Just hours before the Xbox 360's newest dashboard update hits tomorrow morning (10:00 a.m. GMT), our friends at Joystiq noticed the list of movies available for Netflix Watch Instantly streaming has suddenly dropped. The culprit? Sony Pictures Home Entertainment subsidiary Columbia Pictures, flicking previously available titles like Superbad, Bad Boys, and We Own the Night over to "Not available on Xbox" status (curiously, SPHE movies are still available to all.) Word from the official Netflix blog cites "the ebb and flow" of what is available on license at any given time causing a few hundred titles to be "temporarily" unavailable on the console, while still open for streaming for other devices, with an eye towards licensing them for the Xbox 360 soon. There's no way to know what movies won't work until adding them to your queue, so when you find your Karate Kid trilogy watching time suddenly wide open for more Gears of War 2 or Left 4 Dead action, just remember you have Sony to thank.

[Via Joystiq & Multiplayer]

Chalk another one up for MPEG-LA, as the licensing group's members have dropped lawsuits against Vizio stemming from the one-time value HDTV company's refusal to license MPEG-2 technology, claiming it's suppliers had already paid the necessary fees. Despite Amtran's pleas, just like Target's TruTech brand televisions and DVD players, that argument appears to have quickly folded, . It remains to be seen what direct effect this will have on price, but between this and Vizio's notable Black Friday absence they must be serious about changing to a more upscale image, we wonder if Sony will invite them to a special reception. (Warning: PDF read link)

If you skipped Walmart's pre-Black Friday festivities pat yourself on the back, as -- despite its lawyers hard work C&Ding unauthorized early ad postings into oblivion -- CNNMoney reveals the "doorbuster" highlights probably not worth getting trampled for this year. Between 5-10 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving the already-discounted Magnavox Blu-ray player drops from $198 to $128 (a BDP-S300 might still be a better value), 50-inch Samsung plasma of unspecified resolution is only $798 (720p, bet on it), and Xbox 360 + Guitar Hero III & wireless guitar pack (all the real plastic guitar aficionados have moved on to Rock Band 2) drops in for $199. Slightly lower profile are a $398 HP desktop PC and $175 gas grill but c'mon, we all know it's the high definition (it'll be a lonely holiday without the suddenly too-good for us Vizio) that will have you shivering outside your local retailer with the soccer moms and other deal hunters.

[Thanks, Jason]

Sure, not every station's pulled out the Star Wars / Iron Man-style holograms for the 2008 election, but they're all trying to put shiny new HD studios to full use and get as many eyeballs as possible until things are decided. NBC & ABC immediately jumped out front at 7 p.m. with data pouring in on the widescreen edges of their HD feeds, with CNN waiting until states were decided to begin updating their lists. ABC's chosen to lean on its touchscreen display and forgo side graphics altogether, while despite Fox's claim as "America's Election HQ", with totally bare shoulders and boring sets, we're pointing our flatscreens elsewhere. PBS, despite airing the clearest, most high quality video available of three old guys at a table, has no slick touchscreens or HD graphics packages to speak of. Think about that as you check out the rest of the screens after the break, and during the next donation drive. Big Bird deserves better.

Western Digital's WD TV HD Media Player kept a low profile before hitting shelves this month, but with only $99 separating MaddHat.com from a thorough teardown, the inevitable next step was taken. Besides snapshots inside and out -- and the ubiquitous iPhone size comparison photo -- a quick runthrough with a variety of MKV-packed videos revealed delightfully nerdy results. The 1080p h.264 decoding was smooth, although some odd sharpening on 720p files while in 1080p output mode, and less than optimal results with 1080i-encoded files were noted. 1080p24 support didn't make it into the box, same for .ISO direct support -- no worries though, as it wasn't enough to stop the .m2ts files in the Blu-ray backups from playing directly. Good for the price, but with stiff competition -- Popcorn Hour anyone? -- being "good enough" in this sector is getting harder, pics and details are beyond the read link.

The TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD join the ranks of the Xbox 360, Roku and various Blu-ray players, with Netflix Watch Instantly streaming movies coming to several thousand households today in beta testing, followed by a wide release scheduled for "early December." There won't be any additional fees (other than you TiVo and Netflix subs, of course) leaving the only questions when does high definition video arrive and how do we get in the early tests? Check out the full press release after the break.

[Thanks to Chris for the pic & everyone who sent this in]

Sony didn't want to make a big deal about this (so humble, that Sony) but the PlayStation 3's recent 2.50 firmware update has a few extra additions aimed straight at home theater buffs. First up is a place to enter your DivX VOD Registration code -- necessary if you want to get any of that Sony Pictures or Warner Bros. DivX-encoded video that's on the way -- along with new Sequential Playback and 50Hz video output settings, plus support for chroma upsampling & Mosquito Noise Reduction video enhancement on homemade Blu-ray discs and DVDs. On a more minor note, the BD/DVD settings section has been renamed just Video Settings, while the Cinema Conversion and Upscale options are getting all their mail delivered to BD/DVD Cinema Conversion and BD/DVD Upscaler, respectively. Peep the PlayStation site for the rest of the exciting details (there's a German keyboard layout change that is not to be missed), and then go back to watching Hulu in a tiny box with a poor framerate in your newly Flash-enabled browser.

[Via PS3 Blog]

Don't let the smooth transition experienced in Wilmington and other tests fool you, FCC member Robert McDowell just returned from a tour in Afghanistan Alaska, Montana & Oklahoma, and he's seen things, terrible things. Things that have convinced him that the transition on February 17, 2009 "will be messy ... but we will get through it" when over the air broadcasts go all-digital. Hopefully there's enough time (and money left in the budget) to take care of any problems -- the Government Accountability Office recently found that regulators are unprepared for the demand of consumers in need of help switching.

Samsung and LG are locked in a tight race for "best HDTV you won't be buying this year or next" this week at the International Meeting on Information Display 2008, trading shots with OLEDs, LCDs and more. Samsung brought along an upgraded version of its true 240Hz 15-inch Blue Phase LCD panel with improved image quality, some fresh carbon nanotube-based color electronic paper, plus slimmed-down versions of its 40- and 50-inch LCDs. Then it got busy with the OLEDs, dropping in a 14-inch HD display, 31-inch 1080p display and 5-inch VGA panel, to which LG could only respond with the above 19-inch OLED powered by amorphous silicon TFT. More stills of the carnage exist beyond the read link, but in the battle of display tech streeting in 2011 at the earliest, we just hope LG is holding back a few surprises for CES.

[Via OLED-Display, thanks Erik]

Tired of watching Amazon Video on Demand, Dailymotion and YouTube videos on your BRAVIA Internet Video Link? Coming through on its promise to send Hancock to Sony HDTV owners first, Sony Pictures is offering the flick (in 720p or 480p, depending on bandwidth) for $9.99 starting October 28 through November 10, and even throwing in a free Blu-ray copy after it's released November 24. We'll have to wait and see if the Hancock At-Home Premiere is a one of a kind promotion (note: the stream is "valued" at $29.99) or a regular benefit to owning a BRAVIA and accompanying $299 add-on, but we can't help thinking this would be alot more interesting if it were offered over the PlayStation Network.

[Via Sony PR]

Microsoft's New Xbox Experience has been pored over and dated, but now that Major Nelson has revealed it requires "at least" 128MB storage available to work, where does that leave suckers Core and Arcade SKU Xbox 360 owners? Enter the Xbox 360 Memory Upgrade Program, doling out free 512MB MU's or $20 20GB HDDs to Core owners, and a $30 20GB HDD + 3 months of Xbox Live package to Arcade owners looking to upgrade. November 19, Xbox Live becomes a storage-only affair (that goes for Netflix streams too, requiring 8MB of free space), so grab your serial number and console ID from the current Xbox 360 Dashboard and hit the registration website. Impressive customer service gesture to extend functionality for all, or more evidence of a short sighted and flawed dual-SKU launch plan that's cost gamers and developers alike? All we know for sure is we've probably figured out where the profits from those $149 120GB HDDs are going.

[Via NeoGAF]

Forget the lames waiting for a New Xbox Experience to bring Netflix streaming to the console, the latest edition of Media Mall's PlayOn Media Server beta includes Watch Instantly support right now. An update notification should be on the way to anyone already testing things out, the impatient can grab it from the website. Also streaming Hulu, CBS, YouTube, ESPN and others to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, HP MediaSmart TV or other DLNA hardware (Nintendo Wii's still on the coming-soon list) the presence of Netflix (and the recent Watch Instantly additions) gives even more reason to check it out. Since its still in beta don't be surprised to find a few issues, but considering our smooth sailing so far, the list of reservations over its $30 price tag (after the 60 day free trial period is over) is rapidly shrinking.

Digital Cinema Implementation Partners (DCIP) -- representing AMC, Cinemark and Regal Cinemas -- has worked out a deal to finance the installation of thousands of digital movie screens starting next year in the U.S. with the help of Lion's Gate, Paramount, Fox, Universal and Disney. Not participating, at least for now, are Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures, with the latter expected to announce a separate deal soon involving the installation of Sony 4K SXRD projectors around the world. Key to the deal? "Virtual print" fees, meant to help defray the expect $70,000 cost to switch to 3D-ready digital projection setups, as the studios will kick in the $800 - $1000 they would have spent on old school movie prints to finance the changeover. In the future they save by distributing only digital prints, not to mention having somewhere to show the dozen 3D flicks expected to debut next year. Both sides are betting the $1 billion package will help pull us away from the HDTVs and back into a movie theater, but until they work out a payoff with that one guy who won't stop talking, we're not sure how likely that is.

Read - Wall Street Journal
Read - Reuters
Read - Variety

Adding to its line of professional displays, NEC is bringing the LCD8205 to 2008 Digital Signage Expo East. We've seen bigger in the consumer space, but when you've just got to have 4x4 tile support for a max 328-inch (diagonal) display, refreshingly realistic 5,000:1 claimed contrast ratio and 1920x1080 resolution, there's not much better. At $54,999 each, it's unlikely we'll find one under the tree when it releases in December but catching a peek (and fogging up a display window or two) is slightly more attainable goal.

[Via CE Pro]