Fios TV is adding to its leading HD channel count with six new original HD channels before the end of the year.

Launched by Entertainment Studios, a large independent producer of first-run content that's nonetheless hardly a household name, the new channels will serve niche markets that are largely already served by existing, well-known specialty channels.

The channels center around cars, pets, comedy, food, celebrity news and gossip, and travel. They'll be pure 1080i high-definition with no standard-def content, and will include Entertainment Studios' 15 original show titles at first, including Comics Unleashed, a talk show featuring four comics and apparently similar to the old Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central; and Entertainers with Byron Allen and Kickin' It with Byron Allen, hosted by Entertainment Studios' ubiquitous CEO, who hosts several of his company's shows.

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Is it too early to look forward to holiday price drops while you wait to buy a new HDTV? Not if you're in the market for a no-name model, according to DealNews.com. The site predicts that plasma TV prices on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that kicks off the holiday buying spree, will fall to as low as $499 for a 42-inch model and $699 for a 50-incher. Meanwhile a $149 Blu-ray player may be in the offing, again from a no-name brand, along with $10 Blu-ray discs.

The upcoming DTV transition will help contribute to the price drops, according to the article, and as usual, plasma is less-expensive than LCD on an inch-for-inch basis. "LCD prices will remain higher than plasma, but they'll still dip considerably, with generic 42-inch 720p LCD HDTVs going for $599. Additionally, look for name-brand 46-inch or 47-inch 1080p LCD HDTVs to hit $799, and larger 52" 1080p HDTVs to drop to $1,199."

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At CNET we've reviewed and covered a number of products designated "DLNA certified," from game consoles to HDTVs, and in our experience the standard's idealistic vision, "to be able to easily and conveniently enjoy this content using any electronic device, and from any location in their home, and beyond," according to the DLNA's FAQ, sometime fails to come to fruition.

This failure can be blamed on numerous factors, including competing standards, Digital Rights Management issues, or manufacturers not entirely following the DLNA standard or eschewing it for their own. Confusion over what DLNA means can put buyers of media devices in a precarious situation: will my DLNA-certified Nokia N95 digital camera connect to my DLNA-certified Sony KDL-46Z4100 HDTV so I can share my photos of my trip to Maui for my family to view? In this blog I'll unravel some of the mysteries around DLNA and try to make sense of what it actually means.

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We just finished a major update of our popular chart of HD programming compared and the new winner, in terms of national and local HD channels, by our count, is Fios TV. Bringing a hefty 83 such channels to bear, the fiber-optic-based TV service from Verizon comes out ahead of perennial satellite champions DirecTV (65 channels) and Dish Network (68) as of today.

The key here is our definition of "national and local." The big three HD channel-count contenders all tout HD channel counts near or above the nice round number of 100 in their advertising campaigns, and by our count of "total channels," they all come more or less close enough, but we took a closer look at the channels themselves, and broke down national and local channels we consider important. That includes local broadcast channels like PBS (which neither satellite service offers), ABC and Fox, premium movie channels like HBO and Max (formerly Cinemax), and the myriad niche channels from ESPN to Mav TV to Palladia to World Fishing Network. We specifically exclude Regional Sports Networks, exclusive channels like Voom (which is only available on NY-area provider Cablevision), and duplicate feeds of premium movie channels, such as HBO (east) and HBO (west) carried by DirecTV and Fios.

Check out the updated HD programming compared chart....

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Plasma TV purveyor Pioneer is bringing its LCD TVs to North America and Japan early next year, according to reports.

A Pioneer representative in the U.S. didn't have an immediate comment on the report ...

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