Underground Media: Reloaded

I remember the early days of Hulu when all it had was the Daily Show, Family Guy, and a bunch of anime.  I was an early cheerleader and vocal supporter because the promise of on-demand streaming TV anywhere  was and is so important to the cord-cutting movement.  Hulu has come a long way since then. It's library is huge, it now boasts some impressive movie titles, and it's now possible to subscribe and watch media on your TV, tablet or phone.  And this is ultimately what is so frustrating about Hulu.  Despite all that the streaming service has achieved, it fails to deliver consistently on its promises. So what do I mean by all this?  Let's say you want to watch an episode of The Outer Limits (90's version).  Hulu has every single episode ready to stream.  In fact, they are the ONLY ones with the streaming rights to this series.  You can't even *buy* an unedited DVD for anything past Season 1. Usenet and bittorrent also come up empty. ...

In my never-ending quest for the perfect media center app for my HTPC, I have been using the three best available for Linux today. The mighty and reliable MythTV, the stealthy and below-the-radar Elisa, and the wildly popular yet volatile Boxee. Here's my setup: I'm currently using an Acer Aspire 5610 laptop (about 2 years old with the standard Intel graphics, 2 GB of RAM, HDA audio, VGA-out), 42" Insignia LCD HDTV, Yamaha receiver w/ 5.1 surround, and a Microsoft Media Center Edition remote control. Here's what I need: A one-stop solution that will let me watch Hulu, watch TV and movies saved on my harddrive, listen to music saved on my harddrive, listen to internet radio, and browse photos saved online and on my harddrive. Here's my experience so far: MythTV has been my most reliable solution. For over three years it has been THE default Linux media center. (Although it's been around for seven years, it really began life as a TV capture and DVR applicatio...

So remember how I was telling you all that stuff about the TV studios embracing Hulu (Fox and NBC sponsored the project), and how they had learned from the music industry's crippling Napster debacle? Well, that's only partially true. After a BANNER year, Hulu seems like it's becoming a victim of it's own success. Sometimes it seems like the site is overloaded, and even when using a fast internet connection, shows tend to "hang" for a few seconds while the stream from Hulu's servers catches up. Worse than that, the TV studios have somehow gotten it into their heads that they are losing some of their traditional TV viewers to Hulu. The reason they view this as a "bad thing" all boils down to one simple factor: advertising. Traditional TV advertising is literally the fuel for your favorite shows. Put simply, without commercials there would be no TV programming (PBS and Public Access aside). That is simply the American model. The Brits pay ...

"It's been a long time. I shouldn't have left you; Without a strong rhyme to step to." -- I Know You Got Soul , Eric B. & Rakim Sorry for the hiatus, folks. Work travel, moving into a new house, yadda yadda. But I'm back and things should be a little more consistent here on the Underground Media . So where did we leave things? Ah yes, I think we were talking about internet media. My last two posts were about internet radio, so I decided this week to look at internet television. I'm a relative new-comer to the great Southeast mecca called Atlanta. And, as I'm a social creature, I have been known to visit the local bar and live-music scene. Atliens are interesting folks, the music scene here is awesome, and I love meeting new people. Here's the way it usually goes: the wife and I are listening to DJ TBone (local flavor!) and enjoying some drinks; we meet some new friends, and have some laughs. And then, just as everyone is good and buzzed, ...

In my neverending quest to find great music on the internet, I ended up moving beyond the simple streaming services. Not that I have anything against the staple of internet radio. In fact, as I've said before, I'm an avid listener of stations like smoothbeats.com and beatbasement.com . But sometimes I want to hear music that fits my mood. A playlist that goes beyond embracing a certain genre, and maybe goes two or three sub-genres deep. Usually that would mean firing up my own music collection. That is, until I discovered a site called Last.fm a few years ago. Their famed audioscrobbler is actually a computer algorithm that gathers info on the music you like, and matches it up with music it "thinks" you should like. I was addicted for a while until I figured out that the scrobbling game had some competition around town. I'll break a few of the major players down for you. Last.fm Ah, the apple of my eye. Last.fm was my *first* music recommendation site...

I was going to review netbooks for my next Urban Thought Collective blog, but screw that! I just installed Boxee on my HTPC, and although it's got a few bugs, I am FEELIN IT! Boxee is an internet startup that continues to get millions in venture capital, even *with* the current economic downturn. (That should tell you something.) The software is a quick download that, once installed, turns your PC into a TV that streams programming (youtube, hulu, Apple movie trailers, etc.) from the internet, your harddrive, your home network, or whatever. Sound like Apple TV ? Well it is, except you BYOH (bring your own hardware). There are a few other competitors in this space, but even as alpha-level software, Boxee STILL outclasses them all! At least it does for me, in the 15 minutes that I've played with it. We'll see how I feel in 24 hours...

"No, I don't have television." That's when I get the really weird looks. The response is usually, "Seriously? How can you not have a TV?" Well of course I have a TV (a 42" LCD, to be exact), but I don't get television. No cable, satellite or rabbit ears. My LCD is hooked up to a home theater PC. And my TV content comes from various sources, including bittorrent, usenet, and increasingly from a website called Hulu . You name it, Hulu has got it. My favorite TV shows are mostly available on-demand, with minimal enough commercial interruption as to still be watchable. I said mostly. ABC doesn't seem to want to join the party. If you want to watch Lost or Pushing Daisies (the only good shows on ABC), you'll find a Hulu link pointing to ABC's own site. And while Hulu shows are watcheable on all versions of Windows, Mac and Linux computers, ABC's TV viewer ONLY works on Windows XP or Vista PC's. What's worse is that the...

I know, I know. I swore I would never mention Joost again. But they made some rather radical changes, which I thought merited a *new* final blog. Joost launched a year and change ago, promising to revolutionize television over the internet for ALL computer users (read: Windows, Mac and Linux). Unfortunately, their freshman effort produced a Windows-only client that was a disappointment even for it's target audience. The program, which utilized P2P technology similar to Skype, was plagued by stuttering video and audio, frequent crashes, and sometimes you couldn't even connect! All the meanwhile, Mac and Linux users waited patiently for a promised beta-version of the client, so we could have..... something. Multiple broken promises and disappointments later, Joost has returned to the internet TV game with a flash-driven browser client. This time, Mac and Linux users can join the party. But there are still problems... First off, Joost still sucks. I click on 30 Days of ...

Man, who says that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. The recording industry was torpedoed around the turn of the millennium because it CHOSE not to deliver what its consumers were asking for. Consumers asked for a cheap and easy way to download music. When the recording industry turned up its nose, the market delivered a solution: Napster. When a legal solution was finally made popular by Apple years later, the genie was already out of the bottle. The music industry is now in free-fall having missed its opportunity to course-correct. Over the last couple of years, Hollywood has been feeling some of the same market pressures. As mobile devices have become more popular and laptop prices have fallen, consumers have increasingly demanded a cheap and easy way to watch TV online, and on-demand. Until now, broadcatching via usenet or bittorrent has been the only option. An illegal option, I might add. But one that has become increasingly easy using programs like Vuze and...

Joost may be dying! And in the words of the immortal Captain James T. Kirk (in reference to the Klingons), "Let them die!" For the noobs, Joost was this cool new application that let you stream TV shows (full screen) to your computer. Real TV shows from real networks! Initially, I was a big fan as they openly used open source technology and pledged to have cross-platform (i.e. Linux) support. Unfortunately, weeks and later months passed, and no Linux client was ever released. And when I did try out the Windows client, I was SORELY disappointed. Since then, the Hulu's and Miro's of the world have arrived on the scene to eat Joost's lunch. And with the recent firing of their CTO, it appears Joost has even larger problems. NewTeeVee has a more in-depth story ...