One of the main problems with initial Blu-ray director's chat sessions was a lack of feeling any life or interactivity, but Warner gave it another shot this weekend by offering audio over BD-Live as a moderator bounced audience provided questions off of director McG while watching Terminator: Salvation. Despite a less than stellar reputation, BD-Live has continued to slowly creep along, adding features and enhancements, so we wanted to if this event bodes well for the future of internet enabled discs. Check after the break for our impressions, plus a few clips of the director talking about what he did and didn't like about the finished product, director's cuts in general, and the possibility of doing another Terminator movie.

Yes you read that right, despite internet video growing at a rapid pace, 99 percent of video viewed in America is still done the old fashioned way. And although this is pretty crazy in and of itself, what's even more shocking is that while we've all but completely abounded linear TV, most only use their DVRs to watch about an hour of TV a week. But what this report really seems to prove more than anything else is that just like TV didn't kill radio, the internet and DVRs aren't going to kill TV as we know it, and instead the total number of hours wasted in front of one of the three screens is just going to keep getting higher and higher until the whole world comes crashing down -- or something like that.

You idiot. Where did you buy those cables? Walmart? You probably think you're getting the whole 1080p, don't you! Boy, you couldn't be more wrong. What the big box doesn't want you to know, with their cheap-ass $150 cables is that there are, um, waves and some, uh... electromagnetic spectrats. And they eat your pixels! Yeah, that's right! Pixel-eating EM spectrats! Not even making this stuff up. How much did you spend on that TV? $1,000? You did buy that $1,800 power cable from Furutech, right? Well, don't you think you should spend at least that much on the all-important cables that are going to funnel the dynamic 1080p transmissions from your Blu-ray player to your TV? Here, try this Platinum Starlight HDMI cable from Wireworld. It has a patent-pending DNA Helix conductor design formed by the gods themselves out of 24 solid silver conductors. Hell, $1,000 is probably a bargain for one of these one meter cables. Your eyes are worth it, after all. You're welcome.

That company with that mouse sure is open to trying new things, and as if the whole Snow White Blu-ray vs DVD box art wasn't interesting enough, now we have Upgrade2Blu. Like other offers, via an $8 rebate it saves you a few bucks on Blu-ray Discs that you already own on DVD, but what is different is that you get to keep the DVD. This makes sense from a company like Disney since it's been including DVDs with all the Blu-ray releases, which is especially useful for kid's movies. You see as much as we want our kids to grow as HD snobs like us, we still wouldn't dare driving more than an hour in the car without a Disney DVD being played in the back seat.

Although the FCC has recently realized that CableCARD is a failure, it'll be years before anything changes; and even when things do change, the cable industry is probably going to support it for years to come. So we are still happy to see that Panasonic is continuing to try to push tru2way into more homes. Currently only available in Comcast areas of Chicago, Denver and Atlanta; Panasonic plans to add Boston to that list. The interesting twist here is that apparently Panasonic has given up on HDTVs with tru2way built in, and is instead pushing a set-back solution. Basically it would be a box designed to attach to the back of a Panasonic TV and presumably require it's own power but only one connection to the TV via HDMI. Then it would work just like the function was built into the TV -- this kind of defeats the purpose of tru2way, but it is better than a traditional set-top box sitting under the TV with its own remote. The problem is the set-back box doesn't have an analog tuner, which crazy enough is a FCC requirement, so Panasonic is also asking the FCC to waive this requirement, and honestly this is one waiver we would agree needs to be granted.

What we're watching tonight:

• CW (1080i) airs 90210 at 8 p.m. and Melrose Place at 9 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) has Dirty Jobs at 9 p.m. and Ghost Lab at 10 p.m.
• ABC (720p) has Scrubs at 9 p.m. and the season premiere of Better Off Ted at 9:30 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has Table for 12 at 8 p.m., 18 Kids & Counting at 9 p.m. and The Little Couple at 10 p.m.
• History (720p) has How the Earth was Made at 9 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Butler/Georgetown college basketball at 7 p.m. and Indiana/Pittsburgh at 9 p.m.
• Versus (1080i) has Islanders/Flyers hockey at 7 p.m.

Given the high price of Blu-ray boxed sets, the news from Video Business that some series are going backwards from having Blu-ray editions to DVD only really isn't that surprising. Specifically cited are Rescue Me, Damages and Nip/Tuck, with numbers indicating the average title sells only 5% of its copies in HD. Series that appeal to early adopting Blu-ray owners and HDTV fans like Fringe, Lost and Terminator:SCC naturally do better on Blu-ray, regardless of price, but with the exception of fanatics who will either pay up or wait for a sale, it's not surprising that most people would rather keep an extra $15 - $30 in their pocket and just grab it on standard def.

Just as planned, Freeview HD has come online with a "technical launch" and manufacturers already showing off boxes expected to hit shelves next spring for the consumer launch. Right now only residents in the Liverpool and Manchester area will probably be picking up the signal, but The Register has even more details on when and where DVB-T2 broadcasts will be popping up over the next several months. Likely related to the IPTV requirement placed on Freeview HD set-top boxes, 3view is already showing off an OEM design that includes a box with support for OTA, IPTV and a web browser with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter apps included. According to Pocket-Lint, it also does the job of home media server and 320GB DVR, we'll keep a few pounds handy to check it out once the box arrives in March.

It figures that Microsoft would finally give DIY Windows Media Center users the ability to add a Digital Cable Tuner with CableCARD to their PC and now the devices are no where to be found. Since these devices were never actually available to the public, they've always been a little hard to come by, but we have seen 'em for sale from Dell as well as from Cannon PC and even on Sony's site. This entire situation only makes us even more sure that ATI's days in the Digital Cable Tuner business are numbered. What we mean is that there is no doubt that ATI knew this was coming to Windows 7 long before we did, so any company who actually wanted to sell something would have actually had them available at retail by now. One thing is for sure, there is a pent up demand for CableCARD tuners in the Media Center community and a more affordable, more available, option can't get here soon enough. While we wait for the 1st quarter of 2010 to come, you can pay through the nose for one on eBay in the meantime.

The countdown to CES continues, but the big news this week is on the regulatory and industry side, as the FCC tries to figure out where CableCARD is going wrong and what to do about it, and Comcast buys into NBC. We also take on the troubles of going all digital with this week's Ask Engadget HD question, and also show you what an SSD can and can't do for a HTPC. Sony's making the World Cup a part of its 3D showcase, is that enough to get us excited about soccer? Next we go behind the scenes at Sharp, while discussing plasma burn in and Universal's new flipper combo discs before closing out with the latest attempt at relevancy for BD-Live.

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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh, Richard Lawler

Producer: Trent Wolbe

Program
00:00:45 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 165
00:02:30 - Hell freezes over, the FCC admits that CableCARD is a failure
00:16:55- Time Warner wants to know if it should get tough about rate hikes
00:22:17 - Poll: How do you feel about Comcast buying NBC?
00:30:40 - Ask Engadget HD: Best video encoding process to maximize quality & compatibility?
00:35:22 - SSD drives don't help dedicated Windows Media Center PCs much
00:42:55 - Sony and FIFA team up to make the World Cup 3D
00:48:36 - Inside Sharp's new LCD factory, we can see our next HDTV from here
00:50:12 - The HD Guru tries to burn-in a plasma, but fails
00:57:03 - Universal's BD-59 Blu-ray / DVD flip discs to debut on Bourne trilogy releases
01:02:55 - Terminator: Salvation's McG hosts the first audio Blu-ray director's chat session tonight

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It's been a continual process of evolution with JVC's Everio line, each iteration getting more pixels and smaller bodies, and the latest entry is the best combination yet. It's the GZ-HD620, a full 1080p-recording camcorder (courtesy of a 1920 x 1080 backside illuminated CMOS sensor) that also sports a 120GB HDD in a package that weighs just 270g. Footage is shot through a 30x optical zoom lens and can also be written to a microSDHC card, though that internal storage will be good for 11 hours of footage at the maximum bit rate (24Mbps), and a vacation-encompassing 50 hours at the minimum (5Mbps). The cam is said to be shipping tomorrow in Japan at a price somewhere north of ¥100,000, which should equate to a few hundred over the $1,000 mark whenever it hits the Territories.

We've been waiting for what feels like an eternity for wireless HD to really have a place in the world (outside of the elite home cinema world, that is), and while the dream definitely took a hit with the FlyWire's death, it sounds as if things may be rounding the ever-present corner. Amimon, a company responsible for bringing wireless high-def capabilities to all manners of pricey wares through WHDI, has just announced the 1.0 specification of its protocol. Mind you, there are already quite a few big players onboard with the outfit, so hitting the one dot oh could very well kick start a new round of devices (set-top boxes, HDTVs, media streamers, etc.) designed to handle wireless transfers of 1080p material. You can catch the relatively calm press release after the break, and rest assured we'll be keeping our eyes peeled at CES for new gear based on the spec.

The Cowboys might not be doing so well on the field these days, but that's not stopping Jerry Jones from constructing a gadget lover's nirvana for them to call home. The world record-holding Mitsubishi displays at the center of Cowboys Stadium will this weekend be treated to the first public demo of a new real time 3D conversion technology from HDlogix. Touted as a glasses-free autostereoscopic method, it will be demonstrated before Sunday's game against the Chargers, and used during the game on highlights and live video to give the good people of Dallas an extra dimension to their already supersized visual experience. The list of promises from HDlogix is mighty impressive, including the ability to convert to and from all the 3D standards floating around at the moment (more on that in the source PDF below), but we advise waiting until Sunday when said good people can judge for themselves. Full PR after the break.

Update: We've received a quick note from the company to say that the actual feed on the Cowboys' megatron will be based on old school glasses-needy anaglyphs, since the humongous structure isn't capable of doing the more sophisticated stuff.

Like a good one-two punch, now that Boxee Beta has been unveiled, here comes a glimpse of the company's first hardware unit, the Boxee Box. D-Link takes the honors of being the inaugural hardware partner and Astro the designer. The Box, more like a submerged cube, boasts HDMI, SD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, WiFi, and ethernet for old school internet connectivity. Unfortunately, we don't know at this point what's powering it under the hood, but we're hoping that NVIDIA collaboration on the beta software might suggest some Ion here. Target release sometime in the second quarter of 2010 for about $200.

Boxee's growing up! The media center's hit beta status, and with the new Greek letter comes a revamped UI and some new functionality. For starters, the front page has been redesigned to highlight the menu, your personal queue, featured content, and recommendations that are fed in from Facebook or Twitter. For video, local files and online content are integrated into the same menu, can be filtered by free or pay content, and television shows are now sorted by season and episode. We're particularly fond of the new global menu for quick shuffling through the menu and to shortcuts. At an event tonight in New York, the company's also announced three new apps: The Escapist, Suicide Girls, and most interesting of all, "TV Guide to the Web" Clicker. On the more technical side of things, the graphical backend has switched from OpenGL to DirectX, and NVIDIA's been cooperating to better optimize the software for use on the Ion platform via DXVA and Flash 10.1. Good changes all around, except we did just hear that it won't support 64-bit in Karmick Koala -- sorry, Ubuntu fans. As previously mentioned, there's no wide release available yet, so you'll just have to live vicariously through the gallery below!

It's Monday, and we know that getting the week started can be tough. We're here to help by letting you peek into the recording booth when the Engadget HD podcast goes to tape on Monday, December 7th at 6:30PM ET. Think of it as a kind of time machine that will help you power through your day by reviewing what happened in the week HD-wise. Embedded Ustream tools and a list of topics after the break.

It feels like just yesterday that Warner released the a Harry Potter movie as a way to decide which HD format it should abandon and now the whole world is Blu and this week Half-Blood Prince hits the shelves and it sure doesn't feel like two years later. In the TV show category, Disney has the 5th season of Lost and although that's one of our favorite shows, we're waiting on the complete collection. The real interesting one this week is Anchor Bay which really opened up the gates with 10 new Blu-ray titles in one week.

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Ultimate Edition (Warner)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Ultimate Edition (Warner)
• Julie & Julia (Sony)
• Lost: The Complete Fifth Season (Walt Disney)
• Public Enemies (Universal)
• The Alphabet Killer (Anchor Bay)
• Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon (Anchor Bay)
• Cyclops (Anchor Bay)
• Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer (Anchor Bay)
• The Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon (Anchor Bay)
• Lower Learning (Anchor Bay)
• Red Mist (Anchor Bay)
• Sands Of Oblivion (Anchor Bay)
• Walled In (Anchor Bay)
• While She Was Out (Anchor Bay)
• Knut & Friends (Image)
• UltraMarathon Man (ChannelSources)
• World's Greatest Dad (Magnolia)

What we're watching tonight:

• CBS (1080i) has How I Met Your Mother at 8 p.m., Accidentally On Purpose at 8:30 p.m., Two and a Half Men at 9 p.m., The Big Bang Theory at 9:30 p.m. and CSI: Miami at 10 p.m.
• CW (1080i) airs One Tree Hill at 8 p.m. and Gossip Girl at 9 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has Little People, Big World at 8 & 8:30 p.m. and Cake Boss at 9 p.m.
• TNT (1080i) has the winter premiere of The Closer at 9 p.m. and the series premiere of Men of a Certain Age at 10 p.m.
• USA (1080i) has WWE: Raw at 9 p.m.
• ABC (720p) has Castle at 10 p.m.
• Syfy (1080i) presents Alice (Part 2 of 2) at 9 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Monday Night Football with Ravens/Packers at 8:30 p.m.
• History (720p) brings Pawn Star$ at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
• ESPN2 (720p) has Florida/Rutgers women's basketball at 7 p.m.

Blu-ray and the Cell processor are back together again, now that Toshiba has jumped on the format and is ready to release its first Cell TV, the Regza 55X1, in Japan December 10. Just making it in 2009 as promised, the path to launch has cost this initial release the 4K resolution screen we'd hoped for, with a 1080p LED backlit display hooked to the aforementioned Blu-ray DVR, 3TB HDD and slick 3D GUI for navigating all sorts of content from the internet or recording from as many as 8 tuners at one time. Also pushed back? Some video on-demand services, but we're pretty sure that at this point a few software updates on the way isn't holding back anyone from the "ultimate entertainment machine."

Update: Our friends at Engadget Japan just pinged us to inform that Blu-ray was also one of the features left on the cutting room floor. Without that, our ¥1,000,000 is staying firmly in our theoretical Japanese wallet -- Toshiba, let us know how v2 works out.

AMD and CyberLink, which recently integrated SENSIO 3D technology into its PowerDVD player, are already touting a 2010 CES demo promising to show off their implementation of "the forthcoming Blu-ray stereoscopic 3D standard." While the world continues to wait for an announcement on what the 3D Blu-ray standard will actually entail (backwards compatible 2D combo discs, and Full HD stereoscopic technology are definitely on the list) AMD is ready to leverage its position as a contributing member of the Blu-ray Disc Association and make sure that when discs hit the market -- likely around the time Avatar is released at home -- it has compatible software and hardware available. We've prepped and ready for the glasses-required trials that promise to be featured at many booths during next months Las Vegas experience, so a note to potential exhibitors: sports and videogames are the best bet for an impressive 3D showing, bring Space Harrier 3D for extra bonus points.