Perhaps classifying the just-announced YouTube/Apple TV partnership as a small step understates the issue. This is big, no matter how you slice it. While it may push the limits of acceptable video quality with 320x240 pixel videos stretched to HD proportions, the millions of YouTube devotees and the as yet unwashed masses are about to change the nature of living room entertainment. Is YouTube the 800 lb. gorilla that is the special case here or does this signal days to come when you might tune in to the For Your Imagination Channel on your Apple TV to catch the latest from Patrice Oneal, bschooltalk and Design2Share. Setting up playlists to do just that is possible but not necessarily something the casual living room video browser wants to deal with. (In a future post, we'll outline a step-by-step guide to setting up your own iTunes video podcast playlist.)

There's a lot of talk here at FYI about the viability of popularizing and monetizing Internet delivered video beyond computer-based viewing. The living room and its frequent centerpiece, the television, will be a major testing ground for this new market. The use of the term "Internet Television" itself and what it means to people has been a particularly hot topic. Does the term "television" only apply to watching on a physical TV? Does it apply to any long form (i.e., 1/2 hour or longer) serial video content? Does it only apply to content also available from over-the-air or cable networks? Can it apply to all forms of video content? Do you have an opinion one way or the other? Post your comments! One thing we can agree on: video content delivered over the internet stands to change the nature of entertainment and information delivery in our culture. With careful eyes, we'll particularly be watching living room based vehicles for delivery of this content such as the Apple TV, Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Media Center PC's and XBox 360 and whatever set-top solutions the cable companies eventually roll-out to capitalize on this new frontier.