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Odin
11/25/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
As a UK resident I say good riddance. I can't stand internet sites that limit their access by geography.
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DennyCraneDennyCraneDennyCrane
11/25/09

@Odin: They HAVE to. They don't have the rights to broadcast outside the US. The way TV shows are licensed, that's about the best that they can do, for now.

Blame the people who grab the licenses to rebroadcast the shows in your country for not having a similar site (or working a deal with Hulu).

And I'm not even going to begin discussing the value of viewers to advertisers being less if they're distributed internationally, since you can't focus your ad campaign nearly as tightly...
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Odin
11/25/09

@DennyCraneDennyCraneDennyCrane: Oh I understand the reasoning alright. I still can't stand it though. =P
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Edited by Odin at 11/25/09 10:19 AM Odin was starred Odin was unstarred

Purple Dave
11/25/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
I already can watch 30 Rock all I want, for free. Except on those occassions when some inconsiderate coworker tunes into it during lunch...
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grimdeath9740
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
The problem with abandoning Hulu is it's the flagship product for online TV. If it fails we most likely wont get something better...content providers will simply call it a failed experiment and keep all their content locked into their little TV boxes.
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Monty
11/24/09

@grimdeath9740: Unfortunately, I think given the multiple failures in this concept, that conclusion was already reached. Streaming of any video content on the internet has been, at best, an interesting experiment. The closest things to success are YouTube and NetFlix. YouTube is successful, but a financial disaster (so far). NetFlix give streaming movies in a sub-DVD quality with limited (but, admittedly growing) choices.

It could be that ultimately NetFlix may have their own "current television" subscription program to watch your favorite TV programs shortly after they air. But, that seems like a concept down the road, at best. And with the latest news from Hulu, it looks like we are heading in the wrong direction. Frankly, we had not even solved issues such as watching live sports in HD on the Net, so this experiment still has a ways to go even if Hulu survives in the current form.

It is all very sad. I need some alone time.
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pevans34
11/24/09

@Monty: Where do people get this idea that netflix streaming is poor quality? I use netflix everyday and it looks great, at the very least DVD quality and more and more often 720p-ish. Granted, I have a regular TV and not a 50 inch monstrosity.
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Monty
11/24/09

@pevans34: Note that just because you are streaming 720p, that does not mean it is better than a DVD at 480p. DVD upconversion can take a DVD to 1080p, but that does not make it comparable to a Blu-ray disc, either. Resolution is lovely, but the "quality" of the image is what is important, and streaming video does not compare well to disc technology - today. They have to dramatically compress the video, and on a high-end TV, it just does not look as good. Some day, when we are all running 50 mbps connections at home, maybe they can reduce the compression ratio and we could talk about a comparable picture quality to disc technology, but it has not happened yet.
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grimdeath9740
11/24/09

@Monty: just to reiterate, I said Hulu was the flagship for online "TV"...while Youtube is more user generated videos and Netflix is movies. Though Netflix has a good library of TV shows the majority of them are not available as early (next day in Hulu's case).

I think the hold up with Hulu is they have not found a way to give the users what they want (full power on the media center pc, even with third parties) because of the content providers lack of knowledge of acceptance that people do not want to sit at a computer and watch TV. Users and content providers opinions seem to vary wildly in what "internet tv" is.
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Monty
11/24/09

@grimdeath9740: Agreed.
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Die Fledermaus
11/24/09

In reply to The Superfriends of Publishing Have a Grand Digital Plan to Save Magazines
I wonder how much different this will be then Zinio, which I like.
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valkilmerisawful
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
I subscribe to digital cable via Time Warner for an exorbitant fee. And I pay for the DVR - neither service works well without the other. How much more do I have to shell out before I can just watch those fancy moving pictures on t.v.? You know, the ones that I want to see (i.e., not Home and Garden Television or the Prayer Network)? I am cancelling cable at the end of this month, by the way. I need more time to dedicate to video games, anyway. Speaking of, is anyone in the circle of Giz in-the-know about the release date of Starcraft II? Just wondering...
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seriously, saycarramrod
11/24/09

@valkilmerisawful:
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nachobel
11/24/09

@valkilmerisawful: I heard somewhere around 2012. Not even kidding.
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BadbBalor
11/24/09

@valkilmerisawful: I don't have a for sure answer but I would say second quarter next year by what was said on this site... [www.gamingnewslink.com]
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Poisonthescene
11/24/09

@valkilmerisawful: [kotaku.com]
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valkilmerisawful promoted this comment Edited by Poisonthescene at 11/24/09 5:15 PM Poisonthescene was starred Poisonthescene was unstarred

valkilmerisawful
11/24/09

@seriously, saycarramrod: Haha, it's awesome that you found this. It's time for me to save my soul by saying "I always liked her, though." Did it work? We'll find out.
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valkilmerisawful
11/24/09

@BadbBalor: @Poisonthescene: This is good news. I am pleased. Carry on, Blizzard Entertainment.

Thanks for the links!
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valkilmerisawful
11/24/09

@nachobel: Check out the links these guys posted below, I scoped them out, apparently 2012 is for the expansion packs. The actual game to be released the first half of 2010, so says the blogs. That would be fricken sweet, as it it has forever been an incredible game, since I used to play it via dial-up with my friends in the neighborhood. Dial-up...
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Die Fledermaus
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
This is really to bad I love using Hulu, along with Netflixs. I find Hulu a great way to catch up on what I missed and the commercials do not even really offend. I even understand the revenue needs but at the expense of your users seems a bad model. The pulling of the ability to watch shows via Bokee or similar set top boxes seems to be losing the bigger picture. They seem to believe they are losing control of their content when they are opening the shows to a wider audience. Also if I am not mistaken the ads come with no matter how the content is streamed. If they don't then they need to figure that out and the revenue stream can continue and the client base increases very happily.
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EBone
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
Hulu is like crack. The first hit was free, then it's going to start charging for it. Before you know it, it will have us out on the street turning trick for hits of 30 Rock and Airwolf.

And don't talk to me about Torrents - those people are the equivalent of tweakers cooking up meth in their garages.
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fuchikoma
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
If you don't live in the US, Hulu has always sucked... they get the content, and people link to it, but only Americans can watch it. So much better if they weren't there at all, so it would end up on a site like Youtube where they'd have to specifically block it from certain areas if they wanted to, or other sites that don't even block any regions.

But if they want to keep me from seeing their videos so badly - mission successful. Now Hulu and their brand means nothing to me...
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Duckspwn
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
Yesss. If they disable embedding, I will no longer have to worry about raging over a video I can't watch that I see on a site.
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Nick Robinson
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
Nah, this is stupid to say.

Sorry, but Hulu is an immensely valuable, convenient, and functional service. As for the whole "Hulu charging money" thing, I'll believe it when I see it, but until then, it's nothing but a bunch of uppity nerds freaking out about the 'inevitable' future of a service that, currently, is mutually beneficial for content providers and consumers.

If restricting the videos from being embedded in certain video sharing sites is what it takes for Hulu to keep content providers happy and to keep the shows and movies coming, then so be it. But they aren't doing it because they're heartless, fun-crushing bastards like you're painting them as. Reactions like "I'd rather watch nothing at all" are dishonest and frankly kind of dumb.
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Kaiser-Machead
11/24/09

@Nick Robinson: But what if it turns out that they are heartless fun-crushing bastards, and when they're not snatching lollipops and kicking over the strollers after, they pay hefty sums to the ASPCA so they can roundhouse kick the kittens?
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maven2k
11/24/09

@Nick Robinson: What if he really would watch nothing because he doesn't agree with their policies? Then what will you do?
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Yerzriknot
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
Bittorrent is your friend.
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krispykrink
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
Meh... I've had all of News Corp's web sites blocked via OpenDNS for over a year now.

I don't allow anything touched by Murdoch in my house.
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maven2k
11/24/09

@krispykrink: I don't blame you.
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PurpleMonkeyDishwasher:
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
"The way Hulu's going, it looks like I'm going to have a lot more time to play Modern Warfare 2"

Don't say that too loud, advertising in video games has already gotten annoying on a few occasions. I remember the first time I encountered it while playing NFS underground and around every corner there was a Best Buy.
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joe.glass
11/24/09

@PurpleMonkeyDishwasher:: And there's banner ads in the Tiger series. I thought I heard there were ads in Madden too, although I can't confirm that.
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RyanXP
11/24/09

@joe.glass: forget banner ads, Madden has outright sponsorship - Sprint sponsors game stats, and the announcers give Snickers a nod (in addition to ads on-screen) during the start of every game, advising you to prepare for 'Chompetition'. None of this is new - remember going between KFC and Tower Records in Crazy Taxi? - it's just becoming more mainstream.
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croush1211
11/24/09

@RyanXP: I can remember as far back as some crappy PS1 game (I think you raced jet skis or something) where you'd zoom past ads for Sprite and other products.
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RyanXP
11/24/09

@croush1211: you're thinking of Jet Moto.

I popped in Tekken 6 yesterday, and half of my character's 3rd costumes were Tapout brand clothes.

#tips
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yantelope
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
"it looks like I'm going to have a lot more time to play Modern Warfare 2"

Is anyone else here too ADD for television? I usually can't be bothered to stop gaming to watch a TV show the exception being when my wife wants to watch a show together. I predict a continued downturn of TV viewers and a continued upturn of gamers. TV isn't going to be doing itself any favors by resisting the internet enabled world.
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Kaiser-Machead
11/24/09

@yantelope: Now that I get the bulk of my news from online sources, it's hard to care at all about TV. I'll sit and watch something if someone else is, but if not, the TV stays off, unless I'm watching a movie.

Frankly, the current content out there is not all that good, certainly not good enough to pull me away from scrounging for input on the internet.
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deliciousburglar
11/24/09

@yantelope: i can rarely be bothered with TV. and when i do watch it, i feel i am at its mercy due to the lack of control with programming. free on tuesday night? hope you like cop dramas cause thats tuesday.

example for demonstrative purposes but you get the idea.

what channel/times shows are in is a mystery as well.

then the archaic wait 1/2 an hour or an hour for something you are interested in to come on also drives me up the wall.

the internet has spoiled me.
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John_001
11/24/09

@yantelope: I didn't even finish reading your comment.
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Nathan Obbards
11/24/09

@yantelope: I play around on my computer while watching TV. I can't just sit there and watch.
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nachobel
11/24/09

@Kaiser-Machead: Amen man. The TV is next to worthless already. Sure there are a few good shows out there - I mean, I guess - but the majority of them aren't worth sitting and waiting week by week to watch them. Just catch it all after the season is over or whatever.

Oh, and the "American Idol/So you think you can dance/I got talent wut bout u??!" people? They can have the exorbitant fees and constant commercial interruptions.
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BigFoot_Pete
11/24/09

In reply to Okay, It's Time to Break Up With Hulu
Hulu was a great idea, and the reason people lined up to access the site was the simplicity the concept: television, anytime, anywhere with ease. It's a shame if the parent companies are suddenly missing what made Hulu great in the first place, and thus lose all of the forward momentum.
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