Amazon Unbox, the service that allows you to download TV shows and movies onto your TiVo, is now going to be available in HD. With TiVo HD being TiVo’s “main stock-keeping unit in retail,” it’s about time they decided to bring more HD content to the table, and what better way than to have HD content on demand through your broadband connection (Video-on-demand anyone?). There’s no word on pricing, a schedule of release, or the content that will be in HD, but one can hope most, if not all content will be available in HD. Time will tell… Hopefully. Via [Zatz Not Funny] [Read more]

For the owners of the Samsung A650 series LCD TVs, have you wanted to throw away your set because it turns off automatically? Well, you won’t have to do so any longer. Samsung has released a new firmware that is recommended ONLY if your TV automatically shuts off. If you have the LN40A650A1F, LN46A650A1F, or the LN52A650A1F, then you are free to download the firmware update onto a USB flash drive only if you are experiencing these problems (as mentioned above). Afterwards, you’ll be able to watch your TV without it shutting off. Via [TV Lamps N' Bulbs] Read [Samsung] [Read more]

Gateway has opened the gates to a new display of theirs, and this time, it’s a Quad-HD display. Featuring HDMI, single and dual-link DVI-D, VGA, component, S-Video (Really?), and composite (Are you serious??), this monitor has got it all. The Gateway XHD3000 includes a Silicon Optix video processing chipset for it to present 1600p video in shiny goodness. The monitor also includes integrated speakers Gateway is touting as “advanced 3D sound pouring from eight high-performance speakers.” Yeah… Haven’t heard that many integrated speakers that are “high-performance.” As always, you can hook up your consoles and other peripherals to the display as well as your computer at native 2560×1600 resolution.... [Read more]

No exact date found, but for Cox subscribers in Northwestern Arkansas, your HD sets will be a bit happier by the end of the month. Twelve new HD channels have been confirmed to launch in the Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, and Rogers areas of Arkansas. Channels in the package include: HGTV Discovery Food Network Versus/Golf Travel Channel Cinemax TBS TLC CNN Science Channel Animal Planet NFL Network Hopefully they’ll come sooner rather than later to make everybody happen. Let us know if you subscribe to Cox and get the new channels. Via [EngadgetHD] [Read more]

Get out the streamers, party favors, and… Wait, it’s just a standard? Ehh… We can still party. The Advanced Television Systems Committee (you may know them as “ATSC”) has turned 25 years old. ATSC, for those of you who may not know, is the successor to NTSC. And to backtrack more, NTSC is the standard upon which analog TV signals are broadcasted in. So thus, ATSC signals are digital and will be the only signals broadcasted in major markets in February 2009. The extremely lengthy press release goes into who was at the ATSC meeting along with the future of it. Apparently in the future there will be three ATSC divisions (just what we need…) from fixed transmissions to getting traffic data in your car. Here’s... [Read more]