But I have a little secret for you: you don’t have to wait until 2011 to watch Hulu on your Xbox. There are several ways Media Center users can gain access to Hulu right now. It’s been awhile since I last tested these (posted here), but the one I liked the best was PlayOn, which still supports Hulu, Netflix, CBS, YouTube and more. It’s kind of pricey though – $39.99 for the first year and then $19.99 afterwards. But as a “cancel your cable” alternative, it’s an investment worth making since its yearly price is comparable to what many pay monthly for their cable TV.

Blogger Long Zheng just noticed that a Windows 7 computer made a (hilarious) appearance on NBC’s 30 Rock where the writers use it to try and design a new microwave oven and, after adding multiple doors and wheels among other things, found that they had ended up designing a car instead.

On another show, stylistas may have noticed that the Bing campaign promo spots interspersed in Bravo’s Rachel Zoe project showed Rachel and her assistant using custom-branded Windows PCs. (Rachel’s featured her own logo and Marissa’s was white with a black logo…By the way, where can I get that one?)

And in the geek fav, “The Big Bang Theory,” Penny’s pink laptop makes regular appearances thanks to a product placement campaign by Dell.

Those are just a couple of recent examples of Windows PCs on TV, but I also remember last year, a Windows PC of the future made an appearance on Fox’s Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Why is this notable? Mainly because Apple has, until now, been the go-to company for product placements within TV shows. Anytime you see that logo, you know that deals have been made. Whether or not the company pays for product placement is unknown, but since they claim they do not, it’s likely they just donate the hardware. Through Apple’s product placements, the subtle message seems to be that everyone uses Macs – even those in corporate environments where you know that if this was the real world, there would be Windows PCs connected to an Active Directory managed domain. Case in point – an Apple PC makes an appearance on House, a show that takes place in a hospital – a site where normally finding a Mac is still quite the rarity. Or, as one blogger recently put it, “finding a Mac [in a hospital] is about as rare as finding a vegetarian at Outback Steakhouse.”

That being said, I hope there will be more efforts to balance out the product placements in the future to give some equal time to Windows, especially now that there’s a shiny new OS that’s worth showing off.

Image credit: 30 Rock via IStartedSomething.com

But still there’s more coming. The latest tip comes from The Media Center Blog, where we learn that the beta version of the TunerFree MCE plugin delivers Hulu to Media Center, too. Why choose this one over the others? Well since developer Martin Millmore is in the UK, his plugin also offers some of the best British IPTV content, including BBC News, ITV, Channel 4 and 5. You can download his plugin (beta) from here.

To find out when it gets released, keep checking the http://www.secondrun.tv site – it looks like it will be very soon. It also looks like this plugin will be beating Boxee to the punch, whose Windows version of their software is still in alpha.

To use PlayOn, you just install the software to any networked XP or Vista machine (they don’t specifically say “Windows 7” but I’m going to give it a shot this weekend – let me know if I shouldn’t!). The software, once installed behaves as a DLNA/UPnP media server and browser that pulls RSS feeds from content providers, and presents them to DLNA-compliant networked media devices. In other words, the PC software pulls in the media streams from the web sites and services and then sends them over your home network to your Xbox.

The only downside to PlayOn is that it’s not free – after a 14-day trial, you can purchase the program for $30.00. A little steep for these budget-conscious times, especially considering that there’s already a free plug-in for Hulu (install XBMC plus the XBMC plug-in for Hulu) and Xbox already does Netflix. That means you’re paying mostly for YouTube and the miscellaneous TV networks. That may or may not be worth $30 to you – it’s a personal decision. However, there is something to be said for having it all in one easy-to-manage software package. And at least the $30 is a one-time fee. Hmmm, maybe I just talked myself into it.

(via LifeHacker)

Once your PC is set up to record TV, go to Tasks –> Sync in Windows Media Center to set up syncing with your Windows Mobile Device. (Make sure your device has a good memory card with a lot of room!).

You can customize the automatically selected content for syncing, create playlists, and add other criteria to determine which items to sync. For details on these steps, check out the blog post.

Once your done with the initial configurations, your device will then sync with Media Center anytime its plugged into the USB port. If you have a lot of TV shows, it may be best to sync overnight since it can take time to convert the files to mobile-ready format prior to the sync.

To play the files on your Windows Mobile device, navigate to the “My TV” section of your library in Windows Media Player. You can now watch TV on your phone even if you’re in an area with no reception. The best part? It’s free!  

Yesterday during her keynote at MIPCOM, (the world’s audiovisual content market, dontchyaknow) co-chair of Disney Media Networks and President of the Disney-ABC Television Group Anne Sweeney proved that even media leaders can adapt:

“We understand now that piracy is a business model. It exists to serve a need in the market for consumers who want TV content on demand. Pirates compete the same way we do – through quality, price, and availability. We don’t like the model but we realize it’s competitive enough to make it a major competitor going forward.”

Wow. Does this sort of illuminating speak mean that we’re one step further away from incarcerating those of us who are fans of your content, just not of your distribution model? Sure this is but one step forward down a long road, but for now Ms. Sweeney, you are officially 10’s Magical Media Mistress!