I’ve been watching a lot of television lately. I’ve been digitally recording televisions shows, watching shows from a wide variety of networks, and watching some shows in HD. The ironic thing about all of this is that I don’t have cable. I don’t pay anybody for television. It’s all free, and it’s all here for the taking.

I originally watched television with the rabbit ears attached to my livingroom television set. We would receive slightly fuzzy stations at best. Thanks to ABC showing episodes of Lost on their website in a high quality stream (if you have a high-speed Internet connection), my wife and I were able to become addicted to this amazingly sweet show. The great thing about this service is that we get to watch the show whenever we want, but the bad thing is that we are limited to the laptop screen.

We recently purchased an HDTV tuner that plugs into the USB port on our PC and Mac. Through that little device, we can pick up four HD channels in our area. The reception is amazingly better than our old analog signal. With integration into Windows Media Center, we can now record shows as they come on, to be viewed at our convenience.

The latest in my arsenal of free television comes from a website called Hulu.com. If you haven’t heard of Hulu yet, you will. As of writing time, you can watch shows from Fox, NBC, the National Geographic, Bravo, the Sci Fi Channel, Oxygen, USA, and Universal Pictures. You can even watch full length movies. I know that there are other services out there that will let you get movies for free. BUT THIS ONE IS LEGAL. There are advertisements throughout, but hey, its free. If I can save myself $60 a month in cable bills and rental fees, bring it on. The sad thing is that Hulu.com is currently in private Beta. What that means is that you can’t get it until they invite you. I had to sign up months ago, and just recently received my invitation. Just be patient. It’s worth it.

Oh, and the coolest part: You can embed shows and movies on your own website for others to watch. There has already been a web developer who has embedded all of the Hulu content onto a site that is open for everyone to view. So you don’t have to wait too long after all. Check out Open Hulu.