Although Hungarians have tasted HD in their homeland before, we're pretty sure having a full platter is much preferred. National broadcaster Antenna Hugária has just announced that it will be launching HDTV services via its Antenna Digital cable platform at the close of this month. Reportedly, the service will be available initially in Budapest and surrounding locales, though we aren't told if plans are in place to spread it elsewhere. Two new packages are slated to become available, the first of which includes National Geographic HD, Eurosport HD and m2; as for the second, you'll find HBO HD. Better still, those who subscribe to m2 HD will already have a ticket to the televised version of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (in HD, of course). Prospective consumers will be asked to upgrade to an HD-capable set-top-box as well as hand over HU 990 per month ($6.16) for the first HD tier and HU 799 per month ($5.50) for HBO HD.

National Geographic HD has been on the international warpath of late, blazing trails to Austria / Switzerland, India, Germany and Sweden. Now, we can add a few more foreign locales to that list. MEASAT Satellite Systems has just landed an agreement with National Geographic Channel Asia that will enable Nat Geo HD and two other SD channels (National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo Wild) to be "distributed on a MEASAT -operated satellite to pay-TV operators across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa." The trio of channels will be distributed via the MEASAT-3 satellite, though it wasn't specifically stated when any of them would go live.

ZON TVCabo, a leading programming provider in Portugal, has introduced an all new HD DVR for its users: the imaginatively titled ZON BOX. The unit boasts a 160GB hard drive, USB 2.0 port, gigabit Ethernet and HDMI / component / S-Video / composite jacks for good measure. We're also informed that the box will come in handy here soon, with National Geographic HD (which recently launched on rival Portugal Telecom), MOV HD and possibly SportTV HD going live. The latter two channels would be dedicated to movies / TV series and sporting events such as Euro 2008, respectively. Unfortunately, we weren't able to solicit pricing information, but feel free to give the carrier a call and see what this gem will run you.

We already knew that National Geographic HD was poised to land in Austria and Switzerland soon, but maybe not this soon. Nevertheless, the channel has indeed launched in both nations on UPV digital cable, putting its content in front of over one million subscribers in these two countries alone. Get down with your bad self, Europe.

After Sat. 1 HD and ProSieben HD went dark in Germany until 2010, things haven't been as dormant as expected. Late last month, we received word that both FOX and TNT would be making their way over (and hopefully in HD), and now we're seeing that both National Geographic HD and MHD (MTV HD) could be arriving on undisclosed cable carriers in the near future. Reportedly, Nat Geo HD -- which is nearly ready in Austria and Switzerland -- could be arriving any moment, while MHD is likely to land on PREMIERE this December. Slowly but surely, it looks as if Europe may actually be moving forward in adopting HDTV programming.

[Thanks, Chris]

Read - National Geographic HD to Germany
Read - MHD to Germany

One of our favorite HD channels is finally starting to get some love from Bright House Networks as it was recently added to the line-up at channel 727 in the Tampa market. This is good news from BHN fans everywhere as well as Time Warner Cable (a Time Warner company just like Engadget), as San Antonio customers can also expect to see NatGeo show up in HD in that market very soon. We've come to expect BHN and TWC to add HD channels together since they team up in the attempt to get a better carriage deal. Unfortunatly for some customers, who haven't seen a new HD channels in their local TWC market in some time, can expect not to see this one as well. With the bandwidth challenged markets the only thing that can help them is SDV, which can't get their fast enough for some, or slow enough for others.

Read - TWC agrees to add National Geographic HD
Read - Bright House Networks adds National Geographic HD in Tampa

The National Geographic Channel HD's latest special starts this this Sunday at 8pm, and will give us a look inside ourselves like never before. We're a firm believer that at this point there's no acceptable reason for a new show not be presented in HD, and Inside the Living Body is a testament to that. We mean, if they can find a 1080p60 endoscopy camera, then why can't Survivor find a few HD handhelds? The show uses HD endoscopy, CGI, and models, to trace the normal daily workings of bodily functions from birth to death.

Of all the HD channels out there that aren't offered by most providers, it seems that National Geographic HD might be the most sought after. We have some good news for Cox Communications subscribers, 'cause they're going to start rolling it out this year and expect all HD subscribers to have it by 2009. Unfortunately for most, Cox isn't the biggest provider in the country, so the rest of us will have to wait -- or if you can't wait, just switch to DISH Network.

Yes, we have Discovery-HD, but we're green with envy since Sky will be offering National Geographic HD to it's UK subscribers when it launches in the next month or two. If you're at all interested in what Sky will be offering, they have four high-def videos available for download; two are rugby-related and two are content from the new National Geographic HD channel. You'll need Windows Media Player 10 as well as a PC running Windows XP with a 3.0 GHz CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and a graphics card with 128 MB as well. Oh, a solid display would come in handy too.

To download and view the clips, visit Sky's site, click the "Explore Sky" Link followed by the "More to Explore" link.

[via HDTV UK]