For fans of the now-deceased Nickelodeon GUTS, we've excellent news. We've received word that Nickelodeon will soon be launching its first HD program to be produced entirely in high-def to subscribers of DirecTV and Cablevision. The show, dubbed My Family's Got Guts!, will be shot and edited in HD at Universal Studios Florida and will be hosted by E!'s Ben Lyons. Looking for a date to circle in your datebook? Try September 15th.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

When DirecTV recently promised it'd have 130 HD channels on August 14th, we have to say this isn't exactly what we had in mind. What we expected was 31 new HD channels that would match the lineup that Dish recently revealed, but what we got was 4 real HD channels (Planet Green HD, ABC Family, Showtime Showcase HD, Showtime Extreme HD), 12 HD regional sports networks and 18 HD PPV channels. Sure, technically this is 31 new HD channels, but what about; Travel Channel HD, Outdoor Channel 2 HD, a whole slew of HBO and Cinemax HD channels, and finally all the Starz and Encore channels? According to DirecTV, all the HD PPV channels are simply place holders until the rest are brought online, but even with that excuse, this is just yet another reason why we take DirecTV's press releases with a grain of salt.

Warner Bros. is all over digital distribution in celebration of its 85th anniversary, pushing 85 of its classic flick onto video on-demand, most in high definition and many of them available in HD VOD for the first time. Anyone with Time Warner, Comcast, Cox, Charter, Rogers, DirecTV or DISH Network should have access to flicks including Doctor Zhivago, Casablanca, Chariots of Fire, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome straight from their remote starting today. Additionally Time Warner has lined up a series of indoor and outdoor screenings in LA and New York so keep an eye out for those. Great films in high quality without having to leave our couch, if we could stop watching the Olympics we'd take a look, check out the full list after the break. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

Compared to competitor DISH Network, DirecTV is having The Best Week Ever. Second quarter results posted today were up to analysts estimates, adding 129,000 to its 17.2 million subscribers in the U.S. and lowering its churn rate to 1.49 percent. Average revenue per user (i.e. how much cash they get from you every month) rose 7% thanks to people signing up for high definition and DVR service, while revenue in Latin America jumped 49%. Add to that news that DISH Network wants to give things another go, and we imagine they're feeling pretty good about themselves in El Segundo, you'd think they could find the time to return our wallet one of these days.

DirecTV and DISH Network trying to get together again? That's the idea according to the Wall Street Journal, apparently in response to DISH making "a major strategic shift" after losing 25,000 subscribers in Q2. Of course the last time these two tried U + me = Us back in 2001, regulators put the smackdown on the idea, but apparently DISH CEO Charlie Ergen thinks things may be different now. We can see how a 90% drop in subscriber growth (and a blown satellite or two) could cause anyone to reevaluate things, but as our extensive experience watching daytime TV proves, running into a new relationship to escape ones problems never works out long term, but it is interesting to see if either is really willing to stop the constant one-upmanship and concentrate on taking on the cable (& telco) companies together.

[Thanks, Adam]

Not headed out to Oakland Hills August 7? Even if you were, it's hard to imagine you'd get a better look at the action than DirecTV has lined up for the 90th PGA Championship on channel 701 through 709. As seen previously during the Masters Tournament, there'll be a PGA Interactive Mix channel, showing images of the four HD channels covering the tournament: One either from TNT or CBS, along with three unique feeds focusing on specific groups, holes or player background and stat information. Pretty much the only thing this interactive coverage won't do is take a few strokes off our score (some things are beyond help or altered scorecards, we've tried) but along with coverage on PGA.com it should make watching the Tiger-less PGA Championship a less painful event.

Take that DirecTV, you announce 1080p "this year" and 130 HD channels in August and DISH one ups you with an announcement that it'll start offering 1080p VOD in August -- but DirecTV fanboys will take some comfort in the fact that DirecTV's latest bird started broadcasting HD channels today, while Echostar XI won't start for a few more months. Either way, this is good for everyone, but based on both company's track record, we tend to take DISH's word over DirecTV's -- after the whole CES 07 lie. DISH subscribers with MPEG-4 HD DVRs should receive an update in the next two weeks that will allow them access the 1080p VOD movies, such as I Am Legend. The release also goes on about how the quality will be "same as Blu-ray Disc quality," but we'll believe that one when we see it for ourselves.

Not quite a month after DISH Network unveiled its summer / fall HD locals, DirecTV is continuing to excite by announcing its next 44 markets that will receive HD locals. According to the company, it will be providing local HD broadcasts in 121 cities by the end of 2008, which will reportedly represent 88-percent of US TV households. Just after 30 some-odd new HD channels go live on August 14th, it will begin rolling out HD locals to cities like Augusta, GA, Baton Rouge, LA, Boise, ID, Chattanooga, TN and El Paso, TX. There are 39 more markets to scan through in the read link -- here's to hoping your locale is listed!

Now this is what we're talking about! On the very same morning that Verizon trumpets its achievement of hitting 100 high-def channels in New York, along comes DirecTV to make that figure look second-rate. The satcaster has just announced that it will be hosting upwards of 130 high-definition channels on August 14th, which means that 30 or so newcomers are just weeks away from going live. All of the channels will be transmitted in the MPEG-4 AVC standard, and if you're curious, it also plans to provide "movies in 1080p" later this year. Included in the new stations will be Showtime Extreme HD, Showtime Showcase HD, Planet Green HD, ABC Family HD, additional DirecTV HD pay-per-view channels and 23 more regional sports networks in high-def 24 hours a day. Any other carriers feel like doing the leapfrog today?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We'll be totally honest -- we have absolutely no idea what significance lies in DirecTV "taking on-orbit delivery" of the DirecTV 11 satellite, but regardless, it has happened. Boeing announced today that it had done its part in delivering the bird to the satcaster, even though it launched back in March and isn't expected to start dishing out HD content until September. We'll just take this as a sign that things are humming along nicely up there, cool?

A nation full of DVR subscribers with access to DirecTV On Demand have something new to watch, now that a partnership with NBC is pushing a special Olympics package on the service in SD and HD. Consisting of athlete features, Beijing previews and other related content, there should be ten VOD titles each week, with more than 500 by the time the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games are over. It's been a couple of weeks since the service exited beta status, are you not entertained?

Not even six full months after DirecTV rolled out its DVR Scheduler service, users have logged on via their mobile phones or online in order to schedule one million shows. For those unfamiliar, said service enables customers to tell their DVR to record a program without actually being near the DVR; so long as you've got a handset with data access or an outright internet connection, you're golden. Unsurprisingly, the most commonly recorded program via the service was SportsCenter, but we won't spoil the rest of the top 15 for you. So, how many times did you contribute to this number?

[Image courtesy of MyDigitalLife]

It has been three months since we received leaked confirmation that the yet to be officially announced DirecTV HD tuner for Vista Media Center (VMC) was part of an upcoming update code named Fiji (expected in October). The fact that so much time has passed and our sources still haven't actually received a tuner was really starting to bother us. So we got even more concerned when we learned that the first release candidate issued to testers was missing required pieces to make the HDPC-20 possible. Unlike the previous beta releases, RC0 was missing native H.264 support which is vital to both DirecTV support and the latest Hauppauge HD PVR component capture device. Then to add insult to injury, many are now reporting that the update that will be officially called Windows Media Center TV Pack will only be available through OEMs. We're not sure if this means you'll have to download the update from Dell (for example) rather than Windows Update, but we can't see how the update could effectively be restricted to OEM installs. The testers we've talked to have reportedly been told that H.264 and DirecTV support have been pushed to Windows 7, which would mean it'll be 2010 before we see it. More about Fiji after the jump.

Hot on the heels of DISH Network's call center expansion comes word that DirecTV is doing similar by opening up a 114,567-square foot facility in Huntington, WV designed to improve customer service. The center becomes the satcaster's sixth in the US, and some 550 company customer service representatives and supervisory staff will be employed here. Maybe it's expecting a rush of new calls about a bundle of new HD channels we aren't at all expecting? Ah, a man can dream, can't he?

AT&T and DISH's tumultuous relationship seems to be ending, with the satellite company filing an 8-K form with the SEC indicating its received notice from the telco that it plans to end their marketing collaboration as of December 31. The possibly ill-fated from the beginning arrangement hasn't necessarily gone beyond the point of no return, since AT&T reps have indicated this was simply necessary for a six-month notification, but the company is still "discussing options" with DISH. Multichannel News contacted DirecTV and they indicated they too, are also still negotiating with AT&T in a bid to market triple-play services in areas where it hasn't rolled out U-Verse service yet. At this point we're expecting a drunken teary phone call from one or both (or all three) parties wondering where things went wrong any minute now.

Read - Reuters
Read - Light Reading
Read - Multichannel News

[Image courtesy GiftsByExpressions]