“Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free,” the clever company slogan said. At my fingertips, I have access to a vast catalog of hundreds of TV shows and movies offering thousands of hours of content. What more could satisfy my ravenous appetite for quality entertainment? Visions danced in my head of not being bored by my satellite TV selection anymore, and finally finding distractions for all of my missing shows that are on strike-induced hiatus.
Hulu launched on March 12 to the general public, so I’ve spent time since then taking a ride on the online streaming bandwagon. It all sounded so exciting, so cutting edge. This is the future that media companies like Time Warner, NBC Universal, News Corp, and Disney are touting, all while committing large amounts of capital with hopes of big payoffs. So, after five days, am I still riding that wagon, or did I jump off screaming?
All Those Choices
While Hulu offers an easy to use interface, it’s not all it seems. In getting familiar with the site, I examined in great detail the content. As they claim, there’s a good amount of content, but what’s there is hardly comprehensive. In browsing through the “Popular Shows” section, there are nineteen pages of TV show icons. There’s a nice variety of programs, including several old classics that escaped my mind a long time ago, but the episode and clip selection deflates those offerings.
The first show I selected was one I remember from my youth for having that cool car, Starsky and Hutch (I saw that car in Vegas, by the way, and it’s even better in person). I was too young to watch the show when it aired, so now I have an opportunity to see it without going through the hassle of renting DVDs. Or maybe not. There were 37 episodes listed, all of season one, a scattered selection of season two, and one episode in season four. Several of the shows’ listings are like this, making me wonder what the selection process was for submitting episodes. The further I went, the more meager the choices became. The icons showed CNET clips, including bad ones from this year’s Detroit Auto Show (where are all the American cars?). Mrs. Piggle Wiggle? Paradise Hotel? Kojak 2004? I didn’t know they remade that one, and I’m glad I missed it. I found lots of clips of wrestling and beauty pageants, replays of college bowl games, and some show I never heard of involving one of the Queer Eye guys. Everything else became a blur.
Article comments
1 - snowcrous
I have been watching movies/TV shows from hulu.com for a while . I love Hulu!!! What it offers is awesome. The user interface is simple, elegant and so easy to use. There are plenty of full length episodes and movies. But I have never experienced choppy viewing as you describe here. By the way, I am using internet connection via the cable company.
2 - Alice Jester
Snowcrous - Thanks for letting me know you are loving the site. It does have many wonderful features and I'm glad see someone out there is getting the benefit.
It's good you're getting decent video streaming on a cable modem. I think that's the trouble with these online streaming sites, they're catering to the highest speed connections possible and pushing the bandwidth. My DSL line is slower than cable, but there are many DSL users out there that want to check out this site. Also, I heavily use wireless, and the experience is worse through a wireless connection. Many people will also be accessing the same way, and might end up disappointed.
Hopefully I'll come back in the near future and many of the issues will have been ironed out.
3 - MGersh
I am disappointed by online video, so far. (Full disclosure: I was associated with an online video site, Reeltime.com, for the last two years) The selections are thin, and poorly presented. On Hulu, the TV shows are limited to a mere pick of a few episodes, then some clips. I saw House on Hulu for the first time, and I really liked it. But I was only able to find two episodes, and those were the last two, at that. I like to view shows from the oldest to the latest, and that is impossible on Hulu. I would really like to see the last four seasons, and then the first ten from season 5. That would be a better incentive to get me to watch on television than two episodes were.
Online video has a long way to go. They all need to get better at search, or stocking the shelves of their video store. And they need WAY more selection. Once they do that, online video will change the way we view entertainment, no doubt.
4 - ReelTimeKing
Hello MG,
I remember you from when you were at ReelTime. We exchanged e-mails a number of times. I am sorry you are no longer with the company, but I understand your reasons. I am still invested there. I should have sold about the time that Ro came on board. But who was to know that they wouldn't get their act together. You know what I think will make it work. I know you see the same problems I do, not only for ReelTime, but for the industry as a whole. I have exchanged e-mails with JD and talked to him on the phone. He says he agrees, but nothing seems to happen. I don't know why the process is so slow. They need to do something to be competititve, and people will pay for the service. Wish you the best in whatever you are doing now.
Gonzalo