Hulu Desktop Launches

[DoctorFinger]

Hulu is breaking the browser chain. As of yesterday, you can download Hulu Desktop (http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop), which will let you watch your favorite stuff without a browser. Or it will if you're in the USA ;) . Hulu dropped a surprise on TV fans Thursday by introducing public beta of Hulu Desktop (http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop)—desktop software for the Mac and Windows that works with the popular TV streaming site. The software finally removes Hulu from the web browser in an official, Hulu-approved way and puts it into a very media-center-like format for browsing and watching your favorite shows. Though Hulu Desktop still keeps Hulu's offerings largely on the computer, it offers some flexibility in the watching experience.
This is all part of the opening of Hulu Labs which, according to the Hulu Blog (http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2009/05/chicagopinkslip), will offer sneak peeks at things the developers are working on. This includes recommendation algorithms, custom widgets, and more. The first Hulu Labs offering, however, is Hulu Desktop, which was designed as a "lean-back viewing experience" for use with either Apple's standard remote or the Windows Media Center remote (the menus can be navigated with a mouse and keyboard as well).Not a huge deal, but certainly nice for people running home theater PCs.


Source - Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2009/05/hulu-desktop-breaks-streaming-tv-shows-out-of-the-browser.ars).

[Ten19]

The app is basically a giant glorified Flash Player, and the interface is pretty awkward to navigate through. It's a cool idea, I just hope they polish it more.

[total]

I can't wait to try it on my HTPC.

[Raen]

Damn you America!

[total]

Damn you America!

Spoof it.

nananana

[Shadowstorm]

It sucks that it's still limited to US only. Copyright holders still have their heads too far up their collective asses.

Geological-based restrictions on the Internet is a crock of shit.

[Inspector Fowler]

Damn you America!

I will trade you this Hulu player for a similar app that would let me watch WRC coverage legally. I, of course, err, speak for all the US copyright holders.

[muddi900]

Spoof it.

nananana

Brought the hammer down on that a week ago.

This desktop app is more remote friendly!

[Karak]

Weird that they have some things not available on one or the other. In fact damn strange. Whats that about. In the interview they say that at some point in the future they will TRY to have all shows avaialable on both.
Why...later?

[Farsight]

Geological-based restrictions on the Internet is a crock of shit.

Yeah, people of all mineral compositions should be allowed to watch free TV!!!

[Stmfuller]

It really needs work. Right now it's slow, not very resource friendly, and is apt to chug at 1080p resolutions.

I'm hoping for it to get better, right now it's just ok.

[biosc1]

It sucks that it's still limited to US only. Copyright holders still have their heads too far up their collective asses.

Geological-based restrictions on the Internet is a crock of shit.

It's really more annoying that I can't get Hulu Desktop to work from up here, but I have no problem using the website version of Hulu (with Hotspot Shield, of course).

[Matthias]

I have to say, I really love this app. I started watching Arrested Development on it, and it just loaded all three seasons into a queue (separate from my user queue) and showed them all in order. It was horrible for my productivity, but tons of fun. Plus, commercials weren't even showing for the first week or so, which was awesome. It was great to throw this up in fullscreen on the second monitor I just bought, and still keep my main laptop screen active to work on stuff.

[J Arcane]

What they need is a TV friendly version of the website like YouTube XL, so I can watch on my PS3.

TVersity's Hulu support is crap.

[Stmfuller]

So, am I the only person having trouble then?

[Matthias]

So, am I the only person having trouble then?

Well I'm pretty sure mine takes more than its fair share of resources- about 200-300 MB of RAM and between 30-50% CPU when the video's actually running. It's on par with most FLV playback though, so I don't expect it to hog fewer resources. Mine's not slow at all... do you mean going through the menus shows lag, or just that it loads for a long time when you start a show?