Despite inexplicably choosing to broadcast this year's British Open in standard definition, the BBC pinky swore at a news conference Wednesday that next year, all would be in high definition, it just hadn't been ready yet to invest in HD cameras. As it is, even with thorough widescreen coverage from ABC & TNT, and DirecTV dropping in one of their snazzy HD Mix channels for the event, we'll still know deep down that we're not watching it in the best quality available. So, F1, you're on deck, no excuses.

Bad news golf fans, HDSportsGuide has confirmed that yet again, this year's British Open will be in standard definition on ABC and TNT. At least it will be in native widescreen and the event will be covered thoroughly, including shots from ABC's Segway-mounted Steadicam and X-MO super slow motion camera, but we still can't get over living in a world where the WNBA draft is in 720p and one of golf's major championships and F1 racing aren't.

Just as we heard back in February, Time Warner and Comcast have joined hands in order to regain control on some of the content that is slipping right out from under 'em. In the olden days, the only portal for catching content was the 'tube; today, a vast array of television shows are available gratis on the web, and that's downright frightening for pay-TV operators. Today, both firms are detailing TV Everywhere in the most general way possible, only telling us that paying Comcast subscribers will soon have access to "premium long-form content" via a web portal. TNT and TBS are the only networks specifically named thus far, but considering that both of those already offer their best programming online to everyone, we're not terribly impressed.

The agreement also includes a trial with around 5,000 Comcast users, which will be used to heavily test a newfangled authentication technology that will be necessary to allow paying Comcast users to access the material from any internet-connected PC. NewTeeVee has also assembled a clean, easy-to-digest FAQ that explains what exactly all this is. To be frank, it seems like a solution in search of a problem from the consumer viewpoint. After all, with portals like Hulu and individual network websites already providing in-demand content online, why is there even a need for some "special portal" for Comcast users? We've heard that paying subs will have access to even more material, possibly movies or other premium shows. But we won't front: we certainly don't want TV Everywhere to convert some of the content that's already free into pay-only content in order to accomplish the aforesaid "even more" goal. At any rate, the public at large probably won't hear more about this until the trial sessions end at an undisclosed time, but you can bet we'll be keeping a cautious eye on any developments.

Read - TV Everywhere press release
Read - NewTeeVee FAQ

Anyone watching Tuesday's episode of Leverage (The Wedding Job) probably quickly noticed that instead of the crisp 720p image we've become accustomed to, it was being delivered in TNT's disorienting stretch format, taking a 4x3 picture and adjusting whatever it thought we weren't looking at to fill the gaps. Why TNT still uses this at all in 2009 is beyond us, but we got in contact with Executive Producer (and blogger) John Rogers to find out what happened. We still don't know the details, but he let us know via email that it was a simple case of someone transmitting the wrong version, so we should be able to look forward to properly formatted TV for the rest of its run (let it be known: if someone screws up The Closer, there will be consequences & repercussions.)

Read - AVS Forum
Read - Kung Fu Monkey

While we knew both FOX and TNT were destined to land in Germany at some point, the latter won't be arriving until January of 2009. For those unaware, FOX has actually already launched in Deutschland, but you can bet your bottom dollar, er, Euro, that TNT is hoping to be a formidable competitor. TNT Serie, as it will be dubbed, will unfortunately be aired in 16:9 24 / 7, which likely means at least some content will be shown in stretch-o-vision. Still, we're hearing that the programming lineup will be quite robust, with re-runs of US favorites 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Everybody Loves Raymond, Monk, King of Queens and quite a few others. As for carriers, it seems as if discussions are ongoing with a number of cable and IPTV providers, but nothing definitive has been uttered just yet.

[Thanks, Chris]

Though it's been an uphill battle for Germans looking to acquire fresh new content, it seems as if two blockbuster stations could be headed their way, and soon. According to a pair of German-language sites, both FOX and TNT will be arriving in short order, with the former going live on May 19th via pay-TV provider Arena. We're also told that Premiere (another carrier) will be picking up FOX shortly thereafter. As for TNT, there's been no specific air date listed, but word on the street has it pegged for a launch on Premiere in the not-too-distant future. Unfortunately, the biggest detail (to us, anyway) was left out, so we'll just have to wait and see if HD versions show up alongside the SD counterparts.

[Thanks, Chris]

Read - Details on FOX launch
Read - Details on TNT launch

Our friends at TV Squad let us know that TNT will be airing all three Lord of the Rings movies December 15th. This will be the network television debut of the third film in the series, The Return of the King. Unfortunately what we're not sure about is whether the HD channel will be airing original aspect ratio 1080i beauty or stretched widescreen upconverts. As the films have yet to make their debut on HD DVD or Blu-ray we're keeping our fingers crossed but given TNT's history with stretching content we can't assume anything. The films will also be available for HDTVs via VOD, but that's no assurance as when the Star Wars trilogy aired on Cinemax it was OAR, but cropped on video on-demand, so they may be different. We appeal to our readers, does anyone know if the previous Lord of the Rings films shown on TNT were native or upconverted, and if there's any way to tell which these will be? Our plans for next Friday are riding on it (like we have plans).

[Via TV Squad]

That was the gist of a presentation by News Corp president Peter Chernin Tuesday. He said that consumers with high priced home theater systems would be "desperate consumers" of such offerings. Apparently his plan calls for "rental" releases via cable and satellite 60 days after they hit theaters. They think this could create new market for "home premieres" between the theatrical release and typical DVD windows.

So wait, you want me to see the movie in the theater, download it, then buy it on DVD? So instead of producing better movies that people want to come out and see, the movie industry just plans on consumers being willing to pay to see the same movie overandoverandover.....sounds like TNT's weekend lineup.

This plan seems really bad, Philip Swann at TV Predictions doesn't sound too enthused and neither does Henning at HDBlog. Are we all missing the point and there is actually a huge market for this or do you think it will crash and burn?

[Via digg]

TNT-HD was up Friday morning on channel 75, I am excited to get the first new HD channel on DIRECTV in a long time and now that I have TNT-HD I can share my opinions about it.

The first thing I saw when I turned it on this morning was a stretched, up-converted episode of Charmed with a "IN HI-Definition where available" on the screen. I am happy to have a new channel, but I wished they would do a better job of distinguishing between the SD and the HD shows. I undestand that not everything they show is in HD, but the least they could do is label it properly and don't even get me started on the "DD 5.1" which 90% of the time isn't 5.1 at all.