It's Official: Hulu's Coming to Xbox Live

[Art Axiv]

And here I am stuck at college over the weekend! ARG!
Might as well get ready for finals.

Psh, nobody cares about finals. Oh, wait... dammit. Stupid senior year.

Tell me about it...

OT: We in Poland don't even have a "trailers" section, not to mention the indie part of XBL or other bonuses. When I look at the Social Media campaign they are doing over facebook, it makes me want to punch the screen badly. I am sure Australia has much more content on XBL than we do.

 

[GeorgW]

I'm assuming it's NA only? Could someone confirm?

 

[viranimus]

Thats wonderful, but I would suggest clarifying in the headline.. HULUPLUS is coming, not HULU

Huge difference between a fading platforms free service, and their "milk the customer out of anything they are dumb enough to give away" platform. Seriously, I genuinely feel for those who actually buy HULU plus. Your giving hulu your money for what is becoming an inferior platform, and you get nothing of value out of it.

 

[Meggiepants]

However, being able to stream commercial-free episodes of my favorite shows on my Xbox is suddenly a lot more appealing. You can bet that I'll be taking part in the free trial.

I subscribed to Hulu Plus for about six months for the PS3. The whole time I had it, it was not commercial free. When I cancelled, they give that little questionnaire asking me why I cancelled, the top option was commercials. I picked it.

I'm hoping that means eventually Hulu Plus is commercial free, but really, at the moment, what you will be paying for is the nice interface on your console. It is nice, but still... commercials? I swear, I cannot hear that Matt White song "Love" without throwing something. I was catching up on some Fringe and saw that damn McDonald's commercial fifty times in one day.

Also, in my experience, it was much more laggy than Netflix on the console. The audio track often didn't sync up with the video track. Just a little FYI. Hopefully, like Netflix, it will get better in time.

 

[jackpipsam]

No love for Australia I am guessing

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

This is pretty good. I'm a fan of some of the shows Hulu distributes, so I'll be taking advantage of this first free week if I can.

 

[Ghengis John]

Sorry my friend, I'm sure others have pointed it out before but you pay for the privilege of viewing a few commercials.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

However, being able to stream commercial-free episodes of my favorite shows on my Xbox is suddenly a lot more appealing.

What? Yesterday they said it still had commercials if you stream Hulu Plus to a console. Did they change their minds?

Anyway if they're going to give it free for a week, I'll take a look. Thanks, Jack Links!

I just tested it out. It isn't commercial free. But still it is cool. The HD seems better streaming through my 360 to my 32 inch HDTV than it does streaming it from Hulu on my computer to that same TV.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I'm assuming it's NA only? Could someone confirm?

Yes it is only the main 50 states of the US. It says it in the fine print. That is where they get people.

 

[water_bearer]

I just downloaded and tried this, I don't know why everyone is saying it's ad free, it totally has ads, at least for now. And this software doesn't seem to keep a media "bookmark" like Netflix does on Xbox, so if stop a show midway, or if you get disconnected, you can just resume where the show got cut off. Very annoying functional oversight.

 

[mjc0961]

Well, just got back from trying it. Everything I'd care to watch either isn't on the service at all, or is there but is web only. So Hulu definitely isn't going to be getting me as a new customer next week. If I do want to watch any of their stuff, I can apparently just do it online for free.

 

[Alphavillain]

One step closure to game consoles becoming the ONE device every house hold needs. I wounder what theyll be called in the future... Net-Box... Display Station... Sii?

I always liked OggleBox.

 

[Hive Mind]

We have never found Hulu useful.

 

[Zydrate]

I don't use Hulu because it only shows pieces of a season of some shows I'm interested in. When I'm trying to catch up on a semi-older show that I've only recently discovered, Hulu does not give me the entire show.

Which is understandable, all those box sets in Wal-Mart would be unsellable. But I'm just stating why I don't use Hulu.

 

[USSR]

How many devices can you have Hulu Plus on?
Is there any extra charge?

 

[winter2]

I am perplexed as to why they would release this with how it is set up right now. It gotta hurt their branding.

I don't think I am super-demanding or anything like that but this is what hits me within 20 minutes of just playing around with Hulu Plus on the 360:

1) There is a lot that is just plain missing.
2) A lot that is there is web only, so what is the point?
3) A minor annoyance is that I am paying per month to watch a TV show here and there(When I can find one I would care to watch), but I get commercials breaks. (Ok.. they are limited breaks but still)

On the positive side is that when I do find something to stream the quality of the video is just fine. And I am pleased to see what I am assuming is the entire Criterion collection available on it, so it's not like it was an entirely negative experience.

However, overall I am very disappointed and it's not because I expected to be able to replace my cable package with Hulu Plus, it's just that I expected more variety and selection of shows that I actually want to watch.

I might agree to start paying for the service if only to see where it goes from here as I think the idea is pretty sound, it's just that as it stands right now I am certainly having a WTF moment.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

rather indifferent about this one actually

 

[agiganticpanda]

You'll want to make a correction as even Hulu plus isn't free of advertisements.

 

[Nashidar]

And yet, with all this ELECTRONIC technology being delivered over the INTERNET - I'm not allowed to view it because I live in a different country (Australia).

So yes - who cares? Not me. Sites like The Escapist, etc really need to start addressing their articles to the International audience. This way it might actually get companies like Amazon, etc to start catering for the International audience instead of being so US focused.

It makes NO SENSE to restrict viewing based on country location in this day and age. You want to stop piracy? Well you know the answer.

Not everybody lives in the US of bloody A (yes ...I'm angry).