We did our first full review of Hulu here but with November seeming like eons ago and things evolving so quickly we decided to take another look. Carlie Lawson is our guest-blogger.

*** 

At Hulu.com viewers will find a cross between an independent video catalog sites and a corporate television site. The free, ad supported site, currently in beta testing, hosts a plethora of current and classic television shows, but content can only be viewed by users within the United States at this time.

Hulu provides classic TV addicts a lasting fix with episodes, sometimes whole seasons, of shows such as Dragnet and Miami Vice. Users searching for that missed episode of the latest shows will be disappointed though since most of the episodes of current shows on the site are the same ones available on the networks' sites. The site provides a growing number of high definition (HD) choices, as well.

Beta Test

Hulu.com has started small with a private beta test. The site endeavors to address user feedback as it receives it, enact improvements, and grow over time. To participate in the Hulu.com beta test, visit the site to apply for an invitation. Based upon personal experience, one may experience a short wait of only X weeks. Although beta test means the site isn't yet perfect, it also means users have the opportunity to offer up suggestions to craft Hulu into their dream site, and that reported site issues will be addressed quickly with a personal reply.

Content Choices

The site provides hundreds of TV shows to choose from available via the headings: "Popular Episodes," "Popular Clips," "Browse Titles," and "Search." The browse option works best for new users, and helps regular visitors keep up with new offerings. From the "Browse Titles" page, users will find the following sub-categories: "On Air," "Network/Studio," "Alphabetical," and "Most Popular." On the alphabetical list, a green dot icon denotes shows currently on the air. Viewers who watch TV via the Internet to avoid commercials are out of luck at Hulu, which opens each show with a short advertisement.

Although the site lists many shows currently on the air, the number of episodes available varies widely. For example, fans of "Bones" may view season 3, episodes 1-9, while "House" fans may only choose between episodes 5,6,7, and selected clips from season 4. Viewers of "Psych" may view episodes 8 and 9 of season 1 and episodes 8, 9, and 11 from season 2, but fans of "The Simpsons" may only choose from episodes 8, 9, 10, and clips from season 19.

Fans of classic TV fair a bit better. Most of these shows feature at least a close to complete season. For instance, viewers looking for classic cop shows may choose from Dragnet episodes 1-17 of season 1 or the first 22 episodes of Miami Vice's first season. Those looking for an early model "ER," might choose to watch one of the first twelve episodes of the first season of "Emergency." "Lost in Space" fans really luck out, with a full first season of the show to watch.

The site also offers a sampling of documentary offerings, such as the "National Geographic Channel (NGC) ." Both the genre and the channel's choices are slim though. NGC offers no complete shows - clips only.

The site's current streaming at a bitrate of 2,500Kbps and has limited the bitrates on its HD streams to allow as many users as possible to experience the HD streaming. The site continues to evaluate its streaming bitrates against users' Internet connection speeds to set an optimal bitrate. It's not quite there yet. Episodes of both "Monk" and "House" showed with jumpy streams though viewed on a Sunday afternoon via a DSL connection. "Monk" faired better, with only occasional lag, while "House" lagged more frequently.

Hulu's viewer offers a full screen option, but viewers can't control lightness which makes it tough to view many shows with many dark scenes. This is an option offered on the best video sites, and a necessary upgrade for Hulu before ending beta.

Content Quality

Hulu's growing HD gallery offers a higher quality online video viewing experience than available at competing sites. Hulu offers each HD video at resolution of 1280 x 720, so users have a clear, sharp playback even though the streams may jump.

Content Access and Use

The site features pretty loose technical requirements. It works with a wider variety of operating systems than most video viewing sites. Users running Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Microsoft Windows Vista, Macintosh OS X, or Linux will find the site completely accessible. The software requirements include: Internet Explorer 6.0 or above, Firefox 1.5 or above, or Safari 2.0 or above, with Adobe Flash Player 8.0 or above. Users must also have JavaScript and cookies enabled.

For now though, no matter what software a viewer has installed, only those within the U.S. may watch TV at Hulu. The site states that it is committed to eventually moving to a worldwide service, but that "clearing the rights for each show or film in each specific geography... will take time." One workaround for this is to view content on a Hulu partner site such as AOL, Comcast, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo. Some users may embed Hulu videos on their personal Web site or blog, but not if it's a WordPress blog. This isn't Hulu's doing. WordPress disables Hulu embedded videos in their weblog network, so Hulu encourages its users to email WordPress with a request to begin supporting the embedding feature.

Conclusion

Overall, Hulu has the potential to be one of the leading television streaming sites. It boasts one of the highest quality pictures online, offers its services to users of all the major operating systems, and provides a wide variety of titles although the episode choices are limited for some. Like so many sites, the stream quality needs to increase before the viewing experience becomes “perfect” and, of course, it would be nice to find at least one full season, if not all seasons, of each show. Hulu is on the right track, and as it’s in beta, may win the race for best video site by the time it open for wide release.