I got my beta access to Hulu last night. Impressive interface, sleekly done, and a “fair” (at least it feels that way) amount of commercials integrated into the content. Never seen more than 1 per break and they’ve never been more than 15 seconds.

Is this something to suck is in slowly? Possibly, but we can always move - that’s the kinda power us consumers have now.

Hulu is nice and clean and has a ton of content. They’ve put some very arbitrary limits on the scope of the content (Battlestar Galatcia Classic has the whole season - minus the first 4 episodes, most recent shows just seem to have the last 5, etc.) but what they do offer streams well, looks great, and will be viewed on our television through the laptop hooked up to our television set.

I’ve embedded below, for your viewing pleasure, the most recent episode of “King of the Hill.” In the version I can access at Hulu, I can go both fullscreen as well as pop-out just the viewing area.

Technorati Tags: hulu, hulu beta, king of the hill

I enjoyed the show Heroes last season. I watched the whole last season of Heroes on the computer (either while exercising or in a small screen while I worked).

As I mentioned earlier, the iTunes/NBC bruhaha prevented me from watching on the Apple TV. The Amazon Unbox is always an option but I thought I’d try streaming again this year.

O.k., the NBC streaming engine needs some serious help. They change the interface during the commercial sections. I have no problem with that (you have to pay the bills) but the problem is, it doesn’t switch back after the commercial.

Let me describe … I watch Heroes on the screen streaming through the laptop in full-screen mode. Doesn’t look bad (and you sure can’t beat the price).

Commercial comes on. Not a problem. Screen changes. No big deal there.

When we return to Heroes, we’re back to the regular screen again. I have to then re-set it for full screen.

Lame.

Fix it NBC.

Or is this just your way of directing me to buy ‘em on Amazon Unbox.

Technorati Tags: amazon unbox, heroes, apple tv, nbc, itunes

I love the show King of the Hill. Always have, always will.

When I started this experiment in January, that was the one show I couldn’t get via stream, iTunes, or anywhere else.

The sacrifices we make.

Well, Fox has now added King of the Hill to their Fox On Demand service. It’s a free stream, with limited commercials. And it looks gorgeous.

I would pay for this thing at iTunes or Amazon Unbox but I’m thrilled to get it for free.

Looks great on the TV with the computer hooked up through the VGA adapter.

Thanks Fox!

Technorati Tags: king of the hill, fox on demand, year of living digitally

Now this is a smart marketing strategy.

FIOS, of whom I will be updating to next week (my street is wired, I just need to be around for them to wire up my house) is doing this reality show / website thing called “My Home 2.0.” The basic idea is a total home (technology) makeover the highlights the power the FIOS brings. They then distribute the show online, at YouTube, and at the FIOS on demand services.

Smart move all the way around and I have to give a hat-tip to them for pulling off the kind of advertising that people will actually watch.

Check out the video below.

Nice.

Wish I lived in Pittsburgh.

Technorati Tags: digital home upgrade, fios, myhome2.0, verizon

NBC is launching 4 new shows this season: Bionic Woman, Life, Chuck and Journeyman. Most people will catch them at the end of the month when they come out. Some will timeshift and fast forward through commercials.

Me, I just downloaded the pilots from Amazon Unbox for free.

I’ve been looking forward to Bionic Woman and Journeyman. I want Chuck to “work” but I don’t hear good things.

Right now at Unbox if you subscribe to a season, you save 10 cents per episode. That’s free episode per typical season but hey, I don’t mind.

As mentioned earlier, the NBC is only good news for me. Is it me, or is the consumer “winning?”

Technorati Tags: nbc, amazon unbox, bionic woman, chuck, journeyman

I’ve received a few notes and IMs from people wondering how the NBC/iTunes announcements affect my Year Of Living Digitally. In short, they don’t at all.

Let me quick preface this with a short update on how things are going. Yes, I haven’t updated this blog in awhile - but the reason is this. It works, and it works well, and we ain’t going back.

As a matter of fact, we have no intentions of calling the cable company to turn back on the television in January. No reason to do so at all.

Now, with that said and done, I do have to point out the Battlestar Galactica and The Office are Heidi and my favorite shows. We’ve been counting down their return (without commercials, of course) but …

(Amazon’s) Unbox is still selling them. And with Unbox, the season passes are cheaper.

And I can put them on more multiple devices.

And, if I erase them, I can download them again.

If they have the same problems as iTunes does (i.e., NBC slams them as well), the upcoming Hulu service will work fine, running through the laptop we have hooked up to our LCD HDTV.

Heck, probably won’t even have to pay that way.

Might not look as good but it sure beats the other options.

BTW, the ABC HD stream is stunning, NBC could pull that off with Hulu and give me every reason not to pay iTunes anyway. Didn’t we hear the Akami was getting ready to stream HD?

If you’ve read this far, I appreciate it. Here’s an even bigger picture / thought to take home from all of this:

I’ve empowered myself to watch what I want, when I want, and I’ve found that this environment is actually cheaper than the other option anyway. I’ll never go back. I love that with all of this bickering, finally, I’m in control.

NBC’s move was stupid and short-sided. The great thing is, we know they’re gonna stream and/or sell it someplace.

And I’ll be there.

Technorati Tags: nbc, itunes, nbc and itunes, the office, battlestar galactica

CinemaNow.com will now stream to your Xbox. Looks like it doesn’t need a Media Center PC, just a Windows machine hooked up to your network.

Is it me, or is the Media Center PC becoming less and less important?

I gave ‘em a short lookover. Looks like their regular inventory is the same as Amazon Unbox. Looks like they have a subscription service that can get you a lot of “mature” content if you’re interested. There is also some indie stuff but it looks like you have to subscribe to even look at the list. They only list 8 example titles and, well, since Cher: The Farewell Tour is number 2 in rentals …

I guess there other distinguishing characteristic is that some titles you can download and burn to DVD yourself. Of course, to burn The Mummy to DVD is $14.99 and to buy it from Amazon on a DVD is $9.99.

So in short, this is newsworthy. The more content we can grab online, the better. Doesn’t look like there is anything special to CinemaNow that makes me want to sign up - but I’m not the only one out there.

Technorati Tags: cinema now, stream to xbox, movies on xbox, burn to dvd

When the first episode of the 4400 aired, there was a chance to watch it online at USANetwork.com. They weren’t for sale anywhere but, fine, I have a computer hooked up to my television set and don’t mind not paying a thing.

A week later, after Episode 2, and around the time I finally got to watching it, the replay was gone.

No iTunes.

No Amazon Unbox.

Paul can’t watch the 4400 (legally) unless he’s hooked up to cable television.

Guess what? Not worth it.

Eureka is a funky little show that I enjoyed season 1 of. Not enough episodes for a “full season” - but not other complaints.

Season 2 went live (didn’t even know it was coming), saw it on the Apple TV television show page and, bam, I’m subscribed.

Sci Fi Channel gets it.

USA Network, not so much.

Technorati Tags: eureka, 4400, year of living digitally

I wrote earlier of Amazon doing some pretty outside of the box things with their Amazon Unbox program.

They’re doing it again this weekend - this time with rentals. I picked up rentals of Good Shepard, Children of Men, and Rocky Balboa - all of which I haven’t seen yet for 99 cents each.

Don’t forget, you can download these to your Tivo now.

Downloads at $5 and rentals at $.99.

Yes, we’re getting there.

Small point - I have no intention of watching them all this weekend. Rental downloads are good for 30 days (and then 24 hours after you first push “Play”).

I love to see a few zillion of these purchased so that some bean counter somewhere makes a note of it.

Technorati Tags: amazon, amazon unbox, movie rental, movie rental download, children of men, rock balboa

When I purchased my Apple TV, I had to grab an HD set to run it on. Since Internet delivered video is hardly the kinda stuff that screams for a two thousand dollar set, I went for function.

The set I bought had all the inputs - HDMI, Component, SVideo, etc.

But a few days ago, I realized that it also had VGA.

As in my computers and/or laptops.

As in some of those shows I can’t get any other way than streaming (The Unit) and in some of those things that only come via computer (Joost), I can hook it up to that same television.

So I did.

Guess what.

ABC streaming looks much better than Joost.

Fox streaming looks much better than Joost.

NBC is about the same as Joost.

And the shows on these three are much more exciting than Joost at this point.

Yes, I know, some are coming - and it will be interesting.

So, on order I have a laptop docking station and a wireless keyboard with a trackball on it. We might be moving from an Apple TV and Xbox 360 house to a Apple TV / Xbox 360 / Computer attached to the television house.

Yes, I know you can hack an Apple TV to run OSX. Maybe later on that one. I think it would stay under my “legal” requirement if I purchased an additional license of OSX.

Technorati Tags: osx, apple tv, xbox 360, joost, abc online, nbc online