HD Feed: October 5

At last the wait is over for fans of True Blood who resisted tuning into its SD season on Prime. On Saturday and Sunday, from midday-6pm, SoHo will screen all 12 episodes of season five back-to-back, in HD, as a box set weekend. This is the first time SoHo has run out a first-run, premium HBO drama off-peak. But clearly it believes the vampire hit’s appeal to subscribers has been tainted by Prime having first bite. True Blood’s fifth season was creator Alan Ball’s final as showrunner –  but at least fans of his work can look forward to seeing his next series, Banshee, first in HD: it’s among SoHo’s 2013 acquisitions. Meanwhile, Sookie and Jason’s quest to learn who killed their parents in season five could provide a clue as to who cast newcomer Rutger Hauer will play in season six.

PC World has just published its latest — and incredibly thorough — guide to picking the HD TV that best suits your needs. And according to  Home Theatre Equipment, 4K resolution shouldn’t be on your must-have list given there isn’t 4K content to buy: “In a nutshell, 4K upscaling is useless. Sorry, it is. It is interpolated 4K meaning at its heart it’s nothing more, nor any better, than HD. You cannot turn HD into 4K for the pixels simply do not exist to do it -so they have to be interpolated or made up. This is NOT 4K, it’s HD. Also, all the 4K upscaling in the world does little when said devices are plugged into an HD display.” However, IDG reports that argument isn’t stopping Sony from expanding its 4K range from beyond its first, flagship model.

Rating a mention: Deadline reports tensions on the set of Sons of Anarchy on the eve of TV3’s HD hit preparing to film its fifth-season finale … TV2 is pre-empting October 19’s Shortland Street for a double-episode repeat of The Big Bang Theory … Sky subscribers can preview the season-seven premiere of SoHo’s Dexter for free on iSky and MySky’s on-demand service from October 10-17 … TV3 is inviting viewers to choose which HD movie they wish to see on October 14: My Life in Ruins or Date Night  (vote at tv3.co.nz/YouChoose before midnight, October 12) … The Hollywood Reporter reports X Files creator Chris Carter will pitch a new supernatural drama, The After, at Mipcom.

Smash ended its primetime run on Thursday with ratings that justify its late-night Sunday rescheduling as of this week. It averaged only 2.3% – 2.4% of the key demos, opposite 20/20’s 7.4% – 9.4% and Mrs Brown’s Boys’ 5.3% – 11.8%. The first, hour-long Thursday episode of The X Factor USA lost against TV2’s reality double-bill, averaging 8.7% – 9.7% compared to Police Ten-7’s 11.7% – 13.0% and Motorway Patrol’s 10.6% – 13.3%. Season four of Fringe bowed out with 2.2% – 3.9% while the latest SoHo series to resurface in SD on Prime, Camelot, opened to a 1.3% – 2.2% average off the back of Doctor Who’s 1.8% – 3.7% — sightly lower than than 1.7% – 2.7% True Blood’s season finale averaged the previous week.