It's not so different for Web users. We put up with poor video quality -- only a few jerky frames per second, without synced audio -- and long waits because of the limitations of the 'old' technology. We do this for the privilege of participating in an exciting new experience, and with the promise in the future that it will improve.
Just as ISDN promises better video quality to our computers, so did antennas to our televisions. ISDN carries more bandwidth than do basic leased telephone lines, but at a maximum 128 kb using ISDN, it still takes 10 hours to download a one-hour MPEG-1 video file. It's like trying to connect a fire hose to a little garden hose. You're going to lose a lot of water (or, in this case, video content).
The connect time gets costly, and then hope you have enough hard disk space available to store the entire file. Try to view a live concert off the Internet, and you're lucky to get five frames per second.
The 'new' technology that brings the high broadcast video quality to our computers that we have come to expect on our televisions is satellite delivery. Although satellites have been used for quite awhile for broadcast purposes, it is now affordable for widespread use to deliver multimedia to our computers, including video and audio from the Internet. DirecPC uses a 12 megabit/sec (Mbps) broadcast channel -- equivalent to several fire hoses, and more than enough to carry multiple video broadcasts simultaneously.