Even with the modern Digital Video Recorder (DVR) to help us record our favorite cable or satellite TV shows it is still common to miss an important episode or accidentally delete something that we had not had the time to watch yet. In other words, while the DVR is good, it isn't perfect. To fill in the holes of missing episodes of your favorite TV shows take a look at the incredible amount of online offerings that Hulu.com provides.
What is Hulu?
Hulu is a video streaming web site that provides thousands of episodes of current and old broadcast television programming for free over the Internet. They work with several different content providers, most notably NBC Universal, to stream recent episodes of first run TV programming ranging from comedy to drama and everything in between.
In general the site provides the more recent episodes of series that are currently playing on broadcast TV. For example, if you miss the latest episode of Heroes on Monday night you can go to Hulu and watch the episode in your browser instead. Older series are there as well, including classic shows from the seventies and eighties. While not every show is available, there is definitely something there for almost every taste and it is available 24/7 as long as the user has a broadband Internet connection.
Hulu Commercials On The Small Screen
The only downsides to Hulu are that watching videos on the site is pretty much limited to the computer monitor. There are a few alternatives that allow the user to watch the streaming video on a TV set but in general they are problematic due to Hulu's licensing agreements with the producers of the shows. The other big annoyance is that the commercials are hard wired into the content. It is difficult to skip through the commercials or ignore them because the browser controls prohibit the user from doing so. Some content does, however, give an option of watching a long commercial at the beginning of the clip in exchange for no other commercial interruptions later in the show.
Over the next few months Hulu has also made mention that it intends to begin offering a subscription based service to allow users access to even more content, including episodes that are not currently available on the site. Only time will tell if this service will be worth the cost, but as Hulu's popularity continues to grow one can only expect the site to improve in quality and quantity of offerings.
