VentureBeat

Hulu, the online streaming video site backed by NBC and Fox, has been nothing short of successful. The usage numbers are very good and the amount of free, ad-supported content is arguably better. If there is a knock that can be made against it though (besides its lack of availability outside the United States), it’s in the department of high definition content.

Though Hulu launched its “HD Gallery” back in December, it basically only contained movie trailers. It was more of a proof-of-concept then a feature. Today, the site rolled out some actual content in HD including popular shows like The Office, 30 Rock, Heroes and 24. Unfortunately, each of these shows only has one episode a piece in HD.

ABC.com by comparison offers entire seasons of some of its shows in HD. However, its player requires a seperate download while Hulu does not (assuming you have the latest version of Flash). ABC is planning to launch a revamped player in time for this fall.

Hulu does off all of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, the hit web-only show created by Joss Whedon in HD.

Perhaps even better is that none of the shows in HD currently have advertisements attached to them. This seems a bit odd given that this is how Hulu is able to stream its shows for free, but apparently this will only be the case “for a limited time,” a Hulu PR representative told NewTeeVee.

While some may argue that this isn’t true HD video (it’s 720p video likely at a relatively low bit-rate), I just watched the episode of 24 full-screen on my 20-inch monitor and I have to say, it looked absolutely great. As someone who watched all of season 2 of Heroes on Hulu in standard definition, I can definitely say this is a huge improvement.

It’s so good in fact, that when Hulu adds more content in HD I may just have to go out and buy a Mac Mini to hook up to my HD television to play it on there. Assuming one of the many set top boxes doesn’t gain Hulu support first.

Here’s the latest action:

Veoh to get ABC content, kind of — ABC, the television network that has been the slowest and stingiest in making its content available online, has struck a deal with video site Veoh that seems, well, behind-the-times and stingy. Veoh will index ABC’s online content, but since ABC doesn’t allow sites to embed its video player, it looks like you won’t actually watch ABC shows on Veoh; the site will just offer links to ABC’s media player. ABC, in turn, will pay Veoh for the extra traffic it receives. I’m inclined to agree with NewTeeVee’s Liz Gannes, who describes the deal as “a bit silly.”

U.S. venture capital industry is shrinking – Last year, 844 venture firms invested in U.S. companies, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. That’s 40 fewer firms than in 2006, and also represents a 30 percent drop from the bubble days of 2000, when there were 1200 investors.

Congress tells telecom industry that all is forgiven on domestic spying — The U.S. House and Senate have agreed on the wording of the bill that grants immunity to telecom companies that gave away their customers’ private information without receiving a warrant. As Techdirt puts it, the bill essentially gives the companies a “get out of jail free” card, a move that should make the telecom industry happy while infuriating civil liberties advocates.

Dispute between Associated Press and Drudge Retort is “closed” — The AP has released a statement about its dispute with the news blog The Druge Retort saying “both parties consider the matter closed”. The AP faced heavy criticism after asking the Drudge Retort to take down excerpts of AP articles, a move that was particularly hypocritical since the AP doesn’t abide by its own stated standards when quoting other news sources. The AP’s statement doesn’t offer any further details about how the situation has been resolved, or whether the organization’s approach to similar situations will be any different in the future.

Fifty tweets that will live in infamy – InsideCRM has compiled a list of 50 of the most embarrassing comments posted to the social messaging service Twitter. Some of their choices don’t seem terrible enough to qualify for a list dubbed “the Twitter Hall of Shame.” But the range of topics covered — from politics to society to love and family — shows Twitter’s importance and potential for misuse in practically all of modern life. Perhaps the most fascinating item is the series of “tweets” earlier this year from Yahoo’s Ryan Kuder after learning he had been laid off.

As I mentioned the other day, I use Hulu quite often to watch some of my favorite shows online. Judging from the usage data, so do a lot of other people.

Television network ABC however does not have content on Hulu. You can search for it on the site, but to watch you must go to ABC.com and use the ABC player. The experience, when compared to Hulu, is awful.

ABC is trying to change that perception by unveiling a new online video player. It will allow for full-screen playback, closed captioning and perhaps most importantly, the ability to embed video on other sites — or so it claims. NewTeeVee is reporting that ABC.com won’t actually allow for true embedding of content and will instead provide code that embeds a link to open its player in another window. I have one word for this: Lame.

Hulu has allowed for actual embedding since its launch and it is a nice feature. You’d be hard-pressed to find an online video service out there today that doesn’t allow for embeds of some kind. I foresee ABC relenting on this and eventually allowing it.

The new player will be tested over the summer before launching for the new fall season of shows.

Using the current ABC.com player results in the following experience:

First of all you have to agree to an End User License Agreement (EULA) to access the player. Then you have to install a Java applet. Then there is a significant loading time for the content after which you have to hit another button assuring your computer is up to par (for HD content at least). The advertisements are a lot longer than they are on Hulu, and more intrusive. It’s just a bad experience all around.

ABC was the first of the major networks to launch an online video player in 2006. It is the dominant singular network streaming site, according to Reuters. However, with the speed at which Hulu is growing, ABC.com could soon be an afterthought. Hulu simply offers much more content (it has content from a few different networks and cable channels, as well as some feature films) in a more accessible way.

While the new player should be an improvement, I have a much easier suggestion for ABC: Partner up with NBC and Fox and get on Hulu, now.