As expected, Hulu is being released from beta today:

Beginning today, consumers in the U.S. can go to Hulu.com to watch a large selection of hit TV shows, movies, clips and more in high-quality – anytime, for free. On Hulu.com, consumers can enjoy one of the largest selections of legal, free videos from more than 50 top broadcast networks, cable networks, movie studios and web-centric content providers. Hulu’s library offers full-length episodes from more than 250 TV series. In addition, Hulu offers 100 full-length feature films. Hulu also provides short clips from 150 more TV series as well as 50 additional films.

There’s tons of content, but I’d hoped for complete seasons of episodes at launch… However, there’s still no episode availability rhyme or reason (that I can discern). For example, where’d Burn Notice go? I also thought we’d have seen a more dramatic visual refresh and improved navigation… Though, one of Hulu’s strengths is that simple, straight forward interface (of long lists).

If you’re not one of the 200+ people responsible for my carpal tunnel syndrome I already invited, go sign yourself up here.

I’ve been using Netflix’s Watch Now feature much more lately mostly because of the excellent Netflix plugin for SageTV that allows me to browse, search, and play the Watch-Now movies from the comfort of my couch.  The plugin has been improved by Morgan (the plug-in developer), but once you start a movie or show there were still some issues controlling everything without pulling out a keyboard and mouse. This has been a stumbler due to the fact that Netflix offers very few keyboard shortcuts for the service. Well, I’ve been tinkering with a program called girder to make my remote control communicate with my PC. And in doing so I discovered a few hidden windows commands that give you more control over the Netflix Watch-Now feature.

Grab your IR receiver and head on over to Brent Evans Geek Tonic for complete instructions (or to just download the gml file).

If you’re looking for ~6 hours of premium content for your PC or TiVo, Amazon Unbox is giving away the first 15 episodes of HBO’s “In Treatment.” I assume HBO is bankrolling this promotion in hopes that we love the series and end up subscribing to service via our cable or satellite provider, and/or they’re testing the waters prior to making the entire series available for sale online. (via TiVo Lovers) In other online video news, it looks like Hulu may be released from beta later this week.

Over the past week, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about DivX’s decision to close down Stage6. When I first heard the news, I wasn’t sure how to feel about the decision. On one hand, I believe strongly in the free market system and when DivX choose to go public, they took on an obligation to look after their shareholder interests.

By turning to the public, DivX was able to raise more than $140 million in cash from investors who believed in the future of the company. Having access to this kind of capital opened a lot of doors for DivX, but it also came with strings attached. While it’s easy to blame DivX’s insiders for pulling the plug, without their initial support, DivX never would have been able to create Stage6 to begin with. I disagree with the final decision to shut the site down, but I can at least understand the economic realities that drove the decision to remove Stage6 from the core business.

On another hand, I was a fan of DivX long before their IPO and a loyal member of the Stage6 community. Without DivX’s community, they never would have succeeded in the first place and to abandon their fans over corporate profits speaks volumes about the priorities behind the decision makers at the helm of the company. While the cold hearted capitalist in me has no moral high ground to stand on, the fan in me can’t help but be heartbroken by the realization that DivX may have lost their soul in the course of going public. (more…)

As efficient as the Vudu RF remote with scroll wheel is, many folks would prefer to control their home theater via a single remote. So, Vudu’s introduced an IR Receiver Kit today at $39. In addition to the pricey IR dongle, the pricey Vudu XL ($999) with additional storage and IP-based home control hooks is now shipping. On the software side, they’re pushing out v1.3 which includes the ability to archive purchased video in the cloud (their servers) and delete content from the local drive. There’s a few other modifications, but this clever one caught my eye:

VUDU users may now move from one episode of a TV series to the previous or following episode without navigating back to the season heading. For example, once on the episode details page for “24� season 2/episode 3, users will be presented with the buttons “next� or “previous� to go directly to neighboring episodes.

I frequently question the need for (yet another) dedicated set-top box, but I’ve got to give the Vudu folks credit for these rapid and useful updates. I’m on the road this week, but will explore this one when I get home.

Bonus coverage: Gizmodo’s put together an interesting AppleTV/Vudu/Xbox360 chart.

Netflix isn’t the only online video service quizzing customers… Amazon’s also looking for input - to presumably guide future Unbox offerings, or perhaps to validate their existing (HD) intentions. Of course, it’s the theoretical scenarios that seem to get folks into a frenzy. So, without further ado:

Free Video Streaming with ads – The ability to watch movies and TV shows online within an Internet browser. Watching videos would not cost anything but would include advertisements.

Burn to DVD - The ability to burn purchased movies and TV show downloads to a DVD for playback on a DVD player. To burn videos to a DVD you would need to have access to a special DVD burner on your PC, and use a special type of DVD.

DVD & Instant Stream - The ability to purchase a DVD from Amazon.com and receive a streamed video of the same title you could instantly playback while you wait for your DVD to arrive. This would be included in the DVD price.

High-Definition Videos - The ability to purchase and watch High-Definition (HD) movies and TV shows. *

DVD & Digital Copy - The ability to purchase a DVD from Amazon.com and, for a small additional fee, get a permanent digital copy in Your Media Library.

Hit Movie Subscription Service – The ability to watch a defined number of videos per month for a flat monthly fee, including top Hollywood titles. Not all movies would be available for viewing; however, the selection would be comparable to most pay movie channels (i.e. HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc). *

Video Extras - The ability to select and watch video “extras� (i.e. DVD extras) when purchasing or renting a movie.

Paid Video Streaming without ads - The ability to immediately watch your purchased Unbox movies and TV shows on your PC within an Internet browser without commercials, instead of having to download them to your PC or TiVo.

Independent Film Subscription Service – The ability to watch a defined number of independent films per month for a flat monthly fee.

Browse your Unbox media library on your TiVo – The ability to access all of your purchased Unbox videos on the TiVo user interface. *

My preferences are itemized in the screengrab below (and starred above). However, both the Xbox 360 and Vudu have proven that I don’t neccessarily need true HD pixel counts for good looking content - but I do need a more appropriate aspect ratio and better encoding than Amazon Unbox is currently feeding my TiVo and 16:9 HDTV. Interestingly, Mac support wasn’t explicitly offered as an improvement… Would that fall under web browser playback or is it entirely off their radar?

Thanks to BlackBetty of the TiVo Community for the heads up and survey access!

A quick refresher… Akimbo produced set-top boxes that allowed one to subscribe to a basic tier of Internet-delivered content on demand, in addition to upselling premium content. Oh yeah, the boxes had upfront hardware fees too. Basically, to get the good stuff you had to pay three times. And obviously that business model didn’t work out for them. Beyond marketing their own (and RCA’s) Akimbo stand-alone hardware, they’ve also provided content for AT&T Homezone and even dabbled in PC-based video delivery. And now their latest initiative is powering other site’s video offerings:

Akimboâ„¢, the Silicon Valley company that was first in Internet video delivery, is now first to develop a complete Internet VOD solution for content providers’ own websites. The Akimbo solution has a comprehensive advertising system and supports multiple business models including ad-supported, transactional, subscription, download-to-own, download-to-burn, pay-per-minute, gift cards, account credits and more. The first content provider to utilize this revolutionary new solution is MavTV, a multi-platform programming venture targeting male viewers.

Given the screenshot, I wonder if they launched a day too early… That QA test video costs 99 cents! Having said that, this service might provide a variety of new players access to the web video arena without the burden of rolling their own solution.

Over on the TCF we’re having a amusing philisophical discussion initiated by a family man who’s upset that his TiVo has been advertising a “Free SI Swimsuit Video.” While I don’t find that text offensive, I did come across a troubling Cosmo ad last night after watching Jericho (on tape-delay). This AM, prior to my morning Starbucks run, I shot a quick video. So ignore me when I say the offer is linked to my credit card… The TiVo is linked to my credit card, but the subscription results in a snail mail or email invoice.

I have a second reason for posting… Last week, Google launched AdSense for Video as a means for web publishers to monetize their video content with contextual advertising. However, during the beta, they’re only accepting sites with over a million monthly video views. According to YouTube, I’m only responsible for about 330,000 impressions over the last 20 months. Fortunately, Amazon’s also recently launched a new affiliate service allowing smaller publishers (like me) to spam their viewers, as you can see above. Unlike Google, publishers pick the advertised products and frequency - but Amazon pays commissions on sales, so it’s probably harder to make a few bucks. Though, I’m relatively pleased with Amazon’s encoding and the clean look of the video widget - and placing ads is a simple process.

As a viewer, I’m interested in your thoughts… Are those few ads tolerable if it encourages me to shoot more video (and get a better camera)?