The major television networks and movie studios, tired of seeing their programming pirated online, have been gradually moving to offer it via legal Web sites and download services.
There are two models for this legal Internet distribution. Some shows and movies can be purchased or rented from services like Apple's iTunes or Amazon's Unbox. You pay a fee for these downloads, which don't have commercials, and you can keep any videos you buy to watch repeatedly even without an Internet connection.
The other model, common on the Web sites of the TV networks, is free, ad-supported streaming directly within a Web browser. In this approach, you pay nothing, but you have to watch commercials that can't be skipped. You must be connected to the Internet while watching, and you don't get to keep the video.
This week, the ad-supported, streaming approach took a big leap forward with the launch of a Hollywood-backed service called Hulu, at hulu.com. Hulu aims to be a legal, one-stop shop for streaming of TV shows and movies from numerous networks and studios. It's intended as an attractive antidote to pirate sites and to Google's YouTube service, which has angered the media companies by allowing users to post all or parts of movies and TV shows without permission or payment.
Hulu is a joint effort of two big media conglomerates, NBC Universal and News Corp., each of which operates multiple networks and studios. (News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal and the Web sites where this column is published.) But Hulu contains programming from other companies as well, including Sony and Time Warner. All told, it offers full episodes or clips from about 400 TV series, plus 100 feature films.
I've been testing Hulu, and I am very impressed with its design and ease of use, and with the fact that it allows users to edit and re-publish its content on their own sites. Despite some drawbacks, it's the first Web property I've seen from mainstream studios or networks that shows a real understanding of both modern Web design and the Internet's culture of sharing. In my view, it's far better than the typical network or studio Web site.
Even though Hulu lacks programming from ABC, CBS and many cable networks, it has a fair selection of popular shows, such as '30 Rock,' 'The Office,' 'The Simpsons,' 'Battlestar Galactica' and 'Saturday Night Live.' Its movie catalog includes old favorites like 'The Usual Suspects,' 'The Big Lebowski' and 'Sideways.'
The site is organized in a clean, elegant manner. You can browse shows alphabetically, by genre or by network, or you can use an excellent search system. The search system even brings up links to videos of shows on other sites, such as ABC's 'Grey's Anatomy,' that are missing from Hulu's own collection.
Watching the material is a pleasure. You can view it in a fixed window or in full-screen view. You can also 'pop out' the viewing window so you can place it anywhere on your screen and resize it to your liking. A feature called 'lower lights' grays out everything on the computer screen but the video itself.
Even the advertising is relatively painless. TV shows contain just 25% of the commercial time that's on regular TV. And Hulu allows you, in some cases, to choose the advertisers whose commercials you see, or else to opt to watch a movie trailer at the start of a video in exchange for seeing no further ads during that viewing.
In a break with Hollywood's past rigidity, Hulu makes it easy to share, even edit, shows and clips. You can repost an entire video, or any portion of it, on your own blog or on social networking sites.
But Hulu also has some major downsides. Most important, Hulu lacks depth. Even with TV series from its owners' own networks, Hulu typically contains only a small number of full-length episodes, and mainly offers short clips. In some cases, episodes expire after a while. For some shows, such as 'Saturday Night Live,' there aren't any full episodes, only clips. And the wildly popular 'American Idol' isn't in Hulu at all, even though it airs on News Corp.'s Fox network.
This stands in stark contrast to the depth offered on iTunes, where you can find multiple seasons of full episodes of many shows. And it doesn't begin to compete with pirate sites, where you can find nearly everything.
Also, Hulu requires a decent broadband connection -- a speed of at least 1 megabit per second is recommended, and even higher speeds are needed for some content. That means that using Hulu over the slowest DSL lines or cellphone modem cards will likely provide a poor experience.
Another problem is that, unlike iTunes or Amazon Unbox, Hulu can't be used via a TV set-top box or a portable player. And shows can't be saved for offline viewing, such as during flights.
Still, Hulu is a good start for Hollywood in finally providing a better experience for Internet streaming of TV and movies. If the service can add a lot more content and make viewing possible in more scenarios, it might strike a real blow against piracy.
各大电视网和制片公司对自己的节目在网上遭到盗版的情况烦恼不已，现在，它们逐渐开始通过合法网站和下载服务提供节目。
这种合法的互联网发行有两个模式。一些节目和影片可以从苹果(Apple)的iTunes或亚马逊(Amazon)的Unbox之类的地方购买或租借。你付费下载这些内容，里面没有商业广告，你可以保存自己所买的视频，就算不连纲也可以重复观看。
另一种模式在电视网的网站上很常见，它是支持广告的免费流媒体，在网络浏览器上直接观看。在这种模式下，你无需付费，但是要观看广告，不能跳过。观看时必须连接因特网，而且不能保存视频。
本周，得到好莱坞支持的Hulu推出相关服务，显示支持广告的流媒体模式迈出了一大步。该服务的网址是hulu.com。Hulu的目标是成为一家一站式的提供多家电视台和电影公司的节目和影片流媒体服务的合法“商店”。其初衷是成为盗版网站和谷歌(Google)的YouTube服务的竞争对手，后者可让用户在不需许可或付费的情况下上传整部影片或电视节目及其片断，媒体公司对此一直很恼火。
Hulu是NBC Universal和新闻集团(News Corp.)两大媒体巨头携手合作的结果，两者都经营多家电视台和电影公司。但Hulu也提供索尼(Sony)和时代华纳(Time Warner)等其他公司的节目。该网站总计提供大约400部电视连续剧加上100部影片的全片或剪辑。
广告我对Hulu进行了测试，其设计和便于使用的特点以及允许用户在自己的网站上编辑和重新发布内容的功能令我印象深刻。虽然有一些不足之处，但在我所见的主流电影公司或电视台网站中，它是第一个显示出对现代网站设计和互联网分享文化有深刻了解。在我看来，它比传统的电视台或电影公司网站要好得多。
虽然Hulu没有来自ABC、CBS和许多有线电视网络的节目，但它有相当多的流行节目可供选择，如“30 Rock”、《办公室》(The Office)、《辛普森一家》(The Simpsons)、星际大争霸(Battlestar Galactica)和Saturday Night Live等等。其电影目录包括《非常嫌疑犯》(The Usual Suspects)、The Big Lebowski和Sideways等经典老片。
这个网站的架构清晰别致。你可以按字母顺序浏览节目，或是按类型或电视台划分，也可以使用一个很棒的搜索系统。这个搜索系统还能给出其他网站上的视频或节目链接，比如Hulu本身没有收纳的ABC的《实习医生格蕾》(Grey's Anatomy)。
观看节目内容是种乐趣。你可以在固定的窗口或全屏窗口观看。你还可以“弹出”观看窗口，这样就可以把它放在屏幕上的任何地方，并随意调整大小。有一个“降低亮度”的功能，可以让电脑屏幕上除视频外的一切变成灰色。
甚至连广告相对来说也无关痛痒。电视节目的广告时间只有电视台里通常的广告长度的四分之一。而且，在一些节目中，Hulu还能让你选择自己要看的广告，或是在视频开始的时候观看电影预告片，这样看电影时可以跳过广告。
Hulu告别了好莱坞过去的刻板僵化，而是让节目和剪辑便于分享甚至可进行编辑。你可以在自己的博客或社交网站上重新上传整部影片或任何片断。
但Hulu也有一些重大缺陷。最重要的是，Hulu缺乏“深度”。就算是来自其所有者自己的电视网的电视剧，Hulu通常也只有一小部分完整剧集，大多只提供较短的剪辑。有时候，完整剧集过段时间就过期了。“Saturday Night Live”等一些节目根本就没有完整的剧集，只有剪辑。而广受欢迎的《美国偶像》(American Idol)虽然在新闻集团的福克斯(Fox)网络播放，Hulu上却根本就没有。
这一点与iTunes形成了鲜明对比，在那里你可以找到许多节目的多部完整剧集。而Hulu与几乎什么都能找到的盗版网站更是没法比。
同时，Hulu还要求很高的宽带连接，推荐速度为每秒1兆，有些内容还需要更高的速度。这意味着，用最慢的DSL线路或手机上网浏览Hulu很可能会有糟糕的体验。
另一个问题是，Hulu不像iTunes或Amazon Unbox，无法通过电视机顶盒或移动播放器使用。节目也不能保存下来离线观看，比如在坐飞机时。
不过，为最终提供更好的网络电视和电影流媒体，Hulu毕竟是好莱坞的一个良好开端。如果这项服务能增加更多内容，能在更多的情况下观看，它可能会真正对盗版形成打击。
