When I think of the relationship between television and the internet my mind races to metaphors of historical proportions. The issue is one of orthodoxy and dissent, of opportunity and denial.

If you were alive during the Reformation would you only listen to or obey the Pope? If you were in St Petersburg during the first world war would you continue to believe in the infallibility of the Tsar? If you were a student in Paris in 1968 would you stick to your studies?

The world of technology is one in which great opportunities emerge for those who are willing to be critical and capable of understanding what is possible rather than just what is promoted. A clear example of this comes from the effort to unite our love affair with television with the empowerment that comes with online interactivity.

The start of each calendar year is marked in the technology world by the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the unveilling of all sorts of new technology. This year was no exception, and one of the items that caught my critical eye was the latest generation of HD television sets which feature internet capabilities.

The immediate image that comes to mind of course is of a true fusion of the entertainment capability of HD TV and the social interactivity that is thriving online.

However the reality is quite the opposite, as these new TVs extend the bankrupt gatekeeper culture that constrains broadcasting, rather than embracing the open culture that fuels online innovation.

Rather than providing access to user generated sites like YouTube or the open web in general, these new TV sets are instead based on content partnerships, and stale content portals that keep the couch potato in their passive place.

The irony of course is that we're in the middle of what I feel is a unique historical period in which so much of the world's culture is freely available. The Internet provides all sorts of video content, professional and amateur, from drama, to docs, to news.

There are also lots of ways of connecting all this content to your traditional television set, whether via a set top box like Apple TV, a gaming console like the PS3, or a computer with the right hardware.

Over the years I've employed lots of different setups to integrate my home entertainment experience, making the most of the available and affordable technology of the day.

Currently in my living room a PS3 connects the Internet to my HD TV set, which I use to surf YouTube and play downloaded HD files, either streamed or transfered via USB stick.

In my office I've always employed TV tuner/capture cards that allow me to connect my cable set top box directly to my computer. This allows me to record TV directly to my hard drive for later viewing, but it also means that anything I download is in the same viewing system. I employ dual-monitor setups that allow me to watch TV on the computer while doing other things.

I watch a fair bit of news, which for the most part is freely available via the websites of particular networks, however the application LiveStation is useful for tuning into a number of public and foreign broadcasters.

However I also get video from torrents, which is perhaps the most efficient means of distributing and sharing video online. To learn more about Torrents in general, I recommend the blog TorrentFreak which also includes a nifty weekly ratings of top torrents which helps in identifying content that is quick and easy to grab.

With a little bit of effort, the potential to enjoy and explore the world of video and Internet Television is there for the taking. These really are historical times we are in, and the courage to experience this world will lead you to even greater eye-opening opportunities.

The challenge however is that you need to find your own path, with technology of your own choosing, as clearly the ones that will be provided by the mainstream will continue to deny you the power and choice that you so rightly deserve.