NBC is recording 3600 hours of 2008 Beijing Olympics coverage, most recorded in HD and most only available online.

And I hate watching this stuff online.

Lets do a quick overview of the offerings. NBC is using 7 networks to display everything. Lets go down the list: Standard NBC (HD Version Available), USA (HD Simulcast on DirecTV), CNBC (HD Simulcast Available*), MSNBC (No HD), Oxygen (no HD), Telemundo (HD?), and *Universal HD (Simulcast of CNBC)

Now there is also NBC Olympics Soccer and NBC Olympics Basketball (both with HD simulcast) available on Time Warner and other select providers in some markets (not RCN Chicago or Time Warner Milwaukee)

But they have other networks that NBC/Universal owns outright that they could be broadcasting on. And both have HD simulcast versions.

Scifi and Bravo.

I mean, Scifi has no original programing running right now (you can only watch Battlestar Galactica/Stargate reruns so many times) and while Bravo does have its own core audience, I think you can pre-empt it for the Olympics.

The worst part of it all is that CNBC/CNBC HD/Universal HD seems to be almost exclusively boxing. I hate boxing.

A few months ago I was deciding between an LCD and Plasma HDTV. I finally settled on a 50″ Samsung Plasma.

It cost me just under $2k, but I had been saving up for it for quite some time and since I moved apartments I was finally in a place where I had enough room for one it was a good time to buy.

Now, having a HDTV is one thing, but finding enough HD content to view on it is another. And finding HD content has gotten a lot easier.. but finding GOOD HD content is difficult.

Thank god for my HD DVR.

I set my DVR to record the Olympics Opening Ceremony in HD.

Oh my.

The contrast, color… everything… is just perfect on this TV.

Oh, and the opening ceremony is pretty cool too.

I picked up a People Magazine for the first time in my life today to read the cover story about Tim Russert.

I didn’t tell many people it, but Tim Russert had to be one of my heros. I mean, there are great political activists and people in history to idolize, but Tim Russert was willing to go each week toe-to-toe with anybody and actually increase the ‘public diaglog’ without sounding like an ass.

He never sounded like an ass. He NEVER sounded like a pundit. His friends at NBC never knew who he voted for and he never seemed to inject opinion into his newscast.

Well, he did, rarely. But that was only if someone was evading a question or pulling a fast one on him. He was a true moderator, a true political wiz kid, and a man who was taken from us way to early.

I picked up this People Magazine article this evening and started reading. It is a great article about his life and how he succeeded to celebrate it like a ‘normal’ American (he would go with his son and have a few beers in the backyard then go to some A-list ceremony right after)

That’s cool. Very cool. Sad.

I am watching CSI S08E06 on the new TV and about 14 minutes in they go to the Planet Hollywood poker room.

When I was in Vegas that has to be one of my favorite places to play.

In the scene the suspect starts running, but since it just wouldn’t look as cool to run out the front doors 20 yards away we see a shot of the suspect running through the casino floor.

I get to go back to Vegas for a weekend bachelor party this fall. It is going to be awesome.

Tim Russert is dead…

Tim Russert was really my hero… He embodied politics… he was that “got-ya” type of guy who held politicians feet to the fire, making them explain their contradictory statements to advance the public dialog.

A friend of mine went to the Jesuit high school that Russert went to in Buffalo. Oh god this is sad.