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Hulu: This Week's Movie: 21 Grams
Quid
Definitely not a bananaRegistered User regular
Definitely not a bananaRegistered User regular
Years ago it was predicted that while the internet would revolutionize many things, people would still be watching television and movies on TV because phone lines just couldn't send that much data conveniently. Then some jackass invented broad band. Still the naysayers claimed, no studio would ever stream their products on the internet for free!
Currently, those people are eating their own cocks.
Hulu launched publicly in March of '08 with, admittedly, slim pickings. However, over the year they've been adding to their programming. A lot to their programming. Some now in 480P no less. A quick list of the more popular: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Arrested Development, The Colbert Report.
Q: Pfft. Screw your live action stuff.
A: Then perhaps you'd enjoy Family Guy, Happy Tree Friends, American Dad, or The Simpsons. Or maybe you meant anime? Because they actually just started an anime channel with Mushi Shi, Death Note, and Astro Boy. Some are subbed, some are dubbed, but Hulu is working to get licensing for both versions of their anime.
Q: I remember this one show from years ago that was canceled, would they have that?
A: Obscure canceled shows are what makes Hulu great. Exosquad, Live Action The Tick, Dilbert, and probably some other stuff that I don't know about because, hey, it was canceled.
Q: But Quid, what about drama?
A: Do you like Life? How about ER? There's also Bones, Fringe, and the medical drama mac daddy of them all, House.
Q: I like movies too. You're going to tell me this shit's got movies too, doesn't it?
A: Fuck yeah it does. Nothing recent, but they do have gems such as Bedazzled, Night of the Living Dead, and The Fifth Element.
Now, this is all pretty great but it's not perfect. One, it's currently America only. Sorry Canada. And, uh, other places not Canada too I suppose. Though Hulu and their content providers are working on it since they want to reach as wide an audience as possible. There's also a possible quasi work around further below.
For a lot of shows, especially the newer ones, they only show the last few episodes. So if you're hoping to catch the latest season of House you'll be SOL outside of the last five episodes. Also, there are commercials. The bright side is that they're actually a lot shorter than the ones on television so it's not a big deal. I personally never mind them though since, well, it has to be payed for somehow and it's not that inconvenient.
Not all shows are streamed through their site. Some pages such as Lost's and SG-1's will merely link you to the studio's site to watch it there where ease of use will vary.
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That said, I'd like this thread to be about television/movies in general found on Hulu. Shows like House and Heroes obviously have their own threads, but this is a place to talk about and discover/rediscover stuff you didn't know was there and generally wouldn't have its own thread.
IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE OF AMERICA AND WISH TO USE HULU READ THE FOLLOWING
I cleared this with Tube ahead of time to make sure this wasn't a violation of the "no warez/piracy" policy.
There is a piece of software called Hotspot Shield.
It is a VPN shield that is designed to increase your security when using wireless hotspot networks like at a coffee shop or whatever.
However, as a side-effect of the way VPNs work, they also allow you to watch television shows on websites like Hulu or Comedy Central or NBC.com
Normally, non-Americans cannot do this.
So, for those non-Americans who want to enjoy Hulu, go get Hotspot Shield.
When you have it turned on, it does put an ad bar at the top of every web-page you visit. You can close the bar, but it re-appears every time you go to a new page.
Of course, if you're using it to watch videos, you just close it, maximize the video, and don't worry about it.
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QUID'S WEEKLY MOVIE PICK
In order to make this thread a bit more active and to expose people to good stuff, every couple weeks a new movie will be recommended for your viewing pleasure. Whether or not this will be successful, I couldn't say. But I'm all for forum experiments. I'll be trying to balance the weekly movies evenhandedly and try to keep it different every time. If you have something you think would make for a good pick, please PM me, once for the time period I don't care how awesome you think some other movie is and want to nominate it instead, and I'll add it to the choices for that time period. After watching it, talk about it.
Though, for the sake of others, use spoilers in this thread.
This week's choice:
21 Grams
What is the weight of life? Guilt? Revenge? Critically acclaimed Mexican director Alejandro Iñárritu (Amores Perros) weaves a tangled web of three characters who are suddenly pulled together by a freak car accident.
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You bastard.
Seriously I wish that this existed here. It's easier and better than...other methods. Like subscribing to cable, say.
Yeah i heard about hulu a while ago. When it showed the inevitable "content not available in your region" message it hurt worse then when i found out newegg wouldn't ship to canada (but they do now so i have hope hulu will reach us eventually also).
I just watched an episode of Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and before that I watched Daily Show and Colbert from last thursday and yeah
To the intertubes!!!!!!
Hulu is gonna do for entertainment what Wikipedia did for knowledge.
Edit: Is there any way for Canadian and Euro users to watch shit on Hulu? Like, some sort of anonymous IP thing?
A man can dream.
USA: I like HD, but Hulu is pretty awesome anyway. Any recommendations on a good way to stream this stuff to a television?
Plus it encouraged various networks to create similar systems on their websites. Which is nice.
Battle.net
This. I'm a big Hulu proponent but the problem is sometimes I want to watch tv with another live human being and I don't have a couch in front of my desk. Even if it were easy to stream it to my tv, that's a lot of cable to get from my room to the living room.
It's not so much this (which is probably possible but also probably not discussable here), as a number of new internet-based technologies have been following this stupid trend of region encoding...for live streams. It's stupid, and probably OT.
I've heard good things about Hulu and hopefully there'll be enough interest to open it to the rest of the world.
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It really doesn't take that much, and it will be awesome and useful for a good long while. It's totally worth it do it, if I had a TV worth using.
damn, Hulu just barely doesn't work on my N810.
Hulu is pretty damn cool. I haven't really played with it enough to tell how good it is at the whole rss thing. I think it will play well with google reader.
PlayOn (Free 21 day trial, $30 to purchase)
Why? I just discovered Firefly (and Dr. Horrible) thanks to hulu. Sweet Jesus, they actually cancelled this? Nathan Fillion is my new fucking hero!
Protip (credit to Tav I think): Adblock Plus "http://ads.hulu.com/*"
I hate advertising with a passion, and I usually mute commercials or change the channel anyway.
Other than the ads, my only beef with the site is the incomplete seasons/shows. Man, I do not want to watch new Simpsons or the same few episodes of Family Guy.
It'll get better with time. Look at Netflix.
Cable and phone companies are probably freaking out over this, though. The FCC just ruled that wireless can have some of the good spectrum. Meaning that broadband isn't going to be a choice between the two, and if you can watch the programming you enjoy online then there's really no reason to go with either of 'em.
There is a piece of software called Hotspot Shield.
It is a VPN shield that is designed to increase your security when using wireless hotspot networks like at a coffee shop or whatever.
However, as a side-effect of the way VPNs work, they also allow you to watch television shows on websites like Hulu or Comedy Central or NBC.com
Normally, non-Americans cannot do this.
So, for those non-Americans who want to enjoy Hulu, go get Hotspot Shield.
When you have it turned on, it does put an ad bar at the top of every web-page you visit. You can close the bar, but it re-appears every time you go to a new page.
Of course, if you're using it to watch videos, you just close it, maximize the video, and don't worry about it.
You too, huh?
I don't like cable, because then we just end up mindlessly flipping channels until something interesting (barely) comes on. With hulu, I've already finished two series during my weekend lunchtime. If I can finally finish building a HTPC, I could probably convince my wife to cut out cable.
I'm going to try this when I get home.
Can anyone in Canada confirm that this works here?
I could probly live with that, if it works and I can watch a couple shows per week that aren't available somewhere else like comedy central or utube that will be good enough for me.
You do know that's piracy, right?
Because god damn the commercials are loud compared to the content, and that is just unconscionable.
Because food in China is cheap, or because you're eating the Chinese equivalent of Ramen In A Sack?
No.
They also come in Prada DVD cases with Gucci lining.
But my point is, the internet in China is (normally) too damn slow when it comes to furriner video stuff even with a VPN, and the Chinese mafia has my back on this one anyways.
Right. The ethical thing would be to either not watch the shows at all or go to an American Best Buy and purchase them.