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 at 9 pm. 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.

Update: We've had to push back the podcast time to 8 9 p.m., we hope you'll be ready to join us!

What we're watching tonight:

• Fox (720p) has Lie to Me at 8 p.m. and The Good Guys at 9 p.m.
• ABC (720p) airs The Bachelorette at 8 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has Little People, Big World at 8 & 8:30 p.m., Cake Boss at 9 & 9:30 p.m. and Food Buddha at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
• ABC Family (720p) has The Secret Life of the American Teenager at 8 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) has Last Comic Standing at 9 p.m. and Persons Unknown at 10 p.m.
• USA (1080i) presents WWE: Raw at 9 p.m.
• History (720p) has American Pickers at 9 p.m. and Pawn $tars at 10 & 10:30 p.m.
• TNT (1080i) has Saving Grace at 10 p.m.
• TBS (1080i) has Neighbors from Hell at 10 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) presents Dirty Jobs at 9 p.m.
• HBO (1080i) presents For Neda at 9 p.m.
• MTV (1080i) airs The Hard Times of RJ Berger at 10 p.m. and the series premiere of Warren the Ape at 10:30 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has Mariners/Cardinals baseball at 7 p.m.

It didn't get a slot during Microsoft's just-concluded Xbox 360 press conference, but the Netflix streaming app will finally add one of the most often requested (and denied) features: the ability to search through the entire Watch Instantly library and add movies to your queue, right from the console. Proudly stating it's the first gaming console to let you update your queue without a computer (Roku does it too, but try playing Gears of War on that) there's no word on any Kinect tie-ins, probably the reason it didn't get any higher billing than a bullet point in Marc Whitten's 2010 letter to Xbox Live members.

The recently relaunched ESPN3 online portal is coming to Xbox 360 , as just announced during Microsoft's pre-E3 press conference. Trey Wingo and Josh Elliott from SportsCenter are on stage demonstrating with footage from a USC / Ohio State game, and of course it has built in Kinect controller support. 3,500 live sporting events, instant replays, highlights, polls all at your fingertips or by the sound of your voice. The PiP stuff will be familiar to fans who have already indulged online, but with the new control aspects (and of course, HD streaming) it could give a reasonable alternative to the existing channels. The usual requirement of Xbox Live Gold just like Netflix, Facebook, etc. is present, but beyond having a TV provider / ISP that's signed up for the package, there's no additional charge.

Update: Wondering if you'll have access? Check the list of ESPN3 affiliates to see if your ISP is playing ball.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on Blu-ray 3D doesn't make its retail debut until next week, but you can get a taste of the tools used to make it right now, as Sony has announced the availability of its Blu-print 6 and Z Depth software packages. The latest version of Blu-print adds "Profile 5" (read: 3D) authoring compliance to its list of features, integrating all the offset metadata for 3D menus and working with MVC encoded video, while adding a few non-3D features like new DTS-HD encoding support and Windows Vista 64-bit compatibility. Z Depth's job is keeping subtitles properly aligned in 3D, just one of the new issues that need to be dealt with in these discs. No word on a price tag, but judging by the initial version's $50,000 retail value, we're figuring if you have to ask...

Glasses-free 3D has taken several forms, but most have a critical flaw -- viewers have to stand in predefined locations to get the effect. That just won't do, so Microsoft's prototyped a new approach, and it's one of the wildest we've seen. Taking a cue from Project N... we mean Kinect, cameras track the face while a special wedge-shaped lens traps bouncing light, and after the beams have reached a "critical angle," it exits towards the viewers eyes, aimed by programmable LEDs at the bottom of the screen. Since the system can beam a pair of simultaneous images to two different places, the obvious use is stereoscopic 3D, but researchers found they could also send different images to different viewers, as a sort of privacy screen. If that sounds far fetched, you're not alone -- but you'll find a video proof-of-concept at the more coverage link.

Bad news for Formula One fans worldwide, as Bernie Ecclestone told the media we will likely have to wait until 2012 to get a glimpse of the racing series in high definition. Trailing every other autosport federation we can think of, and nearly every sport in existence, F1 spent the weekend during the Canadian GP testing HD and even 3D cameras and feeds, but according to Ecclestone there aren't enough viewers that want it. Andrew Barratt, vice president of F1 sponsor LG backed Ecclestone's assertions, calling F1 "the most technical sport in the world to shoot" and saying the differences in the varied locales make it tough to get right, in his comments to Autosport. From our perspective, it was shocking when we couldn't watch the US GP in F1 in 2007, that it could take five more years to make the jump is nothing short of ridiculous.

What we're watching tonight:

• ABC (720p) has Lakers/Celtics NBA Finals Game 5 at 8 p.m.
• Fox (720p) brings 'til Death at 7 p.m. and Sons of Tucson at 7:30 p.m.
• CBS (1080i) presents The 64th Annual Tony Awards at 8 p.m.
• Food (1080i) has Food Network Challenge at 8 p.m., The Next Food Network Star at 9 p.m. and the series premiere of Cupcake Wars at 10 p.m.
• AMC (1080i) has the season finale of Breaking Bad at 10 p.m. and presents Rubicon at 11 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) presents 25 Years of Discovery at 9 p.m. and Atlas 4D at 10 p.m.
• History (720p) has Ice Road Truckers at 9 p.m. and Top Shot at 10 p.m.
• Showtime (1080i) has The Tudors at 9 p.m.
• Cartoon Network (1080i) has the series premiere of Unnatural History at 8 p.m.
• HBO (1080i) has the season premiere of True Blood at 9 p.m. and Treme at 10 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) presents Extreme Poodles at 9 p.m. and Super Pooches at 10 p.m.
• ESPN (720p) has White Sox/Cubs baseball at 8 p.m.

While ESPN's World Cup presentation has improved by leaps and bounds over the 2006 effort, UK watchers got a nasty surprise on the high definition feed of ITV during yesterday's highly anticipated United States / England match. At the exact moment England scored its first goal, ITV HD inexplicably switched to a commercial (archived on YouTube after the break) ruining the first great moment of the tournament for many fans. Apparently this isn't new for ITV, which had a similar mistake last year when it made an automated switch to commercial just in time to miss the winning goal in the FA Cup. In this case, what's done is done and the network has already apologized for the "transmission error" (sounds familiar) let us know in the comments -- especially those outside the US -- how your network of choice is handling the beautiful game.

During our time at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut this past week, we were able to peek inside every nook and cranny of the company's technological side. We discovered some pretty remarkable things about the culture and attitude toward innovation, and while the bulk of that discovery will be seen in a forthcoming Engadget Show segment, we couldn't help but share some insight from a kind fellow who has been deeply involved in the blinking lights portion of ESPN from day one. We sat down for a brief one-on-one interview with Chuck Pagano -- ESPN's executive vice president of technology -- following the outfit's 3D launch, and while we were both bitter over the 1-1 result in the South Africa vs. Mexico match, he was understandably excited about the future of his firm's latest channel. For Chuck's take on 3D, the move to HD and the impending arrival of ESPN streams on your phone, be sure to grab your best reading glasses and click on through.

Just when you thought we were all out of experiential TV, Discovery HD Theater has added Lightscapes, Episode One to its schedule. Claiming inspiration from Baraka and Sunrise Earth (seriously Discovery, where's that new season? Are we going to have to wake up early and go outside to see the sun come up? Don't make us do it.) it is apparently the first network TV show consisting mostly of timelapse photography shot on a Canon 5D Mark II. The gallery also shows a RED camera busy capturing 4K footage of Japanese media artist Akira Hasegawa's work, projecting large abstract images onto the 2000-year old Grand Ise Shrine. Ok, so it's not exactly 24, but it is the kind of thing we'll watch because it's in HD, so check the trailer after the break and set your DVR for June 21, 7:30 a.m.

SureWest announced it would migrate its platform to Microsoft Mediaroom late last year starting with its Sacramento customers, and now its added a few more "advanced digital TV" features to go along with the Whole Home DVR and four tuner DVR features (not to mention lightning fast channel change times) launched in January. Now subscribers can log into the website and schedule edit, or delete recordings just like they were at home, while Caller ID on TV resolves that minor annoyance of having to actually see the phone to know who's calling. It's far from the first provider to add such features, but we're figuring Kevin Johnson and Tyreke Evans appreciate the effort. Now SureWest, let's talk about some Windows Media Center and Xbox 360 integration, ok?

We still don't know if Samsung will put Google's Android into its TVs, but it has recently launched Google Maps and Facebook as a part of its existing Samsung Apps platform. There aren't a lot of details in the press release (included after the break) but buyers of most of the 2010 line HDTVs, Blu-ray players and HTIB systems should have access to them. We've seen demos of how Samsung Apps can tie phones and TVs together easily, but can a mere Google Maps app match the Google TVs ability to push info back and forth from device to device? The Facebook app on Xbox 360 is moderately useful if only as a way to browse photo albums on the HDTV, so we'll also be waiting to find out if it will at least match that functionality.

We were starting to think something was up with the Boxee Box as Q2 started to fade away without any word on the scheduled launch, and unfortunately we were right: Boxee has just confirmed to us that its hotly-anticipated media streamer will be delayed until November in the US and Canada. Boxee says the original launch plan has proven to be "overly ambitious," and that the delay is purely software-related -- the Tegra 2 based hardware we saw at CES will remain the same.

If we had to guess, we'd say at least part of the delay can be attributed to Adobe, since Flash 10.1 just went final yesterday and Boxee is depending on it as a core feature, but either way, the company's goal to provide the full PC Boxee experience complete with full-res 1080p video playback from virtually any local or remote source on a small embedded platform is an ambitious one -- we've got our fingers crossed, let's hope we hear good news from Avner Ronen and crew come November.

What we're watching tonight:

• ABC (720p) has the 2010 FIFA World Cup Kick-Off Celebration Concert at 8 p.m.
• CBS (1080i) has Flashpoint at 9 p.m. and Miami Medical at 10 p.m.
• Discovery (1080i) has the series premiere of Dual Survival at 10 p.m.
• MyNetworkTV (720p) has WWE Smackdown at 8 p.m.
• Syfy (1080i) has the season finale of Stargate Universe at 9 p.m. and Merlin at 10 p.m.
• NBC (1080i) has Friday Night Lights at 8 p.m.
• TLC (1080i) has Say Yes to the Dress at 9 p.m.
• Starz (1080i) has Party Down at 10 p.m. and Gravity at 10:30 p.m.
• HBO (1080i) has the season finale of Real Time with Bill Maher at 10 p.m. and The Neistat Brothers at 11:59 p.m.
• Animal Planet (1080i) has Whale Wars at 9 p.m.
• NFL Network (1080i) has Talons/Vigilantes Arena League Football at 8 p.m.

Can you even believe that it has been over two years now since the first consumer priced HD component capture device hit the market? It doesn't seem that long to us, but if you're a Window Media Center fan and think the native CableCARD tuners are no option at all, then you might feel differently. The great news out of Hauppauge though is that the HD PVRs driver site has been updated and you can now download a file that'll make Windows 7 Media Center recognize your HD PVR as a tuner. The said analog capture device still runs about $200 and since it outputs MPEG4, the 360 is the only Extender that can play back it's content. On top of all that only a single tuner per Media Center PC is currently supported, but that is way better than nothing for someone who can't/won't get cable TV and wants to enjoy their favorite provider's HD signal on the best DVR software currently available. The driver is still in beta at the moment and we can't wait to try it for ourselves, so keep an eye out for more on this one.

PlayOn's apparently been hard at work to make sure it's worthy of the new premium pricing, and now is ready to offer ESPN3 among the channels it shunts from PCs to connected TV devices including the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. That means if you have a provider who offers ESPN3 and a TV that doesn't have a cable box on it for some reason, but does have one of the supported devices, you can stream the game live or watch archived videos from the site whenever you please. Of course, ESPN3 and PlayOn's other notable service, Hulu have both been the subject of rumors indicating they'll be available directly on consoles. Any announcements are potentially due in a few days at E3 2010, but the 14-day trial period should give plenty of time to see if any new deals appear on the horizon -- or if your team doesn't make it past the initial group phase.

And not just things that should go, like season 2 and on from Heroes. We're getting reports (and have noticed in our own queues) that things like 30 Rock, Lost, The Office, Prison Break, MI-5 and pretty much any other show we'd like to watch have dropped from available for streaming over Watch Instantly to coming soon or unknown. Searching the website intermittently showed them available, and then they disappeared completely -- including any options for Blu-ray and DVD rental -- which would appear to indicate this is just an extension of severe problems it's been experiencing since yesterday, reported by Hacking Netflix. The pessimists in the crowd have floated the possibility that licensing issues, potentially due to some premium Hulu service on the way, are the villains in this case of the vanishing videos. We're not so sure that's the case and have reached out to Netflix to find out what's going on, but any plans to check out Liz Lemon and the crew this afternoon are ruined -- you may have to actually get some work done.

Update: The @NetflixHelps twitter account has posted this is a "purely technical" issue that it's currently working to resolve so put your worries aside, explaining the sudden burst of productivity to your boss will be difficult enough.

Update 2: The same account now reports things have returned to normal, and a quick glance at our queue appears to confirm it. Consider the weekend begun.

[Thanks to Owen, everyone who sent this in]

Not sure if you knew, but today marks the launch of ESPN's first dedicated 3D channel, predictably titled ESPN 3D. For now, the channel will only be active whenever 3D sporting events are being aired, starting with a full 25 FIFA World Cup matches from the Republic of South Africa. It's a pretty monumental launch for the world leader in broadcast sports, and it's obviously taking a pretty big leap with only a smattering of 3D sets available and an obviously limited amount of content at its disposal. That said, there's hardly a better way to enjoy 3D content than to see sports in the third dimension, which makes the appeal of this new station that much stronger. We're here live at the company's kickoff event in Bristol, Connecticut, and we'll be bringing you lots of coverage from behind the scenes.

One important piece that has yet to be revealed to the public is exactly how this material is getting from the field to the consumer, with Comcast, DirecTV and AT&T (U-verse) signed on from day one. During our shooting for The Engadget Show (don't worry -- we'll be cutting it up and getting it live as soon as possible!) we were able to stop by ESPN's 3D Master Control room, a box no larger than the average American kitchen but infinitely important in the grand scheme of things. Amazingly enough, the room pictured in the gallery below didn't exist six weeks ago, and in an insanely short period of time ESPN has managed to create a control room that sucks feeds in from all over the world, adds graphics (along with a specialized ESPN 3D "bug"), ensures that everything is aligned properly and then pipes it out to the aforesaid carriers.

A look inside ESPN's 3D Master Control room

The latest version (2.8.1) of the TiVo Desktop software is official, and it's added a few new features in both its free edition and the upgraded Plus package. The basic software has added a few additional settings, but the most notable is the ability to view folders on a PC from the DVR itself. Those paying $24.95 for TiVo Desktop Plus should notice increased video quality on PSP TiVoToGo exports, plus new profiles for the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, DROID, Pre and several Blackberry models. Dave Zatz has already gotten his hands on the latest version, reporting some issues connecting to a TiVo Premiere; hit the download page for your own copy and let us know how it works.