High definition television is struggling to get off the ground with the hesitant support of local, cable, and satellite broadcasters. But as readers revealed in an online SGHT poll a while back, what would really give HDTV a kick in the pants would be a high definition playback medium—something like an HD-DVD.

Last week, CBS and Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America (MDEA) announced that they have entered into an agreement by which MDEA will sponsor high definition coverage of the semi-finals and finals of the 2001 US Open Tennis Championships. It is the third consecutive year MDEA has sponsored CBS's HDTV coverage of the US Open. According to CBS, this year's coverage will feature the HD primetime broadcast of the Women's Final on Saturday evening, September 8.

Is there still some video quality to be wrung out of the DVD format? Will you buy yet another version of The Fifth Element on DVD? Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (CTHE) thinks so, announcing last week the launch of "The Superbit Collection," slated for release starting October 9. CTHE says that the Superbit titles will utilize a special high^#150;bit-rate digital encoding process which "optimizes video quality" while offering a choice of both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

In a move that promises to significantly enhance HDTV access for consumers across the United States, representatives of a number of industries last week announced their support of the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) with high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) for transmission of high definition video content from set-top boxes to television monitors.