Comedy Central to air Friends in true HD

It could be that they had some effects added in the video domain (i.e. they were done after the film had been telecined to SD video), and they haven't gone back and recomposited these in HD?

are the shots of new york used as filler not library footage?

Nope, they were shot by WB for the programme!

They've just started showing the first episode of series 2 and on the last scene of part one, you can see past monica's living room wall (where the fourth wall would normally be)

There was a whole shot the other day where the camera was focused on the sofa instead of Rachel's face.

I find it hilarious too when they move from actual outdoors shots to fake outdoors shots and the bricks look like the wallpaper you get in branches of subway.

The focusing thing is really annoying at times, funny how you never notice it on SD. The camera keeps focusing on the background rather than the foreground.

Is it a type of soft focus cheat thing to make the women look prettier?

In the last scene of the 8PM episode 'The one where Eddie moves in' the last scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETQfuzNGT58 when Phoebe asks the others to sing, you can barely make out there voices the level is so low, even though you can still hear Phoebe.

GEM here in Australia are also showing friends in HD and having access to a HD televison, the picture is crystal clear! They're currently up to series 6 and I've noticed cuts in some episodes but that's probably due to the four commercial breaks they have in between!

Looks like they have cropped a little off the top and bottom but gained more on the sides, not complaining though, they've done a good job with this.

I see all Comedy Central channels are now in 16:9 and not just Comedy Central HD and Comedy Central Extra.

This means the standard def Comedy Central is finally 16:9 and not letterbox!

But not sending out a widescreen signal, which means if you have your TV set up to show 4:3 programmes in the right aspect ratio, the widescreen shows on Comedy Central get squished to 4:3.

Plus they can only show their 4:3 shows in 14:9, so this is a move for the worst IMO.