When displaying the video Boxee does show the 3 dots. It then loads Hulu webpage JUST like you show on your Firefox screenshot. The video then goes ful screen. The user has the option of going fullscreen or in thr window.

Hope the money is worth it

On the contrary, he looks cute, kind of like the “teddy bear” guy. slightly “tubby”. I understand these positive characterizations too may upset the author.

Best way to put all this to rest, is to run a marathon or get a photoshop wizard ;)

The Boxee Browser can work in 2 modes: one in which it acts in a similar way to a browser on the desktop and lets you navigate the page, and one in which it tries to detect a video on a webpage and plays it. You can play with it by using the Boxee Browser App.

A better comparison of the video playback experience would be Hulu Desktop, where the webpage does not display at all, but rather the video starts playing immediately.

The bottom line of this all debate is not technical or legal it is purely business.

Regards,
Avner

Nevertheless, nothing about Hulu’s actions was motivated by a desire to prevent their content from being “taken.” Hulu is on the record as saying that their content partners required they block Boxee, the Hulu management didn’t want to. If Hulu were an independent business concerned only with promoting their product, they’d love Boxee. Boxee drives eyeballs to their advertisements. It is in *Hulu*’s interest to work with Boxee.

NBC’s anti-Boxee actions have been entirely driven by the networks’ to keep Hulu off of TVs, and to keep Hulu from competing for eyeballs with networks. This anti-competitive motivation is understandable, and I’m not saying it should be illegal. But I’m hard pressed to see any consumer benefit to limiting competition in this way, except insofar as it opens up opportunities for disruptive innovators to come in and take away NBC’s pie.

Ultimately, the embedding/hotlinking thing is a non-issue, at best an excuse. Drawing an arbitrary and unenforceable distinction between televisions and computers, and trying to keep online video as a little sideline instead of a real competitor, is driving the networks to deliberately hobble Hulu.

Now Michael has brought up a good point, so Boxee needs to try and work it out with Hulu.

Hulu spent the last year blaming NBC saying that NBC didn’t want customers watching internet on their TV. Not once did they say Boxee forces full screen which prevents the user from seeing our brand during the watching experience.

NBC then points the finger at Hulu and says Hulu didn’t like Boxee’s implementation because it steals the content. I’ve read Zucker’s comments repeatedly and I have failed to find a reference to forced full screen being the specific issue but agree that would be the only thing.

If full screen was the reason, why not say it? With how successful Hulu has been on Boxee (and I believe Hulu has been a big reason for Boxee’s success) do you not see this as the stupidest barrier? Until you mentioned it I wouldn’t have even thought about the forced full screen and can see what Ronen may have over looked it as well.

Like I said. The customer loses again and I blame NBC. I just can’t believe their explanation. I think it went exactley as Hulu said in their blog. I also feel for Hulu, who has been bailed on by someone who they thought was their best friend.

Your picture has a used Car Salesman feel and your posts feel like PR work representing some of the most smug, undesirable individuals ever. Zucker? Wouldn’t trust him to not pick pocket a little old lady while helper her across the street. Trying

To address your larger point, I’m not taking issue with Ronen’s characterization of the communications (or lack thereof) between the two companies because I have no way of knowing who is telling the truth. All I can do is explore the veracity of the claims the two have made that are independently verifiable.

On that count, what Ronen said was simply not true. Boxee, which I use frequently as an aggregator of web video, does not behave just like Firefox or IE when it comes to displaying Hulu. That is a demonstrably false statement.

Zucker, I acknowledged was not technically accurate either, but his characterization is closer to reality than Ronen’s.