website hit counter Is Hulu Coming to Media Center? - Chris Lanier

Is Hulu Coming to Media Center?

I don't believe that Hulu has a large interest in Media Center, but those very same mockup’s that show Media Center’s “PCTV” marketing also show Hulu as a key experience.  My guess is that the material Microsoft provided to Lippincott said Media Center provides an Internet TV experience, and the designers took that as Media Center providing access to the most popular service for online TV shows.

I don’t believe that the content providers are interested in seeing Hulu on the big screen as it would jeopardize traditional content delivery.  Hulu’s entry into the 10-foot UI marketplace is heavily designed around the desktop PC, and their TOS makes that very clear.

Published Sun, Jul 26 2009 15:30 by chrisl
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Comments

# re: Is Hulu Coming to Media Center?

Hulu is already available to many of us in the form of the PlayIt plug-in to the PlayOn server...

Monday, July 27, 2009 12:52 PM by Tim

# re: Is Hulu Coming to Media Center?

Sure is, but official support would be something much different.

Monday, July 27, 2009 1:50 PM by chrisl

# re: Is Hulu Coming to Media Center?

I also saw that lil Hulu nugget in the above pics and asked myself many of the same questions.

I personally think that Hulu will fall in line and come to MCE.  Advertisers are comfortable with a TV-style distribution method(obviously).  They've been paying big bucks for ads on TV for decades.  With their in-video ads on Hulu, I can't see why they wouldn't be interested in getting their content out to more people in a more stable and user-friendly/traditional way.  The introduction of Hulu desktop a few weeks ago proves that Hulu is indeed keen on getting out of the browser, and that they have the drive to do things like remote control functionality and designing a true 10-foot interface.

I personally think that their TOS prohibits using Hulu outside of the browser because they're about to provide an official MCE plug-in.  Even if they don't, launching Hulu desktop from within MCE isn't the end of the world.  At least my remote works.

Friday, July 31, 2009 6:02 AM by Thunderdome