Today's High-Def Headlines

Toshiba Shelves Plan to Sell OLED TVs in 2009-10 - Reuters
Japan's Toshiba said on Tuesday it had shelved plans to sell ultra-thin TVs with organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays in 2009-10 because of the cost of mass production. Toshiba will stick to its plans to commercialize smaller OLED displays for cell phones next year, and will watch markets and technological developments to see whether making OLED TVs is commercially viable later, Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori said.

Comcast Media Center Packs In More HD - MCN
Comcast Media Center has developed a way to fit three high-definition TV signals into one 6-Megahertz carrier, which is ordinarily enough space to fit just two HD channels without sacrificing picture quality. To preserve quality while boosting quantity, the cable operator’s Denver-based digital-media services unit is using a “second-pass” MPEG-2 encoding system from startup Imagine Communications, according to people familiar with the project.

AT&T Brings HDTV over IPTV to St. Louis - MCN
AT&T is now offering U-verse TV in parts of 18 communities in the St. Louis area, touting a lineup of more than 30 high-definition channels, as it looks to siphon customers away from incumbent cable operator Charter Communications. The telco is offering service in parts of the city of St. Louis, as well as the surrounding suburbs of Ballwin, Bridgeton, Chesterfield, Clayton, Creve Coeur, Florissant, Kirkwood, Maryland Heights, Mehlville, Oakville, Olivette, Sappington, Shrewsbury, St. Charles, St. Peters, University City and Webster Groves.

Cablevision Launches HD Promotional Campaign - MCN
Cablevision Systems Corp. today launched a promotional campaign trumpeting the 44 high-definition channels it offers to its digital-cable customers in the New York metro area free of charge. Via its “44 Days in HD, on iOTV” effort, the cable operator will salute a different HD service weekdays through the first week of February, minus Christmas and New Years Day. The networks will be spotlighted during the countdown through daily press releases, banners on iO TV’s guide on channel 14, and the Optimum.net consumer Web portal and other tactics.

LG Ships 2nd-Gen. Super Blu Player - TWICE
LG Electronics is now shipping its second-generation “Super Blu” combination HD DVD/Blu-ray Disc player. Model BH200 ($999 suggested retail), which the company introduced at the September CEDIA Expo event, provides access to between 50 percent and 70 percent more high-def movie titles than single-format players, the company said.