reduce your cable bill, part I

Posted on Feb 4, 2009 in applications, online, tech, television | 0 comments

Part I – Hulu – You probably saw their commercial during the Super Bowl coverage. (Awesome commercial by the way if you haven’t, check it out.) Hulu is by far my favorite online source of television shows and movies. It was announced in March 2007, but only made its public US access debut in March 2008. Since then it’s really started to pick up speed. For more history, you can check out the Wikipedia article.

Hulu is powered by Flash which is very convenient since almost everyone has Flash installed on their computer. Not only can you view Hulu on your computer, but with fairly recent PS3 firmware updates, you can view Flash media at full screen on your TV through your PS3′s built in web browser. In the past few days there’s also been a lot of talk about Flash coming to the iPhone/iPod Touch which could mean that a Hulu app is right around the corner.

Besides being so easily accessible, Hulu has a great selection of clips and episodes. Miss an episode of a show you love that aired last night? More likely than not, it’s already posted on Hulu, ready for you when you have the time to watch it. Nice, huh? Hulu not only has full episodes from various seasons, but it also has clips of shows (for that bit you missed that everyone is now talking about), commercials (such as the ones that appeared for the Super Bowl), or feature-length films.

Once you start to play a movie there will be a timeline on the bottom for easy navigation, as well as a menu on either side with various options such as ‘full screen,’ ‘pop-out,’ or ‘lights out.’ You can play media at Hulu with out an account, but if you’d like to set up a queue (or view any mature-rated shows/movies), an account is as simple as giving your name and email address.

If anyone’s interested, Hulu has put together a nice video walkthrough.