It's Monday, and we know that getting the week started can be tough. We're here to help by letting you peek into the recording booth when the Engadget HD podcast goes to tape on Monday, December 21st at 6:30PM ET. Think of it as a kind of time machine that will help you power through your day by reviewing what happened in the week HD-wise. Embedded Ustream tools and a list of topics after the break.

We've seen a lot of big time box office hits this holiday season on Blu-ray, and while some of them were science fiction movies, not many of them have an IMDB score of 8.4 like District 9 does. This is one of those movies we wish we would've caught in the theater and won't be wasting any time to enjoy it at home in HD.

• District 9 (Sony)
• It Might Get Loud (Sony)
• Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Dark Side (Fox)
• (500) Days Of Summer (Fox)
• All About Steve (Fox)
• American Pie Presents: The Book Of Love (Universal)
• Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Anchor Bay)
• Extract (Miramax)
• Staten Island (E1)

What we're watching tonight:

• TNT (1080i) has the season finale of The Closer at 9 p.m. and Men of a Certain Age at 10 p.m.
• BBCA (1080i) airs the Top Gear Polar Special at 8 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Giants/Redskins Monday Night Football at 8:30 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) airs Little Chocolatiers at 9 p.m. and World Chocolate Championship at 10 p.m.
• History (720p) has Pawn Star$ at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
• USA (1080i) has WWE: Raw at 8 p.m.
• A&E (720p) has Intervention at 9 p.m. and Hoarders at 10 p.m.
• NBA TV (1080i) has Cavaliers/Suns at 9 p.m.
• ESPN2 (720p) has La Salle/Oklahoma State college basketball at 9 p.m.

If you've been pining over the Philips Cinema 21:9 display that's available everywhere except in the U.S., keep an eye out for any manufacturers who might use NXP's new TV550 platform, which promises built in support for 21:9 "ultrawidescreen" displays. Worried about the extra screen space going to waste while displaying 16:9 formatted television content? No problem, it's also widget-ready to run additional info or VOD menus in the space next to an HD image. Integrating all that into a single chip should also bring costs down, so it'll be even cheaper to bring back family movie night with that one relative who always complains about the black bars. As if that's not enough, there's also the company's other new development, the PNX5130, claimed to be the first video co-processor that handles 3DTV, frame-rate conversion and local dimming backlights all on one one chip, for 120Hz and 240Hz displays. NXP chips have most notably recently popped up in the Roku streamer, we'll be keeping an eye out at CES 2010 to see where it goes next.

For all the big names (NBC, Samsung, Charter & others) that came out behind HANA several years ago, we've seen precious little in the way of actual hardware, but maybe that is ready to change now that its BFF, the 1394 Trade Association, has issued the latest specs covering content protection and IPv4 over 1394. In case you've forgotten since 2005, the idea is easy sharing of HD content between a wide variety of devices, often over the existing coax wiring in the home. We'll see if this is the step that makes the dream come true, the hope of 5+ tuner DVRs, sweet multiroom setups and cross platform compatibility are enough to keep stringing us along a while longer.

In one of the few analyst predictions that may actually make sense, Futuresource has peered into its crystal ball and decided that with a spec finally in place, we could see 3D Blu-ray players on shelves as soon as the second quarter of next year. Of course, according to specs the BDA revealed to HD Guru, that hardware will need to be able to feed 3D to displays at 1080p resolution in either 48fps (24 fps, for both the left and right eye) or 120Hz. Seeing that Broadcom has already announced its chipset that is expected to be fully compatible with the specification, and recalling the usual product cycles for new player introductions its not hard to see a scenario where Samsung, Sony and Panasonic are delivering their new top of the line players with that sweet new Blu-ray 3D logo as soon as the weather gets warm.

While Sony is certainly no stranger to 3D, RealD has proven more than capable when it comes to active shutter technology (as we saw earlier when the company partnered up with 3ality to broadcast an NFL game). According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony will license RealD's technology and equipment (including 3D eyewear) for use on its TVs and other products -- with the fruits of this partnership due to hit store shelves sometime next year. Could this be the big push that home 3D has been waiting for? We don't know, but if it brings our dreams of Becker in 3D! one step closer to reality, we're all for it.

We're gearing up for CES 2010, which means the race to show off an even thinner "worlds thinnest" LCD TV panel is heating up -- and it looks like LG's taking an early lead by announcing a new 42-inch 1080p panel that's just 2.6mm (.1 inch) thin. The prototype LED-backlit 120Hz display weighs just under 8.8 pounds , but we don't have any other specs on it just yet -- but we're sure we'll find out far more 17 days from now in Vegas. Press release below.

What we're watching tonight:

• CBS (1080i) has the season finale of Survivor at 8 p.m. and the Reunion episode at 10 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) brings Sunday Night Football with Vikings/Panthers at 8:15 p.m.
• Travel (!080i) has the season finale of Meet the Natives USA at 10 p.m.
• A&E (720p) has The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty at 10 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) presents Two Weeks in Hell at 8 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has the New Orleans bowl with Southern Miss/Middle Tennessee at 8 p.m.
• NBA TV (1080i) has Cavaliers/Mavericks at 7:30 p.m.

OK, so we know a thing or two about the "convenience" of using your iPhone as a remote control. For instance, using it to control Boxee was alright -- until we needed to make a call. Or we received a call. Not to rain on anyone's parade, but the idea of re-purposing your phone to act as a universal remote seems a little silly. But what do we know? Maybe you hold all calls while Jersey Shore is on anyways. In that case, Re could be your next favorite gadget. This bad boy lets your handset communicate with all your AV equipment via infrared, contains an extensive database of devices, and can learn from any IR remote. If that weren't enough, New Kinetix promises regular updates to the app -- and your typical remote can't do that! Compatible with the iPod Touch as well, there's no word yet on a price or release date, but we're expecting that we'll be getting plenty more details come CES time.

What we're watching tonight:

• NFL Network (1080i) has Cowboys/Saints at 8 p.m.
• BBCA (1080i) airs Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars at 9 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) airs WWE Tribute to the Troops at 9 p.m. and Saturday Night Live with James Franco at 11:29 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has the St. Petersburg Bowl with Rutgers/Central Florida at 8 p.m.

In case you were thinking only the big names were ready to bet heavy on the success of 3D, Taiwan's AU Optotronics has announced its own plans for 65-inch 3D LCD panels coming out in the second half of 2010. Who knows what names they may bear when hitting the shelves, but we say the more the merrier. if a price war drives down the costs for 3D as quickly as it has for other recent high-definition TV technologies, the timetable for a 3D setup in our living room could be getting even shorter.

Time Warner didn't say who it was targeting with the heavily-slanted RollOverorGetTough (Spanish language version available at www.cederoponersefirme.com) website recently, but now that Fox has yelped like a hit dog and launched its own campaign at KeepFoxOn.com we can see where this is going. While Time Warner's latest press release claims victory from over 400,000 visitors overwhelmingly voting in favor of Getting Tough on price gouging programmers, Fox is claiming it seeks only "fair compensation" and is fulfilling its "responsibility" to prepare viewers for losing their channels. The Fox website hypes up switching to satellite and all the programming that could be lost if Time Warner does not opt to continue its agreement to carry Fox networks, and pointing out everything that's at stake: House, 24, several BCS games and more. The only ones we truly have sympathy for are the customers in the middle, hopefully this slapfight ends in time for them to avoid missing even a second of precious TV, just like the great Viacom near-miss of '08 - '09.

It should come as absolutely no surprise that big time HD lovers like us prefer to enjoy our movies in the comfort of our own home theater, but even we get out to the movies on occasion and of course it would take a movie just like Avatar to get us off the couch. Part of the reason is because we've bought into the latest 3D technology hook line and sinker, and really want to see if it holds up during a 3 hour epic. And since we figured this is just the type of thing we love to get some social confirmation on. We want to know: are we the only ones planning on throwing down $10 to see Avatar in 3D this weekend?

What we're watching tonight:

• Fox (720p) has Dollhouse at 8 p.m.
• MyNetworkTV (720p) has WWE: Smackdown at 9 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has Say Yes to the Dress at 9 & 9:30 p.m. and Four Weddings at 10 p.m.
• Starz (1080i) airs the season finale of Crash at 10 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has an NBA doubleheader with Bucks/Cavaliers at 8 p.m. and Wizards/Warriors at 11 p.m.
• ESPN2 (720p) has the FCS Division I-AAChampionship with Montana/Villanova at 8 p.m.

Ok, this isn't quite the 3D sporting event we were expecting next after the BCS Championship and World Cup soccer, but the more we think about it, the more Sony and the PGA's plans to shoot the 2011 Sony Open in 3D makes sense. Golf on an HDTV is an absolutely beautiful sight, and the ability of 3D to let us see from the golfer to the ends of the fairways in Hawaii and keep everything in focus should not be underestimated. Of course, that's more than a year away, and Sony is planning to test out its 3D equipment at the upcoming 2010 event first. We'll see if any networks are ready to broadcast this PGA Tour Stop in the best quality available by that time -- or if the British Open is at least in HD.

Cross another one off the "waiting for them to go HD" list, as Comedy Central is upgrading The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report to 1080i. What caused the wait until 2010? Apparently that's how long it took to upgrade the control room for these shows that are continuously in production, but at least we'll get to see how many CNBC thumbnails Stewart can squeeze into a 16x9 frame before the Mayan calendar runs out.

The FCC has this week signaled its intent to snoop around set top boxes and how they may be improved. Prompted by "a lack of competition and innovation in this market," the regulator will look into ways it can encourage the proliferation of broadband internet access provision as well as stimulating further advances. One potential solution may involve compelling cable and broadband providers to supply "bridge" network interface devices that'll allow users to hook up their set top box to a modem and get groovy online. Whatever the final proposals are, and they'll take more definite shape in February, we're pleased to see the FCC take a proactive approach toward an industry it perceives to be stagnating. Our idea? Boxee Boxes for everyone!

NFL
Indianapolis Colts at Jacksonville Jaguars NFL Network Thurs 8:20 PM
Dallas Cowboys at New Orleans Saints NFL Network Sat 8:20 PM
Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers FOX Sun 4:15

NCAA Basketball
Michigan at Kansas ESPN Sat Noon
Gonzaga vs. Duke CBS Sat 4:00 PM

NBA
Orlando Magic at Miami Heat TNT Thurs 8:00 PM
Cleveland Cavaliers at Phoenix Suns NBATV Sun 9:00 PM

NHL
Buffalo Sabres at Toronto Maple Leafs VS. Mon 7:00 PM