NEW YORK (AP) - NBC Universal is running an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Olympics coverage on television and the Internet, most of it live online, letting fans track their favourite sports in a way not possible even if they had gone to Beijing.

Excited by the prospects, I set my alarm for 4.45am on Sunday to catch cycling, handball, archery and rowing events on NBCOlympics.com as they happen half a world away in China - 12 hours ahead of New York.

Of course, I ended up hitting the snooze button on my alarm clock for another two hours. Fortunately, some of the events I missed were available later on-demand. And NBC's enhanced video player brings up to four simultaneous feeds - live, on-demand or a combination - allowing me to keep up.

Although NBC is saving popular sports like gymnastics, swimming and track and field for its prime-time TV coverage, NBC's online ambition is valiant, one the network has largely pulled off well thus far.

The video is not full-screen, but it is crisp, with little stuttering, even during Monday's workday when Internet traffic tends to rise. You can even see the sweat soaking one of the tennis players.

But the Internet will not be replacing television anytime soon. At most, it is good for sneaking in some tennis at work or watching events that are not likely to get more than highlights on TV.

(Disclosure: The Associated Press has an agreement with NBC to distribute video links to the network's content online).

The Internet video is free. I have to watch a 30-second ad before the event, usually for NBC owner General Electric Co. I also need Microsoft Corp.'s Silverlight technology - also free and relatively simple to install, even on my Mac.

Most of the video is restricted to US subscribers of an NBC broadband partner. Cablevision Systems Corp. is the only major provider not to have a deal with NBC, so its subscribers are officially ineligible. But NBC does not verify what you enter and gives you three tries to figure out that subscribers of AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. qualify when using a New York ZIP code (hint, hint).

NBC does check your computer's Internet Protocol address to make sure you are in the United States, where NBC has the rights to broadcast the games. Elsewhere, you will have to go through your country's Olympic broadcaster. If your region does not have one, some on-demand video is appearing on YouTube in those territories through a deal with Google Inc.

With my computer set up, I was able to watch badminton, judo and soccer, along with the medal ceremony for archery, using NBC's quad-screen "control room". I could choose what runs on the four screens and pick which of the four is larger at any given time.

These feeds are broadcast quality, with multiple camera angles, graphics and other gizmos you would expect from a television production. NBC is simply showing the feed made available worldwide to broadcasters that lack their own cameras.

What I do not get is on-air commentary. Instead, text commentary appears for a handful of events from partners like Tennis.com. The commentary is not as extensive as the chatter you would find on television, but the basics are there (It is wonderful for obscure sports like equestrian, though I am left to wonder why the horse does not get a medal, too).

NBC is certainly on the right track. I cannot wait to see what we will get with video and other online features in 2010, when the Winter Games go to Vancouver.