Chad Dyess’ Blog

A new Media Center Plugin called SecondRun.tv was released today that lets you browse and watch TV shows from Hulu.  The plugin was announced earlier this week on The Green Button forums, and has generated quite a lot of buzz. If you follow The Green Button, you already know that people have been clammoring for a Hulu application for well over a year.

I installed SecondRun.tv tonight and did a little playing around with it, and I have to say, it looks great so far.  It does have its problems, but it’s only been available for a few hours, so there will definitely be some tweaks needed before it’s ready for prime-time.  The interface is simple to use and looks great.  The slick look of the application relies on heavy use of network logos and TV show artwork, a lot of which is still missing, so for now you’ll see a lot of empty grey boxes for all but the more common shows.  I’m sure that will change as soon as Jason, the developer, has time to finish setting it all up.
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Since my blog is geared toward home theater and digital media, I decided it would be a good idea to spend a little time talking about my own home theater, how I set it up, and what kind of equipment I’m using.

One of the things I had always wanted was my own home theater, separate from the living room of course, since having blacked out windows and a giant TV screen in the living room has a decidedly low WAF (wife approval factor.)

I had come fairly close in my first house, which had a small loft with no windows.  Unfortunately, it was open to the living room below, so it wasn’t possible to get it completely dark.   Still, it worked fine while I was a bachelor, but once my wife-to-be moved in, it was impossible for me to watch a movie upstairs while she tried to watch something else downstairs. That was only a short term problem though, since we soon started looking for a new house to start our new life together.
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