Oh what a wonderful week it is now that baseball is officially over -- enjoy it while it lasts though as we heard that spring training was going to start in December this year. Big college football game this weekend as two top ten teams meet in Alabama and we'll all get to see if Alabama deserves its number three spot. Also this week are a few NFL divisional games as the Ravens take on the Bengals and Dallas travels to Philly, both of which are playing really good right now.

CFB
# 9 LSU at #3 Alabama CBS 3:30 Sat
# 16 Ohio State at #11 Penn State ABC 3:30 PM Sat
#24 Oklahoma at Nebraska ABC 8:00 PM Sat

NFL
Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals 1:00 PM CBS Sun
Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles 8:20 PM NBC Sun
Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos 8:30 PM ESPN Mon

NHL
Los Angeles Kings at Chicago Blackhawks Vs 8:00 PM Mon
Pittsburgh Penguins at Boston Bruins Vs 7:00 PM Tues

NBA
Chicago Bulls at Cleveland Cavaliers TNT 8:00 PM Thurs
San Antonio Spurs at Portland Trail Blazers ESPN 10:30 PM Fri

Forget Torino and its quality issues, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver promises to be a different event, and this time it is coming home shot 100% natively in HD. Watching on TV, viewers can expect a slew of coverage across NBC's networks, plus a continuously updated HD VOD package of the day's highlights, and interactive TV features to pull up medal counts, athlete bios and Team USA reports. Checking in online? NBC is back with a new iteration of Microsoft's Silverlight streaming, promising even more HD footage, with the ability to fast forward and rewind streams, plus save clips to your computer. Behind the online efforts are the encoding skills of iStreamPlanet providing 23 different video feeds, with Akamai's new HD distribution network distributing the adaptive bitrate streams directly to your PC. Remember when we were just happy to get 5.1 surround?

Read - Akamai and iStreamPlanet to Power Live and on-Demand Video for NBC's Coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games

The best time of year for sports' fans continues as the World Series is in full swing, College Football is about to start off its last month, and the NFL bye weeks are here. The two biggest college football games this week are on the same time and the same channel, which means you'll have to click on the ABC link to see the coverage map to know which game you'll get to see -- we're going to get the Texas game, luckily. Also this week is the over hyped rematch between the Vikings and the Packers is also on this weekend, and since it's at 4pm, everyone should get to see it -- who wants to anyways.

NFL
Denver Broncos at Baltimore Ravens CBS 1:00 PM Sun
Minnesota Vikings at Green Bay Packers Fox 4:15 PM Sun

CFB
No. 5 USC at No. 10 Oregon ABC 8:00 PM Sat
No. 3 Texas at No. 14 Oklahoma State ABC 8:00 PM Sat

MLB
World Series: Philadelphia Phillies at New York Yankees Fox 7:57 PM all week

NHL
Boston Bruins at Detroit Red Wings Versus 7:00 PM Tues

NBA
Denver Nuggets at Portland Trail Blazers TNT 10:30 Thurs
Chicago Bulls at Boston Celtics ESPN 8:00 PM Fri

It is very fitting that on a week with not many great football matchups, that the NBA would be kicking off the regular season. It isn't that we're big basketball fans, it is just that we wanted to put up a baseball image and all the ones we could find were boring -- just like the sport itself. But we would like to recognize that for big sports fans, this is the very best time of the year. The time of year when all four of the big sports in the US are all on at the same time. Of course this only lasts for about two weeks because baseball season just can't ever end, but if you can't get enough HD sports, enjoy the following weeks while you can.

NFL

• Minnesota Vikings at Pittsburgh Steelers Fox 1:00 PM Sun
• New Orleans Saints at Miami Dolphins Fox 4:15 PM Sun
• Arizona Cardinals at New York Giants NBC 8:20 PM Sun

CFB

• #8 TCU at #16 BYU Versus 7:30 PM Sat
• #13 Penn State at Michigan ABC/ESPN 3:30 PM Sat

MLB

• ALCS: New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels 7:57 PM Thurs Fox Sat, maybe Sun
  
• World Series Philadelphia Phillies at AL winner tentatively starts October 28th

NHL

• Minnesota Wild at Chicago Blackhawks Versus 8:30 PM Mon
  
• Philadelphia Flyers at Washington Capitals Versus 7:00 PM Tues

NBA

• Boston Celtics at Cleveland Cavaliers TNT 7:30 PM Tues
• Utah Jazz at Denver Nuggets ESPN 10:30 PM Wed

Oh how we love it when there's a big College Football game on a Thursday night, it really is the best way to kick off the weekend -- albeit a day early. This Thursday's game in Tampa is versus two top ranked teams in the country who are both undefeated and in the same conference. But that still might not be the biggest game of the week as there are actually three other matchups against ranked opponents. The NFL season is more than under way with the bye weeks started and this week two of the remaining undefeated teams meet on Sunday when the second ranked offense in the NFL, New York Giants, meets the 3rd ranked offense in the way of the New Orleans Saints.

CFB

• No. 8 Cincinnati at No. 21 South Florida ESPN 7:30 PM Thu
• No. 20 Oklahoma at No. 3 Texas ABC 12:00 PM Sat
• No. 6 USC at No. 25 Notre Dame NBC 3:30 Sat
• No. 4 Virginia Tech at No.19 Georgia Tech ESPN 6:00 PM Sat
  

NFL

• Baltimore Ravens at Minnesota Vikings CBS 4:15 PM Sun
• New York Giants at New Orleans Saints FOX 1:00 PM Sun
• Chicago Bears at Atlanta Falcons NBC 8:20 PM Sun

MLB

• ALCS: Los Angeles Angels at New York Yankees. Fox starting 10/16
• NLCS: Philadelphia Phillies at Los Angeles Dodgers TBS starting 10/15

NHL

• San Jose Sharks at NY Rangers Vs 7:00 PM Mon
  
• St. Louis Blues at Pittsburgh Penguins Vs 7:00 PM Tues
  

NFL

• New England Patriots at Denver Broncos CBS 4:15 PM Sun
  
• New York Jets at Miami Dolphins ESPN 8:30 PM Mon

CFB

• #21 Nebraska at #24Missouri ESPN 9:00 PM Thu
• #1 Florida at #4 LSU CBS 8:00 PM Sat

MLB

• ALDS: Minnesota Twins at New York Yankees
• ALDS: Boston Red Sox at Anaheim Angles
• NLDS: Colorado Rockies at Philadelphia Phillies
• NLDS: St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Dodgers

NHL

• Calgary Flames at Chicago Blackhawks 8:00 PM Mon Vs
• Detroit Red Wings at Buffalo Sabres 7:00 PM Tues Vs

Things are really starting to heat up on the grid iron. The good and the bad are starting to show themselves and play each other. One of those meetings is on Sunday at 4pm when the Cowboys head to Denver in the hopes of picking up their third win. Then of course on Monday night is the big game Favre lovers have been waiting for. To us its a solid divisional rivalry, but we're sure a number of people will tune in just for the revenge angle. On the CFB field there is another great SEC matchup with LSU vs UGA, but we also get to find out who's worse, Oklahoma or Miami? Finally, the baseball season is coming to an end with only 7 days left until the playoffs, so basically we're just glad to see it end. Hockey also kicks off this week with the Capitals and the Bruins with many more games to follow.

NFL

• Dallas Cowboys at Denver Broncos Fox 4:15 PM Sun
• Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings ESPN 8:30 PM Mon
  

College Football

• LSU at Georgia CBS 3:30 PM Sat
• Oklahoma at Miami ABC 8:00 PM Sat

NHL

• Washington Capitals at Boston Bruins Versus 7:00 PM Thursday
• Detroit Red Wings at St. Louis Blues Versus 3:00 PM Friday
  

MLB

• Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers ESPN 7:05 PM Friday

We've said it before and we'll say it again, sports, not movies or video games is 3D's killer app, and this prototype camera from Sony is designed specifically to help bring the two closer together. Set to debut at CEATEC next week, the HFR Comfort-3D records at 240 fps through just one lens instead of two thanks to a new half-mirror system that takes left and right eye images at the same time, better for capturing fast motion and providing viewers lacking polarized glasses a 2D picture with minimal blurring. One of our few complaints during last year's BCS National Championship 3D experience was occasional benefits caused by fast left-right motion which this system could make a non-issue. Check after the break for a detailed (in Japanese) diagram that should help make things clearer -- for those that can read the language -- the rest of us are waiting for ESPN or someone else to tote a few of these down to the Super Bowl in 2010 and make magic happen.

[Via AV Watch thanks Derek for English PR]

College football roles on and this week where we get to find out if Miami is really back or just went on one heck of a two game winning streak. If you would've told anyone that the Hurricanes could go 3 and 0 with a schedule like this, no one would've believed you, but here we are with Miami going to Virginia Tech favored. Normally we ignore baseball, even though we list the big games but this week the playoff race is officially on so tune in to find out who's going to make it down the final stretch.

NFL

• Atlanta Falcons at New England Patriots Fox 1:00 PM Sun
• Indianapolis Colts at Arizona Cardinals NBC 8:30 PM Sun

College Football

• #9 Miami at #11 Virginia Tech ABC 3:30 PM Sat
  
• Iowa at #5 Penn State ABC 8:00 PM Sat

MLB

• Boston Red Sox at New York Yankees TBS Fri 7:00 PM
• St. Louis Cardinals at Colorado Rockies TBS Sun 3:00 PM
  

We finally know exactly when Discovery HD Theater will deliver the rally racing action it promised now that the official schedule has been revealed. Our friends at Autoblog have plenty of pics to gawk over while we mark off the days, check after the break for the PR with dates and times, plus a preview trailer. We're not sold on how the new NA engines in WRC may sound in 5.1, but we'll always take more HD racing action, you hear that Bernie?

We don't know about anyone else, but we can hardly wait to see if Miami is as good as they looked against FSU about a few weeks ago. Either way, it should be a great college football matchup. Although that'll be a better matchup than Tennessee at Florida, with all the pre-game jabs thrown leading up until this rivalry, this will be the biggest CFB game this week. Speaking of rivals, there aren't many bigger than this Sunday Night's Giants vs Cowboys. Finally, for those that love high scoring professional football, don't even think about missing the Saints vs the Eagles.

NFL

• New Orleans Saints at Philadelphia Eagles Fox 1:00 PM Sun
  
• New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys NBC 8:30 PM Sun

College Football

• #14 Georgia Tech at #20 Miami ESPN 7:30 PM Thurs
  
• Tennessee at #1 Florida CBS 3:30 PM Sat

MLB

• San Francisco at Arizona 10:00 PM ESPN Wed

Chalk this one up as a total rumor, but you can imagine our surprise today when we saw all of these NFL Sunday Ticket channels show up on our CableCARD equipped Windows 7 Media Center connected to Verizon's FiOS. Unfortunately the channels didn't actually tune in when we selected 'em and this could very well be another case of bad guide data, but no way we could pass up the chance to share this one.

**UPDATE** As expected, this was confirmed by the NFL as just a glitch in the guide data, but it was fun to dream even if it was only for a day.

The wait is finally over and today's the first big Sunday of the NFL Season which means that you're probably making your last minute preparations. As far as programing goes, the NFL has done a great job of getting carriage for its new NFL RedZone channel, but of course not everyone is going to carry it -- sorry Time Warner Cable and Bright House Network customers. So here's a run down of the Winners. Comcast, Dish Network and AT&T U-Verse customers made out the best because all they have to is subscribe to a $5 (aprox) sports package. Verizon FiOS and RCN customers didn't make out as well though as they will have to pay $49 for the season without any other channels included -- but hey at least they got it. For the rest of you, not much you can do, just keep calling your provider and voicing your desires and in the meantime maybe someone of Twitter will hook you up with access to their SlingBox HD.

American's most watch sports kicks off in HD in just a few hours as the former Super Bowl champs take on the their AFC rival -- what else really needs to be said? NFL kickoff weekend then ends with a double header on Monday night including the Bills vs the Patriots, where we get to see if Brady is really back. There are a few big old school college football matchups this Saturday as well, as Michigan takes on Notre Dame and USC goes up against Ohio State in one of the most classic midwestern matchups. Ohh, and baseball isn't over yet, so if nothing else is on you might want to check out two teams both trying to get a playoff spot.

NFL

• Tennessee Titans at Pittsburgh Steelers NBC 8:30 PM Thursday
  
• Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots ESPN 7:00 PM Mon

College Football

• Michigan at Notre Dame ABC 3:30 PM Sat
  
• USC at Ohio State ABC 8:00 PM Sat

MLB

• Colorado Rockies at San Francisco Giants Wed 10:00 PM ESPN