It’s time for Thanksgiving, but whether or not you’re planning on overeating this weekend, there’s plenty of reasons to chill on the couch for a while. Football season is heating up, both college and pro, and throughout the week most of our primetime TV schedule remains intact. Of course, we will say goodbye to iCarly, and tune in for the final race of the F1 season.Look below for the highlights this week, followed after the break by our weekly listing of what to look out for in TV, Blu-ray and videogames.

Tarantino XX
While many high profile releases have either already gone on sale or are waiting until after the Black Friday rush, fans of Quentin Tarantino may be interested in this Lionsgate/Miramax collaboration. Collecting eight of the director’s movies into one box Tarantino XX includes special packaging and artwork as well as two extra discs with all new bonus materials. There’s a trailer after the break, if you somehow haven’t seen Reservoir Dogs, True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds yet.
($69.99 on Amazon)

Brazilian F1 GP
The Formula One season wraps up this weekend at Interlagos, and the driver’s championship is still in doubt. Whether you’re watching to see Vettel take his third series victory in a row, hoping for Alonso to snatch the crown away or waiting to see if the drivers on the move next year like Hamilton, Schumacher or Perez snatches one last victory under their current banner, it should be an exciting one.
(November 25th, 11AM, Speed TV)

The Walking Dead – The Video Game
While the current season of the AMC TV show still has a couple of episodes left before break, Telltale is dropping the finale of its episodic adventure series this week. According to Joystiq the story has improved as it’s gone along, snag the digital download on your platform of choice (Xbox Live, PSN, PC, Mac, iOS) to find out how the story of Lee and Clementine ends.
(November 20th on PSN, 21st everywhere else)

Continue reading Must See HDTV (November 19th – 25th)

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Must See HDTV (November 19th – 25th) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While American carriers are lengthening upgrade cycles and pushing people off unlimited data plans if they want a subsidized device, companies across the pond are actually looking to get customers to trade up more often. Vodafone’s Red Hot isn’t quite as flighty as JUMP, but the basic premise is the same. Rather than buy the latest high-end smartphone, you rent it. Then when the time comes, you simply trade it in for the new latest and greatest. While Phones4u lets you switch handsets impulsively every six months, Vodafone goes with a more reasonable yearly upgrade cycle. With the Red Hot plan Vodafone customers get a new smartphone, unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and “loads of internet,” though we’d argue 2GB hardly qualifies as “loads.” Pricing will vary based on handset, but we can tell you a Galaxy S III will currently set you back

Development of the XBMC project has continued to roll along since Eden launched officially earlier this year, and now the first beta for v12 Frodo is live. Those who dive in will experience a slew of new features that have been trickling out in monthly builds recently, including support for HD audio formats like DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD, live TV and PVR access plus versions for Android and Raspberry Pi. There’s a long list of features to check out — and known issues, this is a beta after all — check out the official blog for all the details and to try it out yourself.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

XBMC 12 ‘Frodo’ Beta 1 appears, includes support for Android, Raspberry Pi, HD audio and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Star Trek franchises go Enterprise may not be TOS or TNG, but it was the first one to be broadcast in HD way back in 2003. The Digital Bits points out that StarTrek.com is letting fans pick box art for Season One and Two sets that will see a release next year, and notes rumors all four seasons could ship before 2014. Since HDTV broadcasts didn’t start until the third season this should be an extra treat for devoted followers, however the juiciest rumor listed is the possibility of an X-Files Blu-ray set next year from Fox — stay tuned.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Star Trek: Enterprise Blu-ray release next year tipped as fans pick box art originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony has announced that it’ll release an SDK to 4k developers this month for its recently launched XAVC video format used by the new F5 and F55 CineAlta camcorders. The new specification uses MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video compression, which allows up to 12-bit color depth, 60 fps shooting speed at 4k and 180 fps in HD. So far, fourteen companies including Adobe and Apple have signed on as licensees, and Sony says the format may come to consumer products as well. Details of the program along with an SDK will arrive this month, just in time for a possible Ultra HD onslaught.

Filed under: Cameras, HD, Sony

Sony to release XAVC 4k video spec, licensees include Apple, Adobe originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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