Yesterday, the U.S. Senate followed President Obama's recommendation and approved a delay in the digital TV transition date from February 17 to to June 12. If a similar measure passes in the House, then we all know what that means: four more months of DTV transition ads! Woo hoo!

Seriously, though, will it matter if the transition date is February, June, or sometime in Obama's second administration? At this point, even the most casual observer has figured out that the transition hasn't been communicated very well to the American public. People who have cable or satellite still think that they need to buy a new HDTV or upgrade to digital cable in order to be compliant with the conversion, people who got discount coupons for converters early on have found that the coupons have expired and they can't get more, and the people who have converted are being surprised that some weak stations won't come in due to the "digital cliff effect."

I've never interviewed Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and don't know him personally, but he sure seems like one classy guy. He recently posted a note on his web site, giving readers his thoughts on more Babylon 5 DVDs.

In short, he's against it. He feels that offerings like the TV movie, Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers, and the straight-to-DVD story, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, take away from the strength of the original TV series.

He writes that The Lost Tales was commissioned at a $2 million budget, and they did the best they could with it. Apparently, the studio wasn't sure there was an audience for Babylon 5. Silly studio.

Best Buy and TiVo are running a promotion that lets you get an 80-hour Series2 TiVo for free after rebate, or a dual-tuner box for $50 after rebate. They'll even through in a free Wireless G adapter.

What's the catch? You've got to sign up for high speed internet service through Best Buy. And you've got to print the coupon and take it into a store. This deal is not available through the TiVo or Best Buy websites.

No word on how long this promotion will last, but if you sign up before July 31st, you can get your first three months of TiVo service for free.

[via Troy on TiVo]

Ars Trechnica is reporting that Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer may have accidentally let slip plans for digital video download stores from Best Buy and Blockbuster.

During a conference call, Feltheimer reportedly said "we have nearly a dozen active agreements in place for digital delivery of our content." Two of the companies he named were Best Buy and Blockbuster, neither of which has officially announced details of a digital download service, although it should come as no surprise that either company would want in on the download market.

If true, two of the biggest names in bricks and mortar movie sales and rentals could be entering the increasingly crowded digital delivery marketplace. Right now, most online video stores have limited selections, restrictions on burning movies to DVD and lower quality than a standard DVD, or in some cases, VHS. So while it might seem like there are already more places to purchase or rent online video than necessary, we welcome a little more competition in the marketplace.

Best Buy is offering customers a $50 gift card when they pick up an 80-hour Series2 TiVo. When you combine that with the $170 rebate currently offered by TiVo, that's a free box.

But the gift card can only be applied toward future purchases. So it's only free if you plan on buying $50 worth of items from Best Buy in the future.

The promotion is listed in Best Buy's weekly ad, so it could be gone soon.

[via Troy on TiVo]

Either Best Buy discovered there weren't too many folks out there willing to spend $15,000 on a complete home automation setup that doesn't include a TV, or it's easier to configure that home automation setup if you know what TV you're using.

Whatever the reasoning, Best Buy has decided to add a 32-inch HP HDTV to its ConnectedLife.Home package.

That's on top of an HP Media Center PC, Life|ware Home Automation software, a whole bunch of networking equipment, a series of lighting switches, dimmers, a digital thermostat, wireless video cameras, and one programmable remote control to rule them all.

The whole package still seems a bit overpriced, but considering that Best Buy will send people out to your home to set up everything but the wiring, and you get a year of support, it's a lot easier than setting up a complex a home automation/media center system all by your lonesome.

If you are looking to make the move to HDTV, tomorrow would be a good day to do it. There are quite a few deals to be had on HD sets this year. Just make sure you are up and at 'em plenty early as supplies are limited. Rather than chase down all of those old-school paper ads, gottadeal.com's Black Friday page is the place to go to get the lowdown on offerings from all the major stores. One of the rumored deals to be coming is a 52" RCA Widescreen HDTV for $474 at WalMart. If you are looking for something specific, you might want to check out the fatwallet.com thread that lists all of the TV deals.

Unfortunately, there are also reports on the gottadeal forum that a WalMart in Dallas already has 70 people in line for tomorrow. But if you can't be bothered to trek over to the Best Buy at 5AM, or.. now, they also have a page of the deals that are available for online ordering as well. Of course, it's not all about HDTV. TV fans will find deals on all manner of things. DVD players, season sets, surround sound systems, the free Tivo with activation. I have my eye on Season 1 of The Office for $8.99 at Circuit City.

This is just a quick reminder to everyone that there's still two more weeks left to enter our "Invent a TV condition" contest, the prize being a $250 Best Buy gift card and ten runners-up Scrubs prize packs.

There's also time to enter our "Which show gets canceled first" contest, though your guess is as good as ours as to when this contest will officially be over. The prize in this contest is a SnapStream BeyondTV do-it-yourself DVR system.

Then of course we've got the "Katie Couric sign-off" contest and the weekly Subtle Subtitles contest, though the prizes there are those ever-useful stars next to your name.