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What's on your HDTV: 'Sense8', 'The Wire' Blu-ray, 'Community' finale
First up, for sports fans this week is all about the finals, whether NBA or NHL -- it's time to take the trophy home. Otherwise, the Wachowskis have a big week, with the release of Jupiter Ascending on Blu-ray, and the new series Sense8 hitting Netflix Friday morning. The remastered version of The Wire is available on Blu-ray, along with the final season of Justified. The season finale of Community on Yahoo is also available, and there are reports it could come back for another season. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
What's on your HDTV: 'The Wire', 'Galavant', 'Downton Abbey', 'Friends'
If you're reading this, then you might not be watching HBO Signature's The Wire HD marathon as it covers season four, which some consider to be the best in the series. Of course, you can jump in anywhere you want with the remastered version thanks to HBO Go, although series creator David Simon points to the 4x3 DVD release as the best way to see the show as originally intended. This week there's the usual slew of New Year's Eve celebrations and bowl games (with the addition of a new playoff wrinkle), ABC is kicking off 2015 with its new show Galavant, and PBS has season five of Downton Abbey. Netflix's introduction to 2015 starts with every episode of Friends (but watch Bad Boys, The Breakfast Club, Spaceballs and Happy Gilmore before they fade out Wednesday night), while on Blu-ray we have Denzel Washington in The Equalizer and Kevin Smith's horror flick Tusk. Gamers can dig in to the Halo 5 beta, but there's not much else new out there for now. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
'The Wire' creator David Simon explains why HD isn't always better
Ever since we heard that The Wire would be coming back -- and this time in widescreen HD -- we've felt equal parts joy and unease. Who could turn down another trip through the streets of Baltimore, reformatted for modern televisions? On the other hand, even with a careful hand at the dial -- or not so careful -- suddenly switching aspect ratios could ruin what the director originally intended for viewers to experience. Luckily, none other than series creator and executive producer David Simon has chimed in about what we can expect to see this time around. Surprisingly, according to his blog post he hadn't even seen the reformatted version until after the promo started running in September. While he was aware work was under way, he still needed time to review the new version, which may explain some of the confusion about when it would actually air. Check out the blog post for extensive examples of what he means, including video clips (some are embedded below) showing the video as it originally aired, the initial HD cut, and then a second revision undertaken to help preserve the vision of the original shot.
HBO will re-air 'The Wire' in HD starting December 26th
Fans of HBO's 'The Wire' finally have a date for when the series will return to TV: December 26th. The day after Christmas a remastered HD cut of the show will be available in its entirety on HBO Go, and start airing (at the pace of one season per day) on HBO Signature. It's been said that series creator David Simon preferred the look of 4x3 aspect ratio, so how will the show look in widescreen HD? According to HBO, the process has been achieved by rescanning over 8,000 reels of original negatives, with extensive work to make sure it retains the feel of the original broadcast. If you're convinced, you can buy the series as a bundle or per season on the usual download sites (Amazon, iTunes, Google Play, Xbox Video and Vudu) starting January 5th, while a Blu-ray release is due next summer. [Image credit: AP Photo/Reed Saxon]
Yes, HBO is re-airing 'The Wire' and this time it's in high-definition
Some of us have been waiting for this for years (*cough*, Ben), and now HBO has confirmed it: The Wire is being remastered and will be rebroadcast in high definition. News of the series' return to television popped up in a promo captured by Arthur Gies, and HBOWatch found some listings in the TV Guide for it. We contacted HBO and confirmed the story, however the network says that despite an initial target to air them in September, "we're still reviewing the episodes for quality assurance so the timing has shifted." [Thanks, bellevegasj]
Sky adds 'The Wire' and other high-profile TV box-sets to its VOD collection
With the news that Netflix is being brought to Virgin Media's TiVo boxes, Sky needs to cook up some sort of response. That's why the broadcaster has thrown some money around to offer those premium US dramas everyone raved about before Breaking Bad (The Wire, The Sopranos and Mad Men). If you own a Sky+HD box and use Sky Go, you can now binge down on those shows, plus offerings like Seinfeld and Boardwalk Empire. The new collections will be added from tomorrow, nestled alongside existing domestic fare like I'm Alan Partridge and The Inbetweeners. At the same time, Sky has let slip that more channels will be coming to its Catch-Up TV service including Discovery, Star, Watch, G.O.L.D. and E! -- hopefully meaning we'll never again miss an episode of The Soup ever again.
It's not TV, it's HBO Go, and it's finally coming to Cablevision
Being a Cablevision customer was hard. Watching your colleagues with FiOS subscriptions stream Carnivale on their iPads, the guy who pays Dish Network for his programming could get Cinemax on his smartphone -- and all you had was YouTube for entertainment. Fortunately, the final major provider not to carry Home Box Office's online services has relented and you'll be able to enjoy both HBO Go and Go Max as soon as it's launched in "the next few months." Just remember that while you can now enjoy all those episodes of True Blood in public places, it doesn't necessarily mean that you should.
DirecTV raises its HD channels claim to 160, disses Dish for juking the numbers
We hadn't even finished counting Dish's 200 channels claim when DirecTV pops up with plans to add a whole slew of new HD networks as well. By its reckoning, tossing ESPNU HD, WGN HD, MSNBC HD, some additional DirecTV Cinema Channels and more puts it over 160 "around the clock HD channels", and executive VP Derek Chang couldn't resist tossing in a link to count them for yourself. He's laid the gauntlet down for Dish to put its channel lineup up for similar scrutiny, we'll see if the end result of this duel is more clarity in the channel/choices count wars. Check the full press release after the break.
Official: HBO arrives on iTunes, standard pricing be damned
It's official. HBO content just entered the digital halls of iTunes with variable pricing. Episodes of Rome and The Sopranos pop for $2.99 while The Wire and Sex and the City (yes the complete series) go for the iTunes "standard" pricing of $1.99. We just fired-up iTunes and confirmed it just like the rumor predicted. With Apple backing down from its strict, flat-rate pricing policy, don't be surprised to see additional content from previously iTunes-shy providers arriving in succession.Update: Deadwood ($2.99) and Flight of the Conchords ($1.99) are also available with "much more" apparently in the works.Update 2: Apple just released the PR.[Thanks, Turki]
Motorola lifted by sales of HD set-top boxes, no mention of shortages
Motorola exec Dan Maloney reported at the Mobile World Congress that HD set-top boxes accounted for 50% of sales for the Home and Networks unit of the company, and 27% of the company's overall revenue. We're certainly glad Motorola's happy about things, but we can think of a few HDTV owners still waiting for boxes from Cox and Verizon that might have a few questions. We don't know if the service providers simply didn't order enough, or if Motorola just can't make enough to satisfy demand, but hey Dan, next time how about taking care of the shortages before hopping a plane to Barcelona and bragging about more numbers? Thanks.
