
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] – [originating url]
A few users are reporting that Comcast sent across an unannounced update to their digital set-top boxes. We can’t confirm exactly where or what boxes are affect just yet but we can tell you for certain that the greater Detroit area boxes received the update. So far we have found that high-def programs are now labeled as such, the DVR menu has been updated to include searches and now the main menu has an HD option. There could be more updates buried but being as Comcast hasn’t came out and told us what they are, these are the only things we could find.