That's right, roughly a year ago this blog kicked off, with posts that looked a lot like the ones we have now. We've decided to celebrate our birthday on July 4th (that's right, we're giving you a day off of work to celebrate HD Beat). It's been a great year of high-def news, from easter eggs to Entourage, from 1080p to Ultra HD, and we look forward to giving you even more in the next year. We'd like to thank our friend Kevin who brought us all to HD Beat, and of course you our readers and commenters.

We'll recount a few of our favorite (and least-favorite) HD stories from the past year and we invite all to contribute in the comments.

But Xbox 360 Fanboy needs your help. For every positive (like the HD Beat flickr group), there is an equal and horrifyingly opposing negative. This weekend they are running a contest to find out who has the most pathetic Xbox 360 gaming setup in all the land, and uh, some of these are pretty pathetic. Sweet 720p videogame loving should never be found in what appears to be a laundry room.


Go, vote, and then thank your lucky stars that you have not found youself in such a pitiable position.

Aside from the setbacks, DRM challenges and lack of titles, we should see a successful launch of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray in the very near future. Ok, maybe "successful" is overly optimistic. "Very near future" leaves some wiggle room too, doesn't it? Maybe we should start over. We should eventually see two new next-generation DVD launches. (That better?) We've seen comments on which format will "win" and we've openly picked sides on the HDBeat Podcast. Now we want to see what you think, since you're the target market for high-definition DVDs.

What we're watching: March Madness has begun and it's one of the best displays of high-definition television there is. Tune in for tip-offs tonight at 8 p.m. on CBS in 1080i where you'll see games from Greensboro, Jacksonville, Salt Lake City and San Diego. Since we're so early in the tourney, here's your chance to not only catch the first round in high-def, but to make your Final Four predictions in our comments!

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

What we're watching: Tonight is sort of up in the air; there's nothing really grabbing our interest. We could really go out on a limb and catch "Tour de Gorge: World Meatball Eating Championship" at 8 p.m. on INHD in 1080i, but that's a bit extreme. "American Idol" loses one of the dozen tonight at 9 p.m. on Fox in 720p, but we're growing weary of the seemingly never ending competition. Several other shows like "Criminal Minds", "CSI: NY", "Lost", and "Law & Order" are repeats. Maybe it's time to pop a DVD into the upconverter?

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

What we're watching: Was is just us or did "The Unit" kick some major terrorist tookas last week in the pilot episode? Actually, TVSquad isn't impressed just yet, so let's all give it another chance; tune in to CBS at 9 p.m. to see these characters exude confidence in 1080i. Just so we don't play faves with the government-action-suspense-thrillers, you can watch the other thriller tonight at 8 p.m. We don't mean NCIS (which is actually a good show as well), we're talking about tonight's Stevie Wonder theme on "American Idol" in 720p on Fox. While we're still voting for "The Unit", we can spare a few minutes to vote for some of the Idol talent too.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

Don't know your IPTV from your AACS or your MPEG-4? No worries; ArsTechnica does the IPTV 101 thing so you can drop high-def acronyms to all of your SD neighbors. Considering that one content provider in China snagged over a half a million IPTV subscribers in Hong Kong alone, you probably want to brush on that which is IPTV. Ars gives you the up-and-up on how IPTV works and even explains why we won't actually tune in to content with IPTV; we'll just let our set-top routers do the talking and add us to a new multicast group, assuming we're authorized to "tune in" of course. IPTV is definitely in the mix for DTV from cable and telcos, so why not join the rest of the class and learn what all this fuss is about? Did we forget to mention that BellSouth was planning IPTV trials this year? We'll bet AT&T remembered.

Ah, there's nothing like CeBit rumors, unless you don't speak German, that is. Thankfully, some folks are ever-so-helpful by sharing the juicy (yet ambiguous) news bits with us. This vague rumor may actually have some merit, however. It wasn't too long ago that LG allegedly scrapped plans for their BD199 Blu-Ray player in favor of a combo player for both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray by the fall. Now we're hearing reports of "Ultra-Multi", which could use a name change, but may render the entire HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle moot. The premise behind the "I go both ways" player is similar to what several of the Hollywood studios have done: play both sides of the fence until details on a victor start to emerge. At this point, Ultra-Multi could be a trade name, a manufacturers actual device (perhaps LG's?) or just something to stir up the rumor mill.

I predicted that the long term winner will be HD-DVD in show number three of our weekly podcast, while Ben is betting on Blu-Ray. We're both all-in on this bet, so if hybrid players outsell single format units should we just call this one a tie?

Echostar continues the DISH Network rollout of high-def locals by adding ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC in HD to Kansas City. Over twenty-two counties fall within the limits of the new offering, which we weren't expecting since DIRECTV is "it" in the continuing game of HD Locals Tag. Looks like Echostar is aggressively pursuing their year-end goal to provide over 50% of the US households with high-definition locals.

Thanks for the tip, Dave!

What we're watching: She'll always be Elaine Bennis Benes to us, but tonight Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as the old new character on "The New Adventures of the Old Christine". The CBS premiere fires up at 8:30 p.m. with a new follow-up episode at 9:30 p.m. in 1080i. Actually, the premiere has to be stellar for us to catch ep number two, since it conflicts with "24" on Fox at 9 p.m. in 720p. You really don't expect us to record "24", do you?

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

What we're watching: Yo buddy. Whatsamatta you? You been missin' "The Sopranos", ain't ya? Whaddya mean, what's "The Sopranos"? Don't gimme that dumb look or I might have to tell Big Tony you just said that. You just do yourself a favor and sit yourself down at 9 p.m. tonight, you know what I'm sayin'? That's right, the show is back in 1080i on HBO-HD and you don't want to miss the sixth season, got it? You miss this one and you'll wake up the bottom of the Hudson, see? If you think you can record the show and watch it later, don't. We're on to that DVR thing and we know if you watch the show live, so make sure you do wiseguy. Any questions? Nah, we thought not.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

What we're watching: It's Friday night movie night with at least two good choices. "Saving Private Ryan" fires off at 8 p.m. on TNT-HD in 1080i. For those that missed "Caddyshack" in 1080i a week ago, you all get a second chance tonight at 10:15 on HDNet Movies. Last but not leaked least is "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" also in 1080i on Showtime-HD at 7:30 p.m. Take your pick!

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.

Ben still won't shut up about his MacBook Pro, we both agree on Plasma vs LCD and are disappointed that SED will be delayed even futher. HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray really starts to heat up with lots of news and Ben provides his impressions of the HD-DVD road show and will also get a chance to test MovieBeam this weekend. Meanwhile, Kevin flunks the Jeopardy category of "DVD software" and tells what he's going to buy since SEDs are pushed back.

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Hosts
Ben Drawbaugh and Kevin C. Tofel

Producer
Ben Drawbaugh

Format
45:01, 20 MB, MP3

Program

New Macs connecting to HDTVs: they just work
Apple's DVD Player HD ready?
InterVideo Ulead's DVD Movie Factory 5 supports both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray
HD-DVD enabled laptop due in April
There is no HD via BitTorrent
Sapphire Radeon X1600 Pro provides HDMI
Toshiba Takes HD-DVD on the Road
HD-DVD movies in March?
Samsung's BD-P1000 Blu-Ray ship date
LG: No Blu-ray player this spring, combo player in the fall?
MovieBeam testing VOIP
MovieBeam powered by IPTV technology
TiVo goes with subscription model, what about Series 3?
Sorry, no SEDs this year
LCD vs Plasma rages on
Academy Awards: HD or SD?
Definition of HDTV: here we go again
DISH rolls HD locals to seven more cities

LISTEN (MP3)

CeBit is great for product announcements, but this one is slightly underwhelming. While the big boys are building 100-inch LCD screens, Sharp adds to their AQUOS line with the LC-37GE1E, a 37-incher. The big claim to fame for the new AQUOS is full 1920 x 1080 resolution in a progressive format, not to mention a backlight with a fourth color: crimson-red. There's a built tuner, 1200:1 contrast and a 6 ms response time along with dual HDCP-compliant interfaces (we're guessing HDMI). No price or availability as of yet.

[via Engadget]

What we're watching: It's a bizarre twist on CSI tonight as there's a dose of reality television in the mix. Tune in at 9 p.m. on CBS as the crew tracks down a rapist who posed as a fireman to sadly put out his own sexual fire unlawfully. Here's the twist in 1080i: the CSI crew is followed by a reality TV crew for a completely different perspective on the show. Are we really running out of reality show ideas and now incorporating them into exceptionally good programming?

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.