Hulu Plus Now Available on Apple TV

[dgalvan123]

I know a lot of people have been waiting for this. But this doesn't really excite me for the following reasons.

1. I have a jailbroken ATV2 with XBMC and Hulu plugin installed. This gives me access to FREE Hulu OR Hulu Plus (if I want to pay for it, which I don't at the moment), and gives me the option to completely skip/exclude commercials. The new Hulu Plus app doesn't give you access to FREE Hulu, and forces you to watch commercials. So my current setup is better than this new offering, only took an evening to set up, costs $0/month, and has been available to me for 9 months already.

2. Even if you don't want to jailbreak your ATV2 (or if you have an ATV3 which doesn't yet have a jailbreak yet), you can use Airplay Mirroring via Mountain Lion OR AirParrot to watch free Hulu or Hulu Plus on your ATV, via the web or the Hulu Desktop app.

 

[bearcatrp]

I can see our Internet service rising with more streaming services coming online. Will start clogging bandwidth until the telcos upgrade the lines. Seems they are getting folks hooked on these services before jacking up our services. Welcome to the cloud.

 

[GQB]

Everyone who gets all tingly about this needs to remember that you lose the ability to fast forward with Hulu, and are forced to sit through repetitive commercials.
Until I have the ability to blaze through a show (thereby reducing the amount of life-wasting time I spend in front of commercial TV), I still (unfortunately) find cable with a good DVR superior to any of these streaming services.
Sadly.

 

[FlatlinerG]

All I want for Christmas is Apple to have a way to install/remove more channels. It's what is missing from the AppleTV and would take it to the next level.

CBC Sports channel would be nice too

 

[deannnnn]

One could make the argument that TV shows are the best that they will ever be right now. They are heavily, heavily funded right now and where does that money come from? Advertising a little bit, but mostly from cable subscriptions. People think that paying your cable bill is just filling the pockets of your cable company, but it's not true. Much of that money is funding the TV shows we all love. People cancel cable = less money for TV networks = less quality shows.

 

[D.T.]

Ehhhhh I had Hulu+ and even as a paid. non-trial member, they still played commercials... is that still going on? Netflix FTW!

Hulu+ has [some] near-original-broadcast-date shows, and Netflix is a season or two behind, that's the big attraction of Hulu+ (at least in terms of TV/broadcast, not sure about Hulu's movie offerings).

 

[GorgonPhone]

lol@ folks getting excited about another option to pay for tv and movies that are easily had fro free..lol i have not had cable in 8 years..lolol

and you are paying and still have to watch adds... what a rip

 

[foodog]

Not really. Hulu Plus has just about everything currently on TV. You might have to wait a day or week or month to get the current seasons, but pretty much everything is there. If you're on your computer watching it. On the TV? Not so much. The selection is as bad or worse than Amazon Prime and Netflix.

That is the point though.... the thread is about Hulu Plus on ATV. The current shows are broadcast stations available OTA so that doesn't buy you much.

 

[gatortpk]

nice!

Wow! (That's what I was going to say, but Nice! is it)

I thought Apple would never allow it because it conflicted with it's iTunes service and business model. Though, that's just something I read and didn't think much of. Apple makes perhaps 100-1000 times more in iPhones than it does renting or selling video content anyway.

I've been paying for Hulu+ for over 2 years now because when ever I go on vacation and there's no TV for the down time, I just watch it on my MacBook Pro, or now my iPad (3rd Gen). I can start saving space on my DVR now too.

It's nice to see it on my AppleTV without a reboot. Makes me wonder how the menu and it's software is written? The menu must be controlled and updated instantly by servers, and not specific features already "written" in software. (Much like a webpage is easily changed by the web designer, and a reload of the page shows the changes).

 

[bpaluzzi]

lol@ folks getting excited about another option to pay for tv and movies that are easily had fro free..lol i have not had cable in 8 years..lolol

and you are paying and still have to watch adds... what a rip

Your spelling and grammar is somehow _exactly_ what I expect from someone with your viewpoints.

 

[monaarts]

One could make the argument that TV shows are the best that they will ever be right now. They are heavily, heavily funded right now and where does that money come from? Advertising a little bit, but mostly from cable subscriptions. People think that paying your cable bill is just filling the pockets of your cable company, but it's not true. Much of that money is funding the TV shows we all love. People cancel cable = less money for TV networks = less quality shows.

Instead of paying $80/month for 500 networks with 100 shows on each (5,000 tv shows probably), I'd rather pay $2/month for each network that I watch (maybe 10 at most) and not continue to fund the stupid ******** shows I never watch so that 1 out of every 1,000 people can watch it. NBC should get more of my money than HGTV because I never watch HGTV!

 

[foodog]

Hulu+ has [some] near-original-broadcast-date shows, and Netflix is a season or two behind, that's the big attraction of Hulu+ (at least in terms of TV/broadcast, not sure about Hulu's movie offerings).

Last I saw they had the same stuff as OTA which has commercials too. Now if they started allowing Discovery, AMC, FX etc... to play on a TV I would sign back up in a minute.

 

[AppleScruff1]

This is exactly what will happen. It cracks me up how many people think they can finally put one over on the cable company when that exact same cable company provides the broadband through which their cable TV replacement will work. Of course those companies will increase the cost of broadband if this starts eating into their revenue numbers. They'll start talking up themes like "for high bandwidth users" etc and/or implement bandwidth tiers (much tighter than now). Sound familiar?

See that future. It's coming.

Apple's greed and quest for total control will have EVERYONE paying higher prices, even those who don't have Apple tv. But at least they'll be making a few extra billion in profit so that will help me ease the pain of higher internet service. After all, Apple is more important than the consumer.

 

[chillywilly]

This was the app that I was waiting for to get an Apple TV. Currently use a PS3 for Netflix and Hulu Plus in the front room and a Sony Blu-ray player that always has wifi issues so the Apple TV will be a welcome addition to our home.

Hulu helps me keep up on my TV viewing since I don't have a DVR.

 

[GQB]

Congratulations. Sometimes UK knows how to make capitalism work better than us Americans. I think somewhere along the way, we lost sight of the underlying objective of capitalism to make things better for customers...

Unfortunately, the objective of capitalism is NOT to make anything to better for consumers, but to engorge the capitalist. If he can do that via quality, so be it. If he can do it by buying the laws, so much the better.

Nah, we don't need no stinkin' regulation.

 

[chrisbru]

This is exactly what will happen. It cracks me up how many people think they can finally put one over on the cable company when that exact same cable company provides the broadband through which their cable TV replacement will work. Of course those companies will increase the cost of broadband if this starts eating into their revenue numbers. They'll start talking up themes like "for high bandwidth users" etc and/or implement bandwidth tiers (much tighter than now). Sound familiar?

See that future. It's coming.

Or get broadband through non-cable companies like Centurylink. They are rolling out fiber optic at a good pace, and a high price hike from Comcast and the like will just drive more people to Centurylink and Verizon FiOS.

 

[whoiare]

how come no one has asked EXACTLY how this has shown up on the atv3? all is states is a reboot is necessary? but is any new software being downloaded? and is this the only update? does this have any implications on a JB atv2? i find it quite strange that this app just SHOWS up after reboot...or am i way off here?

 

[leftynaut]

can anyone recommend something good for me on hulu plus? i got a two month free trial and haven't found anything worthwhile yet.

 

[foodog]

Instead of paying $80/month for 500 networks with 100 shows on each (5,000 tv shows probably), I'd rather pay $2/month for each network that I watch (maybe 10 at most) and not continue to fund the stupid ******** shows I never watch so that 1 out of every 1,000 people can watch it. NBC should get more of my money than HGTV because I never watch HGTV!

AMEN!

If Apple can offer a cafeteria subscription to channels even at $5 a month I'm in. Spending 40 a month for 8 channels I want outside of OTA broadcast. Till then I'll buy my shows via iTunes and TiVo OTA.

 

[Arcus]

Well that does it. Its an Apple TV for me this weekend.

 

[vtstarck]

Apple's greed and quest for total control will have EVERYONE paying higher prices, even those who don't have Apple tv. But at least they'll be making a few extra billion in profit so that will help me ease the pain of higher internet service. After all, Apple is more important than the consumer.

What does the post you quoted have anything to do with Apple?

 

[gatortpk]

That is the point though.... the thread is about Hulu Plus on ATV. The current shows are broadcast stations available OTA so that doesn't buy you much.

I hadn't thought of that, there are plenty of shows, and most of it are usually the more popular shows that say "Web Only" on my iPad. I suppose it's the same way on the AppleTV? That's really annoying! I haven't checked it out yet though. (I don't want to sit in front of my computer all the time just to use Hulu+ for certain shows, even if I have a 27" iMac.)

 

[kyjaotkb]

Still nothing but an iTunes / Airplay receiver outside of the US - although very happy for US users!

Quite the hobby indeed for the rest of the world.

An app store is definitely the way to go to let local contents provider enrich the platform and make it useful.



For instance in France, for 35 EUR a month inc taxes, you get 28Mb internet without any cap, 140 TV channels including 25+ French ones including 6 in HD, unlimited phone to landlines worldwide and for 16 EUR more you get an accompanying mobile plan with unlimited text and calls in Europe and the US, 3GB data without throttling and including P2P and VOIP uses + 5M wifi hotspots.

Add to that the fact that with the 35 EUR package you get a DVR with 250GB, NAS, access to a platform with games (including Angry Birds and the like), a Blu-ray player, remote control via iPhone/Android, and an audio airplay receiver + every existing contents services in the country at reasonable prices.

So getting people to shell out EUR129 for an Apple TV and getting it to compete with the run of the mill STB in here is going to be hard.

Now imagine getting to compete worldwide against every specifically locally designed set top box.

The coming months are going to be very interesting... Looking forward to what Apple have up their sleeves to one-up the hobby and pull a really WOWing Apple TV.

 

[gatortpk]

Apple's greed and quest for total control will have EVERYONE paying higher prices, even those who don't have Apple tv. But at least they'll be making a few extra billion in profit so that will help me ease the pain of higher internet service. After all, Apple is more important than the consumer.

Huh?

 

[ian.]

Thats great but they still need NFL....whatever in order for most people to cut the cable with this. I'm ordering an Apple TV today, thanks to Hulu on it and Airplay with my MBA

Make sure you have an MBA that is 2011 or newer. I have to use AirParrot for AirPlay Mirroring, which, was going to be used a lot by going on the free version of Hulu, but now that they finally added Hulu Plus to the ATV, I feel like I don't need it anymore... nah, I'll still use AirParrot, those CBS shows STILL aren't on Hulu.

ANYWAY, like you, LIVE SPORTS are are mostly the reason I am still hanging on to cable TV. Most of the NFL games I can catch on national, over-the-air, HD Antennas, but local ROCKETS games are shown on Fox Sports Southwest. I'm not so sure, I'd like to spend the extra cash for NBA League Pass, because then, I might as well just keep the cable.