NEW YORK (AP) - One way to describe NBC's online Olympics efforts is two steps forward, one step back - at least when it comes to live video.

Although NBC is showing more live events on the Internet than it had during any other Winter Games, the broadcaster is holding back much more for television compared with the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Unless you're a big fan of curling or ice hockey, or enjoy watching replays or highlights, you're bound to be unsatisfied with the video you'd find online.

That's not to suggest that NBCOlympics.com doesn't have plenty to keep you occupied during the Winter Games, which run through February 28 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A "Tweet Sheet" lets you track Twitter posts from speedskater Apolo Anton Ohno, skier Lindsey Vonn and dozens of other athletes, mostly Americans. A "You Be The Judge" feature lets you score figure-skating performances and compare that with judgments made by other viewers and the official judges.

You can check schedules, results and medal counts and get lists of US athletes competing each day.

And you can follow many of the events "live" - though that's real-time results rather than live video, mind you. With luge, for instance, you can find out who's currently on the track and see times and speeds flash by as that athlete hits various interval points and the finish.

The standings are updated after every run. For figure skating, past Olympians Peter Carruthers and Kristi Yamaguchi offered real-time text commentary.

It's the next best thing to watching live video.

If recorded video is fine for you, there's plenty of that.

You can watch a montage of falls in men's snowboarding, set to music. You can see a clip of Johnny Spillane winning the United States' first medal ever in the Nordic combined. You can watch a replay of Monday's pairs figure skating in its entirety, including the introduction of athletes, the breaks to resurface the ice and the competitors that NBC didn't show during that night's prime-time broadcast.

Some of the video was previously shown on NBC or one of its cable TV channels. Other footage comes from a shared feed made available to broadcasters worldwide.

Those feeds are broadcast quality, missing just the on-air commentary.

Although longer video clips sometimes freeze up, on both work and home computers, the images are generally crisp, even blown up to full screen. I particularly like the pause, rewind and forwarding controls resembling those on digital video recorders, something unavailable during the Beijing Games.

In fact, the experience felt so much like television that I once tried to rewind with a TV remote. Duh.

The best part: It's all free. You simply have to put up with some video ads, just like television. Video access is generally restricted to the United States, while live events and full-event replays are limited to subscribers of cable TV, satellite or similar video services, as those providers helped defray some of NBC's cost to obtain Olympics rights.

NBC, using Microsoft Corp.'s Silverlight technology, also added a humorous touch to its video player. One click of the "Boss" button automatically replaces the computer screen with a fake spreadsheet.

Some of these features are also available through NBC's free iPhone application. I used it to watch China's Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo skate their way to a gold medal - a day after the fact.

My beef is with the dearth of live video. It's true that some people may prefer highlights and shorter clips on their computers or phones, but why not offer choice? Someone might have wanted to watch the Estonian and Polish figure skaters - and not just the Americans and the top contenders - compete live on Monday.

In Beijing, NBC held back the most popular sports for prime-time television, including gymnastics, swimming and track and field. Yet it still showed plenty of events live - equestrian, tennis, soccer, you name it.

By contrast, other than some training runs, NBC has live video for only two sports this time - ice hockey and curling.

Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology and media editor for The Associated Press, has been following the Olympics online since 2000 and on television since 1980. He can be reached at njesdanun@ap.org