http://slyoyster.com

The first place I stop by when I’m thinking about watching television through my computer is Hulu. Besides having great content (Fox and NBC along with accompanying movie studios), the video quality is pretty good and there are few commercial interruptions. The user interface is also easy to navigate.

Yes, YouTube has much more content, though it’s often the 30-second “who knew?” or “Wow, never thought I’d see that!” variety; however, the quality is generally bad, um usually on a grainy VHS level, and let’s be honest - it’s not a site you got to find something specific to watch, you go when there is nothing to watch hoping to find something.

That’s a big distinction.

Even Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban thinks Hulu is kicking YouTube’s ass. From a purely business (hence monetization) standpoint.

Hulu has one HUGE advantage over Youtube, it has the right to sell advertising in and around every single video on its site. It can package and sell any way that might make its customers happy. Youtube on the other hand, has that right for only the small percentage of the videos on its site that it has a licensing deal with. For probably 99pct or more of the videos on the site, Youtube isn’t supposed to know what they even are.

How can that be ? Because Youtube hides behind the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Hulu is a media site that presents videos with advertising. It can do whatever it wants. Youtube ts a hosting service. Its not allowed to know what videos are uploaded by users and its not allowed to generate revenue against those videos. It can only sell advertising around videos it has licenses to.

Almost makes Google’s $1.2 billion purchase of YouTube look superfluous. Cuban predicts that as more users flock to Hulu and the company begins to pull in more revenue from their content, they will be in a position to keep rolling out the best content on the web. It would be nice if Hulu were a one-stop repository for all broadcast stations - if they added ABC, CBS and The CW to it’s lineup. Regardless, they’ve already announced plans to release new content every day throughout the summer. Today, you can watch PBS’s venerable show NOVA!

Even the recent announcement of long-form videos (up to 1GB) won’t be enough to help YouTube. With that amount of data you could upload a one-hour HiDef show or a feature length standard definition movie, however, savvy users want high quality.

I loath YouTube’s grainy video quality and would gladly go elsewhere to watch movies or television shows to avoid it. When they fix that problem, which is difficult with user-generated videos, then I’ll be excited about the site. Even Vimeo, which is user-generated has exceptional video quality.

Should be intriguing how this plays out in about six months time.

If I were Comcast or any cable company, I would be very scared about the launch of Hulu, a new $100 million venture between NBC and Fox. They’ve teamed up to offer full streaming videos of movies or television on demand. Content is okay for now, there’s plenty to watch but much still let to be desired, but obviously it will become better over time. Both new and old shows are available to watch for free anytime you want to.

I’m not much a fan of watching television shows on my computer, but it’s not difficult to attached your computer to your television and watch this stuff that way. Once CBS and ABC join the party, along with some other movie studios and you can kiss cable goodbye.

It goes without saying, but premium cable channels should do this as well. I think there are revenue streams for them by having limited commercial interruptions for The Sopranos or Weeds or Deadwood, but without losing any of the nudity or cussing.

We hope to provide you with the web’s most comprehensive selection from more than 50 content providers including FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and more to deliver premium programming across all genres and formats, television shows, feature films, and clips.

Watch full-length episodes of current primetime TV shows such as The Simpsons and The Office the morning after they air, classics like Miami Vice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and clips from Saturday Night Live, Nip/Tuck, and others. Hulu also offers full-length feature films like The Usual Suspects, Ice Age, Three Amigos!, and The Big Lebowski as well as clips from films such as Napoleon Dynamite, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Devil Wears Prada and many more. Hulu is free and ad-supported ? available anytime in the U.S.

So all in all not bad. Plus you can even embed the videos onto websites. So we’ve taken the time to provide you with an entire lunch break distraction by showing you the entirety of All Dogs Go To Heaven. Because in these crazy times we live in, we had to find a family-friendly movie to embed. You know if case any of the little kids are reading.

The only negative is you have to sign up for an account to watch the R-rated stuff. Or even just the mature audience television shows. This is good because the second season of FX’s The Riches starts tomorrow night and I never watched the final two episodes. It’s catch up time.