Not even four whole months ago, Best Buy was pushing its Insignia NS-BRDVD Blu-ray player for $349.99 with a $100 coupon book. Now, that same pamphlet of discounts comes bundled in a box stickered at just $229.99. We've reckoned here lately that once the $200 price point was met by a few manufacturers, BD units would start flying off shelves more briskly; we can't say $230 is close enough just yet, but it's sure good to see things moving in the right direction.

[Thanks, Anthony]

Here we have it folks: the world's first mid-range DSLR to shoot 720p. A heavenly product for high-def junkies, wouldn't you say? After all, how could anyone who appreciates tightly packed pixels even the slightest not be into shooting 720p clips from their DSLR? Unfortunately, it's probably not that cut and dry. For starters, Nikon engineers decided that Motion-JPEG was the way to go, and as we saw on the PowerShot TX1, that very decision kept it from being absolutely amazing. Even if you've got a memory card capacious enough to handle the format (which chews through free space pretty rapidly), do you really think this camera is an acceptable replacement for your HD camcorder? We're all about gadget consolidation, but we're curious as to who all is really ready to ditch their current setup for this. Any takers?

[Thanks, Stephen]

RealNetworks, the company you love to hate, is back with a new product sure to capture the attention of Hollywood and its MPAA thugs. For $30, RealDVD plans to do what DVD Jon enabled years ago -- namely, making digital copies of your DVDs. Unlike Jon's illegal DRM stripping software, RealNetworks' approach lays on additional DRM allowing you to make a single copy, only, playable on the machine doing the rip -- up to five additional Windows PCs can be authorized at a cost of $20 per.

Real thinks that the use of the additional DRM coupled with Kaleidescape's legal victory -- a ruling that seemingly authorizes users to copy DVDs for their own personal use -- will help it escape the wrath of the MPAA. Not that RealNetworks has ever been afraid of a fight as demonstrated by its 2004 scuffle with Apple when it began offering software that allowed iPods to play Real's DRM'd content. Good thing too because we're pretty sure that shutting down the planned start of RealDVD's sales at the end of this month is the number one topic around the bunny-juice dispensers at the MPAA offices this morning.

[Via cnet]

We know, you're all politics, sports, tech and other "serious" subjects when it comes to your HDTV programming schedule, it's just you have this...friend who watches daytime syndicated programming. Tell your "friend" that talk show hosts Ellen, Oprah (only a year after initially rumored) and Dr. Phil will all make the jump to glorious high definition. Later in the day, Entertainment Tonight and The Insider make the jump to 720p/1080i (depending on your local station and if they're ready to handle syndicated HD at all), complete with newly built sets and likely a few extra layers of makeup. Anything else your "friend" is still waiting to see get a resolution bump? Check after the break for a video tour of ET's new HDTV-ready digs.

Read - Dr. Phil
Read - Entertainment Tonight & The Insider

What we're watching tonight:

• MTV (1080i) has the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at 9 p.m.
• ABC Family (720p) brings the season finale of Samurai Girl at 8 & 9 p.m.
• HBO (1080i) presents the series premiere of True Blood at 9 p.m. and Entourage at 10 p.m.
• History (720p) has the season finale of Ice Road Truckers at 9 p.m. and the series premiere of Sandhogs at 10 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) has Sunday Night Football with Bears/Colts at 8:15 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) presents Painted Babies 2 at 9 p.m. and Toddlers & Tiaras at 10 p.m.
• AMC (1080i) drops in Mad Men at 10 p.m.
• ESPN HD (720p) has MLB action with Phillies/Mets at 8 p.m.

CEDIA 2008 was a whirlwind of new projectors, HDTVs and all sorts of other wares that home theater freaks just love. As always, we were here in the Mile High City covering every minute, but we completely understand if you missed anything. Just in case, we've compiled a summary of what all happened here in Denver, and make sure you head on past the break for the rest.

Hands-ons

Hands-on: Sony shows off prototype 400-disc Blu-ray Mega Changer
Hands-on with LG's BD300 Netflix / Blu-ray deck
Hands-on with the THX-certified QuietHome door
Hands-on with Niveus Media's Denali, Rainier and Cargo media wares
Hands-on with Sony's SXRD BRAVIA VPL-VW70 and VPL-HW10 projectors
Hands-on with Hitachi's 1.5-inch thick plasma prototype
Hands-on / a look within Pioneer's Elite BDP-09FD Blu-ray player
Hands-on with Toshiba's SRT REGZA HDTVs (and other old crap)
Eyes-on with Sony's BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray player

Cogeco Cable last updated its lineup in a noteworthy way in February, but now customers in Ontario, Canada can feast their eyes on two new high-def channels that are actually worth viewing. Effective immediately, the "majority" of subscribers in Ontario can tune to TSN2 HD for nonstop sports and Super Channel HD for high-definition versions of series, movies, documentaries and music. Check 'em out now (if you haven't already) on slots 729 / 765, respectively.

Runco's booth at CEDIA this year wasn't nearly as outlandish as SpeakerCraft's, but it definitely had an outdoor vibe to it. Curiously, all of the outfit's newly announced kit wasn't out for viewing, but the flagship 70-inch Crystal Series CX-70DHD (and its external DHD video controller / processor) was hard to miss. Now, if only affording one was as easy as browsing the gallery...

Generally speaking, we've always found NuVo Technologies' products a tad too pricey for what they are, but who are we to think for everyone, right? All of its mainstream gear was in attendance, from the NV-M3 music server to the Essentia E6G to the all new Renovia. Give the whole fam a look in the gallery just below.

projectiondesign's overhead sign was practically larger than its array of projectors, but those uniquely designed boxes drew our attention and wouldn't let go. Thus, we snapped a few shots of what we saw, and while everything there was too rich for our blood, no one said we couldn't stare real hard. Dive in below.

Silly AT&T -- don't you know by now that installing those cabinets of yours is a dead giveaway that U-verse is coming? According to a report from the Daily Herald, said carrier is installing the first of 135 utility cabinets around the city (which sits about 30 miles west of Chicago; more information on service areas here), and Greg Jones, project manager for the city, is hoping that "increased competition among service providers will benefit residents." That competition he refers to is none other than AT&T's fiber-based U-verse TV / internet / phone service, but it'll take some three years to get those 135 boxes installed. Oh, and don't even pretend that AT&T isn't madly in love with Illinois, it's pretty obvious at this point.

Well, would you look at that. The little Massachusetts startup that got all of our hopes up with a localcasting ZvBox showed up at this year's CEDIA, and while it didn't bring much to the show (after all, it only has one product), there seemed to be a good bit of buzz around the floor. We're still giving ours a thorough run-through, but if you're anxious to see what ZeeVee was doing in Denver, check out the gallery below.

While Control4 didn't make a lot of fuss about the few new products that it rolled out at CEDIA, people knew about 'em, regardless. Easily one of the most packed booths at the Expo, this one showcased the full gamut of wares offered up by the home automation outfit. We snapped images from every angle imaginable, and we even got a few with the new touch panels and remotes. Don't believe us? Just have a look at the gallery, it's all there.

What we're watching tonight:

• CBS (1080i) has U.S. Open Tennis at 8 p.m.
• Fox (720p) brings the season premiere of Cops at 8 & 8:30 p.m.
• ABC Family (720p) drops in Samurai Girl at 8 & 9 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) brings Hope for Your Home at 8 p.m.
• Cinemax (1080i) has The Bourne Ultimatum at 10 p.m.
• ESPN HD (720p) presents Florida/Miami college football at 8 p.m.
• ESPN2 HD (720p) has Texas/UTEP college football at 10:15 p.m.
• HBO (1080i) presents Boxing After Dark at 10:15 p.m.
• FSN HD (720p) brings Stanford/Arizona State college football at 10 p.m.

We're not quite sure what this means for the immediate future of OTA programming in the UK, but we suppose a "huzzah!" is in order either way. Reportedly, those complicated DVB-T2 Freeview HD trials that were underway have been successful, with Auntie Beeb achieving the "world's first reception of HD pictures over DTT using DVB-T2." If you couldn't guess, DVB-T2 is a successor to the existing DVB-T broadcasting protocol which provides additional bandwidth and more swagger to TV signals. In theory, the switch to DVB-T2 (in conjunction with the move to MPEG-4 from MPEG-2) will enable more high-def content to be available in the UK. Of course, when we say "more," we basically mean "any" -- estimates assert that just three HD stations will be available OTA in the UK by 2009, one of which will be owned by the BBC and the other two by ITV, Channel 4 or Five.