I believe that personal magic has the greatest impact, strength and beauty. By personal magic I mean magic that is performed directly for you. You could be in a close-up, stage even being filmed with a magician for screen, but I feel the magic is always stronger when the effect happens to you.

What do people think about this?

With the dawn of the internet and the likes of YouTube, but also television magic - can it ever replace the liveness?

I don't think it can ever 'replace' live magic. But I see it as a different platform. When you see a trick live and it fools you - it's brilliant! You know there was no camera tricks. You looked where wanted to look etc. You are definitely more involved and present.
But I see TV magic as being able to add a different layer to the entertainment - film making. Take Derren Brown's Trick of the Mind for example. With editing and interesting music, Derren takes us from the streets of London, performing for 1 or 2 people to Italy where he has a crowd following him, to a restaurant where he performs 1 on 1 with a celebrity to a creepy abandoned victorian house. Allowing each setting to be a part of the 'theatre' of what he does. I think it is an incredibly engaging medium with so much potential.
Blaine also did it well because it wasn't so much about the magic but it was about the spectators. We tuned in to watch people freak out, be astonished, in awe.
Criss Angel...well..thats a topic for another day

I think most of us have gotten jaded by all the digital special effects. When you see it onscreen you do not know if it is edited or not - so it is not so impressive. I have seen the White House blow up onscreen - and you made a red card turn blue? When someone right in front of you does something impossible, you can get that thrill of magic. Let that same red card turn blue but in the spectators hands and they will be impressed.

One of the stupidest things I ever saw on tv was the statue of liberty "disappear" on tv. It was on tv... nobody was impressed.

Magic has its place on the screen. But less is more. The audience has to believe that camera tricks and CGI effects are not used, and showmanship is everything.

Take a look at David Copperfield's "Tides." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b1CW59zb1g

This is essentially a very good parlor trick. But Copperfield's showmanship sells it, and IMHO, this tricked was more impressive than his "vanishing" of the Statute of Liberty. If you get too big, then you're competing with the screen special effects that people see every day, and you won't compare favorably.

There is no yes or no to that...just a depends.