Today's High-Def Headlines

Ergen Downplays DirecTV’s 100 HD Channels - MCN
EchoStar Communications CEO Charlie Ergen Friday touted quality over quantity when it comes to HDTV content. During a second-quarter conference call, analysts asked Ergen about DirecTV’s coming HDTV expansion, which will translate to 70 channels by the end of the third quarter and 100 HD channels by the end of the year.

Onkyo Readies HD DVD Player - TWICE
Onkyo USA plans fall shipments of its first HD DVD player, which will retail for a suggested $899. The DV-HD805 features decoders for all of the disc format’s optional and mandatory surround-sound formats, which will travel over the player’s HDMI 1.3a output in native form to Onkyo receivers equipped with HDMI 1.3a inputs.

HDTV Consumer Electronics Sales in China Have Skyrocketed
China's HDTV industry is being shaped by two forces: a relatively stubborn service industry and a very energetic and enthusiastic equipment industry. Although it has been offering HDTV service for two years, the service industry's progress in persuading consumers to adopt HDTV has been slow, with only a quarter of a million consumers having subscribed to HDTV service by 2006. This number is expected to grow to over two million by 2011.