Hulu Plus Gets An A+: Hands On Review

Over the past few hours I’ve been testing Hulu’s new Plus service and as aside from a few quirky issues with the player, the service is quite good. I’ve been using it on my MacBook, iPad and iPhone and the quality of the videos are excellent across all three devices. Hulu’s 720p streams look just as good as Netflix’s and of all three Apple devices, the size of the iPad screen naturally makes Hulu’s videos look best on the iPad. So far I have not seen any quality issues with the video and buffering is extremely low.

(UPDATED) Move Networks Up For Sale: Three Parties Have Shown Interest

Update 7:53pm ET: Move Networks has just issued a press release saying that it, ” intends to retain a financial advisor to assist the Company in evaluating strategic alternatives, including a possible sale of the Company. ” It has announced that President and CEO Roxanne Austin will step down, ” following a brief transition period “, and that Marcus Liassides who is the EVP of sales and biz dev will now be the President and handle day-to-day operations. Previously, Marcus was the CEO of Inuk Networks which Move acquired last year. Move also that to converse cash the company ” announced a reduction of its workforce “. ——- In the past month, Move Networks has received three offers from other vendors in the industry interested in potentially buying the company so it’s no surprise to hear today that Move Networks is laying off employees and that Move’s CEO Roxanne Austin will be leaving the company

YouTube to launch skippable ads, which might actually help advertisers

Hulu isn’t the only online video service shaking things up with ads this week. The Wall Street Journal has YouTube on the record saying they’re about to roll out the skippable ads they’ve been planning since November, so users can jump past an ad a few seconds after it starts. That can’t make advertisers happy, right? Well, it might actually be better for everyone.

Moderating Webinar At 12pm ET Today On "Encoding Best Practices & Strategies"

Today at 12pm ET I’ll be moderating another StreamingMedia.com webinar on the topic of ” Encoding Best Practices and Strategies “. High-quality, efficient encoding and transcoding is crucial to the success of any online video initiative, but there are so many issues to consider—format, codec, bitrate, aspect ratio, and more—that the whole subject can be more than a little intimidating. Come learn the latest tips, tricks, and technologies for making your video look the best it can. Presenters from Telestream, Sorenson Media, Twistage and ViewCast will talk about: Choosing video and audio formats Optimizing bitrate for bandwidth Transcoding content for multiple device delivery: PC, mobile, and TV Encoding and transcoding best practices Industry-leading transcoding technologies Be sure to bring your questions, because there will be plenty of time for Q&A with and as the moderator, I’ll be making sure we answer as many questions as possible from the audience. We have a record 1,709 people already registered for the event and you can still register and attend for free .

Hulu Plus Is Not A Threat To Netflix, They Are Two Different Services

With today’s announcement by Hulu of their long awaited subscription service, Hulu Plus, it was only a matter of time before the blogsphere was quick to jump all over the news and suggest that Hulu is now a competitor to Netflix or that this some how gives consumers more reason to ditch cable. While it’s easy to suggest this, the reality is that the business models, type of content, number of devices and other factors between Netflix and Hulu are very different.

Hulu Plus: $10/mo for HD streaming, more episodes, iPhone and iPad support

Hulu’s much-anticipated monthly subscription service has arrived. It’s called Hulu Plus , and it offers all of the features we’ve heard rumors about for months: HD streaming, access to more episodes and the ability to watch Hulu on your TV are all included. The price is also just as anticipated: $10/mo. Two things weren’t entirely anticipated about Hulu Plus, though.

Microsoft Confirms Hulu’s Subscription Service Will Launch On The Xbox 360

Microsoft just announced that Hulu Plus will be available on the Xbox 360 console when it launches in early 2011. No further details are being given but Microsoft says they plan to use some of the Kinect features with Hulu’s subscription service. Will update the post if more details become available.

VLC 1.1 is here: hardware acceleration, WebM, extensions

It wasn’t that long ago that VLC finally hit version 1.0. Since then, progress has been steady — and today, version 1.1 is ready for download just two months after first going beta. So what’s new in VLC 1.1 ? First and foremost, hardware acceleration has arrived for VLC users who run Windows Vista and Windows 7 or Linux. MKV HD support has been improved, and VLC 1.1 can now play VP-8 and MPEG-4 lossless videos.

Watch the first "made-for-torrent" drama series: Pioneer One

It’s pretty amazing what $6,000 USD can accomplish when there are enough people willing to work for free. That’s how much the pilot episode of Pioneer One cost to shoot, and the entire amount was raised at Kickstarter . The series is the latest indie-project to be brought to the P2P universe by VODO , which stands for VOluntary DOnation. VODO works to bring indie films — that wouldn’t otherwise be seen by a large audience — to the public by unleashing them on the various P2P networks, legally, and free of charge. The projects are funded entirely by donation

YouTube gets its own Video Editor; trim, combine and even add soundtracks!

As of last night, you can now edit your YouTube videos in the browser . Just visit the YouTube ‘idea incubator’, TestTube , and click Video Editor. It’s a simple editor — attempting to do anything more complicated is still a year away, I think — but it does spell the beginning of the ‘final cloud frontier’

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