Watch TV shows and movies from Hulu without leaving the comfort of your couch. If you’ve got an XBMC media center you’d be silly to not install this plugin (assuming you live in the US: Hulu is still blocked in all other countries).

A couple weeks ago I discovered that Boxee on the desktop is dead. I was disappointed, but was thrilled to discover that XBMC is not only a capable replacement but better than Boxee once you collect some amazing add-ons. What I didn’t get working right away was Hulu. So I used the Hulu desktop for that, despite its many faults. No longer. Thanks to a very quick and capable plugin from the Bluecop repository, I now have full access to Hulu from within XBMC. I can even turn off ads if I want, although I don’t think I will.

Using Hulu In XBMC

Load this plugin and you can start browsing immediately. Not sure where to start? Click “Popular“.

From here you can pick to browse popular shows, episodes or movies. Pull up popular shows and you’ll see a pretty great example of Hulu’s selection:

I know: this looks pixelated. It looks much better on a TV screen, if that matters.

Anyway, you can pick a show you want to watch and you’ll see the free episodes available, typically about six.

Are you a paying Hulu Plus user? Be sure to log in and get access to complete seasons for a staggering number of shows. You can do this in the settings, where you can also configure the advertising options:

That’s right, this plugin gives you total freedom to customize when and whether you see advertisements. Remember, if Hulu is to remain free it’s vital that people watch the ads, so use this feature wisely or you might end up ruining the fun for everyone.

Installing The Hulu Plugin

Do you want to check this plugin out? There’s only a few steps you need to follow.

• First of all, on your XBMC computer, download the ZIP file of the Bluecop Repo.
• Next, open up XBMC and head to the settings, then to the “Add-Ons” section. Pick the option to add a plugin via a ZIP file, then browse to the ZIP file you downloaded.
• Finally, head to the “Add Add-Ons” section of the settings menu. You’ll find “Hulu” under “Video“. You may need to restart XBMC before it shows up, so don’t panic if you don’t see it. Install Hulu and enjoy your newfound television-related happiness.

Joyful outbursts of laughter, similar to those of a a child with a new video game console at Christmas, are an acceptable reaction but by no means mandatory. Enjoy the free TV shows.

Conclusion – Adding To Favorites

Want quick access to your favorite shows? You can add them to your XBMC favorites easily: just right-click or press “C”  on any show and you can add the show to your XBMC favorites. This means you’ll have a quick shortcut to to your show, though where this shortcut lives depends on your XBMC theme.

So, is this plugin useful for you? As always I’d be happy to hear from you, and to hear of any other add-ons I need to check out. I learn a lot from you guys.

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class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/14906_hulu_graphic.jpg" alt="download videos from hulu" width="200" height="200" />Every once in a while, you come across a video that you think is so great that adding it to your favorites just isn’t good enough, so you seek to download it. This is relatively easy if you’re on YouTube. There are href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/search/?cx=009717636731598800244:qhe4rh7wuxs&cof=FORID:11&q=%22download+youtube%22&sa=">dozens of apps out there capable of getting the job done ( href="http://download.cnet.com/YouTube-Downloader/3000-2071_4-10647340.html?tag=mncol;4">YouTube Downloader is my personal favorite). A lot of the time, all you need is the URL of the video you want.

href="http://www.hulu.com/">Hulu‘s an entirely different story. They’ve gone to great lengths to protect their videos from downloaders, primarily because Hulu is home to a lot of television episodes and clips, rather than user-uploaded content. Is it impossible to download videos from Hulu? No, but a lot of the time,  it’s just frustrating enough to cause you to give up prematurely – until now at least.

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How to Download Videos from Hulu

You’re going to need two programs to start downloading and watching Hulu videos on your computer. The first is href="http://www.streamtransport.com/">StreamTransport, the program you will use to locate, capture, and download the videos you’re looking for. The second, which you should have anyway, is href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/">VLC Player, because, well, it href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/vlc-media-player-play">plays everything. There are other programs out there that will be able to play your downloaded videos, but this one is simply the best.

Now that you have those programs installed, I can walk you through the process of snaking Hulu videos.

How To Download Videos From Hulu

The first thing you’re going to want to do is run StreamTransport. We’ll be using the program’s built-in browser to locate the videos you’re interested in on Hulu.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/2011-02-10-13h17_16.jpg" alt="download videos from hulu" width="580" height="521" />

Open the program and click on the button at the very top that says Visit Hulu. The top half, browser part of the application will take you to Hulu’s homepage. From there, navigate to the video you would like to capture and play it. Take note of how long the video is because you’re going to need that information in a second.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/2011-02-10_1302.jpg" alt="download from hulu" width="580" height="580" />

Once your video starts playing, you will see a list of items in the bottom half of the app. This can vary from video to video, but at least one of the items should be listed as the same duration as the video you’re playing. Click an item that meets that criteria and click the Download button to start downloading the video. If your video doesn’t start downloading in a few seconds, you may need to try one of the other items.

Your download will start in a new window, leaving you free to go back and add more videos to your download queue. Multiple videos can download simultaneously.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/2011-02-10_1322.png" alt="download videos from hulu" width="542" height="121" />

After a download is finished, click on the Locate button and you will be taken directly to the folder with your downloaded files. As I alluded to earlier, videos will be in the FLV format, but you should have no problem playing them with an app like VLC player.

Conclusion

While this method still doesn’t compare to the various strategies you could invoke to easily download videos off YouTube, it is fairly straight forward and pretty simple to execute. StreamTransport certainly makes the whole process easier, especially since it has a built-in browser.

Do you have any tips to add? What do you think of this method?

 

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Multimedia and internet software developer Ramka Ltd. released a powerful program for ripping videos from Hulu called RipTiger (riptiger.com). It helps online video viewers save just about any video to their 

computers or mobile devices. The program automatically downloads web video once it starts playing in the browser and converts downloaded clips to popular video formats with a click of a button.

The developers say they created this tool to make up for the lack of reliably working and easy to use Hulu downloading tool. “We created RipTiger because the few Hulu downloaders that were available on the 

market didn’t work reliably. Some programs did work, but were too complicated and feature limited. On the other hand, RipTiger was designed to automatically download movies / TV shows from Hulu and other 

web-sites. With only two clicks the videos can be converted and transferred to a mobile device for on-the-go watching.”

It really couldn’t be easier. Users only need to launch RipTiger and the state-of-the-art software does the rest. Once RipTiger detects web video starting in the browser, it begins the download 

automatically, regardless if the window with the video is open or not.

“We are actively working to ensure that RipTiger is always compatible with the newest Hulu streaming mechanisms. We have also added and continue adding support for other videos sharing or video streaming 

web-sites. This has increased the software’s usability made into a truly versatile streaming video downloader.”

Fans of exotic online video resources aren’t left in the wild either. RipTiger’s sophisticated engine allows downloads from a large variety of web-sites, even the not so popular ones. RipTiger will capture 

video from most web-sites you ever visit, not just Hulu.

How do people use the downloaded online videos? There are many use cases depending on what a specific person needs. “Generally, people use RipTiger to download online movies and TV shows to watch on their 

computers or portable players later. However, it can be used to rip just about any video for personal use, for example music videos, educational videos, comedy videos, tutorials, etc”.

We are constantly working to ensure compatibility with more video sharing / video streaming web-sites. If you come across a great video web-site that RipTiger can’t download yet, just drop us a line and we will add it in the future.

Read more about RipTiger online video downloader and check Hulu downloading guide.

Hulu has launched today their new labs feature which includes a new desktop client. Hulu Desktop is a wonderful, but beta application that runs on both Windows and OS X. This HD walkthrough covers the app from the the auto-playing featured video to deep in the easily usable menu structure. Hulu Labs: www.hulu.com Hulu Desktop: www.hulu.com For exclusive content follow me on twitter at twitter.com and check out my blog at michaelsherlock.com