My wife purchased me a new Toshiba Thrive tablet two days ago after my lappy succumed to an early death. So far I am very happy with “Tabby”, but have a question for you more technical types.
We currently don’t have cable or satalite TV at home. All of our TV viewing is via Netfix streamed by the Wii into the TV. We are quite satisfied with the arrangement, the only drawback is that some of the shows we liked on cable are not available on Netflix. Hulu seems to have most of the current show, but last time I checked didn’t support streaming via the Wii. We don’t have a compatable Hulu device, but I noticed the Thrive has a HDMI jack so you can view and hear anything on it thru your TV. So I am wondering, would this work for Hulu?
I realize that this wouldn’t be true streaming like the Wii, but would it work with decent resolution(yeah I know it isn’t going to be HD, I mean scaling) and sound? I realize that I should just try it, but not home at the moment and the idea just came to me. So, what do you think.
I’m pretty certain plain Hulu refuses to play on mobile devices - at least it did 6 months ago when I got a tablet. You’ve got to sign up for Hulu Plus.
I don’t use hulu but I stream video on my computer all the time at watch on my TV by connecting the two with an HDMI cable. For example, episodes of The Amazing Race after they’ve aired on cbs.com. If you can watch hulu on your device I’d bet you can connect it to your TV and watch that way as well. Just connect it and see what happens.
Sign up for Hulu Plus. You’ll have access to it on both your tablet as well as your Wii. It’s, I think, $5/month.
Purchase PlayOn, a media server program. You run this on your home computer, and any network-attached devices (your Wii, your tablet - assuming they’re connective via WiFi) will be able to access Hulu (as well as any media that’s on your home computer). A lifetime subscription was $60 last time I checked.
I personally use PlayOn. In the long run it’s cheaper. The only downside is that I cannot access Hulu while outside my house (via either my iPhone or iPad).
Thanks everyone for the responses. I wasn,'t aware that the standard Hulu wouldn’t play on an Android device. $5 for Hulu plus is petty cheap and if it can now be streamed through Wii it looks like a good deal.
Hulu Plus is 7.99 a month, and worth every penny. While you don’t get every show from every TV network (no CBS shows, for example), you get more than enough. We dropped cable about a year ago. With Hulu Plus and Netflix and a few purchased shows/movies a month, we’re still saving about $50 a month over the cost of basic cable… and have better content.
But I should note that there is a lot of content available on the free version of Hulu that is not available for streaming through HuluPlus. I guess there are rights issues associated with some content (eg, the NFL Films library), but it’s still a little counter-intuitive that the free version has more content than the pay version.
So far every show I have streamed has ads. usually two before it starts and then groups of three once or twice during the show. Irritating for sure, but they are a lot shorter than on air ads.
Just because I can, I mute the ads and pursue SD until they are over. They can show them, but I don’t have to watch them.
I am wondering what you mean by “big step up from the SD from a Wii”? I have streamed Netfix and just recently Hulu fro our Wii with no problems at all. While not in HD, the picture quality is excellent on our 50".
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve used a Wii, but I do remember that the games I played on it on a HDTV looked pretty bad. Perhaps the Wii has a higher quality signal now, but if it’s Standard Definition I imagine that it look like what a SD show looks like on my HDTV - passable. I wouldn’t call it excellent, but if it’s good enough for you, that’s what matters. A video device like a Roku will stream at either 720p or 1080p, depending on the model, any they are not too pricey.
