But, let’s take a look at history for a second first, just in case the crowds at Moscone West decide revolt if Apple doesn’t announce iPhone HD at WWDC.

When the original iPhone came out, Apple categorically denied that it was even capable of TV Out. Time and time again, Apple Media Relations clearly stated that the iPhone lacked the hardware to output video.

Then iPhone OS 2.0 came out, along with 480i (SDTV) video output on each and every iPhone and iPod Touch. iPod touch 2G then went 480p at the next revision.

Will Apple announce iPhone HD at WWDC? I have no idea. I do know that you shouldn’t shoot the messenger if they don’t.

I was wrong about adding HD tracks to the DVD disc. While viable, there’s a better path of less resistance: Who said HDi could only deliver supplemental material? What in the world is stopping HDi from giving DVD the ability to stream an entire HD version of a movie over the internet?

Think about it for a second, what did I say was the ultimate thing DVD needed to beat Blu-Ray? Backwards compatibility.

By shipping a DVD-9 with the standard definition version, and HDi code to stream the HD version via the web… you get the experience of a Combo DVD + HD DVD, without the expense of all the HD DVD equipment.

Toshiba’s $1 Billion investment in HD DVD isn’t going to waste either. With HDi, Toshiba can upsell DVD as being both SD and ubiquitous, as well as high defintion. And with player updates for Toshiba and Panasonic players, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and probably Mac too at some point… there will probably already be an HDi-enabled player in everyone’s household.

And, you only need one HDi player to close the loop. With one HDi player plugged into your HDTV, you get HD playback on your HDTV, and have the versatility (no pun) of taking your DVD with you on the millions of DVD players that don’t support HDi.

Lifetime HD playback can be built into the cost of the disc. The bandwidth charge can be used as a factor to actually raise the price of a standard DVD, billing it as future-proof. And, publishers will still be able to abide by the Blu-Ray exclusivity agreements, as the HDi track isn’t on the disc, but rather, on the web.

Probably the people most unhappy with this development, will be Apple. Why rent an HD version of the movie when you can own HDi playback rights for life, along with a digital copy to iTunes…

What Comcast was doing, was counting each offering of an HD On Demand program as counting as a “channel”. Since satellite On Demand programming is not as expansive as cable (due to the inherent limitations of satellite technology), Comcast turned a molehill of comparison into a mountain.

Worse, Comcast didn’t even advertise On Demand programming as separate channels. Instead, On Demand is billed as “Channel 1″, a singular channel. So, recently Comcast changed their tune. Now they claim to offer “More HD Choices” than satellite providers.

The truth is, cable is catching up, but still behind satellite. Satellite providers aren’t fully in the clear, as DirecTV downsamples HD content (what’s known as HD Lite) in order to push more channels to customers.

I personally don’t know who to chose when I pick providers for my new house. I may wind up going with DirecTV if their Windows Media Center integration doesn’t DRM everything (a la CableCARD)… I’m not holding my breath though.

But, perpetual delay is not the problem with Xbox 360 IPTV (for me, at least). The problem is that Xbox 360′s IPTV implementation just doesn’t play nicely with all of Microsoft’s other offerings. The Xbox 360 IPTV stack is essentially a PowerPC-ported version of the MS IPTV client which runs on a variety of embedded set-top boxes (STB’s). Like Windows Media Center Extender in Xbox 360, the code inside is relatively unchanged, but because it’s Microsoft hardware, Microsoft can plug in added optimizations to bolster the platform. For historical example, Xbox 360 was the first Media Center Extender to support HDTV, the rest were instantly obsoleted.

The problem with Xbox 360′s IPTV software, is that unlike Xbox 360 Media Center Extender, you can’t connect with any other PC. The software can’t store TV shows on your PC or on your Windows Home Server, or on anything other than an Xbox Hard Drive. So, once your initial 20 GB (120 if you have an Xbox 360 Elite) is full (which will happen quickly, especially with HD recordings), your only option is to purchase a second Xbox hard drive. And, unlike eSATA drives, Microsoft gets to crank up the cost to astronomical figures (the 120 GB hard drive retails for over $100).

And, to add insult to injury, Microsoft’s Xbox Hard Drive is in-fact just an eSATA drive in a special box with a special connector. Oh, and there’s no way to buy just the box, in fact, Microsoft may ban your Xbox 360 from online use for crafting your own hard drive. Don’t even think about using a USB 2.0 hard drive, Microsoft has neutered that ability since day one for anything other than playing back stored content (in other words, you can bring in content from a PC, you just can’t save content from your Xbox to the very same external hard drive).

To put it bluntly, if you say to your IPTV-provider “no thanks, I’ll pass on your free HD-DVR, my Xbox does that for free”, you’re going to burn more money on spare hard drives to record content. That’s a losing proposition for the Xbox 360 owner, and thus, is a losing proposition for IPTV-on-Xbox.

There are a couple of resolutions to this, in my opinion. One is to add network storage, something Microsoft should have done a long time ago for the entire Xbox platform (the XDE’s (Xbox 360 applications and content) are encrypted, and it’s not like folks can’t get at them if they really want to already). The other, is to add transcoding support, so that users can plug in Windows Mobile devices and Zunes into the Xbox 360, and copy the TV shows over to those devices. That will at least give folks a place to store them other than the device (and back them up on their computers).

Until that happens though, my only advice would be to add IPTV Xbox 360 in addition to your existing IPTV receiver. And, that’s assuming your IPTV provider doesn’t tack on some whacky monthly charge to give you the permission of using Xbox 360 with their IPTV service.

AT&T, which offers its U-Verse IPTV service under the Mediaroom platform, has yet to announce support for Xbox 360 as a U-Verse device.

Cable news operations, most of which have been on the decline for years (with the notable exception of News Corp’s Fox News), have resisted going high definition since the technology’s inception. The costs of adding high definition to a 24-hour channel is staggering, especially for cable news which runs smaller profit margins than traditional network programming. The costs include issuing high definition, portable cameras, upgrading satellite trucks around the world, and airbrushing countless anchors and talking heads. Airbrushing is a key (and more expensive) technique in makeup for HDTV on-air talents, as facial imperfections are much more visible with all the extra pixels.

Fox Business, as covered previously on this blog, was the first channel to launch in high definition, though only DirecTV is currently broadcasting the HD version of the feed. Fox News is headquartered in the same building as Fox Business, and the two operations share many resources. News Corp intentionally decided to launch Fox Business in HD first, to amortize out costs and ensure a significant reduction in resources needed to train staff and adjust to the switch to HDTV.

MSNBC however was hoping that they could beat Fox to the punch on HD. The network which touts “fastest growing” numbers, actually is the smallest of the cable news networks. MSNBC had placed its best on drawing away viewership from CNN and Fox News by going HD first. In fact, many of MSNBC’s filler documentaries (which are taking up a large portion of prime time programming), are already taped and flagged as HD.

It’s not clear when in 2008 Fox and MSNBC will launch HD, nor is it clear if this will spread to the rest of NBC news, including network NBC News and CNBC.