My Hulu machine I - Hulu Desktop

I think if it is socially acceptable, I might have married my TV. It's a love affair, except that in this case, a third individual doesn't make a love triangle, it makes a better relationship, and the third wheel is called Hulu.

Since last year I have been catching up with all the shows I've missed on hulu.com. It's magnificent. I no longer had to choose between 24 and Heroes, House and Flash Forward, etc. Lying in bed before bed time, some chewy snack and a coke, the radiator cranked up to max, watching Bones on my 12.1 inch Lenovo X61s on my belly (listening on headphones) can be quiet addictive.

Then came Hulu Desktop - the standalone application that lets you watch Hulu shows, but with more refined controls like channel selections, fast forward previews, etc. The best of all, it lets me tune down the picture quality in favor of video smoothness, cause my DSL ain't as fast as before no more.



All in all, I love it. But it could be better. I could be watching this on my TV while munching dinner couldn't I? My X61s only has a VGA output and it doesn't have the time sync hardware that is required to use with RCA connectors, so that won't work. But I know I have enough old parts to put together a machine exclusively for hulu'ing! I have a spare Pentium IV processor that I know will do a good job, I have a socket 475 motherboard with 1GB DDR and a 400W power supply. I have several old hard disks large enough if Hulu is the only application I need to install. Most importantly I have a spare USB wireless adapter and an old Radeon video card with an RCA output.

What's missing is only a case...