What’s on TV? Whatever you want!

There’s nothing good on TV anymore. As any frequent traveler knows, hotels usually have the worst selection of television channels available. Next, add in time zone changes, lack of DVRs, and the worst remotes in the world. Top it all off with a writer’s strike and what are you left with? An entire night of Nancy Grace reruns.

Fortunately, there are several solutions to the problem of what to watch while on the road. You could buy a movie from the hotel’s on-demand library, but the selection generally sucks and who wants to pay $7.95 to watch “Inspector Gadget?” There’s always Slingbox, but that requires a hardware investment, decent upstream bandwidth at your home, and you’re still limited to what’s on tv (and if it’s 3am at home, that may be infomercials).

And then there’s Hulu. What is that, you ask? Don’t worry, it doesn’t involve any skirts or dancing.

Hulu is quickly becoming one of the premier on-demand streaming video sites on the web. Their catalog, which grows daily, includes content from NBC, FOX, and TV Guide. The selection includes lots of shows which went off the air, were cancelled, or never made it to TV, such as The A-Team, Futurama, and Miami Vice. The best part of Hulu is that they offer a lot of currently airing shows, such as House, 30 Rock, and Family Guy. Episodes are typically posted online the day after they air and remain online indefinitely.

The Hulu player uses Flash for a lightweight, clean viewing experience, and the videos are smooth and very watchable, even on a sub par broadband connection. Adopting Flash as a streaming technology means that the videos will play on most computers, regardless of whether you run Windows, Macintosh, or Linux. The “commercial breaks” are typically 15-second spots for a sponsoring company, and hardly distract from the flow of the program.

There are a few downsides to Hulu. First off, you can’t download content and save it for later playback. I like to catch up on my TV shows when I’m flying, and Hulu won’t work without a broadband connection. Also, the selection of shows, while great, is missing some episodes/seasons on certain shows. The videos only work in the US right now. The biggest drawback right now is that the site is in “Private Beta” right now, which means that you can’t even get in unless you’re invited.

So, what’s next for Hulu? They are experimenting with some High Definition content, but that requires the very latest Flash player and a pretty powerful computer. They are adding new shows, and negotiating with other networks to get access to their video libraries. They are also rumored to be cutting a deal with Comcast to add more content as well as allow Comcast customers to access Hulu content on their TVs, much like On Demand works now.

The bottom line is that Hulu is a great site with a lot of content that will surely pass the time while you wait for a flight or are stuck in a hotel with nothing to watch. Go ahead and sign up now to reserve your place, and as they are able to support more users, you’ll get an invitation to the beta.