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 9:57PM
Bah, no sign of it outside the US yet.
I would like to thank hulu for "making available" these series in the USA, and all other websites involved in such "making available" to all other non-aryan, inferior primates outside the sacred land.
"I would like to thank hulu for "making available" these series in the USA, and all other websites involved in such "making available" to all other non-aryan, inferior primates outside the sacred land."
Harsh. It's most likely due to the agreements that they have with the broadcasting companies. Because I like in the US I can't watch streaming shows on the BBC's site, such as Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Don't blame hulu, it isn't their fault.
Firstly, hulu is only a hosting service for shows FOX, NBC etc. create and are therefore beholden to the demands of these TV networks.
These TV networks have deals with over sea TV networks as well as having to deal with international copyright law making it difficult for them to offer the show to the rest of the world.
In short, don't blame hulu, blame the TV networks (but not really because it isn't totally their fault either).
In places like Canada, though, where the programming on actual television is essentially American TV + Corner Gas, that isn't enough to make me care. They have no real excuse.
@Issac
Except that Hulu is owned by these TV network (Fox & NBC).
yay it works on my macbook and it's awesome
I'm in love with this program. It is incredible and a joy to use.
And you can ignore the minimum system requirements for PCs. I have it running on something that is far below what they recommend, albeit with some tweaking, and it still works very well.
It really is a gorgeous app. I'm really impressed with the interface work that went into it. I've not had any performance issues either on my MBP, accessing Hulu Desktop through Front Row.
If you're on a Mac go off and get Plex, now, you won't regret it.
http://plexapp.com/
(It's an improved, open source mac version of XBMC... and it's incredible)
Their vendetta against boxee is even more ridiculous now.
Yeah, kinda. Then again, at least now we know that they had immediate motivation to squash competition, and weren't just doing it out of spite.
Not really... Hulu wants you to watch it through *their* software. Maybe for tracking reasons... or maybe it has to do with the licensing of TV shows and movies.
@Michael: Hulu is implicitly a web site, made to be viewed in a web browser. The new app doesn't change that (unless I'm wrong and they're no longer serving content out of their site). Boxee is using a browser to access the site, isn't stripping out their value-detract commercial advertisements, so it shouldn't be a problem.
So yes, it's still ridiculous. I've never seen a site that actively worked to cripple itself by intentionally breaking in a specific browser.
Get it out to the world.
Doesn't Coca Cola place ad worldwide?
I wrote a plugin today that integrates Hulu Desktop into Apple's Front Row. Seems to work okay so far. Link: http://bit.ly/qgmwU
very nice. being able to launch it from front row makes Hulu Desktop + Front Row an awful lot like what I used Boxee for.
Wow! thanks for the link man! I downloaded and installed it. Works great so far! Feels almost as if Hulu came preinstalled with front row. lol
Yeah, that was my main use for Boxee, too. Understudy does the job okay, but Hulu Desktop's interface is just so much nicer. Now if only there were a Netflix plugin that rivaled Boxee's...
cool... been looking to build a HTPC
what kind of remotes is it compatible with exactly?
Heres my issue with Hulu.com, new programs are not all released on Hulu that night (or even the next day for that matter.) This leads me to simply watch shows illegally if i miss them. I have a feeling Hulu loses a large audience to illegal streams and downloads due to this lack of timely content availability
Lots of that is because networks don't release their shows right away for online streaming. NBC usually does at 2-3am the next day whereas networks like Fox make you wait 7 or 8 days. And since Hulu is just pulling vids from those sites it can't get them any faster.
The delay is only with some shows, and most of them are out the next day. I know 24, The Daily Show, and a ton of others are on when I get up the next morning. Others like Rescue Me and that biker show on FX take a week. So I just watch a week behind everyone else. Doesn't really bother me, but then again I don't have a water cooler to stand around and shoot the shit.
I will be interested to know if ABC shows their shows the next day, so like will I still have to go to ABC.com to watch it the next day, or will Hulu already have it.
1. Subscribe to your favorite shows.
2. Allow Hulu to e-mail you when new episodes are added to your queue.
The Hulu interface is really nice. Now if only Hulu had MythBusters I'd have a reason to use it.
This makes me hopeful for a native PS3 app. That would be excellent.
I have a ps3, but don't see a need for a plugin. I have a computer that's wired to the tv.
I like to watch tv while playing a video game. This is a nice set up.
Anyone able to sign up? I noticed there is an option to 'buy' an episode. What's up with that? Is this a preview of a netflix or Amazon type setup? Hm...
can you imagine if this was available on the Xbox? PS3 would be dead dead dead.
I can watch Hulu on my PS3 through it's web browser
it'd be nicer if the PS3 got THIS sort of app/interface
but since you brought it up, I thought I'd let you know
PS3 can do Hulu... the 360... not yet.
Yeah...totally...the PS3 doesn't have Hulu.
/goes back to PS3 to watch HULU shows
Geez, the Requirements seem a little excessive.
Intel Pentium Core Duo 2.0GHz
At least 2.0 GB of RAM
That's a Core Duo, there's no 2 in it. It's actually not to bad.
Like it was said above it works fine on lower spec machines.
Yeah they do, but I tried it with 1gb of ram and 1.8ghz and it was flawless. Maybe the reqs listed give them leeway when HD content stutters, but I haven't tried it.
House!
WTF. No Linux app?
No one will love us until they realize we have money and decide they want it.
That's why we hack these services to work with whatever the heck software stack we please.
I wouldn't be surprised if they show Linux some love eventually, they were just taking care of the majority market first. It's flash based, so there's no reason I know of that would prevent it from being easily ported. I hope they do. We shall see.
has anyone tried to see if it works in wine (i'm not at my computer right now on g1 so can't try)?
I LOVE the interface....plus it actually outputs 24 at the native 16:9 widescreen...unless im incorrect and they just blew it up
Still has problems in hotel rooms. Just tried it from this Hilton, and I'm getting maybe 500k down via the hard-wired Ethernet in the wall, and I can't stream Hulu reliably. Probably can't maintain a half meg. With other sites I can buffer for a while to resolve this, but Hulu, whichever way I watch, won't let you do that. Also other applications (Slingplayer say) will automatically figure out you can't handle a High Quality stream, and drop to a lower bit rate, but the Hulu player forces you to do this manually through a buried global setting. Not like clicking on the "High Quality" button on the status bar would be an obvious place to let you change this...
Still, a good effort. I'll probably use this at home on a Dell Studio Mini at some point in the future. Good stuff.
Wow, love it. Just have to find a way to increase the bufffer. I see the control for it, but can't get it to increase. Lag...
I'm otherwise sold!
Hah, already seized up on me! Did a search for Series: Criminal Minds and it couldn't handle the results. Or my computer couldn't handle it. "Not Running" ...
AhahahahaAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! Dis iz deh BEST DEY OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!
Boxee is obsolete now
Uhh, Boxee does more than just Hulu. I enjoy having SouthParkStudios, NewNextNow, Jamendo, CNN, Blip.TV, etc...
This is still too much of a desktop app not designed well for 10 foot viewing. Menu navigation is clunky and stuff is annoying like popping up a bar telling you what's going to play next on the bottom of the screen 30 seconds before the end of a video that obscures about 1/3 of the screen.
Also, although they say it works with a Windows Media Center remote, it's only partially true as the transport controls don't seem to be functional.
Nice first step. I assume it will improve. But I'd prefer integration into Media Center over this.
Is everything still flash based? Because if it isn't, the Ion gets a huge selling point.
i just want a winmo app already!
watching on skyfire is alright but could definetly be better
A welcome step in the right direction. Though I would prefer true Windows Media Center integeration, this is quite a usable alternative. It's certainly not without its bugs and poor UI/task design in places, but it does the job and its a lot better than I had anticipated.
As per some instructions I read, I used MC Menu Mender to create a menu button to launch the application through Windows Media Center. Very easy to do and works like a charm (although I do have to hit the green button to bring WMC back up after exiting, which is not a big deal).
My biggest complaint is that it obnoxiously must play a video on launch. There is no way to disable this and, in general, no way to actually stop the video from transferring. Big waste of bandwidth on their part. The standard transport buttons on the WMC remote are not used so that it matches the simpler Mac remote.
It's a Flash-based desktop app, so I don't see a Linux port being a huge endeavor. However, note that I have no Flash development experience.
Agreed. I posted almost the same exact post without having read yours. I think we're influenced by media center goodness and see the deficiencies here.
I hope it gets better. I need to set it up to launch out of media center still...
I've been meaning to install Second Run, too.