This blog post may well
self destruct at some point. I feel I should warn you that there’s a
good chance of this happening because of the experimental embedding of
a Hulu video clip below.
OK, the blog post
will be here until the end of time, but if we’ve learned anything by trying to embed
YouTube videos of Viacom content, it’s that nothing embedded lasts
forever.
And so while NBC and FOX have
launched a private beta of their new online video service Hulu, there’s
no
guarantee that the video clips I
can embed today will still be available tomorrow. That said, here’s the
complete movie Sideways.
It’s ad-supported, although I won’t make any money from those
ads. And
while you can watch it in full screen from Hulu.com, there’s no way to
make the video full screen from this site.
Full Movie ‘Sideways’ In A Blog Post
I haven’t actually seen Sideways
yet, but I was impressed to see that there are a few feature length
films in the Hulu library.
You can also watch a bunch of current TV shows like Bones, House, Prison Break, Heroes, 30 Rock, and Bionic Woman. And
as if that wasn’t cool enough, there’s retro shows like Doogie Houser M.D.,
Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
and Airwolf.
No seriously.
On the down side, while it should be easy for Hulu to post
every episode
ever made of each series, you typically only have access to a few
episodes. For example, Buffy
season
one, and just the last few episodes of currently running
shows.
It’s
not yet clear what happens if you embed a show or a clip from a show on
your website. Will that clip disappear when Hulu pulls the video down
from its site, or will it remain? I guess we’ll find out when Hulu
decides to replace Sideways
with
something a bit fresher.
Invitation Only Beta… So Don’t Ask
Now, before you ask, I don’t have any invitations to give
away. Hulu is
in a private, invitation-only beta. But unlike Gmail, Joost,
and other startups that built buzz by staying in private beta a bit too
long, current users do not get to invite their friends.
But here’s a little tip. If you signed up for an invitation a
few weeks
ago when you first heard about Hulu, you
may already be in.
Just go to Hulu.com, and click “forgot
password?” Enter your email address,
and there’s a good chance Hulu will send you a new password that will
let you login to the site.
If that doesn’t work, have fun playing with
the menu button in the embedded clip above. It should let you access
all sorts of Hulu content.
Brad Linder is a respected technology journalist. Read about his views on the intersection of technology and journalism on his personal blog: Brad Linder’s Digital Home
