Do You Hulu? Hulu.com Takes Aim at YouTube, Network Television

Now Anyone Can Watch Television Online 24/7 at Hulu: Everything from Buffy to Heroes

When I heard about Hulu, I was intrigued. Online tv shows available 24/7. But I had questions about quality, the variety of shows and more. After viewing the site at www.hulu.com here's the scoop:

Variety of Shows Available

There are quite an impressive number of full-length tv shows you can watch. If you are a fan of vintage or older shows such as Alfred Hitchcock or even Woody Woodpecker cartoons, you'll find them here. I was excited to see Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as Heroes and even complete editions of Inside the Actor's Studio.

Other selections include Kitchen Confidential, Rob and Amber, both the classic and newer editions of Battlestar Galactica and Lost in Space. Want Mary Tyler Moore? You'll find her at Hulu along with Kojak, House and others.

Quality of the film, graphics and shows

Simply amazing. No choppiness. You see them in full screen view, too. I was entranced by this.

So does Hulu have legs? Can it last?

Only time will tell. It is still in the Beta phase, although more and more people are seeing actual shows, as I was able to do. Will it build a community? All I can say for sure at this point is that it offers an option for times when writers go on strike and you've got nothing to watch on tv. Also, as of this writing, there is snow and ice in large parts of the country. If you can't get outside, don't want to drive but still have power and a compuer connection, Hulu offers you instant entertainment.

Whether it'll be a community, well...that'll take longer to figure out. These things have a life of their own. It seems to have promise. I like it. For now, it is free, always a lure for viewers.

Where does YouTube fit in?

It doesn't. Period. This is a challenge to the power of that site and was formed by NBC Universal, Time Warner and others. Here's a link to the info:

www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/03/22/youre-going-down-gootube.aspx

and a less sunnier view of the chances of killing YouTube here:

www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2006/12/11/good-luck-killing-youtube.aspx