A burgeoning obsession

Must. Have. Movies. I got very excited when I found Rob Pegoraro's Washington Post article from May 2006 (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/13/AR2006051300187.html) that said this:


AOL's In2TV site ( http://in2tv.aol.com/ ) offers free streaming video of 30 older Warner Bros. series to anybody running Windows XP-- although you need to install a plug-in if you run Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. The commercials are easily ignored ads outside the video frame, and the video's quality has been good every time. (You can download a separate "Hi-Q" program to view these shows in a higher resolution.)

The single best TV-viewing option online, however, comes at ABC's Web site ( http://www.abc.com/ ). From now through June, it's offering free streaming video of "Alias," "Commander in Chief," "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost." And it's doing this without requiring any new software; the video clips play in the Flash browser plug-in already on nearly all Windows and Mac OS X machines.

The commercial breaks consist of just a few 30-second interactive messages from one sponsor. Video playback briefly paused twice on a home DSL connection at the larger of two playback sizes but was completely pleasant otherwise.

BUT YOU CAN'T SEE EITHER OF THESE FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S. BLECH.