I've become accustomed to waiting 6 months to see movies and do not care about seeing them in new release in the theater. I've been a Netflix subscriber for over 4 years, and I use the service heavily. Disks usually arrive overnight and can return overnight as well. Can't ask for better postal service.

More and more disks in my queue are wait listed - Cinderella Man is "Very Long Wait" despite already being out several weeks. Disks returned to Netflix don't seem to process all that quickly - they sometimes are recorded in the next day (I know because disks sent in the same envelop and disks sent together in seperate envelops have been received on different days.) Often Netflix takes its sweet time sending the next disk, even when available - disks logged returned later in the day often result in the next disk being sent the next day instead of same day.

These are not big complaints; I am only painting a picture of the reality. The fact is I have to decide what movie I am going to be in the mood to see several days in advance. This is in part because of the time it takes to get a disk and in part because with several disks out at a time a movie will arrive but there are 2 or 3 others ahead of it that I want to watch.

My cable internet service provides greater than 4.5mb/sec download speed. This means I can choose a movie when we start cooking dinner at 6, and it can be mostly downloaded when we sit down to watch at 8. The whole movie is downloaded long before we get to the end at 10; there's plenty of time to download some "extras" to complete the DVD experience.

Even people with 2mb/sec connections can pick a flick from work at 4pm and see it that evening. There already is an installed base in the millions of such connections, enabling a significant market.

Beyond the same evening downloads, having several downloads out on a monthly subscription like Netflix does with disks is even more convenient.

How do we download these movies securely and what do we play them with? DVD-TiVoes. Those TiVoes have 480p component video out and digital audio out. Play the movies with the same quality video and audio you get from a DVD player. Plug the TiVo into your new HDTV and see great detail from the anamorphic 16:9 mpeg. Oh, and you've got some of those disks? Well the TiVo plays those for you also.

The time has come. I know there have been proposals, near and failed deals. Everything is in place on the consumer side now - enough high speed connections, secure hardware to play the content - we don't even have to wait for the S3.

At the very least, the Vista/ViiV initiatives ought to lead content providers to open up. Integration of TiVo with this platform can lead to making IPVOD a reality.