No thanks, I don’t really need to be treated as a second class citizen by the yanks, crawling on my knees begging to be allowed to buy their crap.

Thanks, but, no thanks.
BUY LOCAL!

Hello Alex,

Again, I do understand your concerns. I just not sure that it is really Hulu you should be upset with given this is something that is outside their control. I don’t know their business model but I am not sure Hulu ever intended for this to be an international content delivery tool. Their popularity has grown and many people worldwide want access to their content even though they are a regional hub for local distribution.

The challenge here is that we live in globally connected world and it is hard to regionalize an online based service when the web goes everywhere.

This is even more difficult when it comes to entertainment content that is owned by the studios and the studios have right to say who gets what, where and when. That is why they lic. content the way they do.

Given time and the things the industry is working on, I am hopeful that we will see more and more solutions becoming available to all geographic regions.

It is my understanding that Europe has quite an extensive amount of online content available through Satellite services as well as terrestrial broadcasters.

Things are improving and will only get even better as time moves forward.

Fair enough. I guess my point is that Hulu has created a lot of bad blood with international users over the geo-blocking. The semantics over who owns content is irrelevant. We’re consumers. A service has been launched. We don’t care about the ins and outs of licensing. They’re making their problem our problem. The site should not have been launched without this issue resolved. For my part, the tech you described is cool and everything, but I’m so ticked off with Hulu that if they came out with a virtual Angelina Jolie attachment I probably wouldn’t give them the time of day if they ever resolve their licensing. Looking around the net, I’m clearly not alone. Hulu was intended to defeat torrents and services like YouTube at their own game, but it has to be declared a failure. And until it gets its international house in order, some of the new tech you describe is going to be of regional interest, at most.

While I certainly understand your point, it is really up to the content owners to decide when/how they are going to make their content available in other regions. As I do not work for Hulu, I cannot suggest what their global plans might be. However, Hulu may want to be the distributor for the content, but if the owners have decided to limit Hulu to a specific region, then it would not matter what Hulu wanted to do, if they can’t get the content, they can’t get the content.

The point of this particular blog was to show how the industry is understanding that we want/need 10′ access to content. With MS, Netflix, Hulu, ZeeVee all offering 10′ access to content, we are headed in the right direction.

It’s a start.

I thought I would add a little more info to this post regarding another 10′ interface application called Zinc from ZeeVee.

Similar to Hulu desktop, this is another application you can download and install that provides a 10′ interface to online content from providers like ABC, Fox, Revision 3, etc.

Like Hulu Desktop, you can add this application to Windows Media Center using the MC Menu Mender application.

You can find Zinc at http://www.zeevee.com.

Microsoft’s efforts to integrate more content like Netflix directly into their application is a step in the right direction. Regardless of whether their implementation is the best or not, it does show they understand that people want access to more content directly from Media Center.

I think the changes to the EPG that they have made in Win 7 also reflect this. The reported news on Dish Network support for Win 7 further demonstrate this.

As for the extender strategy, I am holding off judgement until more info is available. I am curious to see how something like Window’s Home Server might play with an HTPC. This could be a more effective strategy.

To boot, MS is not supporting extenders, while VMCPlayIt and vmcNetflix do. Without extender support, the MS offering is basically useless for many.

So, with all due respect, MS is recognizing nothing much, but lagging sorely behind.

I have tried it on my Win 7 box at home and so far so good. I have not yet integrated it into MCE, may play with that over the weekend.

I think Cliff has hit it pretty well, I think things will only get better as we go forward. 2 of the biggest streaming content providers in the world are driving a 10′ interface for their content…that sends a message to other content aggregators and content owners. I am hoping we see many more sites follow suit and bring 10′ UIs to the world.

First thing I’m going to do when I get home is check out Hulu Desktop and see how it all works. I’m looking forward to seeing how MS integrates Netflix into Media Center..that will easily be worth the fee they charge in the end.

I’m sooooo close now to finally cutting the cord! I just need to teach my wife to use the HTPC more!

- Bill

Why schedule, why record, when you can watch and listen to what you want when you want? With companies like Hulu, Microsoft and AMD all recognizing the value of content on demand, its fun to see where this is going. Its only going to get easier to get the content you want, wherever and whenever you are, that’s something everyone can get behind.