Hulu Desktop app...

[phikai]

With the introduction, today, of the Hulu Desktop app, what does this mean for Boxee, if anything. Will this be the opening to Hulu coming back, in full form, to Boxee?

http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop

[ziggy101501]

oh snap so now i see why hulu has been jackoffs to boxee

[phikai]

http://www.hulu.com/labs

Thats the rest of the "labs" features rolled out today. Some pretty cool stuff...

[DPK]

oh snap so now i see why hulu has been jackoffs to boxee

Indeed, now it makes sense why they didn't want full integration into boxee. Although one wonders if they did this after the whole fallout as a excuse as to why they did it.

"Oh... let's just throw together a desktop app to make them think that's what we were doing."

Who knows.

[phikai]

Indeed, now it makes sense why they didn't want full integration into boxee. Although one wonders if they did this after the whole fallout as a excuse as to why they did it.

"Oh... let's just throw together a desktop app to make them think that's what we were doing."

Who knows.

Wasn't one of the main excuses that the Media companies didn't want people to sit on their couch and watch this stuff so easily? I mean Boxee + Hulu app...thats a pretty nice package.

The real question is can this be brought back to Boxee

[phikai]

And Boxee's official post about the desktop app....

http://blog.boxee.tv/2009/05/28/is-hulu-coming-back-to-boxee/

[rickh]

Linux version not available. Wonder what they're using in addition to Flash? And if they'll get around to making it available under Linux. It looks like a nice app, really.

R.
==

[unisonband]

I am really impressed with this Hulu app...if this gets integrated into boxee I will j*&z my pants (insert chorus).

[ziggy101501]

ok soo... I am just going to go out here and say it, is all of this hulu boxee stuff because of the Apple TV? With this move it makes sense. I mean everything hulu has said an done supports this, without just going out and saying it. I admit that I use a mac mini so for me it's irrelevant, but with all of the trouble here and the issues with the horsepower/gpu on the ATV at what point do you guys look at it and say that doing the whole Apple tv part might be not worth it and may be hurting the business and product as a whole? There really isn't a future for Boxee on the apple TV just based on the fact that it requires hacking to get it on there in the first place, would all these issues still remain without it? idk just throwing that out there.

[unisonband]

There is no proof that Hulu will go to the Apple TV...I personally feel it won't, because it will cut down on Apple's profits from the iTunes Store (with TV Shows of course). The best part of teh ATV is the ability to subrscribe to TV shows and have them downloaded automatically, commercial free.

The Hulk app is playing back fantastic quality picture and sound, however the content is free (and so far commercial free) so I don't see how this would be integrated into Apple TV...I guess the only insentive would be to have the App (like YouTube) to increase sales in the actual product vs. the iTunes content. I tell you what, The Apple TV would become much more popular if Hulu was integrated...now I'm rambling, lol.

[ziggy101501]

sorry unisonband I must have misspoke, what I meant to say was that boxee's support for the apple tv platform might be what has hulu or it's providers up in arms, if support for apple tv was discontinued from the main project they might have better traction with hulu seeing as hulu has no issues with macs or pcs having access to their content browser free

[rickh]

For those that are interested, I've gotten the app to at least start in Wine. I'm hitting a block with an error saying "Sorry, we are unable to stream this video. Please check your internet connection and try again." But the app comes up fine.

I'm going to play around with it and see if I make any headway.

On a side note, the app is tine - only 800K.

*EDIT*

I should note that the entire app is flash. Right click anywhere on the screen and you get the standard flash menu, such as quality settings, etc.

R.
==

[unisonband]

Oh ziggy I got you, that makes more sense :D

I agree, if boxee stopped development on the ATV it may create even greater options for us, including Hulu and boxee joining forces again.

[ferko]

YEAY someone else has finally said it. the ATV is way to underpowered and closed platform. I dont understand why it gets all the boxee love. Code harder for linux, because any set-top box/hardware ya'll get is going to be linux, not ATV... :p

[trey_loco]

All flash? That probably means no iphone app for awhile. Either HTML5 or apple plays well with others.

[imanta]

Has anyone else noticed that Hulu is now working again inside Boxee? I just watched a Legend of the Seeker and Family Guy with no problems... either someone is working fast or having the Hulu app installed with Boxee allows Boxee access?

[pat2man]

Since the whole Hulu app is just a flash page it would be really easy to embed this whole thing in Boxee even if its not an "official" app.

That would mean the whole fancy menu part too :)

[unisonband]

pat2man, do you know how to do it? Or does someone else? That would be really cool :)

[defaria]

For those that are interested, I've gotten the app to at least start in Wine.

Works fine in my VMWare Vista machine.

I don't understand the attraction though. First off, I don't want to watch videos at my computer desk - I want to watch them on my large flat panel screen in my living room. Plus this Hulu desktop is Hulu only. Don't have any of the other video feeds like CNN, MTV, Comedy Cental, etc.

And I don't understand those who say that Hulu boxed out Boxee because they want people to watch at their computers/laptops. Hulu makes money by having eyeballs watching ads. Of what interest is it if you are watching a Hulu stream on a laptop or a large flat panel display? I'll tell ya the difference...

At my desktop I have a dual monitor setup. I tend to watch videos on one monitor as I work. I pick the short clips and newsy items that I generally don't need to have my eye balls on. If something sounds interesting then my eyes will roll over and I'll watch for a few seconds. If it's not interesting I go back to the other screen and continue working, listening only sparingly to the news. When an ad comes on I pretty much tune out totally. I save the full episodes and movies for my large screen and my living room where i can relax on my Lazyboy. There I'll actually pay attention to the ads. I stream them there using PlayOn (Wish Boxee could do that!).

So i see no incentive for companies like Hulu to try to entice us to watch on small screened computers/laptops. Indeed, make this stuff easy for your non tech person to play in his livingroom and you'll get more eyeballs on ads and thus more $$$.

You do not need your own app (that only runs on a desktop/laptop) for that. Having Boxee play your content gets you as much $$$ as having Hulu Desktop or a browser play the content.

[xmurr88x]

since that the whole thing a just one big flash page, theoretically shouldent it not be that hard to get this into boxee?

[midaiwang]

Boxee + Hulu,It's very good.

[foghorn2]

Now all we need is a hulu desktop launcher in Video>>Internet right?

[LordHelmet]

Now all we need is a hulu desktop launcher in Video>>Internet right?

This is exactly what we need :)

[afrancoeur]

Never mind I see this has already been posted!

Hulu releases software client for Mac, PC

Hulu on Thursday announced Hulu Labs, a new section of the site that allows users to beta test play with new products and services as they are almost ready for prime time. Among the new toys of everyone's favorite piracy-busting online video service is Hulu Desktop, a bona fide client for the service running on both Mac OS X and Windows computers. It also single-handedly answers all the questions about the recent Boxee fiasco.

As you would expect, Hulu Desktop does exactly what it says, delivering Hulu straight to your desktop with no browser required (though you will need Flash installed). Hulu Desktop is wrapped with a media-center-like bow, with a customized "lean-back" UI that can run full screen and even respond to Apple Remotes and Windows Media Center remotes. Hulu users can log in, access personalized features like queues, rate videos, change personal settings, and even search Hulu's help files.

This clearly explains why Hulu has been so persistent in blocking Boxee—an open-source media-center application for Macs, Apple TVs, and other devices—from including its content. Since Hulu provides free, ad-based mainstream content from the largest studios and networks in the business, they are under tight constraints imposed by these major players. We have already seen good examples of where Hulu is heading with integrated advertising inside the browser. A desktop client produced in-house will be much more conducive to monetizing Hulu using these kinds of campaigns.

As Hulu's popularity has skyrocketed over the past year, users have been clamoring for a way to get it out of the browser and into the living room. Hulu Desktop looks like quite a major effort towards answering this call, so we'll have to see how users respond.

Hulu Desktop is a free download and requires a Mac with a 2.4GHz Intel Core Duo or comparable processor, 2GB of RAM, and Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or later. You'll also need Adobe Flash 9.0.124 and a 2Mbps Internet connection.

[nycnikato]

I have to admit this app is very, very nice. I wish boxee could see this as a gift. now boxee should figure out a way of being an app launcher for this fine application. it already runs on mac as well as windows, and also runs nicely on apple tv. ;-) it is a very lightweight app, 4mb I believe. A great way for boxee to use this would be possibly by a macro done by pressing and holding the pause button to shut down hulu desktop, and a hulu desktop launcher inside of boxee.
it is a shame that netflix adopted silverlight. they will see the error of their ways soon. :D

[foghorn2]

This is exactly what we need :)

We need someone to create this in the app box!!

I wish I did not have full time job otherwise I would.

[Mize]

Am I just daft? I see all these "wish Hulu would come back to Boxee" but it works for me. Is Hulu gone on the mac version?

[rickh]

Am I just daft? I see all these "wish Hulu would come back to Boxee" but it works for me. Is Hulu gone on the mac version?
It's before my time with Boxee, but prior to the latest release, Hulu was gone completely for a while. And even with this latest release, it only uses the public RSS feeds. I hear the experience was much nicer when it was fully integrated.

R.
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[Dasutin]

Hey I made a Hulu Desktop plugin for Front Row called FrontHulu. You can get it here (http://www.nullweb.com/?p=7). The source came from FrontPython and I modified it to work with Front Row. There is a FrontBoxee floating around too to add Boxee to Front Row. This is a great addition to Front Row to make your Mac based HTPC one step closer to ultimate :)

[Tallowby]

and also runs nicely on apple tv. ;-) it is a very lightweight app, 4mb I believe.

How did you get it on the AppleTV? Share please....

[cmendill]

Am I just daft? I see all these "wish Hulu would come back to Boxee" but it works for me. Is Hulu gone on the mac version?

Hulu works fine on the ATV. Well, maybe some hiccups. But it is watchable.

Apple is bound to update the ATV hardware sooner or later. Then I'm sure boxee will run better. So please don't give up on it.

Maybe the next ATV will have a Snow Leopard based OS. Then GPU acceleration will be automatic for all types of video. Not just h.264.

[jdeslip]

This is exactly what we need :)

Since it doesn't support Linux, this is of no help to a lot of us.

At least the current hulu plugin for boxee is cross platform. Hulu basically killed boxee's cross platform app, and implemented there own non-cross platform one. Thanks for taking two steps backwards.

[malbert75]

I have to say I have given up on hulu on boxee thru my ATV. The playback is jumpy and delayed and pretty much unwatchable. I basically only use boxee now to gain access to my movies and tv shows. Hopefully Apple will come out with a real ATV soon.