Today's High-Def Headlines

DIRECTV is Home for 2007 MLB Postseason in HD
DIRECTV HD fans across the country will have the best seats in the house to every Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason game this fall. To date, DIRECTV is the only national multichannel video provider committed to carrying both FOX and TBS's exclusive postseason HD broadcasts. TBS in HD is scheduled to launch on DIRECTV in September and for the first time ever will feature exclusive broadcasts of the MLB Division Series and National League Championship Series. DIRECTV will also offer FOX Sports' coverage of the American League Championship Series and the 2007 World Series in HD.

Big Ten Network Dishes Up Deal - MCN
Big Ten Network, which gained national prominence with its coverage of Appalachian State’s monumental upset of Michigan last Saturday, scored big on the distribution front today, notching an agreement with EchoStar Communications Corp. This Saturday, Dish Network will broadcast two BTN games in high-definition on channel 9467: Akron at Ohio State (noon ET) and Syracuse at Iowa (8 p.m ET). The No. 2 DBS provider will officially launch the HD simulcast of the BTN the following week.

CNN HD Debuts - TV Week
CNN on Saturday launched CNN HD, a high-definition simulcast of its existing network, which will feature original series shot in HD as well as regular news programming. DirecTV has confirmed it will carry CNN HD, with launch scheduled for mid-September. CNN would not comment specifically on other carriage deals, but did say it was in negotiations.

DirecTV Preps ‘Pro’ High-Def DVR - MCN
DirecTV hopes to broaden its appeal to home-theater installers with a high-definition digital video recorder set-top -- called the HR21 Pro -- whose key features include storage for up to 100 hours of MPEG-4 HD content, twice the capacity of the operator’s current HR20 HD DVR. The box, manufactured by Samsung Electronics, is scheduled to begin production toward the end of October. Distributor and retail pricing has not yet been set, according to DirecTV director of public relations Robert Mercer.

Digital Cable Alert Is On -- for $200 Million - Hollywood Reporter
In an effort to ensure a smooth transition to digital TV in 2009, the cable industry announced the launch of a $200-million ad campaign to assure their customers that their TV sets will still work.The campaign includes four 30-second spots to be aired on broadcast and cable networks. Ads began airing in the Washington, D.C., market this week.

Aquos Blu-Ray Disc Player Launches - TWICE
Sharp used a pre-CEDIA press conference Wednesday to take the wraps off of its first Blu-ray Disc player for the U.S. market. The player is the first non-LCD TV to carry the Aquos sub-brand. The slim-profile Aquos BD-HP20U ships this month at a $549 suggested retail. It will output full HD 1080p/24 fps video and includes built-in HDMI 1.3 digital inputs.

Toshiba's HD DVD Pot Gets Sweetened - TWICE
In addition to unveiling its new super-narrow-bezel LCD TV line, Toshiba announced several offers to entice consumers to pick up one of its new third-generation HD DVD players.
Jodi Sally, Toshiba digital audio/video products marketing VP, revealed that Toshiba will continue to offer coupons to redeem five free HD DVDs with the purchase of a HD DVD player, and has expanded the list of titles from which player purchasers may select their free discs.

JVC D-ILA PJ Pair Unveiled - TWICE
JVC helped to kick off CEDIA Expo with a joint press conference from its consumer electronics and professional electronics groups. The company revealed a pair of 1080p three-chip D-ILA projectors, one from each business unit. Both feature three 1,920 by 1,080 D-ILA chips and 30,000:1 native (not dynamic) contrast ratios.