The experience playing web video through Hulu Desktop isn't terribly different from using media center applications such as Boxee, , or in that you have an interface designed to be controlled with a couple of keyboard keys, a mouse, or a remote control such as Apple's hardware remote. As with these other media applications you navigate Hulu Desktop by traipsing down a series of hierarchical menu command--commands that include Now Playing, Popular, Recently Added, TV, Movies, Profiles (or your user name if you've logged onto Hulu with your identity), Search, Help, and Exit.

The content available through Hulu Desktop approximates what you get from Hulu when accessing it through a Web browser. Programs and movies include short-ish commercials (15 -- 30 seconds) at the beginning and then sprinkled throughout the show or movie. As with Hulu in a Web browser you can watch a video in full screen or within a window and skip ahead or back through the video (you can't skip over commercials, however). That video is encoded in the Flash format and can't be downloaded.

Unlike with the web version of Hulu, you don't have the ability to dash to another site to watch a program via a link embedded on Hulu. For example, go to Hulu.com with your Web browser, search for , and you'll find a list of episodes for that fine ABC program. Click on an episode and you're taken to ABC.com, where you can watch the show. Hulu Desktop limits you to just that content that you can view within Hulu.com.

When you select a program to watch--, for example--you have the option to browse available episodes, browse by season, subscribe to that program (similar to adding it as a favorite so you can quickly navigate to that program in the future), and view recommended programs you might like, based on the program you're currently looking at. Using that example, for instance, recommendations include the Hitchcock classic, , and the TV series .