With the first all HD NFL season set to kick off in about a week, our friends over at HD Sports Guide thought it was a good time to look back on the history of the NFL in HD, and we couldn't agree more. No matter if you were there when CBS pioneered football in HD in the New York market way back in 1998 or just got your first HDTV a few weeks ago, we think you'll enjoy the short walk down memory lane that includes a number of stats like the total number of HD games produced by CBS (270), or the teams who've gotten the biggest shaft over the years -- sorry Texan fans. So before you start enjoying every professional football game in HD this season, have a read so you can really appreciate all the SD suffering some of us have endured over the past ten years.

No surprises here, but we figured you'd be interested in knowing that DirecTV is indeed keeping its promise of rolling out HD locals in a few new markets this summer. According to an attentive local in Rochester, New York, high-def locals have been fired up in his area, and according to official verbiage from the satcaster, Lincoln, NE can say the same. With 44 DMAs on tap, we suspect this will be the first two in a long, long list that will unfold as the months progress.

[Thanks, Jim]

What we're watching tonight:

• NBC (1080i) brings Olympics action with track and field, beach volleyball and swimming at 8 p.m.
  
• Fox (720p) has Raiders/Titans at 8 p.m.
• CW (1080i) has WWE: SmackDown at 8 p.m.
• USA (1080i) lines up Monk at 9 p.m. and Psych at 10 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has What Not to Wear at 9 p.m. followed by Say Yes to the Dress and Rock the Reception
• History (1080i) has Shockwave at 10 p.m.
• Sci Fi (1080i) has Stargate Atlantis at 10 p.m.
• CBS (1080i) drops in Swingtown at 10 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has the Little League World Series at 8 p.m.
• Showtime (1080i) has EliteXC MMA fighting at 11 p.m.

What we're watching tonight:

• NBC (1080i) has Olympics coverage with men's volleyball, women's beach volleyball and swimming at 8 p.m.
• Fox (720p) has preseason NFL with Panthers/Eagles at 8 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) has Some Assembly Required at 8 & 8:30 p.m.
• USA (1080i) brings Burn Notice at 10 p.m.
• CBS (1080i) has Flashpoint at 10 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) drops in Miami Ink at 10 p.m.
• History (1080i) has The Works at 10 p.m.
• ESPN2 HD (720p) has MLS with LA Galaxy/CD Chivas USA at 10:30 p.m.

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!

As America reached an important (in our eyes, anyway) milestone this week by securing 100 high-def news stations, we began to wonder how many of you readers are actually close enough to tune into one of them. Here at Engadget HQ, we're lucky enough to be near one of those stations, but with the ratio of citizens to HD news outlets being so lopsided, we wouldn't be surprised to see the majority of you still in the dark (read: stuck with talking heads in SD). So, are you able to snag your local newscasts in HD? If so, do you even tune in to take advantage? Oh, and here's a bonus question you can answer in comments: are you close to more than one HD news station?

We'll admit, DISH Network's latest press release isn't all that thrilling for folks outside of Beaumont / Port Arthur, Texas, but it's entirely better to see something like this rather than another funeral invite for its latest satellite. DISH has just lit up HD locals in the aforesaid area, simultaneously putting another check mark on its summer rollout list and giving everyone else hope that they'll be next. Yeehaw!

What we're watching tonight:

• Fox (720p) presents the 2008 MLB All-Star Game at 8 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has the season premiere of Say Yes to the Dress at 8 p.m. followed by the series premiere of Rock the Reception at 8:30 p.m. and the series premiere of Must Love Kids at 9 p.m.
• ABC Family (720p) has The Secret Life of the American Teenager at 8 p.m.
• A&E (720p) premieres The Cleaner at 10 p.m.
• ABC (720p) has I Survived a Japanese Game Show at 9:01 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) has Deadliest Catch at 9 p.m.
• Sci Fi (1080i) tosses in ECW at 10 p.m.
• National Geographic (1080i) closes out Earth: The Biography at 10 p.m.

While KFMB-TV has had a stranglehold on the HD news market in sunny San Diego, that's about to change. Beginning in September, the local ABC affiliate (KGTV) will begin airing its local newscasts in high-definition, and for those impatient souls, the local FOX affiliate (KSWB-TV) will be making the same switch on August 1st. Furthermore, KUSI-TV Channel 51 is expecting to take "everything on the channel, including local news broadcasts," to the high-def realm starting in February of next year. Seems like a few other cities could learn something from this one.

[Thanks, Tony]

So we've invaded your personal space before by asking how many options you have for HD programming, and we've also wondered about the primary medium of delivery, but this week's question hovers around the tried-and-true antenna. We're simply curious to know how many of you out there still rely on OTA programming for some or all of your HDTV consumption? Are there enough locals to keep you from shelling out to a pay-TV provider every month? Do you supplement your service with OTA offerings? Or do you tune into OTA locals just because they look better than what's delivered via cable? Deposit your vote below.

[Image courtesy of HMSTV]

What we're watching tonight:

• CW (1080i) has WWE Smackdown! at 8 p.m.
• ESPN HD (720p) brings Arena Football League Playoffs action with New York/Dallas at 7:30 p.m.
• ESPN2 HD (720p) has Friday Night Fights at 9 p.m.
• Fox (720p) drops in XXX: State of the Union at 8 p.m.
• HDNet (1080i) has HDNet Fights at 10:30 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) tosses in the season finale of 10 Years Younger at 10 p.m.

As our eagle-eyed tipster Doug so eloquently put it, we too aren't sure how this one got overlooked. In the midst of LIN TV hammering out deals with DirecTV, Charter, SuddenLink and DISH Network, this particular deal managed to slip through the cracks. Nevertheless, the media company has indeed entered into an agreement with Comcast to keep locals in 15 markets on the air. For specifics on which markets we're referring to, check out the second paragraph in the read link.

[Thanks, Doug]

What we're watching tonight:

• CW (1080i) has WWE Smackdown! at 8 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) lines up What Not to Wear at 9 p.m. and 10 Years Younger at 10 p.m.
• History (1080i) has Shockwave at 10 p.m.
• Fox (720p) has Planet of the Apes at 8 p.m.
• HDNet (1080i) brings SportFight XXIII at 10:30 p.m.
• ESPN HD (720p) has a College World Series game at 7 p.m.
• ESPN2 HD (720p) airs Friday Wight Fights at 9 p.m.

What we're watching tonight:

• Sci Fi (1080i) has the summer finale of Battlestar Galactica at 10 p.m.
• CW (1080i) has WWE Smackdown! at 8 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has 10 Years Younger at 10 p.m.
• History (1080i) has Shockwave at 10 p.m.
• Fox (720p) airs Hollywood Homicide at 8 p.m.
• Food Network HD (1080i) has Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels at 8:30 p.m.
  

Prepare for another round of affiliate owner/cable network squabbles, as LIN TV has announced negotiations with Charter Communications "appear unlikely" to result in a retrans agreement, and that cable customers in Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Hartford-New Haven, Springfield (Mass), Dayton, Providence and Toledo can expect affected stations to be pulled from the lineup when the current agreement expires June 30. Of course LIN TV is taking the opportunity to educate customers about DISH Network where the stations are available courtesy of their recent agreement. Check after the break for a list of potentially affected stations while we hope for an 11th hour reprieve, although with the two sides at odds over what "fair market value" of digital signal is, we're not confident this will turn out any better than the 4 month break Suddenlink customers experienced earlier this year. (Warning: PDF read link.)