One Twin Cities TV station got short shrift in my recent write-up about high-def programming choices.

The useful website Where Is HD? listed the HD content of Twin Cities Public Television’s TPT HD channel (Ch. 2.2 on the digital broadcast spectrum) as making up 22 percent of its programming minutes. So I simply lumped it in with the other local network affiliates, which all have about 20 percent HD programming, according to Where Is HD? (except KARE-TV, which is listed at 57 percent).

In reality, high-def programs make up about 66 percent of the TPT HD’s schedule, according to Tom Holter, TPT’s executive director of programming. The rest of the channel’s offerings are up-converted PBS programs.

It’s not clear why Where Is HD? has outdated info for TPT HD, because the site says it gets data directly from programmers, but I’m happy to provide a clarification.

Sony has created home-theater speakers that not only are tiny — about the size of golf balls — but also “deliver the big, robust sound of a top-notch home-theater sound system,” according to a breathless AP news report out of Tokyo.

Obviously, I haven’t heard Sony’s Home Theater System HT-IS100, but call me skeptical about how robust that sound truly is. At only 1.7 inches square, the system’s five satellite speakers are essentially just tweeters, the component of full-range speakers that produces high frequencies. The fact that they’re housed in a tiny cabinet is the only thing that makes them different than the similar-sized tweeters you’d buy as part of an after-market component-speaker setup for your car, as Crutchfield sells. Basically, the system’s 17-inch subwoofer is providing all the bass and even most of the midrange sound. This is how many satellite systems work, of course, but the minuscule size of the new Sony speakers shifts that burden even more and makes me wonder how pleasing dialogue and music will sound.

I guess we’ll find out eventually. The speaker system goes on sale in Japan next month for about $870, but it has no U.S. release date or price yet.

Which video games are the best for demonstrating your high-def setup? High Def Digest answers that question with its list of the top five PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 video games whose high-def audio and video look great, as selected by contributor Wayne Santos. It’s an interesting list, albeit with a few quibbles. The Xbox 360 gets priority, but the PS3 should have, because its built-in Blu-ray capability makes it more likely to be part of a home-theater setup. Also, there are only two current games for each console — Heavenly Sword and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for the PS3, Gears of War and Bioshock for the Xbox 360 — with three spots dedicated to games not yet released. The list should have been all current games, with a note about interesting upcoming titles. And Resistance: Fall of Man, the PS3 launch title that out-Haloed Halo, is a glaring omission.

Speaking of the PS3, the latest firmware update that adds true high-def audio, which I mentioned last week, is now live. Just click on System Update under settings, and you’ll be good to go after the pain-free installation process. 

Are you ready for the federally mandated switchover from analog to digital TV broadcasts? More than one-fifth of the TV sets in the Minneapolis-St. Paul viewing area are affected by the transition — more than any other U.S. viewing area, except Portland, Ore., which has a slightly larger proportion. That’s 22.1 percent of the TV sets in 59 Minnesota counties and nine in Wisconsin.

Sunday began a yearlong countdown until the switch on Feb. 17, 2009. I wrote an article Sunday about the looming transition, so be sure to check it out for more perspective.

If you receive over-the-air TV broadcasts (using an antenna) on an older, analog set, you are affected by the transition and will lose your programming if you do nothing before next Feb. 17. If you receive your programming via a cable or satellite provider, or if you have a newer TV with a built-in digital tuner, you are among the majority of viewers who are not affected.

If you are affected, you have three options:

• Subscribe to a cable or satellite service.
• Buy a newer TV with a digital tuner, which is pretty much all that stores sell now.
• Buy a converter box that connects to your older TV and antenna and converts the digital signal, which all Twin Cities stations are already simulcasting.

The latter is the cheapest and easiest option. The government is issuing $40 vouchers (two per household) to defray the costs of buying the converter boxes, which are selling for $50 to $70 through stores such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. 

This seems like a fairly straightforward process, but there is loads of consumer confusion about the switchover, judging from the reader feedback I’ve received:

• One woman asked if radio was affected. No, nothing is changing with your radio.
• One woman insisted that she went to Best Buy and was told she needed a $150 converter box. No, the sole converter box that Best Buy is selling (linked above) costs $60 — $20, after using the voucher.
• One man said he was given poor service at Best Buy but found what he was looking for at Wal-Mart, including converter boxes with built-in DVD players and VCRs. Again, no. As linked above, Wal-Mart is selling one converter box, which costs $50 — $10 after the voucher.

My article was meant to raise awareness about the issue, but many questions can be answered by going to the government’s website for the switchover, DTV2009.gov. Also, on Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., will hold a press conference at 10:15 a.m. at the Best Buy in Richfield to publicize the transition.

“When your finished, write the word ‘GEEK’ on your forehead, with a nice fat sharpie.” That’s what reader Penn wrote after my recent post about labeling cables to help with setting up your home theater. Hey, labeling cables to help with connecting them is simply practical, especially when you’re dealing with a few dozen wires.

The following guys, on the other hand, are true geeks — sharpies, foreheads and all. From Royal Pingdom (via Unclutterer) comes these (purloined) photos of some seriously organized cables:

Credit: Jef Newsom

Credit: Tim D.

Credit: Network1 Cabling

Be sure to check out Royal Pingdom’s page for more photos and some great comments — many of which point out how impractical these setups are, especially if you need to replace a cable. But even non-geeks have to marvel at them.

Should you label your home-theater cables with masking tape and a pen, as I suggested earlier this week in a column about de-complicating your home-theater setup? Reader Paul Kelly says, “NOOOOOOO!!”

Paul is a “professional cable labeler” who most recently worked as an AV tech for the broadcast of the U.S. Figure Skating Championship at Xcel Center in St. Paul.

“Masking tape deteriorates over time,” he said. “It loses its ’stick,’ becomes brittle and falls off.  Also, the ink on it tends to fade.”

To clarify what I wrote: I label the cables as I take them off — so I can easily tell what goes where amid a tangle of wires — and then remove the tape when reconnecting. Really, I use whatever I can find from my cramped position on the floor behind the stereo cabinet. Actually, the last time I hooked up all of my speaker cables, which have a light coating, I just wrote right on the cables with a Sharpie and they were still perfectly labeled almost two years later when I looked at them recently.

Paul is much more serious and diligent about his cable labeling: “I generally use white paper tape (any art supply store) and a fine-point Sharpie. You can get high-tech and use different colors of paper tape, or use different colors of electrical tape wrapped around the cables without labels (but keep a cheat sheet in a zip-lock bag nearby). The really cool new cable labeling method is BLACK gaff (duct) tape with SILVER or GOLD Sharpie! You can almost see it in the dark.”

However you do it, permanent or temporary, the larger point is to label the cables, which Paul and I agree on. It’s amazing how many people just start yanking cables indiscriminately when setting up or reconfiguring their home theaters, which bogs things down later.