The NHL may not have the viewership in America as, say, the NFL, but that doesn't mean it can't find fans elsewhere. In a rather unexpected move, Hong Kong-based All Sports Network (ASN) has signed a multi-year deal to posses rights for broadcasting NHL matchups throughout much of Asia (India, South Korea and China included). Over 130 upcoming regular-season games will be televised on ASN's Yes TV along with the All-Star game, playoffs and the Stanley Cup Final. The good news? The broadcast rights include "all forms of television, including HDTV." The bad? Japan, Australia and New Zealand have been excluded from the agreement.

[Image courtesy of The Globe & Mail]

By now, you're completely familiar with what Super Hi-Vision is looking to do. You know, revolutionize HDTV programming as we know it. Provide an intense amount of detail good for filing up hundred-foot screens. That type stuff. If you've been eager to actually see what SHV can do, but you weren't able to make the trip to Amsterdam for IBC2008, fret not -- Auntie Beeb has hosted up a video of the demonstration in a wee web video player. Nah, it's no 7,680 x 4,320, but at least you'll get the idea. (Psst... it's in the read link.)

We'll go ahead and warn you: these aren't your mother's LCDs. Over in Amsterdam, JVC took the wraps off of three pricey new LCD HD monitors aimed at the professionals in the room, all of which include 10-Bit 4:4:4 video processing and computer automated calibration capability of black level, white level, color temperature and gamma. The 17-inch DT-V17L3DU, 20-inch DT-V20L3DU and 24-inch DT-V24L3DU make up the Vérité family, and the largest of the bunch even includes a native 1,920 x 1,080 resolution. Other atypical features include a rugged all-in-one metal frame construction, two HD / SD SDI inputs, a built-in waveform monitor with over-level indication and ultra-low latency circuitry (less than one second) for lip sync accuracy and an anti-diffusion panel surface for "exceptionally high resolution, contrast and color." It's a shame these will set you back $3,000, $3,495 and $4,695 in order of mention, but like we said, they're for the pros.

It has been a long time coming, but those 14 HD channels that Comcast promised back in May are just about ready for primetime. Based on a followup in The Longmont Times-Call, we're told that the carrier is around 80% complete with its $6 million infrastructure upgrade, which will bring 14 new high-def channels and 35 pay-per-view stations to the lineup. When all's said and done, LoMo residents will have access to the same lineup that's currently in Denver and Boulder, and if everything stays on schedule, that 80% figure should reach 100% within six weeks. Huzzah!

While this wasn't the only live 3D broadcast going on at IBC2008, we couldn't resist passing along a video of this one in action. Net Insight was at the show demonstrating a live 3D telepresence setup using a 1.5Gbps connection. From Stockholm (the show floor is in Amsterdam), a company employee was able to wave and communicate in real-time in stunning 3D. The kicker? No funky goggles were required to see him, and while you needed to stand pretty much directly in front of the display in order to get the full effect, we can't help but be wowed at what went on here. Seriously, check out the video in the read link and imagine watching a movie in this manner in your own home. It's good stuff, we promise.

[Thanks, Tommie]

Same song, different chorus. LIN TV, which is notorious for asking ungodly amounts of cash from carriers in order to carry its stations, has been unable to reach an agreement with Time Warner Cable (who, to be fair, wants the channel for next-to-free) over Dayton, Ohio's WDTN. The local NBC affiliate will fall off the EPG on October 2nd unless a deal is hammered out beforehand, and according to a recent notice put up on the channel's website, the companies have been going at it for the past two months in an attempt to lock down a long-term carriage agreement that includes both analog and high-definition signals. Judging by history, we have all ideas an agreement will be stumbled upon at the eleventh hour, but don't be shocked to see your rates creep up ever-so-slightly in order to pay for it. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks, Dayton Guy]

Starting this month, viewers in the Florida panhandle (Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach and Mobile, Alabama to be more precise) can start catching their local news in high-definition. The region's ABC affiliate (WEAR-TV) has finally seen fit to bring a clearer view of its newscasts to locals. Hailed as the "first and only" local station in the Mobile-Pensacola Metro area to air its local news in HD, the station is showing five different sessions per day in high-def. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Thanks, Scott]

What's this? A little standardization in the TV realm? Announced today at IBC2008, Microsoft has launched its Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture (PBDA), a new worldwide platform that was made possible by the recent release of Windows Media Center TV Pack. In short, this system enables the "PC-TV hardware ecosystem to integrate virtually any free or premium TV service into Windows Media Center," which keeps content guardians ultra-stoked while giving consumers more choice when it comes to TV tuning. Essentially, PBDA gives OEMs and tuner-makers the ability to develop and ship wares for WMC "regardless of geographic location or television standard." The initiative is being backed by some serious players, too -- Hauppauge, AVerMedia, NEC, and NXP just to name a few -- and a couple have already shipped PBDA-based solutions overseas. Hit the read link for more... if you dare.

What, is this some sort of sick joke or something? The host nation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa, will be unable to watch the action happening in its own backyard in high-definition. According to a recent report from Johannesburg, the SABC "has no plans to broadcast the 2010 FIFA World Cup in high-definition for South Africans." Instead, Switzerland-based Host Broadcasting Services (HBS) will film the games in HD for other countries. The trouble is that an overwhelming amount of South African citizens would need to procure a digital set-top-box in order to view the content in high-def, and considering that HD adoption in the nation is already low, it's simply not a high enough priority to bother with. Of course, political pressures could lead to change in all of this, and for the sake of the locals yearning for more high-def (and technological progress in general), we certainly hope so.

There's nothing here that wasn't apparent already, but SES ASTRA is just now getting around to boasting about a dozen HD channels that it's hosting to broadcast the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Ready for an exhaustive list? The channels broadcasting the Olympics in HD include for the UK, BBC HD, for France, France 2 HD and CANAL+ HD, for Germany, ANIXE HD, for Poland, TVP HD, for the Slovak Republic, STV3, for the Netherlands, 1 HD, for Belgium een HD, for Spain, TELEDEPORTE HD, for Sweden, Viasat HD and SVT HD and for Austria, ORF HD. So yeah, if you somehow missed this for the first week of the Games, at least you're clued in now.

[Image courtesy of Beijing 2008]

For a whole slew of individuals across America (particularly those with lackluster Time Warner Cable lineups), the addition of two new temporary high-def stations has been quite the treat. Just prior to the start of the Beijing Olympics, many cable carriers opted to add in an HD Soccer and HD Basketball channel, but if you thought they were just doing so to be nice, you thought wrong. After scads of CableONE subscribers in Idaho were flat shut out of live online streaming, a bit of digging revealed the problem: NBC Universal bundled online streaming into a "premium package" with the previously mentioned stations, which CableONE declined to offer. For the CableONE users, the story does end in on a high note -- they are getting three permanent HD channels instead. For everyone else loving the convenience of online streams, at least you can sleep easy knowing that minor increases in your future bill will likely be used to pay for it. Then again, what is free these days?

Wireless HD is having a tough time catching on in the consumer market, but that doesn't mean that things are as dreary in the commercial realm. Fuji Television Network and NTT Corp. are testing out "non-compressed HDTV video transmission using a wireless technology based on the 120GHz milliwave band in live feeds from the Beijing Olympic Games." By utilizing the technology, the duo has demonstrated "simultaneous, wireless transmission of multiple HDTV video channels without delay," essentially enabling camera toting employees to capture footage from more places by being able to walk around untethered. Being able to record spontaneous outbursts from jubilant victors no matter where they are at the Games? Score.

In case you haven't heard, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is on a spending spree fueled by its goal to become the country with the bestest of everything. Naturally, that claim includes broadcast HDTV, right? Well, as we've seen in the U.S., there's more to getting HD off the ground than the infrastructure. Lots of channels with little content does not a happy HD populace make, and those are exactly the growing pains that UAE is experiencing. The country has spent some $5-billion on HD infrastructure that has been ready to roll for some 2.5-years, but it's been a, um, desert in terms of content. The market rollout with respect to HD-media is reversed from the situation we had in the U.S. -- the UAE is seeing HDM spark HD broadcast -- but it's still all about content. Our advice is to rely on early adopters until content reaches critical mass, and then the market will catch on. And trust us -- it's worth the wait.

Not one to let WWE have the HD spotlight all to itself, TNA (Total Nonstop Action) Entertainment is readying its own HD studio in Nashville, TN. The TNAtv production building will house pre- and post-production for the brand from soup to nuts, including broadcasts, DVDs, on-air graphics and commercials. Whether you consider pro wrestling a sport or a soap opera with stunts, there's no doubt that it puts lots of money in the till. And that money can buy some nice HD toys -- in this case, four Avid Symphony and one Final Cut Pro HD editing suites. Looks like there's a "two man enter, one man leave" HD cagematch set up between TNA and WWE; but if TNA's fortunes aren't better than the WWE's, we might be looking at a double-disqualification.

When Raleigh, North Carolina's WRAL took its local news to high-definition some eight years back, we'd be willing to bet it never thought the rest of America would be so immensely slow in following suit. Sadly, it has indeed taken eight full years for a country known for its pioneering spirit in HD to see 100 local news stations make the high-def leap -- but we suppose it's still a milestone worth celebrating. That being said, if it takes another eight years to hit 200, we just might drown in our own tears.

[Thanks, Jeremy]