12 Essential Tips to Using XBMC as the Perfect Media Hub

Posted 01/29/2010 at 9:00am | by Paul Lilly

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Watch Hulu (It's Easier than You Think)

We're not going to get into the politics of streaming video services, and especially the on-again-off-again relationship Hulu has had with third party programs, but suffice to say, Hulu doesn't work with XBMC. You may have even gotten your hopes up when you saw that there exists a Hulu plugin, but it's a no-go on the current version of XBMC (there's a special version of XBMC you can install where it supposedly works, but we have a better way).

The workaround here isn't glamorous, but it's functional, and at the end of the day, that's all we're really after. First, download and install Hulu Desktop, which you can swipe from Hulu Labs here. Once installed, the executable gets nestled away hidden from view and far from the Program Files folder most applications install to. Our first challenge is to move the Hulu Desktop launcher to the desktop. To do that, make sure you're able to see hidden files and folders:

1. Open up My Computer
2. Press the Alt key
3. Navigate to Tools>Folder Options
4. Select the View tab
5. Check the 'Show hidden files, folders, and drives' radio button

Now that we've enabled viewing hidden files and folders, navigate to: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\HuluDesktop. In that directory, you'll see the program's launcher, HuluDesktop.exe. Move, don't copy, this file over to your desktop.

Next we need to turn our attention to XBMC, and specifically, to installing plugins. The one we're after is called Launcher, and you can download it from here. Open up the ZIP file you just downloaded and extract the Launcher plugin (which is a folder) to C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData \Roaming\XBMC\plugins\video. If you're in the right directory, you'll see another plugin called Apple Movie Trailers Lite. You don't have to do this next step, but if you want to make the plugin a little easier to find in XBMC, rename it Hulu Launcher.

With the heavy lifting out of the way, it's time to fire up XBMC and test out our plugin. Navigate to Videos.Video Plugins, and in there, you should see an entry titled either Launcher, or Hulu Launcher, depending on whether or not you renamed it above.

Click on the Launcher and select the Standalone (normal PC executable) option. You'll now need to navigate to the HuluDesktop executable, and the reason we moved this to the Desktop earlier is because XBMC is unable to poke around Windows' hidden folders. So, assuming you followed the above steps correctly, direct XBMC to C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Desktop \HuluDesktop.exe and press OK.

You'll be asked to enter in any arguments, which you don't need to worry about, and a name (HuluDesktop, or something similar).

In your best Emeril impression, say 'BAM!,' because you just cooked up a delectable workaround for watching Hulu through XBMC. You can browse through flicks just like you normally would, and fullscreen viewing also works.