And tell me again why I'm not allowed to burn this to DVD?

For a lot of folks, it's already old news that you can download television content through the iTunes Music Store. I won't argue with you on that, but I didn't really have an opportunity or need to experience it until tonight. The only television show that I regularly watch every week is Lost. Since Kathy and I were traveling on Wednesday, we did not get to see the show "live," but hey, I didn't worry because I knew we could download it for $1.99.

So Thursday morning, with the smell of roasting turkey in the air, I checked a couple of times to see if Wednesday night's Lost episode "Collision" was available yet. It wasn't. I don't know exactly what time it was finally made available, but in the Central Time Zone, where we are this week, it did not show up in the iTunes Music Store until after noon, and after we were stuffed with a Thanksgiving meal.

It was easy enough to download. As soon as I clicked on the "Buy Episode" button, it was on its way to my PowerBook. However, I noticed it moving ever so slowly. Then, I remembered that I was the smart guy who had advised my mother-in-law to get the "cheaper" low-bandwidth DSL from BellSouth because I didn't figure she'd ever need anything as fast as my cable internet connection at home. The file for the episode is right at 195 MB. The DSL connection I had here only gets around 145 kbps, which is only a little bit better than the old ISDN connections. It took about two hours for the video to download. No problem; I needed a nap anyway. Too much tryptophan in my lunch...

This evening Kathy and I watched our downloaded episode of Lost. Here are my initial thoughts about the experience...

First, this kind of video-on-demand is the future. I don't know whether it will be done from a computer or a set-top box, or an integration of the two, but the day is soon coming where you'll think to yourself, "Hmm...I'd like to watch that episode of the Andy Griffith Show where Goober eats Aunt Bee's prize-winning apple pie," and you'll just download it to watch at will. Hopefully, it won't take two hours.

Second, the quality wasn't that bad. It's not high resolution, but at full screen on my 17" PowerBook, it was at least as good as my cable TV signal at home--although that's not saying much. Cable quality stinks these days. However, why wasn't it the widescreen version like the episodes from season one on the DVD set? Regardless, I'm going to assume that quality will improve as technology improves. We are in the early days of this kind of thing.

Third, there are huge advantages to watching television this way, because there are no commercials. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but if I did, I would have to download it like this or tape it ahead of time because commercials are such a huge waste of time. But this works. Every time the screen went black for two seconds where the commercial would have been, I said to Kathy, "Commercial...look, NO commercial!"

And finally, my only REAL criticism is WHY THE HECK CAN'T I BURN THIS TO DVD? In spite of the fact that watching it was adequate on the PowerBook, I have no desire to watch an entire episode of anything on a computer. Yes, it was a novelty a few years ago when computers, especially laptops first had that ability. And I used to take DVDs on trips with me to play on my Powerbook, but when was the last time I did that? Can't remember. I really would rather watch a TV show on a TV! The inability to burn video that I have legally paid for to watch in the privacy of my own home is absolutely asinine. It's NOT illegal under any interpretation of copyright laws. If I can burn television shows I've recorded through other methods to DVD for my own personal, not-for-sale, not for public exhibition use, then it's legal for me to burn this to DVD and watch it on my television instead of my computer. If I can burn songs I've downloaded from the iTunes Music Store to CD, then what's the real difference with television shows?

Oh, I know, I know... you're supposed to download the show to your video iPod and then you can plug it into your television and watch it from there. For Job, Apple, and the movie and television industry, having a convenient, yet controlled avenue of video distribution was crucial as a justification for putting video capabilities on the iPod. But there's a much greater market out there for video on demand such as this than just for those with video iPods.

This is my only real complaint, but it is a BIG ONE. This isn't "FairPlay"; it's "Constrain-the-Customer-Because-We're-Paranoid-About-Piracy-Play." Has anyone hacked this yet? Whoever does gets my full support.

If you haven't checked out the video download abilities yet from the iTunes Music Store, overall, I recommend the experience if you don't mind limited selection and the inane limitation to only using your computer (or video iPod) for viewing. However, I am going to optimistically assume that both of these restrictions are temporary...