Watch free TV, Movies, etc at Hulu.com

Being someone who grew up in a time where most of entertaiment came from packaged media, television and radio, I can say that I definitely can appreciate the advancement of technology. While I consider myself "old school" in the sense that I still prefer packaged media (to own), still watch broadcast television on schedule and listen to the radio while I drive, I've adapted to the many forms of digital entertainment available to us these days. With the availability internet access all around us, not only is the world's information available at your finger tips but also plenty of multimedia entertainment. You can do just about everything online these days from playing games to listening to music and watching video. While the old school in me admittedly finds it hard to fully embrace these new forms of entertainment media, the progressive side of me just goes with flow. Maybe it's the Gemini in me, but either way I always try to keep a balance with what I know and what's to come.

Speaking strictly about watching video online these days, you can catch a variety of programming that includes news, TV shows and even movies. People have been listening to and downloading music online for years now, but it wasn't until a website like Youtube that started an online video revolution 3 years ago. Just as we've seen music shift from being what was once only a broadcast and packaged media medium to what is now most popularly accessed from the internet, video is rapidly following in music's footsteps. Although we are probably still years away from seeing high quality high definition video online on a regular basis, the quality is good enough for most people and is considered more convenient to access than the conventional way of watching video by many these days. Of course the old school in me still requires watching TV shows and movies at the best quality available, again the progressive side in me watches online videos regularly when I'm at home in front of my computer.

Moving on from Youtube, there's a recently new website that has taken things up a notch called Hulu.

Defined by Wikipedia:

Hulu is a website that offers free, ad-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from NBC, FOX, and many other networks and studios. Hulu videos are currently offered only to users in the United States. Hulu provides video in Flash Video format in a higher resolution and bit-rate than YouTube, but lower than standard-definition television, though many films and shows are available in 480p. Hulu also provides web syndication services for other websites including AOL, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo!, and Comcast's Fancast.com. Hulu provides one of the largest free video selections from a collection of over 50 broadcasting networks. It allows the users to watch shows with limited commercial interruption.

Hulu distributes video both on its own web site and syndicated to other sites. In addition to NBC and FOX programs, Hulu carries shows from other networks such as Comedy Central, PBS, USA Network, Bravo, Fuel TV, FX, SPEED Channel, Sci Fi, Style, Sundance, E!, G4, Versus and Oxygen.

Hulu offers full episodes and segments from over 400 different TV shows, some no longer on the air, some in syndication, and many currently shown only in the United States. The TV content on Hulu is provided by NBC, Fox, and their TV production subsidiaries Universal Media Studios and 20th Century Fox Television, respectively, as well as the aforementioned cable networks, and other TV studios such as Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros. Television, MGM Television, and Lionsgate Television. Hulu allows users to share or edit these clips. Shows that get the most traffic on the site include The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Battlestar Galactica, The Simpsons, Arrested Development, Family Guy, The Office, Saturday Night Live, American Dad!, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It is the original host of Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Hulu offers over 100 motion pictures that range from classic to modern films. The movie content is provided by studios such as Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Lionsgate Entertainment, and Sony Pictures among others. Hulu also offers trailers for new and upcoming movies. R-rated and TV-MA content is available unedited but only for registered users.

Hulu has an online social networking feature which allows users to create video clips for posting in other online communitie. After browsing through the website, you can definitely see how it's technologically a bit of a step up from Youtube. In this day an age of digital convenience with having all forms of entertainment at your fingertips, I can definitely appreciate the technology progression while keeping in mind how most people used to have access to this stuff. Sometimes I wonder if the youth of today really has that same appreciation or do they just simply not give it much thought. In anycase whether you're young or old, digital streaming multimedia is just another way we get access to our information and entertainment these days in an ever changing world.

Hulu