Saturday, June 12, 2010

TV Premieres, Finales & Specials This Week 06/12/2010

Each week GeekTonic covers the TV scene with a complete listing of premieres, finales and specials for the week.  True Blood premieres this week along with a pile of other, lesser known shows.  Check out the complete list of new premieres and finales this week below.

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

True Blood

True Blood Premieres season 3 Sunday, June 13

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

 

Sunday, June 13

Unnatural History (8pm on Cartoon) – A new animated series that follows Henry Griffin, a teenager with skills acquired through years of traveling the world with his anthropologist parents. He must now use those skills to move back to America and attend a public high school.

The 64th Annual Tony Awards (8pm on CBS – Available in HD) – Feature performances include Green Day, Lea Michele & Matthew Morrison

True Blood (9pm on HBO – Available in HD) – Season 3 premiere of HBO’s vampire series – this is certainly not Twilight...  And this season throw in a werewolf or two for good measure.

Breaking Bad (10pm on AMC – Available in HD) – Season finale

Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami (10pm on E!) – Season 2 premiere.  So did you know Ryan Seacrest is the executive producer of this realityTV show focused on the Kardashian’s?

Design Star (10pm on HGTV – Available in HD) – Season 5 premiere

Breaking Bad (10pm on AMC – Available in HD) – Season finale

Holly’s World (10:30pm on E!) A new realityTV show with Holly Madison & her life in Las Vegas as she pursues new friendships, love and her new home.

 

Monday, June 14

Cash Cab (6:30pm on Discovery – Available in HD) – Season premiere of the game show.

Food Buddha (10pm on TLC – Available in HD) – A new series on TLC hosted by chef Rodelio Aglibot.  The chef travels cities to uncover new restuarants with the help of a local food guide starting in New Orleans.

 

Tuesday, June 15

It’s Effin’ Science (9pm on G4) – Angie Greenup & Marc Horowitz team up with engineer Chad Zdenek to create & build strange things in the name of science.  First up: potato cannon, pheromones and more.

Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List (9pm on Bravo – Available in HD) – Season premiere of another realityTV series.

Double Exposure (10pm on Bravo) a new realityTV series on Bravo

After the Catch (10:01pm on Discovery – Available in HD) – Season premiere for the realityTV series follow-up to “the Deadliest Catch”

 

Wednesday, June 16

Top Chef (9pm on Bravo – Available in HD) – Season premiere of the popular realityTV/contest series

Hot in Cleveland (10pm on TVLand) – A new series with 3 best 40-something friends from Los Angeles end up in Cleveland and decide to stay because the locals think they are glamorous.   Starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White

Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (10:30pm on TBS – Available in HD) – Season premiere.  Sitcom

 

Thursday, June 17

The 2010 World Music Awards (8pm on MyNet) – Jennifer Lopes receives an award for her contribution.  Pre-recorded a month ago in Monaco

Donald J. Trump Presents The Ultimate Merger (9pm on TVOne) – A new realityTV/contest series where Omarosa (yes the one from Trumps other realityTV series) tests a group of twelve successful bachelors to find her perfect mate.  Sounds very familiar and amazingly even less interesting.

 

Friday, June 18

Miley Cyrus in London: Live at the O2 (8pm on ABC – Available in HD) – Miley Cyrus gets her first TV Network special.  Oh my!

Battle of the Wedding Designers (10pm on TLC – Available in HD) – A new realityTV series where couples choose a wedding designer to direct the wedding of their dreams.

 

Saturday, June 19

$100 Makeover (10am on A&E) – A new Home & Garden series on A&E

Last Chance Highway (8pm on Animal Planet – Available in HD) – A new Animal Planet series that follows Shelly Bookwalter & Kyle Peterson as the work to rescue dogs.  And it’s in HD – cmon, if Animal Planet is doing HD for shows like this there is zero excuse for the other nets to not go HD on all shows.

 

Sunday, June 20

‘Til Death (7pm on Fox – Available in HD) – Series finale

Jonas L.A. (8:30pm on Disney) – Season premiere with the Jonas brothers

Leverage (9pm on TNT – Available in HD) – Season premiere

Scoundrels (9pm on ABC – Available in HD) – A new comedy/drama based on a New Zealand series “Outrageous Fortune”.  Basic premise is a family of small-time crooks try to repair their bad habits.

The Tudors (9pm on Showtime – Available in HD) – The series finale is here.

Treme (10pm on HBO – Available in HD) – Season finale

The Gates (10pm on ABC – Available in HD) – A new action/suspense/drama that follows a cop hired as a police chief of a “planned community” that seems pretty harmless on the outside, but the cop soon discovers there is more going on then he first thinks.

If you follow GeekTonic for the TV Premieres and news, you’ll want to click here if you would like to get a regular e-mail for GeekTonic TV Premieres & News

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Hauppauge HD-PVR for Windows Media Center 7 is Here

Since I told you about the Hauppauge support for Windows 7 Media Center I’ve receive quite a few comments from the doubters, but this evening Hauppauge released their early, public beta driver that gives you native Windows 7 Media Center support for the Hauppauge HD-PVR.  This is at least as big as CableCard news for Media Center enthusiasts in my opinion as I’m a happy SageTV/Hauppauge HD-PVR user.  I hope this Microsoft MC version is as stable as the latest SageTV 7 version has been for me.

HDPVR Media Center

Get the download at the Hauppauge website & select “HD PVR  for Windows Media Center”

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

iPhone getting Netflix Streaming App

I happened to be away from my computer, but was still able to follow the Apple developer conference yesterday thanks to my iPhone and MacRumors live stream.  One of the more notable apps mentioned was a new, official Netflix app.

Netflix Streaming App for iPhone this Summer

The new Netflix app is set to arrive this summer and will be much like the iPad Netflix app.  You’ll be able to browse the Netflix site, manager your queue and stream video to your iPhone thanks to adaptive, bitrate streaming.

Netflix Streaming Eats up Bandwidth

I’ll talk more about this later, but if you plan to use this app on your iPhone, I sure hope you have the old (as of yesterday) AT&T unlimited data plan cause it won’t take more than about 13 hours of streaming in a month to hit your 2GB 3G limit otherwise!  This could be a real issue if you plan to placeshift to your iPhone from your HTPC down the road as well.

Netflix Streaming Selection Still Weak

Another ongoing problem with Netflix streaming for me is the so-so inventory of movies and shows.  The selection HAS gotten better, but still not great.  Because of that I just don’t use it all that much – even with my iPad.  Part of that is the fact that I want the highest quality possible which means Blu-ray or at least DVD, but also the selection is just okay.

Follow Me Video Viewing

On a more positive note, I was impressed that the Netflix app will have a “follow-me” feature kind of like SageTV does – you can start a streaming movie or show on your phone, stop playback and start back where you left off on another netflix streaming device.  Very nice feature and something I would actually use!

Bandwidth Limits Versus Mobile Streaming

The mobile streaming space is something to watch over the next 12 to 24 months.  The real battle has already begun with the telecoms fighting to protect their price per bandwidth but still keep customers versus the hardware manufacturers, streaming companies (Amazon, Netflix etc), and customer all wanting streaming on demand without limits.

SageTV 7 Plugin Spotlight - Horizontal Main Menu

MenuMod1

Now that SageTV7 has been around for a few weeks more and more plugins and add-ins are becoming available through the new plugin manager.  One of the more interesting ones is by the same guy working on the MyMovies for SageTV plugin, pluckyHD.  Today he’s released a horizontal theme called “Plucky’s Theme” and another plugin called “Plucky’s Menu Mod.”

 

Plucky’s Menu Mod lets you make the following modifications to the main SageTV7 menu:

  • Change the main menu to a horizontal orientation instead of the standard vertical layout
  • Remove items from the main menu
  • Rename main menu items – I’m especially happy about this one as I can now change “Videos” to be called “Movies” like I prefer
  • Move the menu bar to the top, middle or bottom of the screen

Here’s a quick demo video of the theme & menu mod in action:

 

 

Below is the options menu:

MenuMod2

And the re-name menu:

MenuMod3

Great work by one of the hard working SageTV 3rd party developers!

Read more about these plugins at the SageTV forums

More on SageTV7:

Monday, June 07, 2010

New SageTV 7 Beta Release V7.0.10

SageTV7010b

It’s only been a few weeks since SageTV 7 was released into public beta, but fortunately the SageTV team has continued to work on updates and bug fixes.  The next beta version of SageTV: SageTV 7.0.10 was released last week and has some worthwhile bug fixes and even a few new features.

Here’s a sampling of the many bug fixes & updates in 7.0.10:

 

  • Disable doing file format detection on startup for any files in the database that don't have a valid format already. This can slow down some startup scenarios a lot if they happen to have a fair amount of files that can't have their format detected properly.

  • Using the 'Back' command when an OptionsMenu is open will now close it. This behavior can be disabled by setting the UI-specific property: ui/back_closes_options_menus=false

  • Fixed bug where tuning the HDPVR sometimes had a large delay associated with it (cause was due to a delayed format detection)

  • Fixed bug where ISO mounting on Windows through VirtualCloneDrive did not work properly in service mode

  • Fixed bug where ID3 tags weren't skipped properly in the Windows DirectShow source filter (caused MP3 playback to fail sometimes)

  • Fixed issue with volume control in Windows Vista/7 where the control wasn't logarithmic so only the top end of the volume slider was actually useful.

  • Force media extender and placeshifter clients to use the default UI when the server is upgraded. This can be disabled with the wizard/revert_stv_on_upgrade=false property setting.Added support for using SageTVClient context names to execute API calls on a SageTVClient from the SageTV server. The sage.SageTV.apiUI() call is used to do this; and the context names can be retrieved using the API call GetConnectedClients().

  • Updated Database API call SortLexical so that it can ignore prefixes such as 'the', 'a' and 'an' when doing a sort. This is controlled by the property 'ui/ignore_the_when_sorting'. And the list of prefixes ignored is specified in the comma delimited list in the property 'ui/prefixes_to_ignore_on_sort'.

  • File Browser: added "Enter Network Path" option in options slide-out when browsing network paths.

  • Added Detailed Setup -> General -> Animation Options -> "Cycle through subgroup items" option to enable/disable cycling through each item in a group that has focus. Default: disabled.

  • Added options to set the number of rows and font size on the Recording Schedule menu.

  • When using the Home command, force the Main Menu to display with all of its submenus closed.

  • Added Detailed Setup -> Customize -> "Ignore Leading Articles During Text Sorting" option. The option can be enabled/disabled and the list of leading article words to ignore can be edited. Note: Remote UIs use server properties for these settings. Menu cache is cleared so this will affect already-visited menus.


    Get the complete changelog & downloads at the SageTV forums

 

More on SageTV7:

Sunday, June 06, 2010

TV Premieres, Finales & Specials This Week 06/06/2010

Each week GeekTonic covers the TV scene with a complete listing of premieres, finales and specials for the week.  Glee and Breaking Bad both have their season finale spilling into the summer season.  Beyond that there are several new premieres and finales this week.

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

Ice Road Truckers

            Ice Road Truckers premieres Sunday

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

Sunday, June 6

Sons of Tuscon (7:30pm on Fox – Available in HD) – The final episodes of the doomed sitcom get aired this summer.

The Making of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (8pm on NBC) -  A special showcasing the new theme park based on Harry Potter

Drop Dead Diva (9pm on Lifetime) – Season 2 premiere

Kate Plus 8 (9pm on TLC – Available in HD) – New RealityTV series

The Next Food Network Star (9pm on Food) – Season 6 premiere

Dining with Death (9pm on Travel – Available in HD) – New Travel/Cooking series

Expedition Great White (9pm on National Geographic – Available in HD) – New documentary series

Ice Road Truckers (9pm on History – Available in HD) – Season 4 premiere

How Whiskey Made America (9pm on Discovery) – A special focused on none other than Whiskey.

MTV Movie Awards (9pm on MTV & VH1) – Aziz Ansari from Parks & Recreation hosts the 2010 awards show

Top Shot (10pm on History – Available in HD) – New History/RealityTV series.  This first episode pits 16 sharpshooters in an obstacle course using different weapons from various eras.

How Summer Changed the World (10pmon Discovery) A special that takes a look at the history of summer

The Hard Times of RJ Berger (11pm on MTV2) – New series

 

Monday, June 7

The Secret Live of the American Teenager (8pm on ABCFamily – Available in HD)- Season 5 premiere

Last Comic Standing (8pm on NBC) – Season 7 premiere

American Pickers (9pm on History – Available in HD) – Season 2 premiere.  This show looks into the world of antique and collectible hunters who make an adventure out of traveling across America to find the rarest items.

Dr. G: Medical Examiner (9pm on Discovery Health) – Season 7 premiere

The Good Guys (9pm on Fox – Available in HD) – A new comedy on Fox that follows Jack, a cop who follows the rules who is paired with Dan, an unpredictable cop who is only in the business because a heroic act he performed years before.

Two Wheel Thunder: An American Icon (9pm on Discovery HD Theater – Available in HD) - Chroming a motor in a few hours using less than 12 nuts and bolts.

Nurse Jackie (10pm on Showtime – Available in HD) – Season finale

Persons Unknown (10pm on NBC – Available in HD) - A new series on NBC where a group of strangers wake up in a deserted town with no memory of how they got there. In order to escape, they must work together to solve an intriguing puzzle

Mystery Diagnosis (10pm on Discovery Health) – Season premiere

Neighbors From Hell (10pm on TBS – Available in HD) – No they didn’t make a show about my last neighbors, it’s a new comedy on TBS.  This one is an animated adult-cartoon based on the Hellman family who are in your typical suburb, but they differ from the rest of the neighbors because they happen to be from Hell.

Last American Cowboy (10pm on Animal Planet – Available in HD) – A new realityTV show with ranching families bracing for eight months of hard work as Montana's calving season begins.

United States of Tara (10:30pm on Showtime – Available in HD) – Season finale

 

Tuesday, June 8

Pretty Little Liars (8pm on ABC Family – Available in HD) – A teen mystery series based on the book series of the same name.  Four estranged friends are brought back together after each begins to receive frightening letters from a person they suspect is a long-missing associate.

Glee (8:59pm on Fox – Available in HD) – Season finale

Justified (10pm on FX – Available in HD) – Season finale

 

Wednesday, June 9

I didn’t Know I was Pregnant (9pm on TLC) – Season 2 premiere

Bridal Bootcamp (10pm on VH1) – A new realityTV show with this premise: Ten brides arrive at bootcamp and are greeted with mud and explosives.  Seriously.

Monsters Inside Me (10pm on Animal Planet) – Season 2 premiere

Work of Art: The Next Great Artist (11pm on Bravo – Available in HD) – A new realityTV/contest series on Bravo that brings together 14 aspiring artists to compete for a solo show at a nationally recognized museum and a cash prize.

 

Thursday, June 10

Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t! (10pm on Showtime) – Season 8 premiere

Bethenny Getting Married? (10pm on Bravo) – a new realityTV series

Top Chef Masters (10pm on Bravo – Available in HD) – Season finale

The Green Room With Paul Provenza (10:30pm on Showtime) – New comedy/talk show on Showtime

 

Friday, June 11

Dual Survivor (10pm on Discovery – Available in HD) – New realityTV show that shows off survival skills required to live in harsh conditions.

The Whitest Kids U’Know (10pm on IFC) – Season 4 premiere.  The show is a comedy sketch show on IFC (formerly on Fuse) with characters involved in skits, parodies, and satire that touches on taboo subjects and edgy topics

Glenn Martin, DDS (10:30pm on Nickelodeon)- Season 2 premiere

 

Sunday, June 13

Unnatural History (8pm on Cartoon) – A new animated series that follows Henry Griffin, a teenager with skills acquired through years of traveling the world with his anthropologist parents. He must now use those skills to move back to America and attend a public high school.

True Blood (9pm on HBO – Available in HD) – Season 3 premiere

Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami (10pm on E!) – Season 2 premiere.  So did you know Ryan Seacrest is the executive producer of this realityTV show focused on the Kardashian’s?

Design Star (10pm on HGTV – Available in HD) – Season 5 premiere

Breaking Bad (10pm on AMC – Available in HD) – Season finale

Holly’s World (10:30pm on E!) A new realityTV show with Holly Madison & her life in Las Vegas as she pursues new friendships, love and her new home.

 

If you follow GeekTonic for the TV Premieres and news, you’ll want to click here if you would like to get a regular e-mail for GeekTonic TV Premieres & News