Once upon a time, a smattering of new HD channels in one major metropolitan area was a huge deal. Nowadays, it's almost expected that one area or another will experience some HD expansion each week. In order to keep things nice and tidy around here, we deliver high-def expansions, market expansions and anything else dealing with HD channel growth right here. If we missed an area that you're familiar with, drop us a line in comments so everyone can catch up. The more the merrier, we say!

Read - Charter Communications switches channels, expands high-definition cable TV in West Michigan
Read - WealthTV to Enrich Channel Line-Up on Cincinnati Bell
Read - Comcast adds to HD lineup in Baltimore County
Read - Oceanic Time Warner Cable releases 8 new HD channels
Read - MASN finally makes it perfectly clear
Read - Mediacom to Launch Big Ten Network
Read - Cox renumbers lineup, adds 12 new HD channels (Fayetteville)
Read - More HDTV choices are on the way (Milwaukee)
Read - TIME WARNER ADDS TO CHANNEL LINEUP (Chillicothe)
Read - NBA At-Home Viewing Just Got Better With Verizon FiOS TV's NBA LEAGUE PASS Widget
Read - Cox makes changes to channel lineup (Louisiana)
Read - New HD channels coming to Yuma area (Arizona)
Read - Time Warner Cable adds five HD channels (Akron)

What we're watching tonight:

• Fox (720p) has Dollhouse at 8 p.m.
• MyNetworkTV (720p) has WWE: Smackdown at 9 p.m.
• ABC (720p) has Ugly Betty at 9 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has Say Yes to the Dress at 9 p.m. and Four Weddings at 10 p.m.
• Starz (1080i) airs Crash at 10 p.m.
• Syfy (1080i) has Sanctuary at 10 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has an NBA doubleheader with Blazers/Cavaliers at 8 p.m. and Magic/Suns at 11 p.m.
• ESPN2 (720p) has William & Mary/Villanova college football at 8 p.m.

Looks like EpixHD may have a second distribution partner soon, Bloomberg is reporting rumors that it is close to a deal with Cox to bring the premium movie network / online streaming service to its network in 2010. Analys reports peg as many as 1,000 FiOS subscribers per day signing up for the channel in its first month there, but that investors are currently focused on the slow progress in expanding to other carriers for Epix. more than a third of them take advantage of the online streaming, we'll see if capped & throttled cable customers have the same response.

Take that AT&T. The only thing better than a success story is a comeback, and after being stuck in a tailspin shedding over 100k customers in Q4 of 2008, Dish Network has announced it added more customers than anyone else in the third quarter. Over 150,000 shining new faces... and paying customers helped it tick over the 14 million mark for the first time. Now, on to resolving the TiVo issue and getting that new SlingLoaded DVR out the door.

Likely as much of a triumph for the cost effectiveness of shooting in high-definition as proof of its mainstream acceptance, the fourteenth season of ABC's The Bachelor will be the first to air in HDTV. As viewers tune in for this weeks episode of stupid human tricks and absolute degradation, they can take comfort in knowing every tear, argument and rose ceremony on the way to wedded bliss will be captured in 720p. Hey, with Jon & Kate off the air we needed this one, don't judge us.

Mandated by the FCC, Firewire ports have been commonplace, and sadly mostly unused, on our HD DVRs for some time, but recent requests by Intel and TiVo to forego their inclusion have brought the situation to a head. Multichannel News reports the 1394 Trade Association is calling Intel's waiver request "too broad" and cited its wide deployment as reasons it should still be included. Beyond some driver hacks to enable transfers of DVR'd programming, it seems like Ethernet and USB are getting the lion's share of use on boxes, while emerging DLNA and MoCa tech makes moving content around even easier, is anyone actually getting a benefit from the extra port on their boxes as we go into 2010?

What we're watching tonight:

• CBS (1080i) airs Survivor at 8 p.m., CSI at 9 p.m. and The Mentalist at 10 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) has Community at 8 p.m., Parks & Recreation at 8:30 p.m., The Office at 9 p.m. and 30 Rock at 9:30 p.m.
• Fox (720p) has Bones at 8 p.m. and Fringe at 9 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has American Chopper at 9 p.m. and BBQ Pit Masters at 10 p.m.
• FX (720p) has the season finales of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia at 10 p.m. and The League at 10:30 p.m.
• History (720p) has Gangland at 9 p.m.
• Spike (1080i) has TNA! Impact at 9 p.m.
• WGN (1080i) has WWE Superstars at 8 p.m.
• TNT (1080i) brings an NBA doubleheader with Celtics/Wizards at 8 p.m. and Magic/Jazz at 10:30 p.m.
• NFL Network (1080i) has Steelers/Browns football at 8 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Syracuse/Florida college basketball at 9 p.m.
• ESPN2 (720p) has a college basketball doubleheader with DePaul/Mississippi St at 6:30 p.m. and Miami (OH)/Cincinnati at 8:30 p.m.

The DVD rental kiosk war continues to heat up, with NCR acquiring competitor DVDPlay to add around 1,300 kiosks under its Blockbuster Express umbrella, while Coinstar joyfully announced its surpassed expectations with the rollout of Redbox, now numbering 22,210 installations. For the last six months its maintained a pace of more than one kiosk every hour, 24/7. Is there anywhere you'd like to see one of these automated dispensaries that doesn't have one yet? Odds are there will be three new ones by the time you finish reading this post.

We know most of you steered clear of retail zones that weekend but Black Friday was still big for HD, with NPD sales data revealing sales increases of 15 percent for HDTVs and 53 percent for Blu-ray players. No word on the average prices of Blu-ray players sold, but television prices have dropped so sharply (to an average price of $535) that revenues actually dropped 9 percent from last year. Regretting missing out on a particularly hot Black Friday deal? Your pain runs deep, share it with us.

After hitting CES with a bang, it's been a quiet year for the TV widgets movement, but Rallycast isn't giving up, going from app developer to announcing its own TV App Store for 2010. The company's CEO Jeff Allen calls its plans to allows multiple programs running at once similar to tabbed browsing on the PC. Not having to pick and choose what's running is great, but while we love our Firefox, its never ending performance issues and the already poor reputation of speed on widget televisions could be a slow, scary mix. Hopefully a year of development (and maybe some newer HDTVs at CES?) can improve performance, because the last thing we want is lag when it comes to updating fantasy football rosters, deleting that note Mom left on our Facebook page, or both. Samsung's LED TVs will support the new store, as well as "several other models" check the full PR after the break.

The WiGig Alliance captured our imaginations back in May, but now it seems that the world of multi-gigabit streaming is so close, we can taste the data slipping over our tongues on their way to the next access point. Put simply, the specification that the group has been toiling on over the past few months is finally complete, and while some of its members have been prototyping wares along the way, this 1.0 announcement effectively opens the flood gates for partnering outfits to implement it into their gear. In case you're curious as to how 60GHz will help you, have a listen: WiGig enables wireless transfer rates more than ten times faster than today's fastest wireless LAN, and it's completely backward compatible with existing WiFi devices. As we've already seen with those totally bodacious dual-band (2.4GHz / 5GHz) routers, having another band with this kind of speed potential can only mean great things for the future.

We had a talk with Dr. Ali Sadri (the group's chairman and president) as well as Mark Grodzinsky (board director and marketing work group chair) in order to get a better idea of what's at play here, and frankly, we're anxious to see this get implemented into... well, just about anything. WiGig v1.0 supports data transmission rates up to 7Gbps, and if living in a house full of WiGig-enabled devices, you could finally envision streaming HD content from a bedroom PC to an HDTV and a living room netbook without any wires whatsoever. In the case of the netbook, there's even a chance that the embedded WiGig module could support faster transfer rates than the sockets around the edges, which would simultaneously enable wireless to be faster than the wired (at least in this scenario) and your brain to melt.

Finally, the group has picked up four new members -- NVIDIA, AMD, SK Telecom and TMC -- though unfortunately, WiGig wouldn't comment on the future availability of 60GHz products. We were told that they would be shocked if anyone had a prototype 60GHz device on the CES show floor, but you can bet that won't stop us from looking. Oh, and if we had to take a wild guess, we'd surmise that companies interested in speeding up their own offerings will be jumping on this quick, so hopefully you'll be ditching 2.4GHz once and for all come next summer(ish).

Nothing says "extreme" quite like wrist-guards... and knee pads... and elbow pads... and a PS3 Slim backpack. Epson combined all that and more to create its vision of an "extreme gamer," a Ghostbusters cast-off with a gaming console on his back and an EH-TW450 projector on his chest used to splay Need for Speed: Shift on the walls of buildings, the ceilings of clubs, and the interiors of wind-tunnels. It's exciting stuff, shown in the video below. Why this projector out of all the company offers? We're not entirely sure. It's a 3LCD 720p model with a 3000:1 contrast ratio and a single one watt speaker that probably couldn't overcome the din of all the road traffic this extremophile was dodging. If you want in on this kind of action expect to pay about $1,000 -- for the projector. You're on your own for the rest of the kit. Loss of self-respect? That comes for free.

In a move that could help counter the instant gratification valley that currently separates online shopping from heading to the local retailer, Amazon is pushing a "limited time offer" called Disc+ On Demand that pairs 300 or so of its movies with a free Amazon VOD copy. That digital version pops into the buyer's Video Library instantly after purchase and still has to play by all the usual video on-demand rules of 24 hr / 30 day windows, U.S. address, and is currently only available in standard-definition. Still, this combination of the digital and physical purchase worlds means the online giant has beaten Best Buy's similar plans to the punch and approaches the convenience of Netflix's Watch Instantly. Just its usually lower prices has already driven many of you to be come online only disc buyers, we'll see if this helps Amazon grab the rest.

What we're watching tonight:

• CBS (1080i) has The New Adventures of Old Christine at 8 p.m., Gary Unmarried at 8:30 p.m., Criminal Minds at 9 p.m. and CSI: NY at 10 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) has Mercy at 8 p.m. and Law & Order SVU at 9 p.m.
• Fox (720p) has the fall finale of Glee at 9 p.m.
• ABC (720p) airs The Middle at 8:30 p.m., Modern Family at 9 p.m. and Cougar Town at 9:30 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) has Mythbusters at 9 p.m. and Is It True? at 10 p.m.
• FX (720p) has Nip/Tuck at 10 p.m.
• DirecTV (1080i) has Friday Night Lights at 9 p.m.
• Syfy (1080i) has Ghost Hunters at 9 p.m. and Ghost Hunters Academy at 10 p.m.
• Showtime (1080i) has Inside the NFL at 9 p.m.
• History (720p) airs Nostradamus Affect at 9 p.m. and the season finale of MysteryQuest at 10 p.m.
• A&E (720p) has Dog the Bounty Hunter at 9 & 9:30 p.m. and Steven Seagal: Lawman at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
• TBS (1080i) has House of Payne at 9 & 9:30 p.m. and Meet the Browns at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Bulls/Hawks basketball at 7 p.m. and Kentucky/UCONN college basketball at 9:30 p.m.
• ESPN2 (720p) has Georgia/St. John's college basketball at 7 p.m.

Whoa, we sort of guessed the Boxee Box was going to be small from those press pics we saw the other night, but we didn't know it was going to be freaking tiny -- check out this shot of the asymmetrical set-top next to a Coke can just posted up on the Boxee blog. Sadly, neither Boxee nor D-Link has updated us on what's actually powering this little guy, but we do now know that it'll have an RF remote control and S/PDIF and RCA audio outputs in addition to HDMI, SD, USB, WiFi, and Ethernet. Sounds like a tiny little chunk of awesome -- we're looking forward to finding out way more at CES.

Just in case you weren't sure what's inside, these boxes for the upcoming Jason Bourne Blu-ray releases -- due on Universal's new flipper DVD combo discs -- are very clear about what to expect. While they may be slightly better than our Photoshopped imagining, we suspect even more than a blazing BOTH VERSIONS ON ONE DISC header, it will be the (still unrevealed) pricetag that either pull customers in or pushes them away January 19.

Data caps and tiers could be on the way for the mobile side, but things look all good for AT&T's U-verse TV service, as it announced it has crossed the 2 million subscriber threshold (up from 1.3 million at the end of Q1) and is snapping up 60% of the share of customers in new markets. Even better, a new High Speed Internet Max Turbo package just launched, offering customers 24 Mbps down / 3 Mbps up speeds for $65 a month, closing out a year that's seen the launch of new HD channels, new interactive apps, Total Home DVR and expanded availability overall. Of course, that just means the bar has been raised for our 2010 expectations. we're thinking a Sky TV-like Xbox 360 tie-in, expanded streaming video portal and... another new remote?

Who doesn't love some mini home server action? The only problem with storing all your media on a convenient networked drive is when it comes to playing it back, since not all streamers will play nice with one of these. That's the case for our friend Chris, but we'll let him tell it:

"I have been watching for a review of a product that will solve my movie streaming needs, even waiting for Sonos to do a video product. I have a lot of DivX movie files on an NAS, and would like to be able to view them on my TV (without needing my PC to be on as a media server), I would prefer a wireless solution, but could do a cat5 cable if needed. Any ideas on the best way to do this?"

Now, we might suggest a box that pulls double duty as NAS and media player, but he's probably looking for a solution that doesn't require importing from Japan. Let us know how you get it done.

Got a burning question that you'd love to toss out for Engadget HD (or its readers) to take a look at? Tired of Google's blank stares when you ask for real-world experiences? Hit us up at ask at engadgethd dawt com and keep an eye on this space -- your inquiry could be next.

Hopefully you haven't exceeded your daily allowance of the letter 'i' yet this morning; this post could push you into CamelCase overload. British electronics maker Cello has announced iViewer, a line of LCD HTDVs available in £399 ($650) 26- and £499 ($815) 32-inch models that will directly stream BBC's iPlayer, no silly gaming console or set-top box required. They'll also stream a variety of other digital channels, including YouTube and American CNN -- so why is it that Americans still can't stream content from the Beeb? Sets will be selling soon exclusively at Marks and Spencer stores, and would have been available months ago if not for a delay thanks to an unidentified but apparently American chip maker. Sure, blame the US. Everything's our fault.

We recently got a chance to check out NVIDIA's 3D Blu-ray ecosystem, and while we're sure we'll be all 3D Blu-ray'd out by the time CES is over, it was our first chance to see the new tech in action, and it seems pretty raring to go. Specifically we got to check out a movie film (we can't say which for legal reasons) on a fancy new upcoming Acer LCD (the 24-inch G245, pictured above) that does 120Hz and can be synced with NVIDIA's 3D shutter-based glasses. The 3D looked just fine, on par with other movies we've seen from NVIDIA in the past, and close to what we've seen in theaters, with the exception being that this is being delivered on a backwards-compatible, consumer-friendly Blu-ray disc. 3D Blu-ray is encoded in a new MVC-AVC format, which passes through a regular 1080p video for incompatible hardware, but provides a 3D image for the software and decode hardware capable of sussing it out. Right now NVIDIA's 3D Blu-ray capable on existing GeForce GT 220 and GT 240 GPUs, along with its upcoming Fermi cards due next year. Software is even more plentiful, with Arcsoft, Core, Cyberlink and Sonic all promising to by ready for 3D Blu-ray titles when they start shipping next year. Once the 3D Blu-ray spec is formally announced we're sure the floodgate will open even wider, but for now it seems NVIDIA has a nice jump on the tech, and we're sure they wouldn't mind pocketing a few of your gaming dollars in the meantime.