Only five percent of those surveyed said that they watch video on a TV or other video-playing device regularly. Downloading from places like the iTunes Store or Xbox Live Video to the Apple TV or an Xbox 360 make this possible without having to use an HTPC. Still, even though these solutions make it easier to watch downloaded content on the big(ger) screen, they clearly have yet to hit it big with the general public.

(Via Report: 95% of Internet video stuck looking longingly at TV.)

I always wonder about reports like these. What us the real agenda behind this one?

After all, 5 years ago it would have read “100% of Internet video stuck looking longingly at TV” or “0% of those surveyed said they watched video on a TV or other video-playing device”.

In my case, Amy and I watch the vast majority of our video using a $500 video projector in our living room. In the neighborhood of 75-85% of our video content comes from online sources, including iTunes, Hulu.com, ABC.com and Podcasts.

5% penetration in the 2-3 years that online video content has really taken off is not bad.

Tried watching the debate tonight using MSNBC streaming video. After sitting through the usual video commercial, I was greeted by this lady:

She informed me that streaming video was not available for my browser, any of my browsers in fact, I tried them all.

This despite running the latest version of Flip4Mac that lets me view pretty much any other Windows video (read: p0rn).

Of course I could watch commercials and the pretty-version of a browser alert dialog, over and over.

Does MSNBC really think I will be using their site for anything else with this type of service? Their not some start-up just figuring things out. They have billions of dollars and thousands of talented developers at your disposal.

Ran across a highly under-rated and short-lived television series in the iTunes Music Store called Touching Evil.

!Touchingevil

It was a short-lived series on the USA network that had a very unique quality to it. It was well produced, dark and slightly disturbing, with excellent acting.

Unfortunately, only a single episode is available on iTunes (and not the pilot either). Also, Amazon does not show the DVD version of the series as shipping. But I highly recommend it!

Over the weekend I decided to purchase an episode of Commander and Chief using iTunes.

It was a typically painless process, a few minutes later I had the pilot episode, and after checking it out I went about my weekend activities.

Sunday night, as Amy and I were lounging, playing games and being completely lazy, I remembered the episode was waiting on my powerbook.

Having acquired a sweet DLP projector at Thanksgiving, I decided to hook the powerbook up to the project and see how bad iPod-optimized video looked when blown up to 6 feet across.

After getting the cables hooked up, my powerbook was running s-video to the projector, audio to the stereo system, with iTunes playing the episode in full screen mode.

To my astonishment, it looked awesome!

Definitely not DVD quality.

Considering that video optimized to play on the tiny iPod screen, plays on my wall at the approximate size of a 60” screen is amazing.

Rock on Apple!

In Raleigh, North Carolina USA, we have had on-demand content for a few years. Time Warner Cable offers both pay-per-view and all you can eat on-demand for a growing list of networks.

Today analysts are calling it competitive for CBS, NBC, Comcast and DirectTV to offer pay-per-view? Three or more after Time Warner began offering the same service – only cheaper?

Every single analyst I have read today is attempting to portray these announcements as competition for iTunes. They all miss the key element that make iTune video a winner.

Its about taking it with you, in an elegant usable format!

Not one or these supposedly new offerings will allow consumers to do that. You simply get overly DRM’d content in the same old environment. The living room.

This on top of the fact that Time Warner has been offering on-demand content for a flat fee for years, make today’s announcement of 99¢ time-limited content a non-starter in my book.

I will pay to take content with me on a road trip or flight. I won’t pay to watch reruns of existing content in my living room, and which in may disappear within 24 hours of purchase.

Yes. Apple has DRM too, but in this case FairPlay is exactly that. Enough control for media conglomerates to feel safe, and enough freedom for consumers to use the content they legally purchased where they want.

Perfect is the enemy of done. In this case, Apple has done what these other companies will never perfect.