Apparently devoting developers to something other than the great boxee
arms race of 2009,
Hulu today took the wraps off of its Hulu Labs project, with several "experimental projects" giving a different spin to the TV show & movie-streaming site. None of them are bigger than the Hulu Desktop app, a "lean back" interface (what, they heard ten-foot was
already taken?) that unleashes Hulu's Flash video from the browser and also supports Mac & Microsoft compatible six button remotes -- which makes their unwillingness/inability to continue boxee access or offer an official Media Center plugin even more confusing. Even those without HTPC's to try that out on, there is a Video Panel Designer offering customized embeddable widgets for website owners, a Recommendations section based on what you've already watched and a new Time-Based Browsing option to order programs by when they originally aired. Give them a try and let us know if this makes you forget about all the other ways that were already available (
boxee,
PlayOn,
Secondrun.tv,
Understudy, ReQuest,
XBMC & others) to get Hulu on your HDTV.
posted May 28th 2009 3:37PM
Not as awesome as an official Media Center plug-in would be (and, of course, not extender-friendly), but awesome all the same.
Many people already use the Media Center Launcher program to use DirecTV2PC on their HTPC's. I suspect with the support for Media Center remotes that this program would be ripe for that type of implementation.
No linux version. Oh well....
The client still does not let me use the remote from my dell XPS laptop remote
Just need to configure it to launch from xbmc and good bye DirecTV. Mac Mini, HD Homerun, OTA antenna, EyeTV, XBMC, and Hulu will get the job done. And if Hulu ever does HD, I might be able to cut the HD Homerun, OTA antenna and EyeTV.
Hulu does do some HD.
http://www.hulu.com/hd
Two big caveats for me:
"You may not download, install or use the Hulu Software on any device other than a Personal Computer including without limitation digital media receiver devices (such as Apple TV), mobile devices )such as cell phone device, mobile handheld device or a PDA), network devices or CE devices (collectively "Prohibited Devices"). "
--From the EULA
"Is the same content on Hulu.com available on Hulu Desktop?
Generally speaking the Hulu library on Hulu.com will be available through Hulu Desktop. While our goal is to have the same content library available on through all of our distribution channels, we work together with our partners to determine availability of their content on these various channels."
--From the FAQ
They still do not get it do they? Right now I have Dish with a DVR and I watch a grand total of zero commercials when I use the DVR. If Hulu were available for the Apple TV with all of the content Hulu has to offer (not most as is implied by the FAQ) I could drop the DVR and use Hulu. And since Hulu ads are unavoidable and not nearly as obtrusive, I would also be watching ads, which I don't do now. They keep inching closer, but clearly they still do not understand what people want.
I'm going to make a guess here that the problem isn't that people in the industry don't realize that getting people to use Hulu isn't awesome, but that there's an intricate system based upon contracts and agreements and franchising that IPTV (which is what we want Hulu to be) mucks up.
The situation is something like this:
The studios "own" the content. They provide it for the networks, and have exclusivity agreements with the networks. The networks get a monopoly on broadcasting the content within the country they operate. Then the networks in turn provide the content (together with scheduling and branding yadayadayada) to the individual TV stations (in the US.) These stations have exclusive rights within their broadcast area. NBC can't, for example, have two franchises in Port St Lucie, Florida.
Now, when you look at it logically, Hulu kind of upsets that apple cart, and when you watch the ads and notice the obsession with laptops, you get an idea of how they're trying to avoid breaking any agreements and upsetting anyone. By making the point that Hulu is NOT a TV service, and by stomping on attempts to make it one, the system can survive without too much risk of legal challenges from companies who have good reason to fear IPTV.
Take the the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It's a large collection of local TV stations in the US. It's not a network, the stations are themselves franchises of one of the big networks. Network supported IPTV is a direct threat to SBG's bottom line. If people can watch Chuck on demand from a website instead of watching it as broadcast TV, and watch it using the same, big screen, living room TV they'd use for broadcast TV, then that's less eyeballs for the ads that fund SBG's stations.
"Yeah, but information wants to be free, their business models are out of date, something or other about flag men and buggy whips" I pretend to hear you say. OK, fine, but does that make the slightest difference in terms of SBG suing NBC or WB for breach of that critical exclusivity if Hulu moves away from the computer screen?
"But anyone can hook up their TVs to their computers" would be the other argument, and that's true, but it's enough of a PITA that relatively few people will do it, and they'll be using the computer as a computer when they do.
Anyway, so that's essentially the issue, as I understand it. I'm not a TV insider, but I have learned a lot about the industry in the last few months, and it suddenly looks fairly obvious why Hulu is doing what it's doing. Here's the funny thing: I suspect that outside of the local TV affiliates, most in the industry probably do see IPTV as a likely future they have to prepare for and may benefit from. But the industry will need restructuring in order to get there, and that's something that, hopefully, they're going to be doing.
Long live Boxee!
I am sorry, but this is very good. Not perfect, but better than Netflix. I will definetly watch this while on a trip or out of the house. Still does not replace my TV!
i dont have a htpc, wouldnt we be able to use apps like menu mender for media center and add a link to the hulu desktop app?? i dunno, like i said, im not to into the media center world (i would love to be in it though, on a big screen especially)
This is just more evidence that the market and technology is finally shifting. This is going to be one of the next big changes in our life time. Included with things like the Cell phone and DVR's this will change the way we watch TV. Dynamic content on your screen. The ability to choose things like which stats you want to see during games and whats playing on other channels and more. You will also see the morphing of companies into something completely new as they find that the way they have been distributing content has become archaic overnight.
The Fuzz
www.thefuzznetwork.com
I like it. It's definitely not as good as a media center plug-in (with extender support, of course), but it's a pretty slick interface. It's certainly a million times better than going to the website.
I'm smelling a media center plug-in on the horizon though. Here's my reasoning.
#1. Hulu doesn't want Boxee to use their content.
#2. I've read a few blog posts lately about Hulu and Microsoft working on something. Some people think it's xbox 360 support. I think it's just as possible that it's MCE support.
#3. Hulu has a working interface outside of the browser, complete with remote controls for ff/rew, 10-foot..umm..I mean "lean back" interface, etc.
#4. Last, and probably least telling, Hulu has features in the works that make the experience more like the good old channel surfing TV we all grew up with. The recommendation feature and the random video feature will make it easy to just "lean back" and watch some tube.
Add these three things together and it seems quite possible that a Hulu MCE plugin is on the way. I'd be ok with a simple MCE plugin that launches Hulus desktop program, then cancels out and returns to MCE with a push of a button.
This is a good application, not great, and is frankly kind of old hat for Windows Media Center users.
THE GOOD: Nice organized layout with intuitive menus. Runs smoothly, though some items do not show up in browse list ("Dude, Where's My Car" can only be accessed via search, not browse)
THE BAD: They used an Alpha keyboard on the search instead of QWERTY. Thumbnails are too small, and text is too thin to read easily.
After using this for about an hour and then going back to Windows Media Center's IPTV section, I still like the Media Center's use of large cover art when browsing, and find the text much more legible. Microsoft ought to go after ABC/ESPN/DISNEY, CBS, CNN, Turner, and stock up on old TV shows (like Brady Bunch, Jeffersons, Andy Griffith, etc) for content and stage a war with Hulu.