Ok so I suck at remembering things that have to be updated on a consistent basis so I hope Danny has mercy on me and gives me credit for this post.
I am a television credits geek so I feel like that's what I spend time the most time watching while on YouTube, aside from the typical funny animal videos and Phil DeFranco. I just like what the opening sequences do for the show - they set the theme of the show, introduce the cast and are like a little piece of happiness and nostalgia in 40ish seconds. I decided to watch a mashup of the "Smallville" credits being used for "Lost," two of my all time favorites shows. Here it is if you're curious. It is extremely well done. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XerwtCHugc8
I found the video extremely easy to load and I appreciated that, since I had a YouTube account, I could add it to my favorites. I enjoy the fact that it's homemade and someone's soul was put into this video. I watch video clips that are straight from TV shows as well and while that doesn't have a personalized feel to it all the time, it can. For example, clips can be cut together to only feature a certain storyline or to feature as a recap, and usually clips are very short (under five minutes) and only feature certain aspects of the show, i.e. the beginning teaser, the ending shocking reveal, the opening theme song, etc.
On Hulu, I watched the latest episode of "The Office." It's one of the only shows I follow consistently anymore and I never catch it live. The video itself was in very good quality and I like that I had the option of choosing the video resolution to make it better quality but load slower or sacrifice quality for loading time. I didn't have that option with my opening credits video on YouTube, but the option is there for most YouTube videos. However, Hulu's quality distinction is much greater than YouTube's which to me usually reads as "crap" and "slightly lesser crap." Of course I can't talk about Hulu without talking about it's obnoxious ads. If you're lucky you'll get an option to have a super long commercial and then have the episode commercial free, providing me the perfect amount of time to get some oreos and milk. But often, there is no option and that's frustrating and that freedom of content control is what I enjoy the most about YouTube. As I already touched on, Hulu is one big clip more or less and if you want to go back and watch a specific scene, you have to have a vague idea of where the scene is in the episode and then likely endure ads as they pop up everytime you skip over a "chapter mark." There is a helpful new feature that if you hover over a timestamp, it will flash a small screencap of the action going on.
All in all, I would say I prefer YouTube. I feel like I have more control in the content I'm watching and I like the creative aspect of it that isn't stifled by copyright red tape. YouTube provides a nice five minute distraction from homework and it's easy to close out after a few short videos are over but with Hulu, you're stuck for anywhere from 22 to 42 minutes. I also feel that YouTube is better at community building. I actively post comments on videos and people respond to mine or post their own. Hulu offers no such service. I also never got around to making an account on Hulu but I did on YouTube. I think the reason for why is simple: YouTube is so much fun and it's easy to lose track of your favorite videos, but with Hulu, you go there with a video in mind and there's no need to keep track of them or explore videos because the available content is rather limited compared to the massive library of YouTube.
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