Hulu Desktop for Linux
Interface and Problems
Menu Interface
When you first launch Hulu Desktop, you’ll see a video window with three buttons below it:
Start Watching
Menu
Login
Clicking on the Start Watching button maximizes the default video; clicking on Menu will take you to the menu interface and choosing Login lets you login with your Hulu account.
The Menu interface is broken down into the following categories and subcategories:
Now Playing
Popular (Featured Videos, Shows, Episodes, Feature Films, Clips, Trailers)
Recently Added (Shows, Episodes, Feature Films, Clips, Trailers)
TV (Popular, Recently Added, Alphabetical, Channels, Networks, Full Episodes,
Movies (Popular, Recently Added, Feature Films, Trailers, Alphabetical, Channels, Studios,
Profiles (Add Profile, Sign Up, Preferences)
Search
Help (Videos, Remote, Keyboard, About, Submit Feedback)
Exit
Video Controls
When you watch a video, the interface will fade away. If you move your cursor or use your remote, you’ll see the on-screen controls come back. This is very reminiscent of how things work when watching videos in iTunes or QuickTime on Mac OS X.
When the controls appear on the screen you’ll see the title of the video at the top, along with information about the season and episode and the running time of the show (assuming it’s a TV show you’re watching). You’ll also see another menu with the following categories:
Resume Play
Video Description
Video Navigation
Add to Queue
Closed Captioning
Rate
Help Exit
The controls at the bottom allow you to adjust the video quality, volume and let you use a slider to move back and forth through the video to the part you want to see. It’s pretty easy to skip around and savor the best moments of a film or TV show.
When you move your cursor or use your remote control, the Hulu video controls appear.
Problems
The Hulu Desktop for Linux interface is really geared toward using a remote control for navigation (obviously that’s the main reason they created this application in the first place). If you’ve ever used Apple TV or Boxee, you’ll know what I mean. You can certainly use a mouse or a trackball but it feels weird as you have to move up or down through the interface to choose a category, subcategory and then the program or movie you want to watch.
I’d like to see two interface options offered in the desktop version. One for remote controls and another more geared toward mice and trackballs. This would make it easier for those who prefer the desktop version of Hulu to the web version but who still would like to use a mouse or trackball to navigate.
Beyond that, I didn’t encounter much in the way of problems with Hulu Desktop for Linux. Despite the beta label, it performed very well. I didn’t see video stuttering, loading problems or any of the stuff you might expect to see in a beta desktop video application.
(3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5)
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I think the UI for hulu desktop is absolutely horrible.
It takes forever to get to the content. I have tried to make myself use it several times and I keep going back to viewing the content through the browser.
Kudos to hulu for releasing a Linux version, but shame on them for releasing a UI nightmare!
Well my take on it is that it is a waste of an IP address:
“Sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed from within the United States”
@ Roger:
Agreed!