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Print E-mail del.icio.us 15 comment(s) - last by johnsonx.. on Mar 13 at 12:33 AM

Hulu content no longer plays via Boxee video watching software

Hulu is the place for fans of old and current TV shows to go to get their video fix. From The Simpsons to The A-Team, shows from various decades are available for watching on Hulu making it a popular destination for TV fans.

The New York Times reports that content streamed from Hulu will no longer work on the latest version of the Boxee software. Boxee is a free video service that takes a range of video from the Internet and provides it in a format that can be viewed easily on a TV screen.

The issue for Hulu owners NBC and Fox was that the two companies felt viewers were using Boxee to watch the internet programs on their TVs rather than watching the programs themselves on TV where ad revenues are better. Boxee was asked to stop showing Hulu content via its application and as a work around the ability to subscribe to Hulu RSS feeds was added.

Hulu didn’t take things nicely and the same day Boxee added support for RSS feeds, Hulu outright banned the Boxee browser form viewing its video content by blocking all but approved web browsers from access.

The New York Times quotes a Boxee spokesman saying, "[The company is] looking into the situation." Boxee posted in a blog on its site saying, "We just found out that Hulu blocked the Boxee browser from accessing the Hulu site. This is a disappointing development since their RSS feeds are publicly available, and our browser, while optimized for a great 10 ft video experience, is no different in how it accesses this content than Internet Explorer, Firefox, Flock, Opera or any of the other browsers out there."



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Always good to see capitalism wins over freedom.
By fatedtodie on 3/10/2009 12:49:27 PM , Rating: 3
Whne you make a product available for ... FREE, then getting mad because too many people used it... AS INTENDED?

Gotta love America.




RE: Always good to see capitalism wins over freedom.
By Moishe on 3/10/2009 12:51:55 PM , Rating: 2
What they're really saying is that they want Hulu to be crippled. If it's not crippled then *some* people will prefer it over TV and they will lose. It's just another stupid form of refusing to innovate.


By omnicronx on 3/10/2009 1:41:07 PM , Rating: 1
What more do you want? The networks to deliver free content to your doorstep? Please, the networks give you FREE access to TV shows and content in exchange for viewing their adds. I think that is more than fair, and a great example of innovation. They are going by the old adage if you can't beat em, join em.

Your entire rant is just another form entitlement, which seems to be a problem these days. You think it is your right to watch these shows for free, even when the networks play ball its not enough, they are 'crippling' your free content, oh the horror!


By geddarkstorm on 3/10/2009 3:21:31 PM , Rating: 3
Don't Hulu vids have commercial ads as well? They make revenue from Hulu. The issue is that if people use a TV instead of a computer for Hulu, the networks make slightly less revenue from their ads on that Hulu playing TV than they would from the a TV using the airwaves. The problem is, if someone is watching Hulu on their computer, they aren't likely watching their TV at the same time, so the whole issue is a red herring, it seems to me.


By iFX on 3/11/2009 7:45:14 PM , Rating: 2
Hulu isn't free stupid, you pay for it with ad-views.


censorship
By Uncle on 3/10/2009 2:30:42 PM , Rating: 2
Why shouldn't I watch the old shows for free, I watched the ads the first time a round, second time round should be free, Kind of like "Customer Appreciation Day.every day. By the way Canada is being censored by Hulu and a few other sites, we are told that were not allowed to watch the videos from the states. Just so my American friends know this, Canada is blocking our right to view your products. I just don't know if its Government sanctioned or its the cable companies which control most of the internet feeds. This must be the start of censorship. My son uses a proxy software with xp to view Hulu, but I use Vista and for some reason it won't work. I'm pretty sure it's all based on Ad revenue and let me guess copyright. The bottom line is someone or somebody does not want us to view shows for free unless its controlled from our side of the border.




RE: censorship
By omnicronx on 3/10/2009 2:44:14 PM , Rating: 2
proxies are a beautiful thing ;)

Also look here: see if this still works.

http://www.kuanhoong.com/2007/12/18/how-to-watch-h...


RE: censorship
By Uncle on 3/10/2009 4:52:21 PM , Rating: 2
running vista 64, the vpn driver must be 32 bit. Thanks for the effort.


RE: censorship
By iFX on 3/11/09, Rating: 0
hulu support
By kattanna on 3/10/2009 1:16:29 PM , Rating: 2
i just wish they had actual support. been trying to get them to correctly see our IP block as in california, though they insist we are outside the US.




RE: hulu support
By joemoedee on 3/11/2009 1:34:33 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
i just wish they had actual support. been trying to get them to correctly see our IP block as in california, though they insist we are outside the US.


Isn't California outside of the US? *rimshot*


HTPC
By Alphafox78 on 3/10/2009 1:17:46 PM , Rating: 2
Get a HTPC




RE: HTPC
By Bender 123 on 3/10/2009 4:27:27 PM , Rating: 2
How long until they mandate a verification chip in your monitor...Just like the mini display port issue on the MacBooks...They are hard at work developing a way to lock out monitors of different types, I am sure.


By Esquire on 3/11/2009 7:19:31 PM , Rating: 2
My eyes out.... another bone head move... make boxie browsers get 1 extra commercial...? or take a survey... something (non-boxy user)




worth reading
By johnsonx on 3/13/2009 12:33:33 AM , Rating: 2
We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk." -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs

















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