
• Golgo 13 (BCI)

You can also check out our Google Calendars for all the dates.
HD DVD release schedule


Blu-ray release schedule

What we're watching: Tonight we finally say goodbye forever to UPN and The WB from our HDTV listings. With MyNetworkTV already broadcasting in many areas and The CW launching on the 20th, the time has come. We expect to add The CW when they begin broadcasting while we'll need to think about MyNetworkTV, right now they only have two shows (Desire & Fashion House) which are both horrifically bad. Our need to list high definition programming vs. our need to ignore these two shows like the plague has left us very conflicted. Tonight however, we have no such issues, NBC Sunday Night Football continues with Dallas at Washington while Fox brings a new episode of The War at Home. The Red Sox and the Yankees continue their grudge match on ESPN-HD and HDNet contributes a double shot of Ice-T, on Sound Off with Matt Pinfield and later in concert with group Sex, Money & Guns.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

What we're watching: While no one game this week is as big as last week's incredible #1 vs. #2 matchup, there are so many to choose from good luck picking just one, we recommend dual-tuners. Nebraska at USC on ABC-HD, Florida at Tennessee on CBS, Clemson at Florida State on ESPN-HD and even Texas A&M vs. Army on ESPN2-HD tonight. The Red Sox and the Yankees continue to battle it out on INHD while HBO premieres Katt Williams' comedy special The Pimp Chronicles Pt. 1 tonight.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

There is nothing better then watching a show about high-def products in HD and the guys over at HDNet are all over. We have seen teams of the guys lugging heavy HD cams and tripods all over the EXPO floor. Here we have the guys filming Toshiba new HD DVD players.

Note to HDNet camera men: Thanks for the hard work guys.

What we're watching: HDBeat's favorite show, Men in Trees, is back with a replay of the premiere ep and one all new episode. Baseball is big tonight, on ESPN-HD and INHD. Arrested Development has two shows on HDNet but we'll probably just check out Madagascar on Cinemax.

Our traditional high definition listings continue below.

What we're watching: If you missed the season finales of My Name is Earl, The Office and E.R. when they originally aired, rejoice, as they are back again for your viewing pleasure. 'Til Death and Happy Hour return with brand new episodes on Fox. College football takes over ESPN-HD as Maryland takes on West Virginia. Premiering tonight on Showtime is Damon Wayans' The Underground, appropriately pre-empted by a Dave Chapelle comedy special. If The Underground can live up to the standard of The Chappelle Show or In Living Color we are in for a treat.

Our traditional high definition listings continue below.