Does anyone here use Hulu Plus? What do you think of it? What’s the premium content like?
Does anyone have Hulu Plus AND Netflix streaming? Do the two have diverse enough libraries to make them both worth it?
I have both, and the content is different but not enough so to really be worth it. Hulu Plus has current TV shows and I like that, but there are more movies available on Netflix. The other difference is that Hulu Plus has commercials and Netflix doesn’t. I’ve been trying both to figure out which one to cancel and I think so far Hulu is in the lead. Usually there’s a free week on Hulu if you want to compare them.
So you have to both pay to subscribe to Hulu Plus and still watch commercials? That seems ridiculous to me. I understand that TV shows need to be profitable somehow, so I would be okay with either paying for the content or watching commercials, but not both.
I use Hulu Plus for current-season TV episodes, and Netflix for movies plus past-season TV episodes.
I had Hulu Plus for a few months with a free trial offer. We barely used it, so I cancelled it before starting to pay. I can’t even remember how they did the commercials, so I can’t say how annoying they are.
As far as I could tell, the difference was that Hulu has lots more current USAnian TV (they get same-season episodes) and lots less Brit TV and movies.
According to them, that’s why fee + commercials - they’re getting charged too much for the new material to make a fee-only service affordable.
I have Netflix streaming and watch the free Hulu. Between both of them, I have all the programming I want.
Also, why would I pay for Hulu Plus and still have to watch commercials?
I have both, and will be keeping both - we cancelled our cable. There’s definitely a lot of overlap, but I use Netflix to watch past seasons of current tv shows, and Hulu to keep up with the new stuff.
I guess the big advantage of Hulu Plus is you can watch it on Roku and other TV-connected devices, whereas non-paid Hulu is generally only on your computer, unless you work around their limitations somehow.
But yeah, having the commercials sucks and makes me much less interested in it.
As well as mobile devices - that’s where the cost is probably concentrated for Hulu.
I have Hulu Plus because I like to watch it in my bedroom on my PS3 or iPad, which you can’t do with the free version. Mostly I just use it to keep up with a few current shows. Netflix is a far better value, but $8 a month is a reasonable convenience for me to be able to wake up in the morning and watch last night’s Daily Show from bed, keep up with The Office and occasionally SNL, and – my recently wrapped-up guilty pleasures I’m ashamed to admit I like – Gordon Ramsay shows on Fox.
It does irritate me that they tend to have weird collections of some things, e.g. 5 non-sequential episodes of some random show, and also not all content on the site can be played from other players. The ads are annoying too, mostly because there only seem to be 4 or 5 of them at a given time, so I see them over and over and over andoverandoverandover…
If I had basic cable, or if I wanted to watch shows on my computer, I wouldn’t bother. It’s not fantastic. But it is cheap.
Also if you go to the website’s cancel page, they seem to automatically bribe you with a free month. So I got a free month.
I only have Hulu for the Criterion Collection and a couple of shows. The selection is lame otherwise. I will quit soon probably.
I’ve switched entirely off cable (technically Dish Network) and gone to Hulu+ and Netflix streaming.
Hulu+ has a pretty good TV selection. I’ve gone through all of Community, most of Misfits (which I can’t find anywhere else), started DeathNote, and a few other shows. I find the commercials annoying, but not a dealbreaker. I mean, I got commercials from cable too, and I was paying 10x the amount per month for the privilege.
Netflix doesn’t have commercials but it also doesn’t have, IMO, as good a TV selection.
The downside to Hulu +, to me, is a big one. It provides very little content overlap from the free Hulu service. I’m on AppleTv which means, short of jailbreaking the device, I can’t get a huge swatch of programming on my TV. oh well.
Thanks for the input, guys. Their free trial is only a week, which honestly isn’t enough time to really give a good impression. Netflix gave me a full month, which was enough time to really reel me in and hook me.
I think I’ll give it a shot for a month. I predict that I won’t end up really feeling like it’s worth it alongside Netflix streaming, though.
I had to quit Hulu due to technical issues on their side. (Buffering problem) Too bad to, I liked their content.
I’ve never had any problems with Netflix.
I thinking of getting it for Criterion. Do have all of Criterion’s movies? If not, what is the selection like? Are they in HD, at least for the movies that have been released on blu-ray?
I have both (and an amazon prime account, but I order enough stuff that the instant videos are just a nice bonus, not a real reason to have the account). Like moejoe said, the content is different enough between Netflix and Hulu Plus to make it worthwhile. Hulu has the new episodes from this month, Netflix has whole seasons and movies. I know there are movies on Hulu too but 95% of my use of it is for TV shows.
So are the commercials all at the beginning, or do they actually stick them in the middle?
Because I’ve gotten seriously spoiled by watching everything on Netflix.
I think I could live with a batch of leader commercials, but inserts would truly annoy me.
I do watch Netflix occasionally via PS3, but usually we just plug the computer into the bigscreen, so that’s not really an issue for me.
Anyone with a PS3, 360 or Roku and who wants to watch Hulu should all have TVersity or PlayOn.
Unfortunately they dont have all the movies. They rotate movies in and out of the line up. Alot of the bigger name ones usually arent available.
The good news is that most if not all are in HD. Also, there are alot of the Criterion/Eclipse movies. It is pretty deep.
They are in the middle, but it really isn’t that bad. First, the ads are short, usually 30 to 60 seconds. It is not ad after ad after ad for five minutes. Not even enough time to hit the rest room really. Second, the ads do not interrupt that often - maybe once every 10-12 minutes. Ads should be so nice on normal TV.
I think there is also an option to pick among a selection of ad types at the start of a show: For instance do you prefer ads about cars or ads about food?
Hulu Plus also has some pretty interesting Korean shows that I’ve been sucked into watching.