I've had Netflix for a few years now, and it has been awesome. Lately it seems I have watched most of the shows I am interested in on netflix and I decided to try out Hulu plus.
So far, I am amazed at how disapointing Hulu is. First, the commercials. Oh my god, the commercials. Maybe I have been spoiled by netflix, but in one episode of a show, I just watched my 3rd set of commercials. That is within like 15 minutes. Considering it is the same price as netflix, this is unacceptable.
The next problem is the selection. Hulu is advertised as being more up to date with their tv shows. For the most part they are right. If netflix and hulu both offer the same TV show, chances are that hulu offers a more current season of that show. Problem is, a lot of these shows are only available to watch on the PC. I have to watch them on my crappy 13 inch laptop, with a 50 inch HD TV sitting in the same room blank. Also, It only seems to offer the 10 or so most current episodes of that show. An example is The Simpsons. It only offers the 6 most current episodes of the Simpsons... What the hell? And I can only watch the simpsons on my PC. Many of my favorite shows have a big over-arching story, I cant jump in mid-season.
I cant believe that this is the best competition for Netflix. How is Netflix going to get the motivation to improve if its best competition is full of commercials and riddled with "pc only" BS?
Sorry for the random rant guys. I wanted to check out this HULU thing and its not up to snuff... Did I miss anything about the service? Any of you guys like Hulu?
Thx for your comment. I think that will help me decide quite easily for what to go for in the not too distant future.
I liked hulu before I got a DVR. Now it's pointless.
I've been paying for HuluPlus for a couple years now, mainly out of a sense that I should support this service so it can reach its full potential. I've used it to keep up with a few shows, and it's been OK for catching up on shows. At least it was; it seems they've been adding more and more restrictions to content on the service, even to paying customers, and honestly I've been using the service less and less as time goes on.
When Hulu came out like 5 years ago, it was really cool. Tons of great content that hadn't been online before, absolutely minimal advertising, the best streaming quality I'd ever seen (they were ahead of the curve on that for sure), and a solid, slick interface that worked. Over time, ads crept in, which I expected and rolled with (ie no free lunch), but the content got more restricted and the interface didn't improve over time (now it feels clunky and antiquated). Finally I said, OK time to give these guys money, get full access and no ads, and at 8 or 9 bucks a month it seemed like a totally sensible deal. But even when giving them your money, they won't reduce the number of ads (which are still pretty short, but damned repetitive and that's the worst imo), and like jook said there's "web-only" content, and I think I've come across cases where I can't access all the episodes for a popular show, presumably because they wanna drive dvd sales or something.
My sense about the whole things is it's a mess. It started out as an exciting new platform for content delivery, but the networks don't actually know what to do with it, kinda don't like it/are afraid of it, and in turn the service gets no love and it shows. I think they missed a real opportunity here personally.
I just have an HDMI cable running from my laptop to my TV for watching Netflix, and I keep a keyboard and mouse sitting on the coffee table. I hardly ever use my actual laptop screen anymore, lol. Also, Adblock Plus blocks Hulu ads, but you still have to wait for the 30s timer.
Yeah, my laptop has no hdmi out. In fact, with vga it only goes to 720p. I am going to use my free week of hulu to catch up on a few shows that are not on/no up to date on netflix then cancel. Ill stick with netflix, the grass is not greener on the other side. Let me know if Hulu gets their act together though....
See I just read this about Netflix and am not feeling terribly optimistic about that service either.
Wow, That president of netflix seems hellbent on ruining what he created...Originally Posted by cowtron
If thats the direction Netflix is taking, thats seriously ******ed....
They have the market pretty much conered right now, and they wanna dumb it down to a cable channel?!I hope that crap goes the way of Qwickster.