I received my "private beta invitation" from hulu.com a couple of weeks ago and I've been thoroughly impressed from day one. It has a great selection of shows, a near-perfect user interface, and fast, high-quality video.

For those not familiar with Hulu, it started out as a joint venture between NBC and Fox to showcase their primetime shows and has grown beyond that.

Here's what I like about Hulu:

• Great show selection.
• Simple, easy-to-use, uncluttered user interafce
• Automatically resume playing a show right where you left off (even recovers from browser crashes)
• Full-screen viewing option
• Descent video quality: you will notice macro-blocking and the lower frame rate in full screen mode, but it is by no means distracting, especially if you scoot back from your screen an extra foot or two
• HD Video: this will eliminate all quality complaints, but it's only available for a few movie trailers at this point
• Commercials: there is one 30 second commercial every 15 minutes. Not bad. And all of the commercials are for the same company, so you kinda know what to expect when it is commercial time, which makes them almost enjoyable. Yes, you read that correctly, I was actually enjoying that Toyota commercial by the end of the show.

You can catch episodes of Firefly, Heroes, The Office, Scrubs, Chuck, 30 Rock, House, Battlestar Galactica (new and classic), Rosewell, Arrested Development, Journeyman, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mary Tyler Moore, and many, many more.

Conclusion

It's great entertainment when you need a break (such as from visiting your family over the holidays.) Sign-up for an invitation now; it took me about a week to receive mine. In the meantime, you can view shows on openhulu.com.

Just Playing Around

And finally, one of the coolest features is that you can embed your favorite shows into your own website. Instead of simply posting about how great a show is, show an episode. Here are some of my favorites:

Firefly: Perhaps one of the best science fiction TV shows ever shown on network TV. You can watch the entire series online; here is the first episode:

Roswell: I'd never watched a single episode but noticed its high rating on Hulu. I watched the pilot and decided that I missed out on a great series. This is definitely something I'll be watching via hulu. Here is the pilot:

Journeyman: NBC has apparently canceled this show (yet decided to keep the unwatchable Bionic Woman remake alive.) I think people found Journeyman too difficult to follow, especially if they missed an episode. Out of all current shows on TV, I thought it has/had the best theme song and background music. Maybe watching it online will cause a revival. Here's a clip from Episode 8:

I've had two different home theaters; one with with a screen that cost about $50 and one with a screen that cost, well, much more than that. Here is a high-level overview of four options for a fixed, wall-mounted projector screen for any budget. Just add a front projector and you're ready for a real home theater experience.

Option 1: A Black Frame on a Painted Wall

You could just point your projector at a blank wall, but having a border makes a huge difference and doesn't cost all that much. This is what I did with my first home theater. The frame is simply 4 pieces of 3-inch wide baseboard molding, covered in black velvetine, held-together with 4 right-angle brackets, and hung on the wall. Please note that the black velvetine essential; see the second picture below for proof. There is a board in the middle of the screen in the second picture; there is velvetine draped over the very top and below it is painted flat black. Notice all of the reflected light from the flat black paint?

To make the faux-screen look complete, I painted the wall with a slightly gray eggshell paint. The paint was nothing special, just a white base with a small amount of black pigment added to produce a light-gray paint color. (The Gray helps blacks look blacker on the screen, which was more of a problem a few years ago than it is with the newest projectors.)

Pros: Cheap ($50 total), relatively easy to assembly, and no one ever realized it wasn't a real screen. You can build it to any custom dimension.

Cons: It was hard to get/keep the frame perfectly square. Imperfections in the wall finish can show-up in bright scenes. The screen screen gain (brightness) is very low; I'm not sure, but it was probably about 0.70 (vs. 1.0 to 1.5 for most commercial fabric screens), which makes the image noticeably more dim than a "real" screen would. The color accuracy may be less than ideal.

Option 2: A Black Frame on a Screen Goo Painted Wall

This is essentially the same as option 1, but with a different screen (wall) paint. The paint is called Screen Goo and it's available from Goo Systems. The main advantage is that it has a higher gain and better color accuracy than standard wall paint. Figure on spending about $200 for the base coat + top coat for a home theater screen (1000 mL of each.)

Pros: Improved gain and color accuracy vs. standard wall paint.

Cons: According to Projector Central, the gains for Screen Goo aren't has high as they are claimed to be. The Cinema White provided a 1.0 gain (not 1.8) and the digital gray provided a 0.75 gain (not 1.4). The imperfections in the wall and the problems with with squareness of the frame still apply as in Option 1.

Option 3: Take screen material from a low-cost screen and put it in your own frame

You can purchase a great screen fabric and install it in your own frame. Surprisingly, it's actually cheaper to purchase a manual pull-down retractable screen (you know, the type that goes over a chalkboard) and cut the material from it than it is to buy the fabric alone. People have been doing this with 4:3 (1.33:1 aspect ratio) Da-Lite screens ordered from AVSforum for years. Next, you just cut the screen to size and staple the fabric to the 3" fabric frame mentioned in Options 1 and 2. Total Cost is about $550.

Pros: Same image quality as a "real" screen.

Cons: Same problems as mentioned above with the frame, plus the fabric can have ripples due to the frame not being completely sturdy. Requires quite a bit of work. Requires destroying a new retractable screen to make your new fixed screen, which is a big step to take.

Option 4: Purchase a Complete Screen: Material and Fixed Frame

There are many different screen materials, many different screen manufacturers, and many different price ranges. You can pick a lower-cost manufacturer and get outstanding results (Da-Lite, Carada) or spend more and perhaps get slightly better performance (Stewart.) I think the lower-priced manufacturers offer the best bang-for-the-buck. Just pick a wide, black, fabric-covered frame and either a white screen (for best color accuracy and contrast ratio) or a gray screen (for better black levels.) Price: $700-$2000.

Pros: Perfectly, smooth and flat image. Great color reproduction and contrast (compared to other options; varies somewhat by manufacturer.) Very easy to assemble the frame, snap-on the material, and hang the included brackets on the wall.

Cons: There are so many manufacturers and screen materials from which to choose. Price is slightly more expensive than do-it-yourself options. You generally have to order the screen and wait a few days for it to be delivered (no instant gratification.)

Notes:

• You'll want the frame to be the same aspect ratio as your projector, which will most likely be 16:9 (1.78:1; width = 1.78 * height)