About two weeks ago when everyone and their brother was going on and on about how Hulu had added HD videos, I decided to sign up for their beta and check it out for myself. My invitation rolled in last night, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could watch a few recent episodes of The Simpsons. The video quality is very good for TVOIP, but to describe it as “HD” is absurd. I propose that we label it HDTYT: “Higher Definition than YouTube.”
All kidding aside, what Hulu promises (TV episodes on demand, in good quality, with limited commercial breaks) is what I have always wanted. Two things need to improve before this will be widely accepted, I think. First, more episodes, and more shows. Of the admittedly small number of TV shows I enjoy, there were 6 full episodes of The Simpsons, and about 30 short clips of both The Simpsons and Futurama. Second, there are three advertising breaks as you watch a given episode, and Hulu runs the same ad all three times. Cats and laser pointers are funny strictly in intervals greater than 30 minutes, but wax lame when viewed more frequently. Actually, watching that commercial again on YouTube makes me appreciate the video quality at Hulu a bit more.
