Bump

I'm just adding more fuel to the fire, check this out  http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/05/hulu-refreshes-hd-gallery-with-720p-tv-shows/

 

---

Dwight 2001

Vista Ultimate|E6600 Core2 Duo|ATI 4670 256MB|2 GB Ram|Pioneer BDC-2200 BluRay Drive|XBOX360 HDDVD Drive|Sony XL1B2 200 Disc Changer|1.5 TB Storage|HDHomerun

Linksys DMA2200|XBOX360

It's all good

hoopsdavis:

Full screen, remote and keyboard use will be added, the app is currently being worked on with VMC embedded version.

I'll keep you posted.

 

One month later... Any progress on this, hoopsdavis? It would be great to have at least some sort of product/beta that we could start using for Hulu. It seemed like Paul Yanez had all of the core components a long time ago. His "My Designed Version of Hulu" seems like it would integrate well with Vista, (all it needs is the blue background.)

Has anyone else seen this?

http://www.themediamall.com/playon

It claims you can stream hulu content on xbox 360, playstation 3 and HP Media Smart TVs. I have emailed them asking if any support is planned for windows media center...

bluephx:

Has anyone else seen this?

http://www.themediamall.com/playon

It claims you can stream hulu content on xbox 360, playstation 3 and HP Media Smart TVs. I have emailed them asking if any support is planned for windows media center...

I'm about to try it out right now. I'm pretty sure you can't stream to a media center since it requires a DLNA-compliant device. I'm just hoping you can access it locally.

Just tried downloading it. It won't install on Vista 64-Bit. Lame.

bluephx:

Has anyone else seen this?

http://www.themediamall.com/playon

It claims you can stream hulu content on xbox 360, playstation 3 and HP Media Smart TVs. I have emailed them asking if any support is planned for windows media center...

I emailed them about it and they sent me a link to the 64-bit client (posted below). When I try to view anything on my 360 it tells me that the type is not supported.

http://www.themediamall.com/downloads/playonbeta/test/PlayOn64Setup.2.58.3152.exe

I just tried it. No-go for Vista MC either locally or on another machine over the network. Same thing with Windows Media Player. The [ComputerName]-PlayOn UPNP device shows up in the Network browser, but it doesn't let you do anything with it.

It does work on my Xbox though. Very promising but if they want to charge $30 they have more work to do.

First off, it's reliant on RSS feeds. So your stuck with whatever odd lists Hulu decides to provide. While there's good lists for TV shows, there aren't any for strictly movies. And you can't filter out to show just the full-length ones. Very annoying.

Hulu generally has two quality sizes, 360 and 480. They even have some 720 now. Anyway, with Playon it looks like you're stuck with the lowest quality. It's just bad enough to be practically unwatchable on a large HD set. It's essentially YouTube quality.

The lists for CBS are great and the selection is great (old episodes of 90210 and Twilight Zone for example). But the quality for the CBS streams sucks too. I know on their website you can watch high-quality stuff, even some stuff in HD. Not the case with Playon though. I'm guessing these RSS feeds just contain links to the lowest quality streams.

I didn't bother with YouTube since watching YT on a TV set is lame and pointless IMO (plus you can already do it with Yougle).

And what's stopping Hulu or anyone else from stopping the feeds? Imagine paying $30 and Hulu makes it so this service doesn't work on Playon. Keep in mind part of the Hulu business model is getting people to visit the site, and the licensing fees they pay to the copyright holders are based on the fact that people will be watching on their computers - not on a TV set. These guys at MediaMall are trying to make a legit business off other people's services. I find it a little ridiculous that they are going to charge for this program given the fact that it could become totally worthless at the whim of these service providers.

I heard back from themediamall support yesterday. They said that they are planning support for media center in the "next couple of months".

The guy who answered my question seemed interested in my input, maybe they will address some of these issues in future releases. I also provided him with a link to this thread, I was hoping he would visit and take part in the discussion of what is liked and disliked...

bluephx:

I heard back from themediamall support yesterday. They said that they are planning support for media center in the "next couple of months".

The guy who answered my question seemed interested in my input, maybe they will address some of these issues in future releases. I also provided him with a link to this thread, I was hoping he would visit and take part in the discussion of what is liked and disliked...

Gee thanks. Now I feel like an a-hole.

lifterus:

Gee thanks. Now I feel like an a-hole.

You shouldn't, everything you said was spot on and truthful. If anything, any employee that does read this should take it as constructive criticism.

Nothing yet ?

Still looking forward to this...

---

-Dave

MCP, MCSA, MCSE 2003
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Technologists
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Sales professionals

Home theater specialist (10+ years)

Over the weekend I took the time to install the PlayOn application, which really only took a minute, and play with it a little.

The PlayOn program does work, and it does stream Hulu videos directly to the Xbox360. I played part of a few episodes to see how the quality was, and really it wasn't bad. It isn't perfect, and isn't HD, but isn't bad. It only took a short time for it to buffer, and after that it was smooth playing it back.

I also tried some of their other feeds, like from CBS and YouTube, both of which work just the same. Though, the quality on a Youtube is bad enough as it is when watching on their site, this obviously didn't make it any better.

While PlayOn does cost 30$, it also has a trial to it, which I think is 60 days. If nothing else, it is worth installing for the Hulu support for the next 60 days, and if they keep up development like they say they are going too, it could become a worth while investment...In the meantime, for something that took a minute to install, worked perfectly without having to do any tweaking, and is free for 60 days, it was worth the install.

I tried it on both a MediaSmart TV and a MediaSmart Connect and works quite nicely.

(You need to get the latest version that fixes the "blank" listings).

They do preserve all the mini commercials in Hulu.

Looks like they transcode all Flash to MPEG

Am I the only one who's disturbed at what appears to be a total lack of interest in watching Hulu on a regular TV set?  Call me crazy, but one would think this thread would have multiple daily postings.  Is the problem just that too many people are unaware of Hulu?  Hulu is the kind of thing that could allow people to cancel their cable TV subscription.