More from CES
The Hulu interview: What partly inspired this week’s column was my meeting with Hulu during CES, where the company showed off a grid-based TV guide and several other improvements to its streaming service. Hulu originally omitted a guide on purpose, viewing it as baggage from the cable era, but that decision ended up alienating people who saw Hulu as a drop-in replacement for their traditional TV bundle. The lack of a guide also confounded in-laws, babysitters and other visitors, and it was hinderance to turning on the TV for background noise. The guide may not be glamorous, but it still serves an undeniable purpose.
Beyond the guide, Hulu is working on more personalization signals, such as a “stop suggesting this” (read: dislike) button and a “mark as watched” button for things you’ve already seen outside Hulu. That’s on top of other subtler improvements Hulu has made to its new interface, including weightier fonts and less aggressive color-washing. Big redesigns are always met with heavy resistance, and while there’s no going back, it seems Hulu is listening on how to move forward.
New tools for Tablo users: Although Tablo is the best over-the-air DVR for most people, its recording options have always been a bit too sparse. A new firmware update aims to change that with a few new settings for series recordings. Now you can set a maximum number recent episodes to save–ideal for talk shows, game shows, and nightly news–and create start and stop buffer times with up to three hours on the back-end. You can also limit recordings to a specific channel, which can be helpful if you live between broadcast areas or want to minimize scheduling conflicts.
As I’ve discovered while reviewing and writing about DVR solutions, people can get pretty particular about the controls afforded to them. The latest firmware (version 2.2.18) should help address some of the more granular complaints that I’ve heard from readers.
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