NBC has launched a video download service. The network first announced its NBC Direct initiative in September, which left us scratching our heads a bit, seeing as the network also recently partnered with News Corp to launch Hulu, a free service for watching TV shows and movies from a web browser.

Still, you might not always have an internet connection handy, so a download service isn't a bad idea. Unfortunately, NBC Direct doesn't quite live up to our low expectations. We've put together a quick video look at the interface, (note that the video plays smoothly, but our screen capture software had a hard time keeping up), but here are the highlights (and lowlights):

Pros

1. The video quality is at least as good as anything you'll get see on Hulu (except the commercials, which seem to be encoded at a lower bitrate).
2. You can start watching videos shortly after you start your download. No need to wait for the download to finish.

Cons

1. You need to download and install the NBC Direct application in order to download and watch movies (although you can probably also watch them using Windows Media Player once they're downloaded).
2. The videos include Windows Media DRM, which means no Mac or Linux for you.
3. There's an extraordinarily limited selection available right now (You can choose from The Office, 30 Rock, Life, Bionic Woman, Friday Night Lights, and that's it).
4. Half the time when we login, the library is not available.
5. Shows are only available for one week after they air on TV (while you can find 5 weeks worth of shows on Hulu)
6. Once you click play, you have to finish watching your video within 48 hours or it will self destruct.
7. You can subscribe to a series to download all new episodes, but you have to visit NBC's web site to do this. You can't subscribe from the player, even though there's a button that makes it look like you can.

Overall, color us a bit less than impressed. At this rate, we'd pretty much rather pay $1.99 per episode to download the shows from Amazon or iTunes. NBC is calling this a beta, so we're going to hold onto some small bit of hope that some issues will be addressed. But we're not holding our breath.

[via Mashable]

Pretty much every TV network and its sister offers up a way to watch popular shows for free online. Just hop on over to a network website and you'll find a way to watch recent episodes of everything from Heroes to Girlfriends. The episodes are typically free, but include advertising. And not an assortment of commercials like you get on broadcast TV. No, we're talking about a single ad which plays about 8 times per episode. Not that we have a problem with the repeated redundant repetition of a sponsor's message.

You can also download many of the same shows for a fee from services like iTunes and Amazon Unbox. But NBC is preparing to launch a new service that's a combination of the two. NBC Direct will let you download videos to your computer for free. They'll include advertising, and you'll only be able to watch for up to a week after a program's original air date. But you can download a video and watch it on the go when you don't have an active internet connection. No buffering needed. It actually sounds a bit like the BBC's iPlayer.

The move is a little surprising. Or at least the timing is. NBC recently announced that it was terminating its contract to sell movies through Apple's iTunes service. But the company struck a deal to offer shows through Amazon Unbox. The new download service could eat into revenue from Unbox video sales. Perhaps the network is hoping that advertising can be more profitable than video sales.

NBC is also working with News Corp to launch a new online video service called Hulu. While it's not entirely clear whether Hulu will feature full length episodes or just video clips and exclusive content, it now seems like NBC is a bit all over the place when it comes to its streaming/downloadable media strategy. But since nobody quite knows what the future holds for the medium, maybe it's not a bad idea to have all the bases covered.