PlayOn! + Hulu + 360 = Couch Potato Mode

So Matt's been been telling me about PlayOn! but I never really had the time to check it out. I've been watching Sons of Anarchy on TV but missed the pilot so rather than watching it online on my PC, I decided to give PlayOn a try.

It's basically an application that runs as a service on your PC and streams online video content to your Xbox 360, PS3 or HP MediaSmart TV. It acts like a browser as far as pulling feeds. You can set up your YouTube profile in the software and pull down your Favorites and Playlist on the fly. It seems to display the video in it's native resolution though. Although I have not been able to test this yet, you can enter in your Netflix account and have the ability to pull down from your online queue. I've been using mostly Hulu. I can find old TV shows like the A-Team to current ones like Fringe. Although it's streaming, the video quality isn't bad at all. The HD stream looks better than the SD I get from my DirectTV. Finding streams are easy enough also, all done from the 360 Dashboard.

Installing and running it was a breeze. It was so simple, I actually thought I missed something. It wasn't until I checked my 360 Dashboard that I realized the service was already running and streams were available. Buffering was pretty fast too. I was able to get a full movie to start within a minute.

There's a "beta" period for it for 45 days. The retail price is $30, which I think is worth it, especially for Hulu. I know the 360 Dashboard is supposed to receive a major update in November to include support for Netflix. I'll have to wait and see what other services it'll support. I have to thank Matt for this. My 360's longevity has increased. Oddly enough, I've been finding myself using my 360 less for gaming and more as a media center. I still miss using my HD DVD player though.