The Wall The Misadventures of a PK

Subtracting Hulu Plus

I am not a big TV person these days, but there are a few shows that I really like to watch.  I usually catch these shows using the online video site hulu.com.  It has been a great place to see the latest episodes of my favorite shows like Eureka and Burn Notice when I get the chance to.  It has been one of the biggest reasons I still carry my laptop when I go out town instead of just my phone.  Well, this week I finally got an invitation to Hulu+.  Ever since it was announced I have been waiting to get an invite.  It was not worth the wait or $10 a month ($120 a year plus commercials!).

My current list of shows added to my queue for Hulu each week are Psych, Burn Notice, Warehouse 13, Royal Pains, Wipeout and Eureka.  Of those shows, Wipeout is the only one available with Hulu+ for mobile devices.  It is also the one I really could care the least about.  This information is buried near the bottom of the Hulu+ site.  I think that was what really irked me.  If I had known that most of the shows I watch are not available, I wouldn't have paid the $10.

I didn't just give up on Hulu+ immediately though.  I tried it out for a bit.  I have now attempted to watch Wipeout on 4 different occasions using my iPhone.  The first three times it crashed out either before it played the first add, or just as the first add finished.  The forth time I had much better luck.  It played almost all the way to the first commercial break before completely loosing sound and 10 seconds later crashing back to the home screen.  The first two tries were on WiFi, while the one that worked the best was on 3G.  To say the app is a bit buggy is an understatement.

I am not really sure what Hulu+ brings to the table outside of mobile viewing and it really has failed at this so far.  I know it also brings a large catalogue of back episodes of TV shows, but so does Netflix and for a dollar less per month, no adds, and a larger catalogue.  I have really loved the idea of Hulu and hope that someday it will wake up and realize that what consumers will pay for is ease of use and quality.  When it figures that out I will be one of the first in line to sign up.