TVSquad

It seems these days when anyone talks about Arrested Development, the conversation inevitably turns to the still up-in-the-air film sequel -- something that's proven to be more elusive than finding your own Cornballer. Last we heard, the film was actually in development (a term that only loosely means what it's supposed to in Hollywood), but in the meantime, though, there is some good news - IFC has picked up the off-network rights to Arrested Development.

We'll have a lot of season premieres coming up in the next few weeks, but I would say that tonight is a big night, too. Not only do we have the season opener of Gossip Girl on The CW, we also have the long-awaited debut of The Jay Leno Show on N "we don't have scripted shows at 10 anymore" BC.

What are you going to watch? Lincoln Heights and Greek? Monday Night Football? One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl? Or are you going to watch something on cable or the news? Or maybe DVDs/DVR stuff you haven't watched yet? Will you give Leno a try?

It becomes extraordinarily tough to do reports during the cable sessions, mainly because the various networks give you one session after another without much time to breathe. You're also shuttling back and forth between two ballrooms. Finally, if you happen to be lucky enough to get some one-on-one time with a few people (as I did with Joan Rivers and the guys behind the new BBC America show The InBetweeners)... well, it leads to posts that don't go live until nighttime on the East Coast.

Heck, I haven't even written about last night's AMC cocktail party and the comic stylings of Jon Hamm yet. That'll come when I get a chance. The latest info and quips will always be on our Twitter feed if you're curious.

For now, though, some highlights of the day:

Get ready for scores of underpants puns as AT&T Uverse adds the Shorts International channel to their lineup. They're calling their version ShortsHD and describing it as " a unique entertainment channel dedicated to short movies."

The world's first channel dedicated exclusively to shorts includes mini-films from around the world divided into different genre and theme collections. One of its more prominent shows, "Stars in Shorts" (See what I mean?), features major movie faces like Keira Knightley and Michael Cera appearing in original short-form productions.

There are actually some interesting titles in this ultimate short attention span line-up, including the Star Trek themed "Orion Slave Girls Must Die!" and the Disney examination, "Dream on Silly Dreamer."

There are two significant things to take from the news that Army Wives will return for a fourth season. One, the predominantly female viewership of Lifetime has embraced the series about the lives of Army personnel and their families on the Fort Marshall post in Charleston, South Carolina; and two, scripted dramas are on the rise all across the cable networks. It also means that this finely acted, well-written and well produced show is going to be around for the next couple of years at least.

As we all know, and are probably tired of hearing because it makes us so damned depressed, the recession is hitting everyone hard. Businesses are closing left and right, people are losing their jobs, and unemployment rates are hitting levels not seen since the days of leg warmers, headbands and tainted Tylenol. It's bad enough that even if people still have a job, their employers are taking extensive belt tightening measures to make sure they are prepared for the worst.

One of the things being eliminated from families' budgets during this belt tightening is their cable or satellite hookup. With costs that can total over $100 a month, families are just not ready to dump that kind of cash on something they feel doesn't have any value. That doesn't mean they are going without television (especially after the DTV switchover) and turning to a simpler life of canning vegetables, making quilts, and attending square dances. Rather, they are switching off their hi-def flat screens, turning on their computer flat screens, and getting their TV fix over the Internet.

After a much publicized battle, Time Warner Cable and Viacom have settled their dispute. For the new year, Time Warner Cable subscribers can enjoy such channels as Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, VH1 or (God help them) MTV.

I didn't see this going any other way. If Viacom withheld its (very popular) line-up of channels from TWC, both of them would lose a valuable revenue stream. This is not a good idea in such an economy where people lose their jobs; I've learned that when the income stops coming in for most households, the first thing to go is cable television. This is not the case for me because the first thing to go in my house in such a situation would be the groceries (no way am I giving up Stephen Colbert).

At least subscribers can now enjoy such greats as Spongebob Squarepants, South Park, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Sadly it means they'll also have to put up with The Hills.

Time for an impromptu poll, boys and girls. Something that will shake you out of those holiday blahs that the egg nog, Christmas cookies, and constant replays of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer have caused. Something that will get your brain working again and make you think about your television viewing habits.

I want to know where you are watching most of your shows. Are you still one of those people who focus their attention on the major 'over the air networks' of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and, on occasions when the month ends in a capital 'A', CW? Or, are you one of those new-fangled hippies who do nothing but watch everything and anything on cable? Or, perhaps, it's a bit of both.

This really isn't stunning news, as both shows are loved my millions and get great ratings every week, but I think it will bring a smile to people's faces as we watch the Dow go down again.

USA Network has renewed Burn Notice for a third season and Psych for a fourth season. This means the new seasons that will begin in the summer of 2009, not the current season which had its summer finale this summer and will launch the second half of their seasons in January.

You know, TV seasons used to be a lot easier to figure out.

A week from now, HBO will probably be one of the big stories from the Primetime Emmys thanks to the success of the John Adams mini-series. But it's not sitting on that success, the premium cable net is banking on it. HBO announced today a mini series based on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln called Manhunt. That news would be interesting enough because the series will deal with the 12 days after Lincoln was shot when the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was on the run. However, the guys that HBO have tapped to work on Manhunt are two of the best in television -- David Simon and Tom Fontana.

HBO knows Simon and Fontana's work really well. Simon was the creator of The Wire and Fontana's brainchild was Oz. This is also not a new collaboration. Fontana turned Simon's book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, into the Homicide: Life on the Streets TV series for NBC.

Sure, it's been over a month since we started hearing reports that Boston area Comcast customers have been able to sign up for TiVo software on their Motorola set top boxes. But now TiVo and Comcast have gone and made the whole thing official-like by issuing a press release (not yet available on either company's web site) and getting the news in the papers.

The advantage of getting TiVo service from your cable provider is that you get the TiVo program guide and services like Season Pass, WishList, and search while hanging onto services from your cable provider like video on demand. Comcast currently offers 10,000 On Demand titles, including 1300 movies.

On the other hand, you don't get some of the features that make standalone boxes like the TiVo Series2 or Series3 attractive like TiVoToGo or online media.

Comcast will bill customers $2.95 per month on top of their regular DVR and cable fees. The service is currently available only to customers in the greater Boston area, but is expected to roll out in other parts of the country soon.

Want to capture high definition television on your home theater PC, but don't feel like shelling out $1000 or more on CableCard tuners that only work with Windows Vista? Hauppauge is preparing to launch a $250 box that will capture 1080p video from a cable or satellite box and automatically transcode it to H.264 video for storing on your PC.

The Hauppauge HD PVR connects to your set top box's component or "YPrPb" output, so what you're capturing is an analog signal. You'll need to use an IR blaster to let the USB TV tuner change channels.

When you combine the analog source with the fact that your video will be compressed, it's safe to say that you won't get the same kind of video quality with the HD PVR as you would with a true CableCard tuner. On the other hand, the HD PVR is going to be a lot cheaper than the competition. And while CableCard tuners only work with Windows Vista Media Center, Hauppauge has a good track record of putting out TV tuner cards that work with everything from BeyondTV and SageTV for Windows to MythTV for Linux.

[via Brent Evans]

(S02E12) So, was it good for you too? I've read all of your gripes about the season, in particular the past few episodes, and I see where you were coming from. However, there's something about this show that makes me more quick to suspend disbelief and allow a few things to slide so I can enjoy other aspects of the show.

TiVo released their quarterly earnings yesterday and while the company lost about $8 million dollars, that's nothing new. What is new is a tiny little nugget buried in CEO Tom Rogers' remarks that indicate the company is working out the details for a set top box that supports 2-way communication with a cable provider.

In plain English, that means support for video on demand, because in order for VOD to work, you need to be able to send a signal upstream to your service provider and not just receive a signal sent to your box.

Right now you can only get VOD and TiVo service if you either have two set top boxes or a Comcast box with TiVo software. If the next TiVo box (we'll all it the Series4, even though TiVo may have done away with that naming scheme with the release of the TiVo HD), could work as a complete replacement for your cable company box.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

TiVo and cable industry officials have announced plans to develop an adapter that will let TiVo users watch and record switched digital video channels without a set top box. Even though you'll need an external adapter to play, this technology will only work on TiVo units with CableCard support, which effectively means that Series2 TiVo owners need not apply.

Switched Digital Video is basically a new method for delivering digital video channels to your home. Because you're probably only watching one channel at a time (or recording one or two channels while watching another), there's no real reason for a cable operator to transmit all 300 channels to your house at the same time. But since there was previously no way for cable companies to know which channel you wanted to watch at any given time, they simply transmitted all the channels at the same time.

Switched video enables two-way communication. If you want to watch C-SPAN, your box will send a signal upstream telling the cable operator to start sending the channel your way. The upshot is that cable companies can offer more channels using the same bandwidth.

You should be able to pick up a shiny new switched digital video adapter for your TiVo HD or Series3 TiVo from your cable company during the second quarter of 2008.