The TV Zone

Big weekend in high-def homes. First comes Universal HD’s first-season marathon of “Jericho,” the fan fave starting its second season on CBS Tuesday night at 10 (Feb. 12).

“Jericho” on Universal HD runs from Saturday 10 p.m. to Sunday 8 p.m. (Feb. 9-10), catching viewers up to speed on all the post-nuke drama. You can read all about second-season plans in Newsday’s Sunday feature story interview with producer Carol Barbee.

High-def homes with access to the HDNet Movies channel can also enjoy “Lawrence of Arabia” Sunday at 6:15 p.m. (Feb. 10). This is the restored director’s cut of the epic 1962 adventure with Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif that made the AFI’s Top 100 Movies list at No. 5. The film repeats on HDNet Movies later Sunday night at 12:30 a.m. and four more times this month.

How big can high-def news get? How about pump-you-up muscle-bound behemoth big? And sexy-blonde-babe big, too.

Latest to announce HD plans is World Wrestling Entertainment, which says it’ll beam its national matches in HD starting next week (Jan. 21).

“Friday Night SmackDown” on The CW goes HD Jan. 25 to broadcast stations around the country. Cable/satellite homes that get HD feeds of USA and Sci Fi get more clarity in “WWE’s Monday Night RAW” and “A.M. RAW” (USA), plus “ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling” (Sci Fi). Even WWE pay-per-view outings like Jan. 27’s “Royal Rumble” will offer high-def sweat.

Thanks to the switchover, WWE has built new sets for “RAW” and “SmackDown.” No word yet on any work done to make the wrestlers HD-ready.

Cablevision’s HD lineup currently seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. Just in time for college football’s annual bowl-o-rama, the cable provider is today adding ESPN2 HD, a simulcast of the standard-def channel using HD video when available, on Ch. 735.

Upcoming events in HD on ESPN2 include Friday night’s New Orleans Bowl (Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic), Saturday’s Papajohns.com Bowl (yes, there is such a thing, pitting Southern Miss vs. Cincinnati), and Sunday-Tuesday’s 2007 World Series of Poker.

Peruse HD offerings for both ESPN and ESPN2 at hd.espn.com.

DirecTV has added another dozen channels to its satellite-delivered high-def lineup.

Bravo, Sci Fi, USA, MHD (MTV's high-def outlet), Cinemax East, Cinemax West and HBO West appeared this week. Various regions now also see their local sports channels in HD, including SportsNet New York and YES (also New England Sports Network, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, and Comcast SportsNet Chicago).

That makes 41 national HD channels, plus regional local sports.

DirecTV has promised 100 high-def channels by year's end.

So you might well see those major league baseball playoffs in HD.

(Though perhaps not the Mets playing in them.)

Cablevision announced it's adding TBS HD to its high-def lineup by the time early-round playoffs start Wednesday. Some customers will see it on Ch. 739 as early as Monday. The cable provider says that'll mean it carries 41 HD channels, including the 15 VOOM offerings.

TBS HD is already carried by DirecTV, and is being added to some Time Warner and Comcast cable systems.

On its announced march to 100 high-def channels by year’s end, DirecTV today added 21 more.

Now feeding an HD signal (if not always true high-def programming):

A&E Network, Animal Planet, Big Ten Network, CNN, Discovery Channel, The History Channel, The Movie Channel, NFL Network, Science Channel, Showtime West, Sho Too, Starz, Starz West, Starz Comedy, Starz Edge, Starz Kids & Family, TBS, TLC, Versus/Golf Channel, The Weather Channel.

Also included -- the just-launched Smithsonian Channel.

The HD news site TV Predictions analyzes the look of the new channels, and offers tips on making sure the signal comes in correctly.

Reports say DirecTV hopes to roll out these HD channels in October: Bravo, Cartoon Network, Cinemax East and West, CNBC, Food Network, Fox Business News, FX, HBO, HGTV, the planned MGM channel, National Geographic Channel, Sci Fi Channel, Speed Channel, USA Network. They’re also aiming at HD versions of Bio, CMT, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, VH1, CSTV and The Tennis Channel.

Missed last night’s big “Heroes” return? NBC is happy to help you out.

The second-season premiere repeats on NBC (in high-def) this Saturday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m.

And it’s streaming online now at NBC’s “Heroes” page, along with last May’s first-season finale. The site also hosts Monday night’s live blog with “Heroes” creator Tim Kring and star Jack Coleman (H.R.G.).

And if you're lucky enough to have a Verizon V CAST Mobile TV equipped phone, you can even watch it on that teeny-weeny cell screen via NBC2Go.

“Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo Music” moves from the web to TV tonight when MTV’s high-def channel MHD premieres a half-hour set by Rascal Flatts, Monday at 9 p.m. (repeats at midnight and 2:30 a.m.).

The twice-monthly internet series will be seen monthly in HD on MHD, while still available on-demand at the Yahoo site with such added content as backstage photos and in-person blogs. Performers have included Melissa Etheridge, Maroon 5, Common, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson and The Stooges.

You can also catch an encore of this year's MTV Video Music Awards in high-def on MHD this Saturday at 9 p.m. This means Britney Spears in unsurpassed clarity -- be warned. If standard-def is all you can stand, regular old MTV repeats the ceremony Monday at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 4 p.m., Thursday at 10 a.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.

History Channel HD has launched on DISH Network satellite, joining the likes of HGTV HD, Food Network HD, A&E HD, high-def simulcasts of Animal Planet and The Science Channel, and more than 30 other HD offerings.

In addition, Turner says as of Sept. 1 it has officially “made available” TBS HD and CNN HD, though it’s hard finding any provider carrying these new companion channels to long-established TNT HD. (All three are simulcast “mirrors” of the regular standard-def offerings.)

Satellite competitor DirecTV has previously announced it plans to offer many more HD channels with the recent launch of additional satellite capacity. Among the channels reported to be going HD on DirecTV later this fall: ABC Family, Bravo, Cartoon Network, FX, Sci Fi and USA.

Online’s AVS Forum keeps track of HD offerings here.

Take a sneak peek at this fall's upcoming HD DVD release of the first season of the original '60s "Star Trek."

These are the remastered episodes that have been airing in high-def in syndication (3:30-ish Sunday night/Monday morning on WNBC/4).

There's an 8-minute trailer streaming at the official Star Trek web site that shows off some of the interactivity enabled by today's high-definition disc technology.

Pretty cool.

The Season 1 set comes out Nov. 20.

So it’s two months early.

With director Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” remake opening today in theaters, VOOM’s Monsters HD channel is running the 1978 original that made Jamie Lee Curtis a star, in high-def, of course, tonight at 11 p.m. (The trailer is playing on the Monsters HD home page.)

It’s followed at 12:30 a.m. by Curtis’ 1981 sequel “Halloween II,” and then “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch” (2:05 a.m.), “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” (3:45 a.m.) and “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers” (5:15 a.m.).

Rob Zombie has a regular TV gig, too, hosting TCM’s Underground showcase of weird, wild and warped flicks late every Friday night. It’s actually on hiatus for August’s Summer With the Stars event, but returns late Sept. 7 with the young Francis Coppola’s 1963 shocker “Dementia 13” (2 a.m.), followed by William Castle’s 1961 “Homicidal” (3:30 a.m.).

Jerry Garcia not being available to host “Dead Art,” the VOOM Gallery HD series turned to Twisted Sister's Dee Snider.

Starting Wednesday night at 8:30, our homeboy hosts this 10-part high-def travelogue of “the world’s most visually compelling cemeteries.”

(Which just goes to prove there’s a show in everything.)

The first episode visits Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, the resting place of such New York notables as the Tiffany family. The fifth episode (Sept. 26) heads to the Bronx's Woodlawn Cemetery, where Duke Ellington and Miles Davis are interred.

Other aesthetically (and historically) interesting locations include L.A.’s Forest Lawn, Tarrytown’s Sleepy Hollow, Paris' Pere Lachaise and New Orleans’ St. Louis #1 and Metairie Cemetery.

Acclaimed series including “Iconoclasts” and “Live From Abbey Road” get a new high-definition showcase Wednesday nights.

Universal HD is launching a weekly Sundance Channel program block Wednesday at 8 p.m., to continue through the end of the year.

Tonight’s first-night lineup features an 8 p.m. “Iconoclasts” interview between actor Samuel L. Jackson and basketball giant Bill Russell; “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” (9 p.m.), exploring “green” concepts through segments featuring ethanol racing cars and vegetable oil fuel recycled from a fried chicken party; and 9:30’s “Abbey Road” concert with John Mayer, Norah Jones and Richard Ashcroft.

Preview video here.

So now the high-def wars get interesting.

Cablevision just announced it’s adding the VOOM suite of 15 HD channels previously available only on Dish satellite (and before that on a stand-alone satellite service created as a Cablevision subsidiary). Starting Tuesday (June 26), they’ll be added to Cablevision’s existing lineup of two dozen HD channels, including the broadcast networks, premium movie channels, FSN, MSG, ESPN, Discovery, NatGeo, TNT and Universal. Cablevision says that means it will offer more HD channels than any other provider.

VOOM offerings -- all shot or remastered in HD rather than upconverted -- tend toward niche treats like the Gallery arts channel, WorldSport, Rush extreme sports, Monsters HD horror, Kung Fu HD and GamePlay, plus broader-appeal feeds FilmFest and Family Room.

Meanwhile, DirecTV keeps talking up the full-time high-definition channels it plans to add by the end of the year, most of which are HD versions of current offerings -- CNN, USA, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, Disney, History, A&E, TLC, Food Network, HGTV, Bravo, FX, even The Weather Channel. DirecTV is launching two new satellites, and claims it should have 100 channels by fall (including multiple sports feeds).

Cable industry behemoths Comcast and Time Warner have been boasting they’re upping HD capacity, too, though they’re less eager to name channel names.

What’s on VOOM? Details here.

Brian Williams, are you ready for your close-up? As of next Monday, March 26, “NBC Nightly News” starts airing in high-definition, the first evening network newscast to do so. (Some local newscasts are already in HD, including WNBC/4’s.)

Williams’ studio segments will be seen widescreen, along with White House standup reports, since NBC News has HD cameras in Washington, reports the industry weekly Broadcasting & Cable. Many other feeds will be upconverted from standard-def until HD field equipment is ready.

NBC News benefits from the recent HD upgrades at its Rockefeller Center headquarters to enable high-def broadcasts of fellow New York productions “Today” and “Saturday Night Live.” ABC and CBS have announced no HD news plans.

The HD-centric web site TV Predictions reports it has learned Cablevision will soon add two more high-def channels: Discovery HD and National Geographic HD, both specializing in documentary offerings.

NatGeo HD launched in January 2006. Discovery HD has been around since 2002, hosting one of the high-def community’s big cult faves: “Sunrise Earth,” a you-are-there dawn experience shot at exotic locations around the world.

(Discovery HD is already carried on Time Warner cable locally, as well as Comcast cable and DirecTV. Dish Network satellite carries both channels.)

High-def households itching to see more HD may get their wish this year. Recent reports have touted a slew of industry plans to boost HD offerings. That doesn’t necessarily mean your specific cable or satellite provider will carry these offerings, however, just that they’ll be available.

CNN says it will launch an HD feed in September. Trade papers say other HD channels are planned by Turner as well as NBC Universal cable.

DirecTV announced at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show that by the end of the year it hopes to boost its national HD channels, now about a dozen, to 100. The provider is launching two new satellites to carry the additions it says will include high-def feeds of Turner’s TBS, Cartoon and CNN; the NBCU channels USA and Sci Fi; and FX. Competing satellite service DISH Network just added A&E in HD, boosting its high-def lineup to more than 30, including the VOOM channels. Cable companies, now carrying about a dozen cable channels in HD in addition to local broadcast network affiliates, are struggling to keep up, limited by available bandwidth.

Among individual programs, “NBC Nightly News” is said to be going HD in March. Local New York newscasts on WNBC/4 are already in high-def, as are WABC/7’s. NBC-owned Telemundo’s new novela “Zorro: La Espada y La Rosa” was produced in high-def, and its premiere ran on allied Universal HD. Even the Ultimate Fighting Championship has gone HD to boost its pay-per-view sales.

But some of the scenic shows viewers most want to see in HD have no plans to go there. CBS says neither “Survivor” or “The Amazing Race” is scheduled to be produced in high definition.

So this is the year every website operator and his brother is linking to all the big Super Bowl ads.

And this is the year nobody wants to see them.

What duds, eh? All those lame ads almost made you long to get back to the lame game being played in a Miami monsoon between the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts. Of course Indy won. But who won the commercial contest?

Hard to say. Whoever’s ad wasn’t a complete snooze, or an utter what-the-bleep mystifier. The Bud spots were so bland as to make last year’s farting horses seem inspired. Ford, Toyota -- zzzzz. Lots of movie trailers, none of which came off as must-sees. Loads of guy-centric pitches, spotlighting violence, mayhem, busty babes, and such “manly” behavior as guys ripping their chest hairs out. Where were the cheeky, witty commercials? MIA. (My kingdom for a cool Mac vs. PC meet-up.)

The few standouts might include the pre-game’s NFL Network spot at Chad Johnson’s Super Bowl party, with a mad mix of mismatched guests including Janet Reno, Jimmy Fallon, Rascal Flatts and Martha Stewart. The Coke animations were nifty, but hardly classic, while GM’s laid-off robot and Bud Light’s Carlos Mencia ads were at least creative enough to be worth another watch. Those you-design-’em spots by contest winners were at least as good.

The big winner in the Super Bowl commercial race? HD set owners. The predominance of spots presented in high definition this year was the game’s biggest wow. Sunday’s CBS broadcast delivered roughly 110 national spots (including CBS promos), and more than 90 were in HD (nearly every CBS promo).

That left the standard-def laggards looking about as potent as the equally meager Chicago Bears offense. Advertisers like Blockbuster, Salesgenie and Taco Bell were essentially telling big-spending HD households: Don’t buy what we’re selling. We’re cheap, cheesy and behind the curve.

First bet of the next football season: All the commercials of Super Bowl 2008 will be in HD.

Some Super Bowl ad links --
This year’s spots
Viewers vote on faves
Critiques by ad professionals
Classic Super Bowl commercials
Super spots through the years

NBC’s Sunday night football game lies to you from the start, in that pricy special-effects opening sequence with an oversized Pink snarling and stomping (the attack of the 50-foot woman!), while her plodding song promises “the only game that you’ve got to see.”

That’s just plain wrong. It’s actually the only game that you’ve got to hear.

The surround sound on the HD broadcast of NBC’s Sunday night contest keeps impressing me as the best I’ve heard. There’s presence, depth and definition from every speaker, truly surrounding you in crowd noise, stadium announcements and ambiance galore. Rather than playing ABC’s old Monday night audio game -- just juice the crowd volume and dud games will seem like thrillers (not) -- NBC is truly designing its audio to match the clarity and excitement of high definition video. It really is like you’re there, immersed in the experience.

Now if they could just do something about that open. On ABC/ESPN each Monday night, Hank Williams Jr. joyfully invites you to have some rowdy fun. Pink practically tells you to get lost.

Late addition to the festive fun:

Arrested Development (Thursday, Nov. 23 at noon, HD Net) – The Bluths run wild at the “living classics” holiday pageant.

Monsters HD serves up a really big Thanksgiving with the 1933 original production of “King Kong” (Thursday at 9:05 p.m.; repeating Friday at 7:30 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.).

Also airing for the holiday at the DISH Network high-def channel is the 1976 remake of “King Kong” with Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange (Thursday night at 3:15 a.m.; Friday at 1:45 and 10:30 p.m.).

Other vintage apes at Monsters HD: “Son of Kong” (Thursday at 10:45 p.m.; Friday at 9:15 a.m. and 6 p.m.) and “Mighty Joe Young” (Thursday night at midnight; Friday at 10:30 a.m. and 7:15 p.m.).

Digital cable/satellite channel Discovery HD Theater is touting an upcoming high-def broadcast from the International Space Station.

Tune in Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 11:30 a.m., but don’t expect a sci-fi visual extravaganza. Discovery publicity says, “Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria will address a nationwide audience during the downlink, sharing a meal while discussing the importance of diet and nutrition on long duration spaceflight.”

Thanks, but we’ll stick to “Battlestar Galactica” on Universal HD.

The high-def honchos at online’s HDTV Magazine just posted a useful list of links to information about HD viewing.

They found informative podcasts about HD that let you catch up on the latest high-def news and tips. And they also collected some sources for downloading video shot in HD.

So your cable system finally adds the HD version of TNT, and you triumphantly tune in, only to discover --

Squatty, squished people!

TNT HD has made the debatable choice to broadcast everything in HD’s wider 16x9 aspect radio -- even when the original program was shot in standard-def in its 4x3 shape.

In what detractors have taken to calling “stretch-o-vision,” TNT squeezes down the video to fill out the otherwise empty sides of the screen, instantly adding a heckuva lot more than the TV camera’s usual 10 pounds to the weight of any on-air human so subjected.

Online viewer boards are buzzing about this visual atrocity, but TNT just keeps doing it. Do they think nobody will “notice”? Or maybe that we won’t care? Enough of us do that we never watch TNT HD unless it’s airing a non-squished native high-def program (maybe NBA basketball or “The Closer”).

If viewers actually were bothered by “empty” space at the sides of the screen, any HD set worth its price tag will happily side-stretch the picture at the push of a remote button. But there’s no way to undo TNT’s head-end ugliness.

TNT HD’s web site blissfully ignores this, and just about everything else, in favor of baby-talk explanations of what HD is or might be, written to the level of dweebs who think the letters stand for Hot Dog. You can try complaining there anyway. Or you can do what we do. Don’t watch their squatty channel.