Look, we know good and well your Halloween night is already booked solid, but that's not to say you can't start getting spooked out a few days beforehand. HDNet Movies is looking to set the tone this year by debuting the horror film Splinter two days prior to its theatrical release. The flick is the feature film debut from British director Toby Wilkins, and the press release even describes it as "an exhilarating ride of jolts and laughs, and a throw back to the classic creature features of the early '70s and '80s." Sounds like the perfect way to spend an 8:00PM time slot on October 29th, yeah?

Add two stations to Project Infinity, Comcast has -- after several years of battling -- signed up Mark Cuban's HDNet and HDNet Movies, plus a free video on-demand package. Specifics on when the channels should go live in your area weren't noted, only that the cable company plans to increase its carriage of the two networks over the next year. Hopefully Comcast subscribers will get a (non-bandwidth starved) peek at Dan Rather, HDNet Fights, early movie premieres and more before tru2way and switched digital video roll out, but we can't be sure.

Last fall when DirecTV was adding HD channels like no one could believe, new HD channels weren't the only thing that changed. DirecTV also added a new tier called the HD Extra Pack of HD only channels like UHD and MGM HD for an extra $5 a month. Well, at least DirecTV was nice enough to give the package away for the first 90 days -- probably hoping we'd forget about the extra money it was costing us -- but now the free ride is over. So if you're in the club of those who don't want to pay $5 a month for five HD channels, then don't forget to cancel the package, cause we doubt DirecTV will be nice enough to remind ya.

Got any big plans for New Year's Eve? If not, HDNet Movies is hoping you'll spend the evening glued to the Alfred Hitchcock marathon that will be broadcast as 2008 rolls in. Starting at 3:30AM on December 31st, viewers can catch nine of Hitchcock's classics before the feature presentation takes over at 10:30PM. 'Course, we needn't tell you that Psycho will indeed be the main act, but horror aficionados will also appreciate the likes of Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Birds and Rear Window (just to name a few). Reportedly, each of the movies were "meticulously converted from original film sources" in order to be shown in 1080i, and hey, if you've already made plans to get out of town, just pick up a capacious new DVR and catch up when you return.

[Image courtesy of BuyCostumes]

HDNet was less than pleased with DirecTV's plans to move HDNet and HDNet Movies to the new HD tier. HDNet has been a part of DirecTV's HD package for some time, but with the addition of so many new HD channels, they created a new $5/mo HD Extra Pack consisting of all the HD only channels. HDNet sued DirecTV, and now the two have settled on what Mark Cuban described as a "win-win" compromise. HDNet will remain free to anyone who pays DirecTV's $10/mo HD access fee, while HDNet Movies will be moved to the HD Extra Pack. HDNet isn't the only HD only channel to get special treatment, as Discovery's HD Theater will also remain.

Our favorite HD channel has been part of DirecTV's total choice package as long as we can remember and while there has always been a fee to have access to DirecTV's HD programming, now DirecTV wants to charge another $5 a month to access HDNet and HDNet Movies. We've heard this over and over again, networks just hate to be on a tier, and as a result many have sued various providers in an attempt to widen their audience. Now, thanks to a temporary injunction, HDNet will remain free to everyone -- which isn't really saying much, since everyone is currently getting the HD Extra Pack for free anyways. In the long run, we can see HDNet's point on this one, and while we respect the fact that tiers can be a good thing for providers and customers, we hope Mark wins this one. Oh, and while you got the lawyers billing you hourly Mark, why not add bit-starving to the case while you're at it?

While the amount of HD exclusive channels continues to (slowly) grow, it was Mark Cuban's own HDNet and HDNet Movies that took home the gold in the "first high-definition TV ratings" acquired by TNS Media Research. The data was gathered from set-top-boxes in an unnamed "major market," and the two channels were said to "excel in both weekday and weekend" ratings. For the week ending July 1st, the channels held between 6.1-percent and 8.6-percent of the viewers that were tuned into 100-percent HD channels, which simply leaves us to wonder what the other 90 or so percent of eyes were watching so intently.

[Via BlogMaverick]