Hulu Adds HD
Online video distribution startup Hulu has added high-definition content, one of the first tests of the new Adobe Flash Player that was released today, which supports streaming HD. Hulu’s HD content is limited, just a gallery of sample movie trailers and clips from Universal and Fox Studios, a spokesperson told us via email. Right now it includes 10 trailers from movies such as Jumper, 27 Dresses and Hitman.
The gallery appears to be available only to existing Hulu beta users, and embeds are disallowed. Click on the thumbnails for screenshots.
The HD stuff looks good. It’s way better than existing Hulu full-screen videos, which is not as precise as some of the same content that’s streamed on NBC.com, for example. The HD content takes a bit longer to load than Hulu’s normal videos and currently does not include ads. You can go either go full screen, as per your computer’s specifications, or to a larger player at 1280×720 dimensions. The streaming still skips a bit, which Hulu tends to do on my machine.
Hulu is a joint venture of News Corp (NWS) and NBC (GE). It offers content from those companies as well as Sony and MGM. The videos are distributed on web portals such as AOL, MySpace, and Yahoo, but they are only available in the U.S.
Further reading:
Recent
GigaOM Network
Copyright 2001–2008 Giga Omni Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Powered by WordPress.com. Marketing consulting by ACS.
Hulu actually looks pretty good. I watched weekend at bernie’s and the experience was actually not that bad.
My thing about long form video, I just don;t want to sit there and watch a movie on my LCD. I rather watch it on my TV. I’m sure the internet will spread to more televisions through various offerings.
I’ve watched a number of videos from YouTube on my Wii, and Connect360 is great when it comes to watching items from my iTunes on my XBOX 360.
The future possibilities definitely look promising.
Lawrence on December 4th, 2007 at 10:20 am - Permalink
[...] Vid-Biz: HD Flash, Google, WebFives Flash Player 9 Now Offers HD; move could put pressure on YouTube to adopt higher-quality vids. (Wired; our story on how Adobe partner Hulu is one of the first to use its new HD capability) [...]
Vid-Biz: HD Flash, Google, WebFives « NewTeeVee on December 4th, 2007 at 10:27 am - Permalink
i’m a little impressed. they could work on the compression of the hd content a little more, but this is a really nice experience. better than abc’s streaming offering.
buster on December 4th, 2007 at 12:23 pm - Permalink
[...] mesmo, o Hulu, site de vídeos da NBC e da NewsCorp, começou a publicar, em fase de testes, vídeos em HD. Em sua maioria, trailers e videoclips, conteúdo mais atraente para ser distribuído em alta [...]
Tiago Dória Weblog » Blog Archive » Mais High Definition na tela do computador on December 4th, 2007 at 9:31 pm - Permalink
Liz, both your reports mention skipping and pixelation. What download speeds do these streams need? Standard and HD?
Adam on December 5th, 2007 at 4:13 am - Permalink
[...] More from Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee. Rate This Post: Bookmarking links: [...]
Podcasting News » Adobe Flash Is The New Standard For HD Internet Video on December 5th, 2007 at 6:24 am - Permalink
For HD, Hulu says:
System Requirements for viewing HD videos at Hulu
Flash Player 9.0.115.0
2.5Mbps Internet connection or greater
Windows: Intel Pentium 4 3GHz processor (or equivalent), 128MB of RAM, 64MB of VRAM
Macintosh: Intel Core Duo 1.83GHz or faster processor, 256MB of RAM, 64MB of VRAM
Linux: Intel Pentium 4 3GHz processor (or equivalent), 128MB of RAM, 64MB of VRAM
Liz Gannes on December 5th, 2007 at 9:15 am - Permalink
For standard:
Q : What are the technical requirements to watch videos at Hulu.com?
To enjoy videos at Hulu, you will need the following software installed on your computer:
Internet Explorer 6.0 or above, Firefox 1.5 or above, or Safari 2.0 or above
JavaScript and Cookies must also be enabled.
Adobe Flash Player 8.0 or above
Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Microsoft Windows Vista, Macintosh OS X, or Linux
Liz Gannes on December 5th, 2007 at 9:16 am - Permalink
[...] will allow for the broad delivery of HD content via the web. HULU has implemented the software to add HD content to its free, ad-supported TV service. Currently, the content is limited to trailers and clips meant [...]
Nielsen - Adobe - Hulu - Sprint - FCC - Nokia - MediaBytes 12.05.2007 | MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer Video on December 5th, 2007 at 9:41 am - Permalink
[...] For all those whining about Hulu’s video quality, the NBC-News Corp. venture as added high-definition content to its Web library. Right now, offerings are limited to a few movie trailers, but we’re betting shows will pop up in HD before long. Not that that solves Hulu’s terrible interface or lack of selection, of course. [NewTeeVee] [...]
For all those whining about Hulu’s video … [Online Video] »TechAddress on December 7th, 2007 at 4:21 pm - Permalink
[...] recently announced plans to offer HD content, as did Vimeo, but both deliver content in a single, high-bitrate stream across a single CDN, [...]
Swarmcast Releases Autobahn HD for Flash « NewTeeVee on December 11th, 2007 at 12:21 pm - Permalink
[...] Hulu started rolling out HD content among its video offerings. [...]
Bandwidth Crisis » Blog Archive » Viva La HD Revolution! on February 26th, 2008 at 12:56 pm - Permalink