IPTV or TV over IP? Om wants to know.

Om Malik just kicked off a three-part look at the future of broadband television and typical of Om, it's an insightful view.
Om points out the slow and expensive roll out of IPTV; there's fiber infrastructure to build out, there are high price-points for set-top boxes, and we're all waiting for the MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 transition. All good points.

In comparison, Om thinks television over broadband is a smarter approach.
He just might be right. Let's look at the stars aligning here.

We've got major display convergence with computer monitors capable of high-def resolutions and television tuning. Existing broadband services continue to get faster and less expensive. MPEG-2 and -4 compression is inherently a computer-driven process, both for content providers and the television consumer. Factor in that Windows Vista and its new Media Center capabilities are about a year away. What about BitTorrent, RSS
and other delivery mechanisms; they're getting better all the time.

What do you think: is the digital home convergence going to truly bring the PC into the entertainment room? Are the billions of dollars that Verizon, SBC and others putting into IPTV going to pay off or is the basic infrastructure already present and waiting to be taken advantage of?