Internet Neutrality is a reality... sort of

Well, it's been a long time coming... the FCC finally roused itself enough to put something resembling basic protections of the way the Internet has historically worked into the form of an enforceable rule (in theory, anyways). I have yet to see a link to the raw text of the rule, so I can't pick too many holes in it personally yet, but the gist I get from reading multiple stories is that landline-based consumer Internet providers can't block or artificially slow legal content from reaching their customers, and they have to be transparent with their customers on how they're managing network traffic on their networks. All fine and well, I suppose, but I don't think that will keep Comcast and the rest from improving their in-house networks to support their own services, while letting their connection to the 'net at large get clogged naturally by increased demand for services, or charging different amounts for different tiers of data usage or transfer speeds... time will tell on that, I suppose.

Wireless is less of a concern to me (what can I say, that's "last resort" territory for me getting data)... so, I guess it's no surprise that I'm not particularly perturbed that wireless 'net access doesn't get the same protections as wired. Providers still have to tell us how they're messing with the connection, but I gather they get to at least slow content from the world at large. Considering the physical limitations of open-air transmission, it makes sense enough to me.

Still, this game isn't over yet, I'm sure... intentionally or no, some provider (or group thereof) is going to get in a legal argument with the FCC, and it'll be at least a couple of years before this round of fun is settled. That is, supposing Congress doesn't find a way to cause grief first... oh well, at least we've finally gotten on to this stage of the play, rather than still be waiting for somebody to rein in the ISPs.

One reason I love the Internet... Competition

As you might have read from my last post, I'm less than impressed with Hulu Plus on my Roku, between $8/month to access, commercials in videos, and a selection of limited interest to me. Yesterday, a new channel came out for the Roku, from a site called Crunchyroll... with it, you can watch most of their vast anime library for free, commercial-free... including two of the three anime series I intended to slog through on Hulu's system. As an added bonus, Crunchyroll even has more episodes for those two series than Hulu Plus does... so, I'll be burning through that third series on Hulu Plus before ditching it.

Of course, I did say most of Crunchyroll's anime library was available for free... they do have a paid plan, if I want the absolute latest episodes for some animes, or one of a few series reserved for paying members. Even so, that would be about $7/month, and still without commercials. Yes, "numbered" is a good description of Hulu's days on my box.

First impressions... Hulu Plus on Roku

So, the free trial period for Hulu Plus is over, and I'm now (for the time being at least) a paying customer... so, obviously, I'm not entirely dissatisfied with it. However, I'm still thinking of this as a short-term subscription for the purpose of catching up on some longish anime series, rather than a long-term viewing source... let me tell you a few reasons why.

First and foremost has to be the ads. Yes, even though you're paying Hulu for the stream, you still get ads. In and of itself, that's a nuisance... but the volume of ads is really a bit much. Here's a brief example of what watching an episode of anime is like:

• Start with a "this program is brought to you with limited commercial interruption by" message, usually followed by an ad.
• Anime title animation
• 1-2 ads (15-30 seconds each)
• First half of anime episode
• 1-2 ads
• Second half of anime episode
• 1-2 ads
• Anime credits/preview of next episode

I'm guessing that by "limited commercial interruption", they mean that they don't hit you for 5 minutes of ads at each break.

Apart from that... well, there are a number of smaller issues, but I can't say with certainty whether they are Hulu Plus specific, Roku specific, or something to do with Comcast, but they're still worthy of note. I have run into a number of occasions where the stream "lost sync", dropping the audio and advancing the video in short bursts. On one occasion, the video locked up on return from commercials, and had to be restarted to continue. Even so, it's generally rare enough that these glitches occur that they are (so far) endurable.

Then there are the Roku-specific issues with Hulu Plus. I'm guessing that the "channel" was created by folks at Hulu with little or no experience in actually using a Roku... how else can I explain some of the baffling exclusions from the interface? For example, you can "subscribe" to a series, which gives you access to all the shows in that series Hulu carries, thankfully broken out into seasons... but, from what I've seen, it doesn't remember what the last episode you watched was. There is a "star rating" displayed for each episode, and you can rate episodes yourself... but it always displays the aggregate rating (or, at least, doesn't visually differentiate between your ratings and overall ratings), so you can't even use that as a workaround. Better still, the standard "use the fast forward/reverse buttons to jump a page of selections" feature isn't available... so if, for example, you want to see episode 25 in a 50-episode season, you get to mash the right arrow button 24 times, waiting for the Roku to respond to each press, before you can get started on your show. Thankfully, you can "wrap around" from the first to the last episode by going backwards, so it's not as bad as it could be... but it's plenty bad as is.

But enough negativism... what about the good stuff? Well, you do get original-language shows with English subtitles, which I count as a plus, although not everyone will. It is faster than waiting on Netflix discs with four episodes apiece to work their way to your door... and it's certainly less expensive than going out and buying disc sets of these animes. And... that's about it, really. So, yeah, I'll burn through the series I really want to see, and, barring something exceptional cropping up on Hulu in the meantime, I'll drop Hulu Plus like a hot rock once I'm done.