They're putting their shows out online in a million different ways (you can even download 30 Rock, The Office, Conan and Leno direct to your desktop now) and more than happy to pipe 'em to you, as long as it's in a controlled sandbox of some sort. NBC Direct requires a walled-garden player install with loads of DRM, and they wanted copyright controls from Apple and Microsoft to give just two examples, not to mention Hulu. It's sorta surprising that the QuickTime feed for iPhone is unprotected, but theoretically it's restricted to two devices. You know, if they'd just relax a bit, overall, they'd be in a good place online. [Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks Peter!]

NBC uses a proprietary player, which is a hassle to install and set up. The player only works with IE, which must have the most current security update. Everyone else is out of the free viewing loop. If you do indeed meet the prerequisite criteria, you can download full episodes of your choice from a bank containing videos that are only seven days old or less. Once downloaded, the video validity period starts to tick away—you have 48 hours to view before your show self-destructs. Further, as yet, you can't take the video on the go, which really brings the point of the service into question. Hopefully, with a lot more tweaking, this may become something to shout about, but we wouldn't hold our collective breath. [NBC Direct via Mashable. Thanks, Pete!]