We first saw the Cisco FlipShare TV hit the FCC just over a month ago, and now that's it's official (well, official in the sense that Walt Mossberg broke the embargo by two hours) we're still sort of underwhelmed and a little befuddled -- although it's made by Cisco, the Flip-focused media player doesn't actually connect to your home WiFi network. Instead, the FlipShare software transmits data from your computer using a proprietary USB dongle, which means the player itself is useless unless your computer is on with Flip's funky FlipShare software running and the dongle connected. Flip tells us the decision to go proprietary was made to make things easier for non-technical users to set up (like Flip's cameras, the FlipShare software is preloaded on the dongle) but we can't help but think it's actually a bit more complicated, since Gran won't be able to just turn the thing on and subscribe to your new Flip user channels enabled by FlipShare 5.0. Instead, she'll have to get out her laptop, plug in the dongle, launch the software (which pulls the content from the internet), and then start using the FlipShare TV's RF remote to get at your videos, which seems pretty complicated to us. Yeah, we're just not sure, especially at $149 -- we've actually got one here for review, we'll let you know how we feel in the next couple days.

Don't think for a second VIZIO is planning on giving up that "America's#1 LCD HDTV Company" title, announcing it sold over 280,000 televisions over the Black Friday week. That's a 40% increase over last year, with 50,00 120/240Hz TVs in the mix and over 20,000 50-inch+ models. Those soundbars? Over 7,000 moved. It would appear that moving slightly upmarket with its pitch (as prices in general have plunged) has been a winning strategy for the company, we'll sit back and see how happy the competition is with their 4Q performance, and what, if anything, the other LCD manufacturers can do to wrestle the crown away.

Love him or hate him, it seems destined that the FCC's Julius Genachowski will leave as big of a mark on the agency he's leading -- if not bigger -- than his predecessor Kevin Martin did, because he's hell-bent on shaking up the wireless airwaves and landlines he oversees in some pretty huge ways. Pushback from broadcasters is apparently quite strong, but he's reiterated at a conference today that he intends to investigate freeing up TV spectrum for to make room additional wide-area wireless services, a move that certainly seems to make sense on the surface considering that universal broadband to the home -- which could carry all the TV you'd ever need -- is also high on Genachowski's to-do list. The Universal Service Fund, which every American phone subscriber pays into and partly finances rural landline telephone operations where profits are harder to come by, is looking like a ripe target for renovation to bring broadband into the fold, theoretically making high-speed data more accessible to folks of all demographics and geographical affinities. Like the TV spectrum move, the USF realignment is meeting its fair share of detractors -- mainly among rural landline operators who rely on the funds for operation, of course -- but we're definitely gaining confidence that this dude isn't taking "no" for an answer in the long term.

We told you we had a feeling this thing was happening -- less than a day after GE consolidated ownership of NBC Universal in preparation to spin it off and sell a controlling stake to Comcast, CNBC is reporting that the deal is actually done and will be announced Thursday morning. As rumored from the start, Comcast will now own 51 percent of NBC to GE's 49 percent, and the new company will fold in Comcast's various content assets, which means the new NBC will rival Disney in size. That's a big enchilada, and it should make the future of Comcast initiatives like TV Everywhere extremely interesting. Of course, all this still has to go through the FCC and FTC, and we wouldn't expect anything to be approved and finalized for a year, but none of that takes away from the magnitude of this deal. We'll obviously know more in a couple days, stay tuned.

What we're watching tonight:

• ABC, NBC. CBS, Fox, CNN all have the Presidential Address at 8 p.m.
• CW (1080i) airs 90210 at 8 p.m. and Melrose Place at 9 p.m.
• ABC (720p) has the season premiere of Scrubs at 9 & 9:30 p.m. and The Forgotten at 10 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has Table for 12 at 8 & 8:30 p.m., 18 Kids & Counting at 9 p.m. and The Little Couple at 10 p.m.
• FX (720p) has the season finale of Sons of Anarchy at 10 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) has Dirty Jobs at 9 p.m. and Ghost Lab at 10 p.m.
• DirecTV (1080i) has the series finale of Eyes at 10 p.m.
• History (720p) has How the Earth Was Made at 9 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) Wake Forest/Purdue at 7 p.m. and Michigan State/North Carolina at 9 p.m.
• ESPN2 (720p) has a college basketball doubleheader with Maryland/Indiana at 7:30 p.m. and Virginia Tech/Iowa at 9:30 p.m.
• Versus (1080i) has Blue Jackets/Blackhawks hockey at 7 p.m.

The promise of super resolution upconverting technology making all your old SD sources shiny and beautiful HD hasn't exactly translated to reality, but if viewers won't upgrade on their end, NEC is delivering its hardware to broadcasters with the SRVC-1000 transcoder. Split screen demo videos might not convince us to upgrade our TV just to watch old VHS tapes, but this rack mounted unit aims to keep archived video fresh or even allow them to keep using SD cameras -- although we'd rather they didn't -- saving money while upgrading to HDTV by producing smooth and clear upscaled video in real time. Hopefully the implementation of these units makes it even tougher to tell when some standard-definition is sneaking in, but we're not holding our breath.

Once upon a time Universal was the hybrid disc king, with plans to release up to 90% of its 2007 HD DVD titles on the dual sided discs, but we know how that ended. Now the company is back to its old tricks, ready to ship the first BD-59 discs with a 50GB Blu-ray / 9GB DVD configuration promising movie and all available special features in whichever format is desired. The expensive answer to a question no one was asking or the perfect way to add future proofing and extended compatibility to new movie purchases? We'll know more once a price is announced for the Jason Bourne trilogy of movies -- seeing their first individual Blu-ray releases -- due on January 19.

You can tell the count down to CES is upon us because the companies that make the things we love are quietly counting their holiday earnings and planning for the next big thing. As exciting as the anticipation is, it doesn't leave many things for us to talk about so we'll talk about our dreams from TiVo for CES and stupid things like HDMI marketing ideas. The FCC is almost always a good topic with broadcasters in fear of their business model and the MPAA dreaming of SOC for Christmas. Finally we talk a little 3D, unbelievable survey results, and our latest poll on your TV viewing habits.

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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh, Richard Lawler

Producer: Trent Wolbe

Program
00:57 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 164
06:35 - Is a new TiVo imminent?
12:37 - TiVo's 3Q results reveal Virgin Media UI deal, new remotes on the way -- but no new boxes
17:32 - Ask Engadget HD: What's the cheapest way to get streaming internet video on my HDTV?
22:08 - HDMI logos updated: version numbers out, supported features in
26:23 - Broadcasters predictably unsettled about FCC taking away spectrum
32:16 - Selectable Output control is bad, but not worth lying about
41:55 - Spending on cable and satellite services are up
50:14 - James Cameron thinks he can get viewers asking to wear 3D glasses
56:13 - Survey says 13 percent have never heard of Hi-Def
59:00 - Poll: What's the best night to watch TV?


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It's been over a month since we last heard anything about the rumored Comcast takeover of NBC, but things are slowly starting to move forward: Bloomberg says that NBC parent company GE has bought out Vivendi's 20 percent stake in the broadcaster for $5.8b, with up to a $2b refund due back if the Comcast deal isn't done by the end of 2010. That's no small gamble -- Comcast will have to clear a "gauntlet" of federal regulators from the FCC and FTC, who will scrutinize everything from the transfer of TV broadcast licenses in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles to the effects on competitors like Dish Network and Verizon, who will still want access to NBC's huge stable of content and programming. Big challenges, to be sure, but we get the feeling this deal is going down one way or another -- get ready for a rocky 2010.

In a time when technology gets cheaper and cheaper, no one likes to pay more for the same thing and the most infamously cheap -- when it comes to paying for programming -- cable provider is looking for your support. You see, cable companies are like most corporations in America, they don't really produce anything as much as they market and mark up other people's work, so when the actual content producers like Fox, Disney/ABC and Universal increase the price of its content, those costs get passed onto your cable bill. Now Time Warner realizes it's stuck in between a rock and a hard place facing the decision to not carry your favorite show, or raise your rates -- because we know the cost isn't going to come out of the profits -- it hopes to gain your support to get tough with the providers by launching a new site where you can vote. We're really not sure what the answer is on this one, but we do wish the content producers weren't allowed to bundle channels, that way when Time Warner Cable decided to hold out on USA HD, it wouldn't also mean we couldn't watch Syfy HD.

We all remember the fantastic crash and burn of Google Video before it gave up and just bought Youtube, so it should come as no surprise that Google would like to sell streaming videos online. The problem of course is that even if the newest TV shows and movies were offered without commercials and at the same time as on iTunes or Amazon On Demand, streaming just doesn't seem worth as much as a downloadable file. And since the studios really don't like to give anyone any additional leverage in content negotiations, it would be hard for Google to offer the same content, in a less portable way, for a lower price. Of course the real answer is to offer rentals, but for some reasons only Netflix has been successful in acquiring a license to stream the latest TV Shows in HD on a subscription basis. But Google is bigger than Netflix and since Youtube streams far more content than anyone else on the web (10.5 Billion views in October vs second place Hulu at 856 Million according to comScore) the company might just find a way to leverage its position to bring us a new way to catch our favorite show.

The reviews are in and now Terminator Salvation can be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home -- we do wonder why Warner didn't take the opportunity to release the ultimate Terminator collection, but we suppose that'll come later. Warner definitely has the strongest offering of any studio this week with a total of four titles including old favorites like Gremlins and The Green Mile. Also this week are two of our favorite British films with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, which are both entertaining and hilarious -- although not really comedies.

• Terminator Salvation (Warner)
• Ben 10: Alien Swarm (Warner)
• The Green Mile (Warner)
• Gremlins (Warner)
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Universal)
• Snatch (Sony)
• A Christmas Tale (Criterion)
• Deadline (First Look)
• Death Warrior (Lionsgate)
• The Mask of Zorro (Sony)
• Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (Fox)
• Paper Heart (Anchor Bay)
• Ride Around the World (Image)
• Secondhand Lions (New Line)
• UltraMarathon Man (ChannelSources)

According to the National Retail Federation, 29 percent of Black Friday shoppers visited electronics stores and some of the hottest items were those that are near and dear to our heart like HDTVs and Blu-ray players. So we wonder what you might have bought on Black Friday. Personally we wouldn't be found dead near any store on Thanksgiving weekend -- and generally avoid retail stores for the month of December -- but then again it shouldn't be much of a surprise that we do most of our shopping online.

The path back to LCD leadership for Sharp begins at its just opened Sakai City manufacturing facility. Being a 10th generation facility means it can roll out more and bigger displays, producing six 60-inch LCDs from each glass substrate, 60% more than older 8g facilities. Check out the pics for a peek at where 72,000 substrates per month will be made, delivering those slim LED backlit televisions getting so much love, along with solar panels (also being installed on the roofs for that extra green vibe that's in vogue these days) and a few of the more than 100,000 energy efficient LEDs lighting the factory itself. Whether your closest HDTV purchase is a turkey fueled memory from last weekend or yet to come, bargain hunters and AV fans alike can appreciate an eyeful of the robots and testing equipment slicing, dicing and stamping screens headed for shelves nearby, whether bearing an Aquos brand or any number of other nameplates.

What we're watching tonight:

• NBC (1080i) has Heroes at 8 p.m. and Trauma at 9 p.m.
• Fox (720p) has House at 8 p.m. and Lie to Me at 9 p.m.
• CW (1080i) has One Tree Hill at 8 p.m. and Gossip Girl at 9 p.m.
• USA (1080i) has WWE: Raw at 8 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has Little People, Big World at 8 & 8:30 p.m.
• A&E (720p) has the season premieres of Intervention at 9 p.m. and Hoarders at 10 p.m.
• History (720p) brings the season premiere of Pawn Star$ at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Patriots/Saints Monday Night Football at 8:30 p.m.

ClearPlay -- remember those guys? You know, the outfit who garnered all sorts of attention years ago by having their content filtering DVD players yanked from store shelves, only to be vindicated by Congress itself? Amazingly enough, these cats are still hanging around, and they've just pushed out their first filtering DVD player to upscale content to 1080p over HDMI. As expected, the $99.95 deck still sports the same filtering technology that gives dutiful parents the ability to block objectionable content based on customizable settings, but now you can rest easy knowing that any slip-up in blocking a steamy bedroom scene will be viewed by your impressionable youngster in glorious high-definition. Huzzah.

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, November 30th 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.

Sky has kept pushing the 3D broadcasts to the home envelope and one of the benefits of its extensive testing programs should be 3D soccer broadcasts coming home around the middle of next year. The best news of all is instead of the anaglyph technology seen so far, this should be compatible with the 3D HDTVs on the way from Sony, Panasonic and others capable of delivering high quality imagery to viewers polarized glasses. Just like earlier tests this can all come home through standard boxes and satellite dishes, the only question is whether subscribers will be in a hurry to purchase the necessary display hardware --pending price announcements, we still think sports action is the best bet for 3D to gain a foothold at home.

[Thanks, pankomputerek]

When Belkin killed its FlyWire, it also put a serious hurtin' on the hopes of wireless HDTV ever truly taking off in the near term. Granted, the device was horrifically overpriced, but it was easily the most well-known product in the fledgling sector. Now, however, it seems that a few other players are sneaking into the limelight, with Philips recently introducing its sub-$1,000 Wireless HDTV Link and Sony pricing its DMX-WL1 for the everyman. Today, Best Buy's own Rocketfish has introduced its WirelessHD Adapter, a two-piece set that enables a single HDMI device to be connected to an HDMI-enabled HDTV sans cabling. You simply plug your source into one box and your HDTV into another; so long as the two are within 33 feet of one another, 1080p content can be slung without wires. It's up for order right now at $599.99, which -- amazingly enough -- is actually more expensive than that 30-foot Monster HDMI cable you were secretly eying.

What we're watching tonight:

• Fox (720p) has The Simpsons at 8 p.m. and The Cleveland Show at 8:30 p.m.
• Showtime (1080i) has Dexter at 9 p.m. and Californication at 10 p.m.
• ABC Family (720p) has The Dog Who Saved Christmas at 8 p.m.
• CBS (1080i) airs A Dog Named Christmas at 9 p.m.
• HBO (1080i) presents The 24th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert at 8 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) has the season finale of Storm Chasers at 9 & 10 p.m.
• ABC (720p) has Desperate Housewives at 9 p.m. and Brothers & Sisters at 10 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) has Sunday Night Football with Steelers/Ravens at 8:15 p.m.
• History (720p) has Cowboys & Outlaws at 9 & 10 p.m.
• Travel (1080i) has the series premiere of Meet the Natives at 9 & 10 p.m.
• Food Network (1080i) has Food Network Challenge at 8 p.m. and Iron Chef America at 9 p.m.
• Discovery HD Theater (1080i) has WRC @ Finland action at 8 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) airs The 650 lb Virgin at 10 p.m.
• ESPN2 (720p) has West Virginia/Portland college basketball at 10 p.m.