It's two things that are inevitably tied to one another each Sunday -- LCD TVs and alcohol. Now, Micro Matic is bringing them together like never before, and only the most serious of in-home bartenders need apply. The v-POD comes in a couple of shapes and colors to best suit your needs, with the stainless steel Kool-Rite boasting a half-dozen taps, stereo speakers and an inbuilt 10-inch LCD. Now, if only these were available with slightly larger HDTVs and price tags nowhere near the three grand mark, we'd be talking.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

My, my -- no wonder the rest of the world says Americans toil too often and play too little. A recent survey, which was commissioned by Samsung, found that over half (54%) of the football fanatics polled would "most likely purchase a new HDTV for the start of football season if their budget allowed." Moreover, 51% of pigskin fans would "forego a one week vacation and put that money towards an HDTV purchase," which also means that a decent chunk of committed pigskin fans would willingly accept a beating from their SO. Other expected results include: 61% felt that "HDTV is required for a successful football-viewing party, more than surround sound or alcohol," and that 62% of fans believe watching the game in HDTV "allows them to make better calls than the referees in the game." That last one explains a lot about your friend Jim, now doesn't it?

As the NFL gobbles up even more market share in the United States, it follows logic to see the next big in-home entertainment push side with it in order to garner attention. With every company and its third subsidiary twice removed trying to shove 3D into the home, we'd say starting with the NFL is a brilliant move. In a closed-to-the-public "proof of concept" demonstration, next week's matchup between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders will air live in 3D to select theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. Third-dimension mainstays 3ality Digital and RealD will play critical roles in the delivery, though it remains unclear what exactly the NFL and 3D backers in general plan to do afterwards. If you'll recall, this isn't the first pro sporting event this year that was beamed in 3D to nearby theaters, but we can't think of anything more appealing than 300-pound gentleman crushing each other just inches from your retinas.

[Thanks, Jesse]

Anything you can do, I can do better. That's the mantra being carefully executed by Verizon as it launches its own Fantasy Football outlet just months after AT&T did the same. Oddly enough, the decision was made to go live with this well after the 2008 NFL season began, but we know hardcore football fanatics won't be complaining. Available now for free to select FiOS TV users, an ESPN Fantasy Football widget provides "instant on-screen access to personalized points and football statistics, including rosters, box scores, scoring leaders and player information." Check it out now if you're in California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Washington, or the Harrisburg / southeastern Pennsylvania areas; otherwise, you'll just have to be patient for an undisclosed amount of time.

Fans of football (American, not soccer) in the UK are apparently getting a better look at the game than ever, with Sky Sports planning to air high definition broadcasts of many games this season. Beyond the already-HD Monday Night Football they're bringing all six Thursday night games, the three Thanksgiving Day games -- which seems odd since we'd assume it's not a holiday there -- playoffs and Super Bowl. Someone tell Madden to slide in some tea & crumpets next to the Turducken.

At this point, it's really tough to imagine NFL in SD. That being said, some of the material that airs on NFL Network is still in standard-def, but the network is making strides to pretty it up a bit before it goes all-HD next year. Starting today, the channel has launched its new HD information screen on NFL Network HD, which "appears on [the] network when there is standard-definition programming on the air and displays all the latest NFL scores, standings and injury reports." Also of note, a spokesman for the channel pinged us to say that NFL Network is "currently in the process of migrating to 100% HD programming by sometime in 2009," which ought to send chills down the spines of all you NFL junkies looking for even more of your favorite sport in high-def. Now, if we could all just stop talking about that Brett fellow, everything would be cool.

Not that DirecTV CEO Chase Casey and his chairman John Malone have begun grabbing each other by the ties yet, but reports are flowing that the two aren't in agreement about the future structure of DirecTV Latin America. Liberty Media, which has a controlling stake in the satcaster, could actually spin DirecTV LA off once Liberty gains full control -- at least, that's the vibe being felt from Liberty CEO Greg Maffei. Carey commented that he wasn't "a fan of financial re-engineering," noting that spinoffs and "similar engineering options haven't been particularly successful." On a slightly related note, he also made mention that the satcaster's exclusive NFL Sunday Ticket deal may not remain that way after it expired in 2011 due to "cost considerations." Hate to say it, DirecTV, but we're pretty sure cable / fiber users nationwide won't feel sorry for you.

[Image courtesy of Business Week, thanks Vanbrothers]

With the kickoff of the regular NFL season imminent, and the first full Sunday of football in what seems like forever, you might be wondering which games will be available in your area in HD -- they'll all be in HD, but you know what we mean. Well luckily someone with much more time on their hands then we have, has done all the leg work and created some great maps that make it easy to quickly assess the situation. We expect that each week the maps will be updated with the games on both Fox and CBS, -- which happen to include those games that you may have to watch the first quarter in SD on CBS -- so head on over and check it out, unless of course you have the NFL Sunday Ticket, which of course means you can watch any game you want anyways.

[Via AVSForum]

We'd never doubt our old friend Ken H at AVSForum and his magic 8-ball, so it's no surprise that when Sports Video Group interviewed the VP of engineering at CBS, he confirmed all of the network's NFL games this season will be produced in 1080i. Unfortunately, due to a lack of network capacity, it's possible that the late game of a double header could start out distributed in SD, before switching to a high definition feed later, and halftime highlights will be SD-only. Both of those situations will be resolved by the '09 season when CBS' NFL contract requires it go all-HD, all the time - as the last NFL-free weekend comes to a close, news that the suffering will soon end eases the pain...a little.

[Via HD Sports Guide & AVSForum]

Pardon us for asking when we know the answer, but are you ready for some football? With the Brett Favre saga saturating the NFL headlines, it's a sigh of relief to read something unrelated to the newest New York Jet. AT&T U-verse users who find themselves absorbed in their fantasy football league will be utterly elated to find that Yahoo! Sports' Fantasy Football is now available directly in the U-bar. The interactive application enables users to "conveniently track their fantasy football team and receive customized information on their favorite NFL teams directly on their U-verse TV," though it won't make piecing together a winning team any easier.

Oh yeah, it's that time of year again as this Sunday will kick off the NFL pre-season with the Hall Of Fame game in HD. Every season since we hopped on the HD bandwagon, we've seen more and more games get the HD treatment and the NFL pre-season isn't any different. Unlike regular season NFL games that are produced by CBS, NBC, ESPN and the NFL Network; pre-season games are usually produced by a local station which can sometimes mean, no HD for you. Some are stepping up to the plate to deliver all the HD goodness for the first time this year, and proud of it, but others, not so much. As always, you can check out HD Sports Guide to find out which games will be in HD in your area -- even though they still don't believe CBS is producing all of their NFL games in HD this year -- but it will also be worth your time to check out the NFL Network from time to time which replays just about every pre-season game in the league -- but not all in HD.

Let's face it -- there's hardly a good reason to spend a few good hours of your night glued to a preseason matchup where the starters barely even sniff the field, but those hardcore Bengals fans who vehemently disagree will be thrilled by this. The team has announced that, for the first time, each of the club's four preseason tilts will be broadcast in high-definition and presented by hhgregg. If you're losing your marbles right now in excitement, calm down and give the read link a look for the HD schedule (assuming you don't already know it).

[Image courtesy of Weblo]

For years, we've wondered why Inside the NFL, with its sweet NFL Films footage and in depth coverage of one of the best sports to watch in high definition, was stuck in SD; but the show's move to Showtime has remedied that. TV Week reveals the upcoming season will be produced for your HDTV, the only proper format considering we get the games live in HD and daily highlights on ESPN-HD, why should a weekly magazine show be any different? If you miss an episode Wednesday night at 9 p.m. (starting September 10), expect plenty of opportunities to see it again with about 10 replays per week, hosted by Cris Collinsworth, Phil Simms and James Brown plus a series of guest hosts. Thanks Showtime, for letting HBO know how things should be done -- seriously, Bill Maher going HD first should have been a crime.

We first heard that ESPN believed it had the solution to the NFL Network's carriage problems last week, and today the analysts at SNL Kagan believe they may know what the two sports power houses have in mind. The theory goes that ESPN would take over the network and merge it with another mediocre success, ESPN Classic. Then the two could be offered to providers under a new name -- we're thinking ESPN 8, THE OCHO. Providers would be happy to kill two birds with one stone, since the viewership of ESPN Classic is so low and the NFL Network costs so much, and customers would finally have access to the rest of the NFL games. Makes sense to us.

The NFL Network's strategy to gain carriage on the biggest cable company's most popular tiers, caused quite a ruckus last year when many subscribers almost missed the biggest game of the year, in what ended up being a reverse preview of the Super Bowl -- and a perfect setup for the biggest choke in NFL history. It appears now that with some help from ESPN, we may not be in store for a repeat this year. Although no details have been revealed, it is being reported -- by the journal that require a subscription -- that the four letter network is in talks that may lead to it helping resolve the fledgling network with its struggles to obtain carriage.