Hulu Desktop... pretty nice!

[Steve]

Away from home so downloaded the new Hulu "desktop" app, available here (http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop) for Mac and Windows. Very impressive little gadget, IMHO.

I can see why the ISP's are thinking about bandwidth caps, because if they continue to add new shows to Hulu, I could probably get away with just an IP-enabled flat panel running an app like this for a lot of my TV viewing needs.

There may be others, but I know Panasonic has one such display out there, a 65" plasma with "Vieracast" internet connectivitly built-in. Street price is about $3500. With apps like Hulu and Netflix out there, I'm guessing this technology will find it's way into lower cost displays in the near future. And of course any existing display can be retrofitted with a "black box" that serves the same purpose.

With the TV networks collaborating to provide their own content distribution, it makes me wonder how long it will be until the Comcast's, Cox's, DirecTV's and Dish's of the worlds will be impacted by IP-delivery of programming "alternatives", the same way traditional phone companies have been impacted by VOIP? /steve

[Drew2k]

I tried this out earlier this last week and had one chief complaint: it immediately started playing a video when it was launched! That annoys me to no end, as I did not choose the video, was not asked if I wanted to play the video, and it took me forever to figure out how to pause it (there is no stop). I can't find any settings either that would prevent videos from being played at launch of the Hulu desktop app. A big no-no to me ...

[Steve]

Ya, agree with Drew on that. It's a little jarring. You can pause by hitting SPACE or ENTER, though first time you have to hit it twice, because the little show display needs to be maximized for cruise controls to work. That aside, I am really impressed by the smoothness and quality of the streamed video.

Search is kind of cool also. Click the spyglass and type a keyword in the search box, and you get taken to a results "wheel" that you can quickly spin through, using either the mouse wheel, or keyboard up and down arrows. Right arrow drills down further, left takes you back. Search results are relevance ranked, so a search for "House MD" starts you off with all the expected FOX House episodes and related material, but eventually wheels you down to episodes of House Hunters. Very nicely executed, IMHO. /steve

[dave29]

I downloaded this the other day, but like you guys said, the instant playing of the video is annoying. Other than that, it is a pretty cool app.

[Stuart Sweet]

I'm with you gents. I like it, but am very put off by the video starting immediately.

[Chris Blount]

I tried it out yesterday and love it! Works great with the Mac using the little white remote. Very intuitive.

Yes, the auto-start video is annoying.

[gfrang]

Where is the remote tried to find it but i must of lost it.:confused: