For those who remember the dust-up between between Hulu and Boxee, it became clear earlier this year why they couldn’t come to terms on working together – Hulu also wants to own the 10′ Media experience and had no intention of helping a competitor.
Their own offering – “Hulu Desktop” – is described in this video:
Taking a cue from Apple’s Front Row media design, Hulu Desktop lets you use a simple 6 button remote to navigate to and play any content they make available. While it lacks any of the socially anchored features provided by Boxee (beyond ratings), Hulu Desktop does provide a simpler interface for those focused solely on content.
And content is Hulu’s biggest asset.
The interface works smoothly and intuitively, and shows a great deal of refinement for a “version 1″ release. The one MAJOR thing lacking that I had expected in Hulu Desktop is a way to ‘record’ shows for playback when disconnected from the internet. Maybe in a future release…
What Hulu Desktop ISN’T is a full media portal. You can’t integrate your Netflix account or stream media you have stored locally. It’s just about the programming that’s available through Hulu – but for many that won’t be much of a limitation.
If you haven’t tried it out, it’s definitely worth a look.
You can download it here for either Mac and PC.
