Travel Technology - Hulu.com

Saw Alex Baldwin's commercial super bowl sunday so logged on yesterday, thinking it was a new competitor to slingbox. Anyone using them yet?

I'm a 24 and Heroes junkie and unfortunately both are aired now Monday evenings. Can only tivo one - did watch Heroes on-line (first time ever watching for me) and with only a few 20-30 second car commercials, almost as good as replay from tivo.

Been using Hulu for a while (about 6-8 months). It's great. It's an online service that is free that lets you watch Fox and NBC programming right there on the site (it's co-owned by those two companies). It has links to programming from ABC and CBS as well, but they open in different browser window.

Video quality is good. Episodes, in general, have four to five :30 mid-rolls, so you probably see less ads watching it on Hulu than you would watching it on TV. But you can't fast-forward through them.

Hulu is great. I hope they're making money, so they can continue and expand - this is how online TV should work. Video quality is good and the ads are not too obtrusive.

I don't understand the 'business model'.

At the moment, I can view Fox and NBC (eg 24 and Heroes) on-line directly via their websites, and with minimal commercial downtimes. I've not tried the other two networks (cbs and abc) but assume same.....so is hulu merely a 'consolidator'?

I love Hulu! I guess it is a consolidator of sorts, but it has better technology. It works so much better than almost all the other online streaming tv sites.

I tried using Hulu today. I was impresssed.

Wish I could watch hulu but since I am located in Germany, cant get it, sadly, even on base. All our shows are several weeks behind or cant get what we like. Nonsense about "licensing" problems is the excuse used.

Fancast (http://www.fancast.com/) is another 'clearing house' for even more of your favorite shows.

I just discovered Hulu over the weekend - thought it was pretty good, and the ads weren't too annoying.

Thanks for the link to Fancast - it has Privileged, which I've had some difficulty finding in the past.

Wish I could watch hulu but since I am located in Germany, cant get it, sadly, even on base. All our shows are several weeks behind or cant get what we like. Nonsense about "licensing" problems is the excuse used.

Fancast (http://www.fancast.com/) is another 'clearing house' for even more of your favorite shows.

The producers of the shows and the US TV networks sell rights to these shows in overseas markets.

Someone paid or will pay for the rights to distribute the shows in Germany for instance and he expects to make money from it.

So of course they don't want you to see the shows on the web.

The producers of the shows and the US TV networks sell rights to these shows in overseas markets.

Someone paid or will pay for the rights to distribute the shows in Germany for instance and he expects to make money from it.

So of course they don't want you to see the shows on the web.

Then they should plug in THEIR ads into the web streams ... they should be able to do that since my IP address is clear to them. @:-)

Then they should plug in THEIR ads into the web streams ... they should be able to do that since my IP address is clear to them. @:-)

If you used a US-based proxy server you could in principle trick Hulu's IP geolocation.

I guess US military bases are not considered American soil?

When the big networks were fighting tooth and nail over internet-based access to shows, there was a niche to fill, and hulu's technology is great (I've been using them since the beta).

But I can now watch full HD episodes of Lost from ABC.com, so they risk being regulated to streaming Hogan's Heroes, Match Game, and similar older shows.

I've been playing with Boxee (http://www.boxee.tv). Boxee is set-top-box type software that can be loaded on Mac, Apple TV, Linux, and Windows (not quite there yet). It does a very good job of integrating multimedia with linear or broadcast type television.

Boxee is mostly open source according to this Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxee). The closed source portion of their distribution provides the social networking functions in Boxee.

Boxee supports and integrates with a number of Internet based TV services of which Hulu is one of them.

While Boxee runs great on my Mac laptop, I find watching TV on on the small screen to be a bit droll. I'm looking forward to someday having a Boxee Box - a set-top-box that runs Boxee. They aren't being made yet but I'm still hoping.

It would be great to cancel cable or satellite and go purely with viewing on the web.

But if you like HDTV programming, you have no choice.

If you used a US-based proxy server you could in principle trick Hulu's IP geolocation.

I guess US military bases are not considered American soil?

"Unauthorized use of your government computer is abuse! Don't do it!" We are not even able to use telephonie such as SKYPE. :p

However I am able to watch news shows like Today and see their different segments. Very clear video stream. Just cannot view any TV shows. :p
But the concept is great and it could be that one could connect PC to TV and watch all your TV shows right from your PC if you got the right TV. You can also use the S-video (http://askbobrankin.com/tv_as_computer_monitor.html) output jack (if you have one on your PC) and connect to the RCA jacks that most TVs have.
Hulu, Fancast might be just the first of many to give people TV on demand over their PCs.:D

Think of Hulu as an aggregator. They make money through the short commercials. Why go to the individual web sites when you can get what you want in one place.

I have dumped all paid tv services (directv) for the internet.

With software like Tversity, Playon ($40) you can stream shows to your Xbox 360, Wii, PS3. If you can't get Hulu, Bittorent is your friend. You can find most every TV show you'd want to watch.

It would be great to cancel cable or satellite and go purely with viewing on the web.

But if you like HDTV programming, you have no choice.

My son and daughter-in-law recently did just this. They canceled their cable TV and now they watch their favorite TV shows on Hulu or via NetFlix. Their NetFlix account costs them around $18 a month vs. the $70 a month or so they were paying for cable.

If they want to watch something on HD, now they just come over to our house. I get to see a lot more of my grandsons that way ;)

Have been using Hulu for few month. Great service. If you have to interupt your watching, it even remembers where you have stopped. Also got rid of my cable long time ago and just watch things online whenever I want to. :)

If you can't get Hulu, Bittorent is your friend. You can find most every TV show you'd want to watch.Yes, and no worries about about having to pay anyone involved in the content creation or distribution. It's magic free entertainment, like using someone else's museum pass or scoring booze from a liquor store without worrying about that stupid cash register.

I love Hulu.com and I have been watching lots of the old episodes of ALF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALF_%28TV_series%29). I know, but some things you never grow old of...

I love Hulu.com... but some things you never grow old of...

Yes, Hulu has some sentimental oldies. It's great for House, Bones and Monk. Good bye cable bills.

I am overwhelmed at the sheer amount of content available ... including some old series that I used to watch all the time. There just isn't enough hours in the day.

Wish I could watch hulu but since I am located in Germany, cant get it, sadly, even on base. All our shows are several weeks behind or cant get what we like. Nonsense about "licensing" problems is the excuse used.

Witopia.net or another VPN service may help solve your woes.

A Windows media center plugin for Hulu is out:

http://www.secondrun.tv/

Works perfectly!

I've been playing with Boxee (http://www.boxee.tv). Boxee is set-top-box type software that can be loaded on Mac, Apple TV, Linux, and Windows (not quite there yet).

<snip>

While Boxee runs great on my Mac laptop, I find watching TV on on the small screen to be a bit droll. I'm looking forward to someday having a Boxee Box - a set-top-box that runs Boxee. They aren't being made yet but I'm still hoping.

I think you solved your own problem here... Apple TV is the Boxee box. I've been thinking about getting an Apple TV to run Boxee. The lack of NTSC outputs on it is what's stopping me, since I don't have a digital TV yet.

So much for Hulu and Boxee working together.

http://blog.hulu.com/2009/2/18/doing-hard-things

"Later this week, Hulu's content will no longer be available through Boxee."

The column at the link below has the best explanation I've seen so far about why this is happening.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/02/hulus-superbowl-ad-and-the-box.html