Wednesday, November 28, 2007

I've Called This Meeting to Discuss What Happened Last Night at Kenneth's Party

I was just granted beta access to yet another online video site, called Hulu. It's got Fox and NBC programs, and that's about it for now, but I wanted to test out its embedding feature, which allows you to create your own clips from episodes to embed. Here's one of my favorite moments from "30 Rock" this season.



It looks like the whole episode is actually up there, it just jumps to the part I specified when you play it. But I think you can then jump around the whole episode or watch the whole thing by going back on the time bar. Which, is cool. I guess.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rain - I used to watch several shows per week online. But until the writers strike is over, I will no longer continue to do so. As a huge television fan, I can't bring myself to watch shows via digital distribution when the writers do not receive even one cent per episode for those millions of downloads. So as much as I am also intrigued by Hulu, I am boycotting that site until the strike has been resolved.

I am a regular reader and fan of your blog, so I know that you also watch a good deal of shows per week. I would be curious to hear more about your perspective on this strike and how it is affecting your viewing and writing.

Rain said...

I definitely agree with you, and am for the writers 100%. I am doing the best that I can to watch as many shows as possible via broadcast and not via online sources until the strike is over. This post was really just about testing Hulu's embedding feature, and I doubt I'll be watching anything there until the strike is settled.

But it's a good point you raise, and TV fans should know that a big part of what the writers are fighting for is compensation for online airings of their work. Don't give the studios your Internet eyeballs until they pay their writers.

But there is a bit of a double-edged sword here, isn't there? If people don't know about online sources for watching TV shows, then even if the writers do come to a settlement and get compensation for that kind of distribution, if those online sites fail, it will mean no money for writers. Again.