HD Nation

What We're Watching: Patrick is enjoying Battlestar Galactica The Complete Series, and is not allowed to talk about it on the show... (we do show off the ridiculously over the top box, though) ...while Robert is obsessed with World's Toughest Fixes, a National Geographic Channel show featuring a professional rigger, Sean Riley, "witnessing heavy duty industrial fixes up close and personal." Like moving tons of weight on top of a 2000 foot radio tower!

HD News:

VUDU, the most excellent HD movie streaming service, is coming to LG's LH50 1080p LCD series and PS80 Plasma 1080p series with "NetCast Entertainment Access." You should see those TVs next month.

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Blu-ray releases for the week of Tuesday, August 4th 2009:

Our picks include Big Trouble in Little China (1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video (2.35:1) and a DTS-HD Lossless Master Audio 5.1 Surround track and features an extended cut version with never before seen footage) and The Last Starfighter (25th Anniversary Edition) one of the very first feature films to use tons of computer generated animation... we hope the Blu-ray version featurs a better transfer than the HD-DVD release.

Other blu-ray releases this week include Billy Bob Thorton's tour de force, Sling Blade in a 1080p AVC transfer that isn't spectacularly detailed, but loooks true to color... along with Race to Witch Mountain, Chaos, Labor Pains, Man on the Moon with Walter Cronkite, My Cousin Vinny, Mutant Chronicles, Obsessed, The Soloist, along with The Waterboy, which was pushed from it's original release date. (And has no special features.)

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Klear Screen wipes are great... so are 200 dollar blu goo rollers originally designed for high dollar print shops.... but what do you really need to clean your screen?

Patrick and Robert walk you thru the do's and don't of cleaning the screen on your HDTV... mess it up and you'll probably be buying a whole new TV.

Fortunately, all you need is a micro fiber cloth, and maybe some distilled water and rubbing alcohol for the stickier messes!

Watch the show to learn about how you can damage your screen with linty cloths, ammonia, paper towels and leaving it on while you clean it!

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Recession Selection! This week's pick for saving on your HDTV experience: House Brands! Many folks have written in looking for our opinion of 'house brand' cables and televisions from places like BestBuy (The brands made specifically for BestBuy, aka the house brands, include Insignia and Dynex.)

Robert's experience with Insignia HDTV and Blu-ray players has been "surprisingly good. A 26" Insignia I reviewed offered solid factory-tuned color in a modern-looking design at a great price."

We've also gotten questions about 'off brands like Vizio and Westinghouse. Just because you haven't heard of them doesn't mean they make bad gear. (Vizio has, in fact, in just a few short years become a leading supplier of HDTV sets and pushed the big CE makers into delivering you more HDTV quality for your dollar!)

Robert also includes his Top Three Tips to keep in mind when shopping house brands at your favorite big box store!

What? You haven't set up your free subscription to HD Nation? We've got info on how to do it on the show... just go to Revision3.com/HDNation and click on subscribe. Then either click on Application for iTunes, Miro or Zune, or grab the RSS for any format you want... the MP4 HD (30fps) is the highest res HD version we have!

If you're into movies, which you probably are if you're watching this show... You should check out Film Riot! Film Riot takes the mystery out of Hollywood Films. Each episode explores how you can replicate their big budget effects and techniques, but with little to no budget. This week, learn how you can get a great green screen set-up without spending a ton of cash. Catch it every Thursday on Revision3.com/FilmRiot

As always, we want to know what you think, so send your comments, questions, or suggestions to "hdnation@revision3.com".