I'm setting aside the big-picture, what-does-this-all-mean questions for a future post, and I'm not really considering the separate but closely related universe of VOD via cable television, which has been pioneered in the last year or two by IFC and HDNet (with a new entry, Cinetic Film Buff, set to launch in July). What follows is a basic consumer guide to what I've found in a couple of weeks of searching for movies on the Internet. There is absolutely no way that it's comprehensive, and hey -- the supposed value of this medium is that it's a two-way street, right? Let us know what I've missed, what you watch and how you watch it, and how this whole confusing situation could be improved. My quickie conclusion, at this point, is that no single device or delivery mechanism is likely to dominate the others, at least for the foreseeable future. Individual films will be made available in multiple ways, either consecutively or all at the same time. (Just because a film is available free on SnagFilms or Hulu, it doesn't follow that no one wants the convenience of renting it from iTunes or Amazon.) In fact, the best sites here accept Internet permeability as a given, and operate on the principle that a rising tide lifts all boats: Hulu's search utility can point you to video on other sites, and buy-buttons on SnagFilms take you to outside retailers. For many movies, digital distribution will just be just another "window," following or accompanying theatrical release, DVD and cable. But for a bewilderingly large potential universe of indie dramas, documentaries and foreign-language films, the Internet may soon become the only viable way of reaching any large-scale audience. A note on video quality: I tested most of the streaming sites on an ordinary DSL broadband connection (roughly 1.5 Mbps), so occasional stalls and hiccups were part of the process, but were not overly intrusive. When I streamed video via a far slower satellite broadband connection (about 500 Kbps) it was definitely necessary to allow videos to load for 15 minutes or more before trying to play them. As throughout the Internet, the viewing experience was generally at or below standard-definition DVD, and nowhere near HD or Blu-ray. I didn't test the iTunes or Amazon HD rentals, but the HD-quality streaming offered by the Auteurs was easily the best-looking video I acquired anywhere. iTunes I'm guessing you don't need this concept explained too much. Apple's online store offers a fast-growing library of movies and TV shows, heavily slanted toward mainstream appetites, for delivery to your computer, your widescreen TV (if you've got the company's proprietary Apple TV service) and, of course, your iPhone or iPod Touch. Two-day streaming rentals can be as cheap as 99 cents (although they should pay you to watch "Garfield") or as much as $6 for new releases in HD. Purchases start around $15. Basically you're talking about a digital version of a pretty boring video store, where the convenience factor is very high and the selection, at least from a snooty film-buff POV, leaves a lot to be desired. What I Watched: The porn-themed 2008 comedy "The Auteur," which played festivals but barely got a look in theaters. I rented it for $3.99, which seemed like a good deal at the time. (See below.) Amazon Video on Demand For my money the cleverest of the big-box-style online operations. Amazon offers you many ways to watch the films you rent or buy, including direct-to-TV connections through TiVo, the Roku Digital Video Player and certain models of Panasonic and Sony HDTVs. (There's even a page explaining how to hook your Windows or Mac PC to a regular TV set.) Amazon also has an intriguing, if erratic, selection of indie and art-house films (much of it drawn from the impressive library controlled by Cinetic Rights Management, the leading agency in this burgeoning field), and is actively seeking deals for more. Right now, for instance, they're offering an exclusive $9.99 rental of Jennifer Lynch's dark and evil thriller "Surveillance," which isn't in theaters until June 26. As it turned out, I could have saved 3 bucks by renting "The Auteur" here for 99 cents. What I Watched: French avant-gardist Chris Marker's "The Last Bolshevik," a $2.99 rental (and for sale at $11.99). Netflix You might argue that that the big player in online DVD rental doesn't really belong on this list, given that Netflix definitely doesn't want you to watch movies on your computer screen. Still, it will deliver a motley selection of 12,000 films and TV episodes through the Internet to various "Netflix-ready devices," including TiVo, the Roku box, and certain TV sets and Blu-ray players. At the moment, content skews heavily toward mainstream Hollywood releases, but I'm not a Netflix subscriber -- the last thing I need in my household is more DVDs! and will leave that to others to judge. What I Might Have Watched: "Superbad," because I never saw it and it looks awesome. YouTube It's just possible you've heard of this site. It's free! It's got lots and lots and lots of user-generated videos! At least some of them don't violate somebody's copyright! OK, I'd be surprised if 1 percent of the stuff people watch on YouTube, or even one-tenth of 1 percent, were authorized streams of feature-length films. People certainly watch butchered, badly pirated clips from feature films by the gazillions, but let me remind you that that's not legal or ethical and will leave you with a bad headache from the murky video quality. YouTube's Screening Room got a moment of media attention last year for its one-week premiere of Wang's "Princess of Nebraska," but a modest sampling of indies and documentaries can be excavated there, alongside an intriguing assortment of shorts. (The Internet-based revival of short films is a topic for another time.) What I Watched: "I Am Because We Are," the preachy but effective doc about AIDS in Malawi that was written and produced by Madonna. Hulu Only 16 months old but arguably the medium's leading site for free, ad-supported (and non-user-generated) video, Hulu has attracted an exponentially growing audience (roughly 40 million unique users, as of May) and is best known for harboring recent episodes of hit TV shows. As is generally true with free VOD sites, Hulu videos are easily exportable to other sites, personal blogs, etc. Movies remain a relatively small element of Hulu's content, but company insiders report that feature films often outperform individual TV episodes in terms of viewer eyeballs, and say they're working to "unwind" the complicated rights contracts that can make digital distribution difficult. (That's where the aforementioned geniuses at Cinetic come in.) Hulu's current catalog of 350-plus films skews strongly toward older Hollywood movies that have played out their economic potential in all other methods: "Basic Instinct," "Speed 2," "Rob Roy." But there's also an active community of documentary viewers and more than a few surprises. What I Watched: First the 2007 doc "The Future of Food" and then "Casino Royale" (the awesomely cheap-looking original 1967 version, that is). Joost How many ad-supported video-streaming sites with nonsensical names can the Internet support? Every site that sells or streams videos has at least some interactive or social-networking component, but Joost (which might be described as Avis to Hulu's Hertz) aspires to take full advantage of the new-media universe. You can search or browse videos in traditional fashion, or you can write and peruse numerous blogs and feeds, connect through your Facebook page, download a Joost app to your iPhone, and so on. How useful are those bells and whistles to movie buffs? I'm not really sure. Joost leans heavily toward TV episodes and music videos, and most of the films are the same old, same old -- ancient Hollywood product near the end of the "long tail," to use industry parlance. Still, a recent content deal with Cinetic yields some nuggets: I stumbled on Richard Linklater's "Slacker" and Israeli director Amos Gitai's "Free Zone." What I Watched: The classic 1960 Newport Jazz Festival doc "Jazz on a Summer's Day." Babelgum A free video-streaming site like Joost and Hulu, Babelgum is extremely unlike them in one crucial way: Its content is curated by its publishers, who carefully pursue a certain global-indie-hipster vibe, while aiming to stay this side of obscurantism. Short films and music videos predominate, but the collection of feature-length movies available here is quirky and interesting, ranging from the 1959 western "No Name on the Bullet" to Andrew Bujalski's archetypal mumblecore flick, "Funny Ha Ha." You have to admire Babelgum for being unafraid of specific flavoring; wit