HD Heads-Up: January 2 – 8

ONE News will scoop 3 News by switching to HD first.

TV1’s One News will broadcast in HD from January 2, ahead of TV3 making the upgrade when 3 News starts transmitting from MediaWorks’ new Media Hub.

It’s unclear if programmes like Seven Sharp and Sunday will be in HD when they resume but it’s highly likely they will be while One News sister show Tonight is a given.

The HD switch is long overdue, with the six o’clock news hours on both TV1 and TV3 looking antiquated with their SD studio and field footage.

If only Sky would make one of its cable news channels HD. You only have to watch Sky News HD online to see the difference and appreciate the improvements to everything from graphics to interviews to raw footage.

The same week One News goes HD TV1 will premiere Sherlock: The Abominable Bride (8.35 Sunday).

The Sherlock Holmes special, in which Benedict Cumberbatch’s modern-day Homes finds himself back in Victorian London, will screen here within days of its New Year’s Day UK/US telecast and also is getting theatrical exposure in cinemas before its Blu-ray release on February 3.

TV1’s only other HD newcomer that week is Six Puppies & Us (8.35 Wednesday), which follows six UK families as they prepare to adopt a dog.

Ending their runs that week are David Attenborough’s Conquest of the Skies and Born to Kill while finishing on TV2 is The Whispers (10.45 Tuesday).

TV2 will screen the People’s Choice Awards 2016 on January 7 at 4pm and has among its primetime HD movies:

• Pay It Forward (7.00 Saturday)
• No Reservations (9.20 Saturday)
• Unbreakable (11.25 Saturday)
• Tyler Perry’s – Why Did I Get Married Too (1.25am Sunday),
• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (7.00 Sunday)
• Tropic Thunder (8.40 Sunday)
• Cabin Fever: Patient Zero (10.45 Sunday)
• Red Riding Hood (8.00 Monday)
• Battle Los Angeles (8.00 Tuesday)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (7.00 Wednesday)
• Clash of the Titans (8.30 Thursday)
• Rango (7.00 Friday)
• Jackass Number Two (9.05 Friday).

TV3’s HD coming attractions are limited to Walking With Dinosaurs (7.00 Saturday), Flight (8.50 Saturday), The Watch (8.55 Sunday) and 2 Fast 2 Furious (8.35 Thursday).