Well, it only took three days, but the brand new ESPNewsHD channel has been added to your Direct TV lineup. I didn’t get a chance to check it out before I left for work this morning, but I plan on checking it out the second I get home.

Those of you who telecommute, go check it out and let us know what you think.

Direct TV also added Disney Channel HD and Toon Disney HD. That brings their HD channel total to 95, with a new satellite being launched later this year which is going to have capacity for a few hundred more.

If you don’t have DTV by now and you have an HD TV, you are really missing out on the good stuff.

The first thing I did when I got up on Sunday morning, was let the dogs out and turn on the TV. Not sure if that is different than any other morning, but whatever.

It was time to see ESPNewsHD in the flesh!

I recorded the first two broadcasts of ESPNewsHD off ESPNHD since I don’t have the new channel yet, hopefully you guys did the same. If you didn’t, it also showed on ESPN2HD a few more times on Sunday.

My initial thoughts are that IT’S AWESOME. I loved the new studio, the HD picture that fits inside all the informative scrolling areas on the top, left and bottom. When an NBA game scrolled by, they had small headshots of players to go next to their stat line. Pretty nice.

Also liked that when the top line switched sports, the left area had an animation graphic that displayed that sport’s logo.

There was really only one thing that bothered me. They have sound effects when displaying a person’s name or other information that overlays the HD picture, and that little “swoosh” sound could get to be tiresome after awhile.

What did you guys think? Awesome?

I’m just hoping that the station shows up soon, because I need to see more of it!

Now, while I am reminding you guys that ESPNewsHD launches on Sunday, the odds that you are actually going to have a channel to look at that morning are slim. Apparently only 3.2 million homes will be getting the new channel at 8:00 AM EST on Sunday, a lot lower than the 17 million who got to see ESPNHD when it went live.

But do not worry…you can still catch a glimpse of the ESPNewsHD broadcast on your regular ESPNHD channel from 8 AM to 9 AM EST on Sunday morning. You will also be able to see it over on ESPN2HD at 11:30 AM and 11:30 PM EST.

It’s flat out going to rock and I’ve already set my DVR for Sunday morning’s initial broadcast.

Ah, who am I kidding…you know I’ll be up at 5 AM Arizona time to see it live, because I’m weird like that.

We reported it months ago, and showed you awesome screenshots last week, but now it’s been totally confirmed that ESPNewsHD will blast onto your high definition landscape on March 30th.

According to EngadgetHD, the providers that already have carriage agreements in place (which means they should carry it immediately) are Direct TV, Comcast and Time Warner.

Now, if you don’t have one of those, or even if you do that the channel doesn’t go live for you right away, ESPNHD and ESPN2HD will be showcasing it in various forms during the day.

The station will debut at 8 AM EST that day and ESPNHD will carry the first hour of it live. Then at 11:30 AM and 11:30 PM, you will see half-hour chunks of it on ESPN2HD.

Wonderful news, I just HOPE that DTV has it on time and ready to go that morning. I only wish it had been launched a bit earlier, in time for March Madness, but heck…baseball season is here and it will be good to check out highlights in this new graphics package.

Check out the screenshots if you missed them.