The Top Seven Places To Find Streaming Video

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We hear a lot about streaming video here, and there are just about as many places to find it as there are things to hear about it. But then it hit me–with all the news about streaming video we had this week, it was going to be a great time to go checking the various sites and make you up a list of the seven best places to find streaming video online.

7. Flixster

Recent Warner Brothers acquisition Flixster may not be high on the list, but the implications on this one suggest a whole lot of possibility to come. There are quite a few movies on hand on Flixster, but the bulk of them are old or direct to video. TV series are also represented, but the episodes are disorganized, and it’s difficult to tell just what all is there. Hopefully the Warner Brothers influence on this one will not only bulk up the available offerings, but also get them a bit more organized.

6. Veoh

The thing about Veoh is that it has a lot of content, but it’s all over the place. Whole episodes are somewhat slim on the ground, unless you like 60 Minutes–if you just can’t get enough Andy Rooney Veoh is what you want. They’ve got fully 2095 videos in the 60 Minutes category alone. But there’s some anime in here, and that’s relatively rare stuff. Plus they’ve got it further separated by channel, so if you only came for cartoons or scary movies, well, you’ll be able to figure out just how much you want to stick around Veoh, and that’s definitely a good thing.

5. Vudu

Vudu, with its connections to Walmart, has quite a bit of nice content available to it. It may look disorganized, since you come in under “most watched” for your default organization. Resetting it to alphabetical order reveals a somewhat slim array of TV shows–mostly old Fox stuff–but the movies will impress you. Checking the listings revealed over 8000 titles on hand. Though that is somewhat eclectic–for instance, you can see 28 Weeks Later, but not its predecessor 28 Days Later. You can, however, see 28 Days, which is a smidge on the ironic side, I’d say. For some reason also you can see Addams Family Values, but not The Addams Family or Addams Family Reunion. Weird, but if you don’t mind the eclecticism and don’t mind not seeing an entire series, well, you’re in good company.

4. Crackle

Think of Crackle as the Hulu of Sony. There is quite a bit of stuff here, with both television and movies represented, but the down side is that a lot of the shows are broken down into “minisodes”, which means you’re not getting whole episodes. But, and especially for the original content, you’ll get full episodes, which is terrific. For instance, a personal favorite of mine is Star-Ving, featuring eighties television greats David Faustino and Corin Nemec. The upshot for this one is that there’s a lot of original content here, and most of it free.

3. Hulu

Hulu, and its for-pay equivalent, Hulu Plus, provide a massive variety of television series, from anime to comedy to stuff you probably won’t find anywhere else, it’s not just television you’ll find on Hulu. You’ll also find a selection of movies here too. Admittedly, there’s not a whole lot of big names here–I noticed Are You Scared, which was a direct to video title from Lions Gate a few years back, but then I found Dave Barry’s first movie, Big Trouble, and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey (though not Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, which I thought strange)–but there are plenty of things I’ve never heard of, which is a definite boost for anyone wanting to find some stuff.

2. YouTube

YouTube currently has more video on it than any one person can watch in a lifetime, and they add more every minute. Seriously, if you want video, especially original video, you’re going to find it right here. Now, the thing about it is that not all of it is professional. In fact, precious little of it right now is professional. But that’s changing–some movies can already be had through the YouTube Store, and further word says that original content from Google is on its way. So whether your taste is the amateur or the professional, YouTube is a great place to look for it.

1. Netflix

Netflix has been building its library of streaming video for some time now. In fact, their original philosophy was to offer movies online, and they meant to do so before they offered DVDs. In fact, DVDs were only ever supposed to be a sideline. And it shows; they’ve got a huge number of streaming titles available in a variety of different subgenres. They’ve even got the Starz Play system, which includes a substantial load of titles appearing on Starz channels–including Starz original content like Spartacus. Whether they can hold their place in the coming months of serious competition remains to be seen, but for right now, Netflix is a great place to get huge amounts of content.

And there you have it–seven different places to find substantial quantities of video content. There are differences across the various sites, and you’ll get a variety of different shows and movies in each one. It’s easy to see why more and more people are leaving traditional television behind for the various alternatives out there. Though the only thing really standing in the way of most people cutting the cord is the lack of worthwhile internet infrastructure. But if we can get the caps off and the speeds up, well, the sky seems to be the limit.

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