Monday, June 29, 2009

Bye Hulu, Hello Veoh

A year ago, when I was trying to figure out how to watch streaming tv on my Asus EEE, someone clued me in on Hulu.com. After getting all excited about it, I realized that it only caters to US IP addresses. So the same someone pointed me towards a workaround free app that redirects/masks one's Asian IP to make it appear one is viewing from the US - Hotspot Shield. I've also successfully used Hotspot Shield with Pandora, to listen to music in genre channels tailored to my interests/ preferences. Pandora used to be available to Asia, but then again, bandwidth and piracy issues led to regional restrictions.

Cathy and I were discussing Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's River Cottage series on the BBC. It's shown here on cable, on the Asian Food Channel, but I don't think Canadian channels reach North Carolina, and neither does BBC 4, where River Cottage was first aired. Occasionally I have resorted to what I now call the Swedish solution in order to watch some shows I truly enjoy, but I don't think Cathy may agree to that, and she did say she tries to avoid techno hell.

Enter Veoh.com. I found the "Christmas at River Cottage" episode there. If you're not signed up, and you haven't downloaded the beta player, you can view a five-minute preview of what is essentially a 30-minute episode. I've tried the beta player, and given our dsl speed, I get to watch the whole 30 minutes continuously, with less buffer time than at Hulu. Video quality also better. Did I mention it's FREE? If you've signed up you can upload your own videos. Well, I just want to watch for the meantime, perfect for a girl who doesn't have a tv in her room, only a 19" Samsung flatscreen monitor.


Watch Christmas At the River Cottage in Lifestyle | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


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