Pins and Needles

For those with the right DirecTV hookup, these have been a maddening last few days, even worse than what I've been going through with the local Apple store, waiting for another shipment of those early-release iPod Touches to show up. Speculation had centered around yesterday as The Day when the DirecTV 10 satellite would begin broadcasting literally dozens of new HD channels, but no. Any Day Now is the word. I may be at the Apple store tomorrow. I may be there Saturday. I can relate.

Of course, once people get what they want, they're not always as thrilled as they think they're going to be. DirecTV has created a new tier of "HD only" channels to house channels like HDNet that were created for HD. Non-tier subscribers will get a raft of new simulcasts (how many depends on what SD channels they subscribe to now). How much real HD content can be expected from those, at least in the early going?