Table of Contents
Pros
- Excellent channel selection.
While no one would debate with the fact that Hulu currently does not offer the most number of channels to users, but the ones that it does offer to users provide excellent content - Local Channels.
All the main packages of Hulu get enhancement via which they can broadcast a few local channels depending on the location of the user. - Easy to understand user interface
We do not think that even new users would have a problem with figuring out how Hulu works.
Cons
- No real bundles.
What we mean here is that there is only one variation between different packages and it is the channels that users get access to via Hulu depending on their location. - Very few customization options.
Hulu, for one reason or another, limits its customization options to just the user adding some premium channels.
At the time of writing this report, Hulu did not offer any kind of additional channel bundles. - DVR limit is low.
Unless the user finds a way to pay Hulu around $15 per month, the total number of hours that users can record stuff with stays at 50 per month.
Hulu Live TV Full Review
It is about time that millions and millions of online consumers just cut their cord and bring all of their TV-content consumption activities to the modern world of the internet.
But in order to do that first, they need a legitimate online solution for their entertainment needs.
One option is Hulu.
Plenty of people believe that Hulu is the answer to each and every woe that an online consumer could have with regards to watching the latest and the greatest movies and TV shows.
With Hulu, not only do people get access to features such as on-demand videos that they can watch online on Hulu including some of the best and award-winning and original TV programming.
Apart from that, with each Hulu subscription, users also get access to loads of online TV channels.
Now, we know that most of you already know that video-on-demand services are nothing new.
They are offering nothing new.
You should have no problems in believing anyone who tells you that the first online streaming service that offered video-on-demand feature came about a full decade ago.
Okay, so maybe Hulu wasn’t the first one.
But it is certainly one of the best ones.
Hulu launched the company’s very own live television online streaming service back in May of 2017.
That is a full 2 years ago.
We’ll go into more details about what the service offers and how usable is the live TV platform that Hulu is offering.
But what we need you to know is that Hulu is well and truly made its way to our official cord-cutting online streaming options list.
The questions you need to keep in mind while you are reading this review is whether or not Hulu TV is good enough for you to abandon your cable subscription.
Also, think about whether or not you are ready to enter the new era of online and live media streaming.
Price
Currently, in order to get hold of the official Hulu Live TV subscription, you will need to pay the service around $44.99.
For that price, you will get access to all the apps that Hulu offers for various platforms such as,
- iOS including iPad and iPhone
- Android including tablets and phones.
- Amazon Fire TV including Amazon Fire TV Stick and Fire TV.
- Apple TV including the 4rth generation devices
- Xbox One and Xbox 360
- Roku
- Specific Samsung TV models
- Chromecast
- Web browsers
It does not come with any PlayStation support through.
As for the DVR option, you will get access to around 50 hours in the cloud.
If you pay Hulu another $15 per month then you can increase that to around 200 hours.
Again, we would like to remind you that with each Hulu Live TV subscription you have the option of streaming content on a total of two screens at any given time simultaneously.
You can expand that number of streams at any given time to ‘unlimited’ if you are willing to pay Hulu another $15 per month.
As for streaming quality, there is support for 4K content when it comes to Video On Demand content.
But for Live TV, you will only have the option of streaming 720p content.
For the Video on Demand option, you will require an internet connection that is at least as fast as 3 Mbps.
For Live TV you will require around 8 Mbps of internet connection speed.
We will talk more about all the capabilities that Hulu brings to the table in later sections of this guide.
For now, just keep asking yourself if the price that you are paying for Hulu Live TV is worth it for you in the end.
In order to reduce the amount of confusion that you may or may not have, we will talk more about what Hulu has to offer to you.
Availability
This is where you should get it through your head that the only two markets that currently have access to Hulu are Japan and the United States of America.
And that is it.
Because of the fact that the US version of Hulu is by far the most popular one for Hulu, we will focus on this version alone in this review.
Of course, if you are traveling the globe then you can make use of a VPN service in order to watch Hulu in any given country.
But it is not that simple.
A VPN for Hulu will not do you much good if you do not know how to use it or if the VPN service provider that you have signed up for does not have any kind of mechanism to get past Hulu blocks.
A good VPN for Hulu is the one that has access to special systems that it can use to figure out Hulu and not allow Hulu’s systems to know that you are making use of a VPN service.
Our research shows that there are very few VPN service providers if any that are able to avoid detection.
Hence, the rule of thumb that we want you to follow is that you should read about what the industry has to offer and then make up your own mind.
Go with the VPN service that you feel fulfills your needs to the absolute maximum.
Click here to read more about the best VPNs for Hulu.
Unlike some of the other review sites on the internet, we do not feel comfortable naming a single VPN service for any given task.
The VPN industry has evolved in a way in the last couple of years that the top VPN service providers are very hard to rank.
They are so equally good that any one of them can become your best VPN for Hulu.
Therefore, till the day comes when a single VPN service provider is able to run away from all other competitors and climbs the top of the rankings by a good margin, we will continue to push you to read our best VPN for Hulu guide.
Click here to do that right now.
The other thing you need to keep in mind here is that you should always check beforehand if the VPN service provider that you are interested in has servers that work with streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix and perhaps some of your other streaming services as well.
What about channel bundles?
As mentioned before, currently Hulu does not just offer on-demand movies, documentaries, TV series.
It also offers users TV channels that they can easily watch live and uncut.
Our research shows that the selection is currently too much for any given user though.
Hulu has become a versatile tool since its early days.
It offers users an all-in-one online service where users get to watch the latest and the coolest content wherever and whenever they want to.
There is also the option of watch live TV channels when you have the mood for it.
So all that you really need to do is to get started with a good streaming service (which Hulu is) and do not fret so much about all the possibilities that you open yourself to.
Currently, Hulu has a total of there plans that users have the option of purchasing.
Our research shows that the first two subscription packages offer users strict and limited access to movies, TV series and a ton of other types of content.
On the other hand, the third package is exactly the one that offers Hulu Live TV.
Fundamentally speaking, if you are looking for options which will enable you to become a cord-cutter then Hulu only offers you one plan.
Limited Commercials plan for $5.99 per month.
In this channel bundle, users have a lot of possibilities.
They can watch full and complete seasons with exclusive content including series, classic movies, new episodes and so on.
Apart from that, let’s not forget those Hulu originals which are available to all subscribers to this package.
With the limited commercials plan you can also stream blockbusters and kids shows.
You must have figured out that this plan is a bit on the lower side when it comes to price.
If you indeed figured that out then good on you.
Because, because of this package you can look forward to Hulu interrupting your streams with commercials every now and then.
Or perhaps once in a while depending on how lucky you are.
No Commercials plan
This is the plan that costs around $11.99 per month.
The name says it all.
This is the package for those people who would like to watch all of the content that we mentioned in the previous section but without all the commercials interrupting their streams on a regular basis.
Therefore, you should not have a problem in putting this subscription package pretty much on par with other great streaming services on the internet such as Netflix and others.
Hulu with Live TV
This particular package is going to cost you around $39.99 per month.
If you have this subscription package, then you have the option of viewing all of the content that Hulu has to offer and what we have mentioned in the previous section.
You get everything.
TV series, kids shows, movies, original content along with documentaries and everything else.
In addition to that, users also get the option of viewing on-demand and live TV from a total of 50 TV channels and counting.
Hulu is currently offering users channels such as,
- Universal Kids
- USA
- truTV
- Travel Channel
- TNT
- TLC
- Telemundo
- TCM
- TBS
- SYFY
- Smithsonian Channel
- ESPN SEC Network
- Olympic Channel
- NBC Sports Network
- Nat Geo Wild
- National Geographic
- MotorTrend
- MSNBC
- Lifetime
- Investigation Discovery
- HLN
- History Channel
- HGTV
- Golf Channel
- FXX
- FXM
- Freeform
- FS2
- FS1
- Fox News
- Fox Business
- Food Network
- ESPN Goal Line
- ESPN Bases Loaded
- ESPN College Extra
- ESPNU
- ESPNews
- ESPN 2
- ESPN
- Disney XD
- Disney Junior
- Disney Channel
- The CW
- CNN World
- CNN
- CNBC
- CBS Sports Network
- Cartoon Network
- Boomerang
- Animal Planet
- A&E
- NBC
- Fox
- CBSN
- CBS
- ABC News
- ABC
There are some other add-ons that you can take advantage of though.
If you have a Hulu subscription, you can easily customize it by adding HBO to your list of available channels for only $14.99 per month.
Apart from that, you can also add Cinemax for $9.99 per month.
Other channels that you can separately add are,
- Espanol add-on for just $4.99 per month
- Entertainment add-on for just $7.99 per month.
- Starz for just $8.99 per month.
- Showtime for just $8.99 per month.
Some of the other options include Enhanced cloud DVR for a total of $14.99 per month which allows users to increase their cloud DVR space from 50 to 200 hours per month.
If you have enabled this feature then you can also fast-forward through Hulu commercials.
Most of all, with this feature enabled, users have the option of recording more than one program at any given time.
For Unlimited Screens, you will have to pay Hulu around $14.99 per month.
And if you want to combine both the Unlimited Screen option as well as the Enhanced Cloud DVR option, you will have to pay Hulu around $20 per month.
This is actually quite generous of Hulu that it allows users to mix the two aforementioned options and have them at a lower price.
Extra features
Or more like supported features.
The main feature (which we have also talked about before in this review) is the Cloud DVR feature.
There are many other features available but this one essentially leads the pack.
If you sign up for the regular Hulu package then you have the option of checking out the official streaming library that Hulu offers.
However, if you want a more impressive streaming experience then you have to sign up for the package that makes available all the Live TV channels.
We have already mentioned the fact that the simple Hulu package comes with around 50 hours of pure Cloud DVR storage.
This is a limit that we think some users will find too little.
They can increase it to 200 hours as mentioned before by paying up more.
Of course, everything here depends on the kind of watching habits that you have.
If you watch a lot of stuff and record a lot of stuff then you will eat up your 50 hours pretty quickly.
In that case, it would be a wise idea to increase your storage to 200 hours.
The other thing that is worth a repeat here is that Hulu also comes with the option of Live TV.
It enables users to stream content on a total of two different screens.
However, the thing you need to keep in mind here is that with a single Hulu account, you can actually create a total of six profiles.
So use that to your advantage to further cut costs.
Streaming quality
This is the big one, isn’t it?
Hulu is a bit behind the industry in terms of having the technical edge.
We say that because the most common resolution that Hulu offers to its users is the 720p resolution.
If you pay Hulu a bit more then you can potentially view content in 1080p as well.
According to official sources, users who plan to watch any type of content via its on-demand online service, they would have to have an internet connection speed that is equal to 3 Mbps.
To live stream and really cut the cord you will have to sign up for an internet connection that exceeds 8 Mbps.
With that said, it is also true that Hulu offers users 4K content support as well.
If you did spend all that money on a 4K TV or screen then Hulu has got you covered.
However, don’t expect Live TV to give you that resolution though.
In fact, when it comes to Live TV, the most that you can expect is 720p HD.
Of course, that is not due to Hulu or any of its staff.
It is just the way it is.
Supported devices
If you have read every word so far you would already know that with Hulu you will be able to watch any type of content on any type of device.
The same holds true for Hulu’s Live TV service as well.
Such wide support is very important in our opinion for the simple reason that the majority of the people signing up for Hulu would be the ones who want to become cord-cutters.
And since they are cutting the cord for good they would want Hulu to provide them with anything and everything which would allow them to watch stuff on any of their internet-enabled devices.
Hulu Live TV does a good job of providing support though.
The list of apps available for different platforms is extensive and you can refer to the list that we have mentioned in the beginning of this review for more information.
Usability
The overall Hulu user interface is nothing more than basic.
And hence it becomes fairly easy for new users to figure things out and start watching some good old content.
We do not expect even beginner cord-cutters to run into any kind of problems with Hulu Live TV.
They will find that the user interface is as straightforward as they come.
More importantly though, Hulu allows users to pick the type of content that they would like to watch and/or stream.
Whether you want to watch Live TV or regular video, Hulu has got you covered and actually provides an easy way for you to figure everything out.
Of course, the best part about Hulu content organization is that users get to check out all of the content via genre rather than just ratings or reviews.
How to subscribe to Hulu
Credit to Hulu for making it easy for users to choose a package of their choice and then signing up for it.
In essence, users really have only one bundle to sign up for.
But users need to keep in mind that with each Hulu subscription package they not only get access to the Live TV part but also to the official Hulu video library which is pretty massive.
So all you need to do if launch your web browser and go to the official website of Hulu.
Click here to do that right here and right now.
Conclusion
Overall, we think that what Hulu offers is very impressive and attractive.
The original Hulu subscription packages may not have offered a lot for some users.
But with the addition of Live TV and the all new service in the form of Hulu Live TV, Hulu has actually opened up a new market for itself.