The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) finally hopped on the streaming video train and has embedded full-length movies and television shows on the site. Now U.S. users can click on the bright gold "Watch It" button and instantly check out 6000 different programs. Most of the content is derived from Hulu, Sony, CBS, and a variety of independent filmmakers, with other indie filmmakers invited to upload and join the party.
Amazon.com, which owns IMDB, hopes its links and ads will drive users to purchasing DVDs or heading to its fee-based Video on Demand service. The revitalization also yanks IMDB from its pedestrian roots and into the Web 2.0 sphere by offering immersive content rather than just clips, trailers, and text.
After a few minutes of watching IMDB's bastardized versions of Hulu videos, you'll happily return to the mother site. I watched an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" on IMDB and noticed the Hulu logo beneath the player. The full-frame video was grainy and the audio was muffled and weak. This was radically different than the quality I'd seen before, so I headed back to Hulu.com to watch the same episode -- "Charlie Got Molested" -- and was surprised by the difference. Hulu offered the same content in widescreen mode with great visuals and crisp audio.
"Sunny" on IMDB
"Sunny" on Hulu
It seems weird that IMDB didn't take the entire Hulu video as is and post it on the site; instead, IMDB seemed to have covered it in dirt and slapped it on as an afterthought. This leads me to believe the venture itself is a belated effort to turn one of the great Web 1.0 sites into a 21st century contender. Though the idea is great -- IMDB should logically highlight the "M" in their acronym -- the execution could use a coat of paint.
Blog Postscript: (PC World's Melissa J. Perenson found similar results with the quality of Hulu video syndicated across the Web. For syndication, Hulu offers a lower-quality image stream than it does on its own site.)
