The TV Zone

Big weekend in high-def homes. First comes Universal HD’s first-season marathon of “Jericho,” the fan fave starting its second season on CBS Tuesday night at 10 (Feb. 12).

“Jericho” on Universal HD runs from Saturday 10 p.m. to Sunday 8 p.m. (Feb. 9-10), catching viewers up to speed on all the post-nuke drama. You can read all about second-season plans in Newsday’s Sunday feature story interview with producer Carol Barbee.

High-def homes with access to the HDNet Movies channel can also enjoy “Lawrence of Arabia” Sunday at 6:15 p.m. (Feb. 10). This is the restored director’s cut of the epic 1962 adventure with Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif that made the AFI’s Top 100 Movies list at No. 5. The film repeats on HDNet Movies later Sunday night at 12:30 a.m. and four more times this month.

How big can high-def news get? How about pump-you-up muscle-bound behemoth big? And sexy-blonde-babe big, too.

Latest to announce HD plans is World Wrestling Entertainment, which says it’ll beam its national matches in HD starting next week (Jan. 21).

“Friday Night SmackDown” on The CW goes HD Jan. 25 to broadcast stations around the country. Cable/satellite homes that get HD feeds of USA and Sci Fi get more clarity in “WWE’s Monday Night RAW” and “A.M. RAW” (USA), plus “ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling” (Sci Fi). Even WWE pay-per-view outings like Jan. 27’s “Royal Rumble” will offer high-def sweat.

Thanks to the switchover, WWE has built new sets for “RAW” and “SmackDown.” No word yet on any work done to make the wrestlers HD-ready.

Cablevision’s HD lineup currently seems to be the gift that keeps on giving. Just in time for college football’s annual bowl-o-rama, the cable provider is today adding ESPN2 HD, a simulcast of the standard-def channel using HD video when available, on Ch. 735.

Upcoming events in HD on ESPN2 include Friday night’s New Orleans Bowl (Memphis vs. Florida Atlantic), Saturday’s Papajohns.com Bowl (yes, there is such a thing, pitting Southern Miss vs. Cincinnati), and Sunday-Tuesday’s 2007 World Series of Poker.

Peruse HD offerings for both ESPN and ESPN2 at hd.espn.com.

DirecTV has added another dozen channels to its satellite-delivered high-def lineup.

Bravo, Sci Fi, USA, MHD (MTV's high-def outlet), Cinemax East, Cinemax West and HBO West appeared this week. Various regions now also see their local sports channels in HD, including SportsNet New York and YES (also New England Sports Network, Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, and Comcast SportsNet Chicago).

That makes 41 national HD channels, plus regional local sports.

DirecTV has promised 100 high-def channels by year's end.

So you might well see those major league baseball playoffs in HD.

(Though perhaps not the Mets playing in them.)

Cablevision announced it's adding TBS HD to its high-def lineup by the time early-round playoffs start Wednesday. Some customers will see it on Ch. 739 as early as Monday. The cable provider says that'll mean it carries 41 HD channels, including the 15 VOOM offerings.

TBS HD is already carried by DirecTV, and is being added to some Time Warner and Comcast cable systems.

On its announced march to 100 high-def channels by year’s end, DirecTV today added 21 more.

Now feeding an HD signal (if not always true high-def programming):

A&E; Network, Animal Planet, Big Ten Network, CNN, Discovery Channel, The History Channel, The Movie Channel, NFL Network, Science Channel, Showtime West, Sho Too, Starz, Starz West, Starz Comedy, Starz Edge, Starz Kids & Family, TBS, TLC, Versus/Golf Channel, The Weather Channel.

Also included -- the just-launched Smithsonian Channel.

The HD news site TV Predictions analyzes the look of the new channels, and offers tips on making sure the signal comes in correctly.

Reports say DirecTV hopes to roll out these HD channels in October: Bravo, Cartoon Network, Cinemax East and West, CNBC, Food Network, Fox Business News, FX, HBO, HGTV, the planned MGM channel, National Geographic Channel, Sci Fi Channel, Speed Channel, USA Network. They’re also aiming at HD versions of Bio, CMT, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike, VH1, CSTV and The Tennis Channel.

Missed last night’s big “Heroes” return? NBC is happy to help you out.

The second-season premiere repeats on NBC (in high-def) this Saturday, Sept. 29, at 8 p.m.

And it’s streaming online now at NBC’s “Heroes” page, along with last May’s first-season finale. The site also hosts Monday night’s live blog with “Heroes” creator Tim Kring and star Jack Coleman (H.R.G.).

And if you're lucky enough to have a Verizon V CAST Mobile TV equipped phone, you can even watch it on that teeny-weeny cell screen via NBC2Go.

“Nissan Live Sets on Yahoo Music” moves from the web to TV tonight when MTV’s high-def channel MHD premieres a half-hour set by Rascal Flatts, Monday at 9 p.m. (repeats at midnight and 2:30 a.m.).

The twice-monthly internet series will be seen monthly in HD on MHD, while still available on-demand at the Yahoo site with such added content as backstage photos and in-person blogs. Performers have included Melissa Etheridge, Maroon 5, Common, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson and The Stooges.

You can also catch an encore of this year's MTV Video Music Awards in high-def on MHD this Saturday at 9 p.m. This means Britney Spears in unsurpassed clarity -- be warned. If standard-def is all you can stand, regular old MTV repeats the ceremony Monday at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 4 p.m., Thursday at 10 a.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.

History Channel HD has launched on DISH Network satellite, joining the likes of HGTV HD, Food Network HD, A&E; HD, high-def simulcasts of Animal Planet and The Science Channel, and more than 30 other HD offerings.

In addition, Turner says as of Sept. 1 it has officially “made available” TBS HD and CNN HD, though it’s hard finding any provider carrying these new companion channels to long-established TNT HD. (All three are simulcast “mirrors” of the regular standard-def offerings.)

Satellite competitor DirecTV has previously announced it plans to offer many more HD channels with the recent launch of additional satellite capacity. Among the channels reported to be going HD on DirecTV later this fall: ABC Family, Bravo, Cartoon Network, FX, Sci Fi and USA.

Online’s AVS Forum keeps track of HD offerings here.

So it’s two months early.

With director Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” remake opening today in theaters, VOOM’s Monsters HD channel is running the 1978 original that made Jamie Lee Curtis a star, in high-def, of course, tonight at 11 p.m. (The trailer is playing on the Monsters HD home page.)

It’s followed at 12:30 a.m. by Curtis’ 1981 sequel “Halloween II,” and then “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch” (2:05 a.m.), “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” (3:45 a.m.) and “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers” (5:15 a.m.).

Rob Zombie has a regular TV gig, too, hosting TCM’s Underground showcase of weird, wild and warped flicks late every Friday night. It’s actually on hiatus for August’s Summer With the Stars event, but returns late Sept. 7 with the young Francis Coppola’s 1963 shocker “Dementia 13” (2 a.m.), followed by William Castle’s 1961 “Homicidal” (3:30 a.m.).

Jerry Garcia not being available to host “Dead Art,” the VOOM Gallery HD series turned to Twisted Sister's Dee Snider.

Starting Wednesday night at 8:30, our homeboy hosts this 10-part high-def travelogue of “the world’s most visually compelling cemeteries.”

(Which just goes to prove there’s a show in everything.)

The first episode visits Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, the resting place of such New York notables as the Tiffany family. The fifth episode (Sept. 26) heads to the Bronx's Woodlawn Cemetery, where Duke Ellington and Miles Davis are interred.

Other aesthetically (and historically) interesting locations include L.A.’s Forest Lawn, Tarrytown’s Sleepy Hollow, Paris' Pere Lachaise and New Orleans’ St. Louis #1 and Metairie Cemetery.

Acclaimed series including “Iconoclasts” and “Live From Abbey Road” get a new high-definition showcase Wednesday nights.

Universal HD is launching a weekly Sundance Channel program block Wednesday at 8 p.m., to continue through the end of the year.

Tonight’s first-night lineup features an 8 p.m. “Iconoclasts” interview between actor Samuel L. Jackson and basketball giant Bill Russell; “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” (9 p.m.), exploring “green” concepts through segments featuring ethanol racing cars and vegetable oil fuel recycled from a fried chicken party; and 9:30’s “Abbey Road” concert with John Mayer, Norah Jones and Richard Ashcroft.

Preview video here.

So now the high-def wars get interesting.

Cablevision just announced it’s adding the VOOM suite of 15 HD channels previously available only on Dish satellite (and before that on a stand-alone satellite service created as a Cablevision subsidiary). Starting Tuesday (June 26), they’ll be added to Cablevision’s existing lineup of two dozen HD channels, including the broadcast networks, premium movie channels, FSN, MSG, ESPN, Discovery, NatGeo, TNT and Universal. Cablevision says that means it will offer more HD channels than any other provider.

VOOM offerings -- all shot or remastered in HD rather than upconverted -- tend toward niche treats like the Gallery arts channel, WorldSport, Rush extreme sports, Monsters HD horror, Kung Fu HD and GamePlay, plus broader-appeal feeds FilmFest and Family Room.

Meanwhile, DirecTV keeps talking up the full-time high-definition channels it plans to add by the end of the year, most of which are HD versions of current offerings -- CNN, USA, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, Disney, History, A&E;, TLC, Food Network, HGTV, Bravo, FX, even The Weather Channel. DirecTV is launching two new satellites, and claims it should have 100 channels by fall (including multiple sports feeds).

Cable industry behemoths Comcast and Time Warner have been boasting they’re upping HD capacity, too, though they’re less eager to name channel names.

What’s on VOOM? Details here.