For those of you with something better to do all day than endlessly refresh news sites and Internet forums, Hulu is a joint venture video site from NBC Universal and News Corp. The site was initially billed as a YouTube-killer, especially after NBC went to such great lengths to remove all of its content from the Google-owned site. However, Hulu takes a very different approach to online video, featuring clips and full episodes from past and present shows on Fox, F/X, NBC, Bravo, USA, and The Sci Fi Channel, among others. Users cannot upload clips of their own.

Currently, the site is only available to US Beta testers, of which I am one. It features an interesting enough selection of shows, from current Internet clip heavy hitters like Family Guy and The Office to cult classics such as Firefly and Arrested Development. The movies themselves are extremely high quality, even when blown up to full screen, and remain entirely free thanks to short, 30 second advertisements from Cisco, Ford, Burger King, and Intel. Despite only being accessible to beta testers, these very same testers can embed any video in any page they want. OPENhulu, for example, mirrors all of Hulu’s content as embedded video. And look, here’s the dual-titled Master and Commander: On the Far Side of the World:

Yes, it’s the TV edit. No, I don’t know why.

Besides its two massive media backers and big name sponsors, Hulu is also kept afloat thanks to a $100 million investment from Providence Equity Partners, which is almost certainly as soulless and evil as their name makes them sound. Clearly, NBC Universal and News Corp. are pulling out all the stops to support this new venture and have obviously sunk a great deal of cash into the site. While it’s nice to see generally clueless media companies embrace the Internet so whole-heartedly, it makes many of their arguments in the on-going writer’s strike all the more transparent. And frankly, for all its polished, user-friendly appeal, Hulu doesn’t match piracy havens like YouTVPC or TV Link in terms of content or accessibility. Not that The DORK Club condones that sort of thing. Of course, at this point in time, both of the aforementioned sites are good and dead, their creators hauled off to jail.

At this point, Hulu just seems like too little, too late, a desperate ploy from networks that honestly don’t understand why their viewership continues to dwindle year after year. All of Hulu’s content can still be had commercial free, at a higher quality, from a variety of other sources. All this site really allows us to do is legally embed full episodes of shows into our pathetic, poorly trafficed sites.

Ultimately, I guess that’s as useful as anything else on the Internet.