TV Premieres, Finales & Specials This Week 05/23/2010

Each week GeekTonic covers the TV scene with a complete listing of premieres, finales and specials for the week.  This would be week two of the biggest finales.  Lost, 24, Chuck and More.

Don’t miss the Ultimate Guide to the Summer 2010 TV Season with free PDF downloads!

And the TV Status – Guide to which shows are canceled and renewed for next season

This week is the final episode of 24.  What happens to Jack?

NOTE: All Times are Listed for EST – TV schedules subject to change

 

Sunday, May 23

The Simpsons (8pm on Fox – Available in HD) – Season finale

The Cleveland Show (8:30pm on Fox – Available in HD) – Season finale

Family Guy (9pm on Fox) – Season finale – A retelling of “The Empire Strikes Back”

Celebrity Apprentice (9pm on NBC – Available in HD)  – 2-hour Season finale

Lost (9pm on ABC – Available in HD) – 2 and 1/2-Hour Series finale (and there’s a recap special starting at 7pm in case you skipped some of the show)

The World’s Fattest Man (9pm on TLC) – Series premiere of a new realityTV series about, well you get the point from the title.  And I’m sure it this episode will get tons of ratings since it’s competing with Lost’s finale right?

 

Monday, May 24

24 (8pm on Fox – Available in HD) – One of my favorite shows comes to an end with a 2-hour series finale

Chuck (8pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Season finale

How I Met Your Mother (8pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

The IFC Media Project (8pm on IFC – Available in HD) – Season 3 of the Independent Film Channel’s docu-series that gives an inside look at how news gets made.

10 Things I Hate About You (8:30pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Season finale

Rules of Engagement (8:30pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

Two and a Half Men (9pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

The Bachelorette (9pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Season 6 begins

The Big Bang Theory (9:31pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

Law & Order (10pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Series finale.  This show ends with it’s 20th season.  Forever known in my house as the “Duh Dun” show…

CSI: Miami (10:01pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

 

Tuesday, May 25

NCIS (8pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

The Biggest Loser (8pm on NBC) – Season finale

NCIS: Los Angeles (9pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

Dancing With the Stars (9pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Season finale

The Good Wife (10pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

Parenthood (10pm on NBC – Available in HD) – Season finale

 

Wednesday, May 26

American Idol (8pm on Fox – Available in HD) – It’s Simon’s last time as a judge on American Idol.  Season finale

Criminal Minds (9pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

Cellblock 6: Female Lock Up Guilty… So You Think (9pm on TLC – Available in HD) – New documentary with 8 women coping with their incarceration in Gwinnett County Jail; one woman prepares for her release

CSI: NY (10pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Season finale

 

Thursday, May 27

FlashForward (8pm on ABC – Available in HD) – This is the series finale since they cancelled it prematurely.  I’m many episodes behind so I’m torn between watching them all or just deleting the lot and moving on.

So You Think You Can Dance? (8pm on Fox – Available in HD) – Season 7

100 Questions (8:30pm on NBC – Available in HD) A new “ensemble” comedy project spotlighting the life of Charlotte Payne living in NYC looking for love.

Police Women of Memphis (9pm on TLC) – New reality TV show

Mall Cops: Mall of America (10pm on TLC) – A new reality TV show about mall cops at the Minneapolis Mall of America

The OCD Project (10pm on VH1) – Another realityTV show.  This one has 6 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder arriving at a treatment center.  Hmm.

 

Friday, May 28

The Tyra Banks Show (5pm Syndicated) – The end of Tyra Banks talk show.

Past Life (8pm on Fox) – Season finale

 

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Quick Update – SageTV 7 Beta Available for Download

You saw the preview of SageTV’s new version – SageTV 7 yesterday.  Now you can download SageTV 7 and try it out for yourself.

From SageTV Forums:

Version 7 Public Beta Has Begun!

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It's that time again to start the public beta process for a new version of SageTV.

We've been pretty busy over here for awhile and have a bunch of new things in V7 of SageTV. Let's start of with the list of the major new features for V7 of SageTV.

Get the complete changelog and download at SageTV Forums

Stay tuned for a complete walkthrough of the new UI, features and add-ons here at GeekTonic coming soon.

Plex HTPC Software for Macs Shares Sneak Peek

As I was working on my SageTV 7 post, Dave at ZatzNotFunny! picked up the latest on the next version of Plex:

“The Mac OS X port (er, fork?) of the XBMC project continues to push forward. Like a Boxee, Plex turns our Macs into media centers — designed to be controlled via a 10′ interface. However, as the team’s sneak peek of recent alpha builds (video above) indicates, there are times when it’s more practical to manage our content libraries at the computer… rather than from the couch. With that in mind as we drive towards v1.0, Media Manager functionality has been removed from the primary, remote-controlled Plex UI and is accessed as a separate app, best worked by mouse. Additionally, Plex looks to embrace the whole home concept and pretty seamlessly links up to additional Plex Mac installs.”

Plex/Nine First Peek from Elan Feingold on Vimeo.

This Article was reprinted from ZatzNotFunny! with permission.  If you haven’t already, be sure and subscribe to ZatzNotFunny! for great coverage of digital media.

SageTV 7 Arrives Tomorrow – New UI, Plugin Manager, and More

GeekTonic has big news about popular Home Theater PC software, SageTV.  The next version of SageTV – SageTV7 should be available as a public beta sometime tomorrow!

UPDATE:  SageTV 7 Beta is now available for download


Since CES, we knew a new SageTV version was coming and that it would include a new UI.  I have had the opportunity to preview this new version and thought I’d run through the more significant new features, changes and improvements.

More Info after the Jump...

Moving Imported Video into TV Recordings – SageTV Tip

One of my many hang-ups with HTPCs is organization of the media.  In my perfect world, all TV shows up under TV regardless of whether it is something I recorded using my HTPC tuners, something I imported from a video file or even a ripped TV-series DVD from my DVD collection.  When someone using my HTPC is looking for a TV show it should always be listed under TV.
The problem with this is SageTV sees things differently.  If you import a video file – even if its a TV show it knows it hasn’t been recorded from the DVR function and therefore relegates it to “Videos.”  So what’s a perfectionist to do?
The answer is actually quite simple although I haven’t found a clear-cut how-to on this so I decided to write one myself to help out other overly-orderly SageTV users like myself.
There is another method that involves a very impressive metadata manager for SageTV called BMT (Batch Metadata Tools).  I’ll hold that method for a future how-to for now and focus on this simple method using SageTV Web Server:
The complete how-to after the jump…

Deal of the Day – Hauppauge HD-PVR $179.99 AR

It’s been a while since we’ve had the deal of the day here at GeekTonic, but honestly I haven’t seen anything that caught my eye until now.  The Hauppauge HD-PVR which is soon to be a supported Windows 7 Media Center device and already working great for all other HTPC software programs is on sale at Newegg (affiliate).

Newegg has the Hauppauge HD-PVR 1212 Hauppauge HD-PVR component tuners (read more about it here) for your HTPC setup now for $179.99 after rebate with free shipping:

Hauppauge HD PVR High Definition Personal Video Recorder 1212 $179.99 ($219.99 – 15 instant off - $5 with promo code EMCYSZP46 ends 5/19 -20$ MIR  All with free shipping. 

Thanks to NeilH for the tip!

Ask the Readers - Which OS For Your HTPC?

As I prepare for the next in the “HTPC Basics” Series, I thought I’d reach out to GeekTonic readers to see which operating system you use.  Please vote for the OS you’re using on your HTPC – if you have multiple ones with different HTPCs in the home, feel free to select each OS in the poll.

As an added benefit, I’m testing out the Polldaddy service as a possible tool for polls and surveys here. 

Comments welcome as always!