Hulu and Hulu Plus?

Updated on February 07, 2011
I.M. asks from Arcadia, CA
9 answers

Hi Mom,

I have always gotten great advice on this site so I thought I would ask this "non-mom" related question. Me and my husband are considering getting Hulu Plus vs getting Cable/Satellite TV. I have a little experience with regular Hulu and the only difference that I can see between that and regular cable is that sometimes you have the wait a little longer for the episodes for the shows I watch to be available. Some like my Bravo shows a longer time.

With Hulu Plus I know that they offer HD and that you can have access to the show on different devices. That is not that important to me, but I do want to know if you get shows any quicker with the Plus and are there more choices in the shows that you can watch with the Plus vs. the regular and free Hulu? Is is worth paying for the Plus or not?

Thanks Everyone

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R.J.

answers from Seattle on

Some shows air a day earlier or a week earlier, but not all. Some shows don't expire, some still do. Some have all the shows from all the seasons, some don't.

Hulu itself is still working out the kinks... Unlike netflix they don't really have their "standards" down yet.

I did a free month trial of HuluPlus. I'd do that before making any decisions. Overall, I was fairly disappointed with HuluPlus... but I think it would depend on the show(s) involved that you watch whether or not it's worth it.

1 mom found this helpful

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S.B.

answers from Chicago on

We cut our cable too, and man do I miss my DVR! We use redbox for movies, and I use regular free hulu for the current shows because I feel like the shows stream better than if I go to the individual show websites. For the shows that aren't offered or that take awhile to post new episodes (like Criminal Minds or 90210) I go to letmewatchthis.com, which is a free site that links you to full length episodes and movies. Within those links, I particularly like tvdex.org and megavideo.com because they are pretty consistent, good quality, no commercials (there are ads on the page though), and offer many of my favorite shows (past and present). Megavideo is only free for 72 min at a time though, so that can be annoying if you want to watch more than one show, but if you want you can pay a membership fee and get it unlimited. I never use any of the links that require me to download anything (like a specific video player) because that's just asking for trouble if you ask me. All in all, I've had success with these sites though, and they are all free.

2 moms found this helpful

A.H.

answers from Tulsa on

I considered getting Hulu Plus, but then decided against it for now. I might consider it when the summer rolls around and there isn't a lot of new programming. I tried their free trial for a week. While the HD programming is nice, I didn't notice much of a difference between the 720 and 480 speeds when I hooked my computer up to my TV. I was expecting more shows to be shown in HD and more shows with previous episodes. It is nice to have access to a full season of shows, but with regular Hulu you usually get 5 episodes and you can keep caught up. Since I only had it for a week, I didn't really notice if the shows were added faster than the regular Hulu. I have basic cable so I can get the local news and watch stuff live if I need to and the free Hulu is enough for me. I wouldn't be willing to pay much more than the $7.99 it is now, so if it goes up past $10, I know I won't be getting it.

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S.M.

answers from Dallas on

Hi!

Hulu Plus is great, but a little limited. They have a free 7 day trial that you might want to check out before you consider subscribing. Personally, I think Netflix is better just because they have TV shows in addition to recent movies you can watch (whereas Hulu it's mostly random lifetime movies!). Also, you can stream Netflix to other devices (like though gaming consoles).

Both have free trials, so try out both and see what you like!

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A.J.

answers from Killeen on

Yes, you can get episodes the same day they air on regular TV I believe, for whatever shows they offer. I think they also have more shows than the regular Hulu offers. We are considering getting Hulu Plus also, b/c we don't have cable at all. Right now we're just doing Netflix, though, b/c they have tons of TV shows plus movies, and it's the same price as doing Hulu Plus, but I think Netflix has lots more options of things to watch. So I'm waiting to see if we still need both or not =) Hope that answers your question!
(oh, and you should check out tv.com too, they have a lot of shows as well!)

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G.G.

answers from San Diego on

Hi,
the only difference I've seen is that you can build a queue of your shows on Hulu Plus, and if you subscribe to a show, Hulu will put the new episodes in your queue as they become available, so you don't have to search for them or keep an eye on the TV schedule. We went for this option as we got rid of our cable and it was a lot less. It's good, but I do miss the cable TV. It was just easier, and there were more options for shows, but price wise it's definitely the better deal and I've found almost all of the shows I really like, plus some that don't make it to US TV from other countries.
You can always try it for a month and if it doesn't suit you change to cable.

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K.C.

answers from Orlando on

My husband and I got rid of cable last summer, when we decided that I wasn't going back to work. We do have netflix (the $8 a month one with one movie at a time, but umlimited streaming) we honestly do not miss the cable!
We have also been looking at Hulu plus, but the blue ray player we have wouldn't play hulu plus on our tv, but it does work with the netflix. From what I understand Hulu plus is supposed to have a lot more shows and quicker than regular hulu. There are some shows that I watch, that my husband won't (guilty pleasures like 90210 haha) and they usually take about a week to come on hulu, but I think that is because CW takes so long to put them online. I think hulu plus will put them on that night or the next morning.
Sorry I couldn't really help, but I am interested to hear from people that have used hulu plus.

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M.G.

answers from Philadelphia on

Hulu and Hulu Plus do have different shows available. We got rid of our cable subscription last summer and for Christmas we purchased a Bluray DVD player that can connect to the internet to stream wireless content. We currently subscribe to Hulu Plus and Netflix. I will say Hulu Plus is a bit disappointing because a lot of the shows we want are available on regular Hulu but not Hulu Plus. It's only $7.99/mo. so it's still cheaper than cable! Most current shows are available within 24 hours of airing and the previous seasons are available as well. We love Bones and 30 Rock so it's been worth it for that and the "new" shows we have discovered. The other thing you should know is that there are ads with Hulu Plus, they are short and few but they are there and you can't fast forward through them.

Honestly, while we miss Fringe we are loving streaming Netflix and Hulu Plus. We don't miss cable and I love that my son no longer talks all the time about toys he's seen in commercials. We do watch stuff on Netflix more frequently than Hulu Plus but I think it depends on what shows you want to watch. You can search on the Hulu Plus webpage to see what shows are avialable and I beleive it shows what episodes are available as well.

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A.M.

answers from Los Angeles on

You still wait for some programs with Hulu+, but you do have a lot more options for past episodes/seasons that you don't get with Hulu. We have Hulu+ and I use it to catch up on my favorite shows while my DD naps/sleeps or is in preschool. I like that it can be used on multiple devices -use it on my iPhone and it's great when I have to sit and wait- and that I can select previous episodes of a show to get caught up. Most shows are available the next day.

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