A few weeks ago, I posted a list of some of the best places on the web for streaming on-demand television programming. It’s great to have these resources available for viewing on a computer screen, but things get really interesting when you hook your computer up to a nice tv. That’s what I did this weekend, and color me impressed.

The tv is a new 37” LCD model from Olevia. There are an abundance of connectors on the back, including component and VGA connections. Unfortunately, the only video output available on the PC I used for this experiment was S-VGA. It’s not an HD connection, but then most of the streaming content from the web isn’t HD either. It’s certainly good enough for now.

Once I got the dual monitor configuration sorted out, I watched a few videos stored on the PC, and everything worked great. Then, I headed over to Fox TV and watched the latest episode of The Simpsons. The quality was pretty much the same as cable, and the playback was glitch free (not something you can currently count on, but we’re getting there).

We need rapid improvements in broadband bandwidth in this country, and certainly more choices in online viewing would be welcome, but we’re almost at the point where on-demand programming on the internet could replace cable or satellite tv — at least for some folks. And that’s without considering unauthorized video distribution via bittorrent and video upload sites.

TV over broadband is here to stay, and it will only get better.

A little later: I forgot to mention the awesome streaming content available if you’re a Netflix customer. There are thousands of DVDs available for online viewing, including a large number of television series. And even the lowly $8.99 one-at-a-time (unlimited) plan qualifies for unlimited online viewing.