LOST in streaming HD

I am a huge fan of the televison show LOST. As a matter of fact, it is this show that got me started on the whole "Watch internet shows on my TV". We had rented season 1 and watched it and then, as soon as season 2 came out on DVD we watched that. Season 3 had just started it's regular run on TV, but we had no cable, or rabbit ears to watch it with. Then I discovered it was available on the ABC.com site and we could watch it there. That is when I figured out how to hook up the TV to the computer and the rest is history.

LOST has not only inspired me to watch the computer through the TV, but now, it has inspired me to go to the next level. High-speed internet. I recently signed up for Comcast high speed internet and have been lovin it! No more jerky playback! Also, now I get to watch LOST in streaming HD.

So, if for some reason, you have not seen LOST yet, here is your chance as all the episodes are posted at ABC.com. Go check it out!

Where to get your Hulu.com fix.

Just a quick post. There are other sites that are showing hulu.com's content that aren't hulu.com. These sites are great for all you folks that want to watch some really great network TV, but did not get a hulu.com invite. Check these sites...

Openhulu.com
Veoh.com

Oh, do you live outside the United State and want to check out hulu.com? You can read this article from TechCrunch on how to do just that.

Joost Show to Watch: Aqua Teen Hunger Force

It always surprises me how many people are not familiar with this totally hilarious Adult Swim TV show. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is about a Shake, Frys and Meat paddy that are supposed to be private detectives. Of course the whole private detective thing was dropped very early in the show and now it is just bizarre adventures that they have. This show can be a bit crass, but all in all, I think it is very clever. This is a show that you have to watch a couple of times before you really start to find it funny. The Mooninites and Carl are really great side characters, so make sure you watch the show until you see them.

For those that still are not familiar with the show, remember the bomb scare in Boston that was created by characters for a TV show drawn in a home made light bright? Well, the characters were the Mooninites.

Anyway, if you are looking for something new, or if you are already an Aqua Teen Hunger Force fan, check them out on Joost.

CBS changes their player to CBSux

Ah, what a cleaver headline. Too bad it is true.

It had been a couple of weeks since I had visited CBS’s innertube site to see Kid Nation, so the other night I decided to catch up on the episodes I had missed. When I arrived at the site, I noticed that they had totally changed the underlying technology of their web player. How did I know this? For one, the show was actually showing up on my TV screen. You might remember my post from a couple of weeks ago how I have Windows Media Edition version of XP, and it is hooked up to my TV. Sometimes, for unknown reasons, the video will not show up on the TV screen, even though you can see it on the computer monitor. You might also remember from that post how I was able to use Real Player to view Kid Nation. While the quality of the video was just ok, the streaming experience was most satisfying- smooth and with no pauses. I HATE pauses.

This however is no longer the case. Now, the video does show up on my TV, but the streaming experience is totally horrible, and you can’t watch it using Real Player anymore. I mean the steaming was soooo bad, I could not even watch it. It just stutters along and is very jerky. I think they adopted the crappy NBC technology instead of the killer ABC technology, but whatever. I tried everything. Pauseing so the stream could catch up, switching to Explorer, shutting down and re booting… Nothing was working!

I just wanted to watch some Kid Nation. So, what is a web TV watcher to do?

Joost to the rescue! Yes, I went on the Joost guide page and searched for CBS. Low and behold, they had the latest episode of Kid Nation on their CBS channel. I fired it up and was treated to a very good night of watching Kid Nation! The downfall is that they only have the latest episode on their channel, so I have to keep on the ball.

The upside of the CBS channel on Joost? The Price is Right! Yeah, that is cool. I did not watch it, but now that I know it is there, I will be.

Oh, so how was this week’s Kid Nation? It was pretty good, even if the topic was religion. That show is totally weird anyway, I mean where are the showers? Do the kids actually take showers? Or wash their clothes? I know I would not do either at that age unless I was forced by the parental unit. How long until the clothes get so stinky and stiff that there is a rebellion? Or, maybe, they have staff that does these things for the kids off screen. Whatever, I still like the show. If you have not seen it (and you have a faster connection than I do), then go check it out on the CBS Innertube page. If nothing else, the show will stimulate discussion in your house.

Heroes

Ok, I think I need to change this blog’s format. All that linking is a pain in the neck, so instead of not talking about internet TV and just linking to what I watched, I am going to switch it up. I am going to talk more about what I watched and do less linking. Maybe that will make it easier to post.

So, with that said, let’s talk about a show I was finally able to watch.

Heroes!

As I reported a couple of posts ago, I was having trouble watching Heroes on the official NBC site. Basically, I have a slow connection and it seems that the NBC player does not stream enough into its queue to prevent it from pausing. It was very annoying! For every 5 seconds of video, it would pause for 1 second. Totally frustrating and we clicked it off after less than five minutes.

So, what is a Heroes fan to do?

Watch the show on Netflix of course! Yes, Netflix “Watch Instantly” has THIS season of Heroes for your streaming pleasure. This is really great, considering that if you want to watch the DVD of season two, you have to wait for it to come out.

I am now caught up on Heroes. Yep, I watched all three episodes on Netflix this weekend. Boy, that is a good show and it looks like this season will be great. Watching Heroes on Netflix is even better because there are NO commercials. On the official NBC site, Heroes has short commercials, so it is better than the broadcast version. Watching Heroes on Netflix is even better than that, as no commercials are better than the 30 second ones they add to the streaming site.