Our Team Blog

Hola Hulu!

our forums, twitter and inbox are filled with messages such as “now if I could only play Hulu on boxee…, give me Hulu!, or my personal favorite if you somehow figured out how to make Hulu work… I will kiss you on the mouth. ;) (hey @beiting we figured it out! hope you’re a good kisser)

we just released a new alpha version of boxee that includes:

  • streaming TV shows, movies and clips from Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central and MySpaceTV (we integrated their players into boxee)
  • major changes to the UI
  • web interface to adding RSS feeds
  • improved performance

and yes the new version is also available for Apple TV (click upgrade and its there).

we are very excited and anxious to hear your feedback. boxee is now faster, stronger. there is more work for us to get done before we feel we could call it beta, but we are getting closer. message us on Twitter, comment on this blog, post in our forum. tell us what you think. we’ll listen and go work on the next version based on what you tell us.

already have an alpha account? click here to download the new version.
still waiting for an alpha invite? you may get one today (we’re sending 10,000 new invites), if you didn’t get one ping us on Twitter or and we’ll make sure you get an invite.

in case you’re one of the few billion people who have not signed up for an alpha account click here to do so.

a quick intro video to the new version:


more notable news:

  • we launched a new version of our homepage. now a person visiting boxee.tv will actually know what boxee is doing… (we need to get better at this marketing thing)
  • there is a new version of app.boxee.tv. you can now use it to manually enter RSS feeds that will appear on your boxee client

*** update i: we have just uploaded a version refresh resolving stutter issues on Apple TV. please update boxee if you encounter these issues.

*** update ii: not seeing the new sources under boxee? head to our forum thread on the subject.

*** update iii: issue with some Hulu streams blanking out has been fixed! head to our forum thread on the subject.

October 20, 2008 at 10:00 am

78 Responses to “Hola Hulu!”

  1. Nice work on integrating Hulu into the mix. This makes boxee a more practical replacement to cable.

  2. Alright Avner… I'll get the lipstick!

  3. matt says:

    Awesome Boxee! I'm definitely dropping Cable TV now….if only I had an invite ;) Crossing my fingers that one shows up today!

  4. Wyatt says:

    Awesome! I'm so glad I was finally able to get a patch stick created in Linux so I could get XBMC loaded and hopefully get a when you guys get enough invites going. Keep up the great work!

  5. baksharp says:

    Congratulations!,on the new version.Will try it out tonight.

    thanks,

    baksharp.

    imac 24",atv,eyetv,turbo.

  6. adisonic says:

    oooohhhhhh! just waiting for xbox 360 or windows version to release…..

    COOOLLL!!!!!!!!!

    ADIsonic

  7. juamps says:

    can't wait to go home from work and try it out! Thanks Avner et al!!

    Good luck at i-stage today!!

  8. d4rk says:

    Excellent work guys, this release is slick.

  9. Rick says:

    Can't wait for this (currently I'm relegated to watch the login screen as I patiently wait for my invite – pleeeeaaassseee today!!!). I have my Apple TV all updated and ready to go. One thing I'm curious about, is if CBS and the likes (streaming TV) will work outside of the US. I'm currently working in Mexico, and those sights won't allow me to stream here because they check the IP. Not sure how it could be possible, but if the CBC, etc. TV streams worked outside of the US, that would be sweet! It would also be awesome if Boxee streamed movies from http://www.watchnewfilms.com/ (I love that sight).

  10. avner says:

    @Chris where are you based? i want to book my flight :)

  11. avner says:

    @Rick sent you an invite. will check out http://www.watchnewfilms.com/

  12. Tim Moore says:

    @boxee I'm on comcast with a business account but I'm getting bad framerate with hulu.

  13. Andrew A says:

    > now a person visiting boxee.tv will actually know what boxee is doing

    I don't know what it was like before, but in my opinion, it needs more information. Is it a product or a service (or both)? It seems like it must be a product, but why would I have to sign up for a product? Maybe that's signing up for a marketing mailing list – to get more info I have to give you my email address? (No thanks.) Please, don't make me watch a video to find out such basics as whether it's hardware, software, a service, a combination of the above, how much it costs, that it's only alpha at this point, etc.

    From the video, it seems like it's free software that requires that I sign up for a social network. I might be interested in the software (and maybe willing to pay for it), but I really don't want yet another social service, and I don't want to broadcast what I'm watching or listening to, or even _when_ I'm watching or listening to something. If your business model is predicated on a social network, please make that clear. (If it's not, then I'm perhaps interested – Hulu for instance might be of interest to me if I can watch it through my tv with an easy-to-use UI rather than at my home office desk, on my computer monitor.)

  14. Reallytnotnick says:

    So how well does Hulu work on an Apple TV? I find Hulu is slow on my 2ghz G5, but then again this is an x86 chip so maybe it works better as Flash sucks on my computer. Is it able to play the 480p versions without trouble? Any chance of it playing 720p versions from Hulu?

  15. Tim Moore says:

    I'm using it on Apple TV btw. My netflix box works flawlessly.

  16. Shawn Dawson says:

    Excellent integration, really well done. Unfortunately the playback quality is lacking on the AppleTV… audio seems to be ok but the video stutters quite a bit. Not really watchable at this point. :-(

  17. I am confident they'll get the video sorted out… The thing that sucks about AppleTV is that it only has 256 megs of RAM — I love my ATV, but if it's going to be a huge hurdle, I might punt it and get a cheapo dell, and put Boxee on it via Linux…

  18. Packfan says:

    Love the update. Hulu and CBS streams both have choppy video on AppleTV (although CBS wasn't nearly as bad as Hulu). CBS looked like it was dropping maybe a few frames a second. Hulu however only showed a few frames a second.

    Other video sources of high(er) quality seem fine, so I'm not sure it's the format, or something specific about those feeds.

    I am excited to see them as part of the new release, and if we can get Hulu to play back smoothly on AppleTV, I might have to go out and buy a couple more ATV boxes.

  19. tom sella says:

    @Packfan @Shawn Dawson @Tim Moore please retry now.

  20. Tim Moore says:

    @tom sella, no change.

  21. hylton says:

    For Boxee on the Apple TV – where can I find Hulu? Been poking around a bunch and no luck. Any pointers appreciated. Also, re the interface – is it new on the Apple TV as well? I'm seeing the same and though I believe I updated perhaps that's the culprit in why I can't find Hulu and interface is the same?

  22. Tim Moore says:

    ok, i have 3 apple tv boxes. @ were set to 1080i streamed hulu fine. A lil jerky here and there but watchable. The apple TV set to 720p wouldn't play hulu. When I changed the ATV's resolution to 1080i it now works. Go figure…

  23. tom sella says:

    @Tim Moore et al on atv, we just uploaded a version refresh which fixes the stutter, please update boxee.

  24. Nate says:

    Same issues with Hulu on Apple TV. Love the fixes though!

  25. Nate says:

    Just saw the last post. Will update now…

  26. John Doe says:

    THe new version rocks ! :-)

  27. Packfan says:

    Hulu and CBS both look great. Much, much better. There seems to be one frame drop every so often on Hulu… but that could be my connection and its barely noticeable anyway. I didn't notice any issues with CBS steams at all.

    Great Work! Fast too.

  28. Chris C says:

    This sounds awesome, I would love to try this. Can please have an alpha invite? Thanks!

  29. hylton says:

    Me again: still no luck in finding Hulu anywhere. Can someone spell out the path to Hulu? (possible culprit, again: i've updated twice now (I believe) but not seeing the new interface some are claiming. Any suggestions?

  30. raphsabb says:

    I am ubable to get the hulu shows to play. When I press enter for them to play, it starts "thinking" but then goes back to the list of shows.

    I am running boxee on Ubuntu feisty by the way.

  31. George Sokorai says:

    Please let me know when it is out, in full release, not alpha or beta.

  32. Matt says:

    Next Joost… but seeing that Joost gave a shout out to Boxee in their "Web Version" press release I'm sure you are waiting until they allow embedding and a partnership deal is finalized .

    http://press.joost.com/2008/10/joost_launches_web…

  33. avner says:

    yes, joost is coming. and more stuff, too.

  34. karl says:

    after alpha update, hulu doesn't show up under internet video. restarted, still no hulu.

  35. manolis says:

    i'm so excited about this… but i still didn't get my copy of the alpha boxee…. :-(

  36. Eric says:

    Great job guys! Awesome UI and perfect integration with ATV. Thanks for finially delivering the functionality that Apple should have included. You guys rock hardcore!

  37. David says:

    I still don't see HULU or CBS on my Apple TV. Any thoughts?

  38. hylton says:

    I'm with you David – still can't see Hulu or CBS even though I've updated several times. Tips anyone?

  39. Why all the focus on laptops? 24" iMacs are where it's at for small sized apartments / dorms / bedrooms!

    EyeTV support next. I beg you!

  40. Oh yeah, new interface is vastly improved. Some major issues though:

    Can you make the text pure white instead of grey? The higher the contrast, the easier it is to read!

    Lots of TV Shows are recognised as Movies instead and I can't seem to change them. Changing the "TV Show?" option doesn't seem to do anything. After I type in the Show Name, Season, Episode Number nothing happens. Doesn't matter if it is an obscure show like "Riget" (The original "The Kingdom") or a mainstream one like The Colbert Report. To make things worse, some TV Show titles, like half my Invader Zim episode names are recognised as Movie Titles and presented with the wrong info.

    If there's more than one set of subtitles, all of them will be shown at once.

    Oh, and finally, is there any way of rerouting Hulu through a proxy for us non-US citizens? :)

    If not you may as well remove the option altogether.

    Keep up the good work, despite these issues I can't live without Boxee these days!

  41. TV says:

    I'd like to thank avner for the invite!

    But don't flood him for requests… macprouser (at) mac (dot) com if you still need one.

  42. Bulldog says:

    no hulu outside the US. :(

  43. tom sella says:

    all of you having issues with not seeing hulu, cbs, etc. under internet source with the new version, please head to our forum at http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=1035

  44. Andres says:

    this is awesome! any spare time for an invite aagonzales [at] uh [dot] edu

  45. javier says:

    There is an issue with hulu videos that require you to be older than 17. No way of login into hulu through boxee… Please fix.

    Thanks

  46. Ben says:

    Yes i agree with the last comment there are some really good shows on hulu that require you to login. There needs to be some fix for this because it limits the amount of shows that available watch.

  47. avner says:

    @Ben @Javier we're working on a fix

  48. Ben says:

    ok sounds great! also is there any plan to support the 480p stream of hulu?

  49. avner says:

    @Ben yes, should be available soon

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