Hulu.com Plugin???

[scottw]

How hard would it be to add a plugin to be able to watch tv shows from Hulu.com thru Xlobby. A friend of mine is trying out MeediOS and has Hulu setup thru it and it's cool

It would be nice if this could be done thru Xlobby.

[wesblack]

We have had this on our list for a while. All of these online content interfaces use different programming structures making it difficult to integrate 100% into xLobby. There needs to be a standard established in which developers can use to integrate all of this type of services in to Media based programs like xLobby making development easier and less likely for programmers to constantly have to rewrite code when these services change or modify there interfaces.

Software based online Content
1. Joost (Software based Interface), http://www.joost.com
2. Hulu (Webbrowser based Interface), http://www.hulu.com
3. TVTonic (Webbrowser and Software based Interface), http://www.tvtonic.com
4. VEOH (Webbrowser and Software based Interface), http://www.veoh.com

Online Content
http://www.Fancast.com
http://www.tvchannelsfree.com/
http://www.worldtvpc.com/
http://freetube.110mb.com/
http://tvparadise.org/






Wes Black \ Calrad

[scottw]

Thanks Wes!!!

I have been messing around with using RSS feeds to show stuff from Hulu. I was able to get it to list episodes of The Office with the description and a link to play it thru IE or firefox. The problem I am having is getting the image from the rss feed to show up. It's in the DB under the coverart section and looks like this:
http://thumbnails.hulu.com/12/332/50005 ... H-8wMw.jpg
Now I think the problem is that it is a web image not an image stored locally on the pc. If I switch the layout in the CAT. it just shows as blank. I tried to add a textbox with: hulu_office>cover (hulu_office being the category name) and it showed nothing. The only way I could get the image to show up was to go thru Pause/Break, Screen tab and add the url in the Website section, but I want a way to do this for all of the episodes.

Any Ideas??

[wesblack]

I will try to play around with this over the weekend and see if I can make something work. Stay tuned !






Wes Black \ Calrad

[scottw]

I appreciate it!!

[wesblack]

Scott,

Sorry I have taken so long to reply back. We have been discussing all types of integration with online content providers and are trying to figure the best way to approach this to prevent constantly having to re-working code to keep up with everyones changes.

I hope to have some new direction on this soon, please be patient and if I forget about this thread please remind me.

Thanks,





Wes Black \ Calrad

[Marbles_00]

I know this post is a few months old, but this just came out in the last day or two:

Well, this plugin may have to wait. Hulu, as of this Friday, is cutting off access to their service if connecting via Boxee.
http://origin-blog.hulu.com/2009/2/18/doing-hard-things

Might be hard for Xlobby, and other frontend type of software if the content providers have any say in the matter.

DAMN THEM

[scottw]

Yeah that sucks!!!

[wesblack]

I had several conversations with them about there software and wanted to find out about how they were ever going to make money or partner and sell there software because much of the code is opensource and is the property of someone else, I never heard back from them. They were at CES trying to develope partners which makes no sense. Also I have seen several videos of the GUI online with the founder of Boxee discussing the future of the platform which in all reality is not even all there own code ? The idea of managing internet content using a simple remote interface has always been a problematic issue, what they have created is been done in some way before.

Believe me Steven and I want to bring all of this cool online content to xLobby but as you can see it is filled with so many issues of who owns the content and what you can do with it legally. As soon as you expose your product to the masses or become a threat to Cable and Satellite providers business models all of a suddon the your phone rings off the hook......... and the next thing you know your involved in some type of legal issue.

We have some new wired and wireless (STB) set top boxes and other toys we have been playing with as well as some new cool remote technolgy to interact with webbrowsers. It may just come down to using a new input device to manage all of these websites with online content, then it would be no different then if you were using your computer with the GUI the company intends for you to use. Since there is really no standard to interface with each website it is always a problem to create and constantly update or maintain a plug-in. If they see xLobby with say a netflix plugin and they want to cut us off they can just simply modify or prevent us from interacting with there website format killing the plugin or making it more difficult to modify the existing one.

I will stop here as I can blab on for days about all this type of technology...!






Wes Black \ Calrad