MLB Network Schedule for Thurs. Night Games

MLB Network today released the first part of the schedule for its weekly Thursday night games that will debut the week of Opening Day in April, all of which should be in HD. If your hometown team is slated for one of these games, you'll either get a different game or some other alternate programming. Drum roll, please:

April 9, 7 p.m., Brewers at Giants; Called by Matt Vasgersian, Joe Magrane
April 16, 1 p.m., Indians at Yankees; Called by Bob Costas, Harold Reynolds, Jim Kaat
April 16, 8 p.m., Blue Jays at Twins; Called by Victor Rojas and Dan Plesac
April 23, 8 p.m., Dodgers at Astros; Called by Vasgersian and Magrane
April 30, 7 p.m., Red Sox at Rays; Called by Rojas and Magrane
May 7, 7 p.m., Phillies at Mets; Called by Costas and Al Leiter
May 1, 4, 8 p.m., Orioles at Royals; TBD
May 21, 8 p.m., Cubs at Cardinals; TBD

G.E. HDTVs Delayed

The much-anticipated line of HDTVs from General Electric have been delayed by as much as three months due to marketing issues, perhaps associated with the stagnating economy. G.E.'s HDTVs are being developed in conjunction with Taiwanese manufacturer Tatung and are being positioned as something of a premium brand, which the company may have some troubles with given current consumer sentiment. More from the NY Times.

Amazon, iTunes Unveil New HD Offerings

It's a busy week for online HD offerings: yesterday Apple's iTunes launched its HD movie download service, while according to the NY Times, Amazon is about to kick off its own HD television show download capability. Both iTunes and Amazon price their TV episodes in high-def at $2.99 while the iTunes HD movie download service costs $19.99 per movie or $4.99 to rent them.

Sharp Outfitting NY Mets' Citi Field with 800 LCD TVs

Sharp Electronics said today that it has inked a multi-year deal with the New York Mets baseball team to outfit the new Citi Field with more than 800 LCD TVs. The highlight is a 108-inch LCD TV in the main lobby of the stadium.

California May Ban Some Big-Screen TVs

The State of California's Energy Commission is considering banning big-screen TVs that don't meet certain energy efficiency requirements. The Orange County Register reports that as part of the CEC's ongoing offensive against greenhouse gas, as many as one-quarter of TVs bigger than 40 inches may be taken off the market starting this summer because the CEC believes they consume too much energy.

Keep in mind that the federal government's Energy Star program already monitors and regulates the energy efficiency of most major appliances such as TVs. 

Panasonic's 2009 HDTVs Unveiled

TWICE reports on the Panasonic line show from last week in which the company rolled out its new Z1 flagship series of ultra-thin (1-inch) plasma TVs. TWICE does an excellent job recapping the show so check it out to see the new stuff from Panny.

Programming: HD vs. SD

Broadcasting & Cable runs an interesting piece today about the economics of selling content shot in high-def vs. standard-def. Some cable channels like National Geographic and Discovery are only buying HD programming while most reality shows are still in low-def to keep costs down. A key factor is the ability to rerun programming to spread the costs out over time and recoup more in advertising revenue, something that is fairly difficult with competition-based reality shows.

DISH Picks Up 4 New HD Channels

DISH said last week that it has added Showtime Too HD, Showtime Showcase HD, TMC HD & BET J HD. This spring it will add the HD feeds of BET, Comedy Central, CMT, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike TV and VH1.

Verizon FiOS Adds MLB Network HD, Extra Innings

Verizon said today that FiOS TV customers now have access to MLB Network HD along with the MLB Extra Innings package that shows up to 10 baseball games a week in high-def. MLB Network will air 26 live games this season. More from TV Week.

Reviewed: Sony 32" Bravia XBR6 LCD TV

Earlier this week I told you that Sony had its line show in Las Vegas, unveiling its 2009 models that should hit stores soon. As such, there are sales on a number of the 2008 models, and being in the market for a smallish LCD TV for my office, I decided to see what I could find. I wound up buying a 32-inch Sony Bravia KDL-32XBR6 for $749.99 at Best Buy (just marked down $250 from $999.99). I've always liked the XBR series but found it overly expensive, which is why I never bought one.

I decided to spend a little extra and go with the 1080p XBR even though conventional wisdom says that at 32 inches you won't be able to see a difference between 1080p and 768p/720p. That may be true but I'll probably use this as a [very large] computer monitor from time to time, a task for which 1080p is better equipped.

My initial impressions of the 32-inch XBR are very positive. I'm watching the Denver-Portland NBA game on TNT HD right now and it looks absolutely fantastic. Interestingly, when I watched a college game yesterday on ESPN HD, it didn't look as good as I thought it should -- but the TNT HD feed for NBA games looks great. The TV's color is very nice, contrast ratio is outstanding and lack of motion blur is a welcome sign. Even the black levels look good, something for which LCD TV's aren't generally known.

I'll post more thoughts as I log more viewing time but I am so far quite pleased with this TV.

UPDATE: I just checked BestBuy.com and the price for this model has gone back up to $999.99. I wouldn't worry too much if you really want it at $749.99 because the new XBR9 models are coming out in a little over two weeks (March 22) and are marked at a pre-sale price of just $100 more than the old XBR6's. I'm sure the XBR6 will go on sale again very soon.

AT&T U-verse Now Up To 100 HD Channels

AT&T said yesterday that its U-verse IPTV service now offers 100 HD channels in every market in which it is available with the recent additions of ESPNEWS HD, ESPNU HD, ABC Family HD, Disney HD and Disney XD HD. AT&T U-verse TV ranked "Highest in Residential Television Service Satisfaction in the North Central, South, and West Regions," according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction Study.

I ordered U-verse on Monday and the installation is in two weeks so I'll report back on how the IPTV HD channels compare quality-wise to DIRECTV and Time Warner Cable.

Sony Uses Line Show to Unveil New Models

CNET News.com has full coverage of Sony's line show in Las Vegas that included a new group of LCD TVs with Yahoo Widgets and another line of power-friendly green TVs that turn off when no human presence is detected within a certain radius of the TV. Very cool.

TWICE also has the story.