Hulu cat and mouse.

[jdfern]

01/16/2010 05:00 - jdfern wrote:

Dear Hulu,

I recently purchased Apple TV (ATV) and thought my family a I could
finally enjoy some of what you have to offer on a larger screen.
I installed Boxee in order to get a wide variety of choice on the ATV,
and then I discovered that you were no longer available.
I just wanted you to know that I am disappointed that I can't visit
your site where I want.

Jim F.


Hi Jim,

Thanks for writing.

The Apple TV is a device controlled by Apple, and the Boxee installation on that
device is not authorized. For us to allow our content to be distributed via a hack
on a device that is controlled by another legal entity is just not something we
can do. We have to strike legal licensing deals with all of our partners to get
the content that we do for our service.

That said, we'd like to make our service more broadly available and are
investigating legal means to do so. We will continue to push hard there as we
understand the value of that convenience for users and thus for our business.

Thanks,

Eugene Wei
Hulu

[judgeschambers]

Jim,

Hulu/ NBC is in a HUGE dispute over allowing content to be viewed by Boxee. They have taken steps to block that content until Boxee pays a licensing fee. Then asking them to support the ATV / Boxee hack...well.....

So writing them will not do any good.


BTW, if you get a PC and connect it to your "large screen" you'd get better performance of boxee, play Hulu-CBS-FOX-ABC etc with IE or Boxee, NetFlix, and can surf the net too. Connects via HDMI and plays 720p-1080p. Something low dollar like the Acer Revo 3610 ($330 usd) or the Zotac 330 ($300 usd) that is the same as the Revo except you have to buy and install your OS. I'd highly suggest Windows-7 Home Prem - 64 ($130 usd). Not to harp on the ATV, as I have one and know just what it does, but it is limited in the hardware department and will not play flash or certain large format file types smoothly. That's why I went to the Revo. Have never looked back.

Hope that helps.

[jdfern]

Jim,

Hulu/ NBC is in a HUGE dispute over allowing content to be viewed by Boxee. They have taken steps to block that content until Boxee pays a licensing fee. Then asking them to support the ATV / Boxee hack...well.....

So writing them will not do any good.


BTW, if you get a PC and connect it to your "large screen" you'd get better performance of boxee, play Hulu-CBS-FOX-ABC etc with IE or Boxee, NetFlix, and can surf the net too. Connects via HDMI and plays 720p-1080p. Something low dollar like the Acer Revo 3610 ($330 usd) or the Zotac 330 ($300 usd) that is the same as the Revo except you have to buy and install your OS. I'd highly suggest Windows-7 Home Prem - 64 ($130 usd). Not to harp on the ATV, as I have one and know just what it does, but it is limited in the hardware department and will not play flash or certain large format file types smoothly. That's why I went to the Revo. Have never looked back.

Hope that helps.

Yeah, I guess I have to face reality; but I have to say I've seen significant improvement of Boxee and the way it performs on ATV in the two months I've owned it.

[agentlame]

The ATV/Boxee issue is a red herring. Jim's response is a joke.

"Oh, we can't be on the ATV because you have to hack it to use Boxee."

OK, but why can't you be on Boxee on any OTHER platform? If Hulu came to Boxee and said: "Yes, we'd love to be on Boxee, but you have to disable our content on the ATV." I'm sure the team would be willing to do it.