# Hulu Plus initial observations



## Wingershute (Oct 22, 2010)

Well we finally have Hulu Plus on Tivo after waiting so long. It seems to be working well but takes fairly long to load on my Tivo (20 - 30 seconds). I don't have the fastest connection so i don't believe that's the issue. 
Also is there any way to move Hulu to the top of the list bypassing the recorded shows. I hate to have to scroll all the way to bottom to get to it and that goes for NetFlix as well. 

Anyone else want to comment on their initial observations with HULU?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Yes i timed mine last night. I knew it didn't take three minutes like someone posted, but it does take between 20 seconds and 30 seconds until you can make selections on the Hulu+ screen.

Otherwise it seems identical to the PS3 version, only better since the TiVo has natve resolution output. So the content looks much better scaled to 1080P by my equipment than what the PS3 looks like when it does the scaling and outputs at 1080P..


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## sabixx (Oct 20, 2010)

Ive timed it out to 120-140 seconds everytime Ive tried it,and u let it sit too long it backs out to the tivo main page, I hate this behavior so much.

it just boggles my mind how the crappiest of crap pcs can Run Hulu Desktop at great speed,but this version drags like crazy.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

sabixx said:


> Ive timed it out to 120-140 seconds everytime Ive tried it,and u let it sit too long it backs out to the tivo main page, I hate this behavior so much.
> 
> it just boggles my mind how the crappiest of crap pcs can Run Hulu Desktop at great speed,but this version drags like crazy.


I only have Hulu+ on two of my boxes. The ones that I put a 1TB and 2 TB drive in. I wonder why your box is taking so long to load the Hulu+ app while ours has only taken 20 to 30 seconds.

Once I get it on my other three boxes with the stock drives I will check to see if those take any longer to load.


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## sabixx (Oct 20, 2010)

I will probably do a hard-reset soon then to see if it helps it. its really the only thing that I dont like about the app.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

Does anyone know who developed the Hulu app? Was it Tivo or a third party? If it wasn't Tivo, I would expect a bug fix release. If it was Tivo, we are in trouble.


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## sabixx (Oct 20, 2010)

gotta assume the app was developed by the Hulu team because it has the same interface across all devices.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

sabixx said:


> gotta assume the app was developed by the Hulu team because it has the same interface across all devices.


I wouldn't necessarily assume that. Hulu could have dictated the design with the app actually being developed by TiVo. It depends on how "easy" it is to code for TiVo's flash interface.


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## sabixx (Oct 20, 2010)

well,I know netflix maintains their own app on Tivo, and the interface is wildly different what you see on most netflix devices,as is the speed, so I think it must be a challenge for them to code for it.


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## dw003f (May 27, 2011)

I was disappointed to see that there is no integration with the rest of the Tivo content. Even netflix is integrated into the standard search. I'm really at a loss to understand why it took half a year more to roll the same exact service to the Tivo as compared to the Roku, which was announced the same day.

Don't get me wrong, the pros outweigh the cons at this point, but I was disappointed by the complete lack of any integration.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

aaronwt said:


> I wonder why your box is taking so long to load the Hulu+ app while ours has only taken 20 to 30 seconds.


Not that I care AT ALL about Hulu+. But...

Do you find 20 to 30 seconds an "acceptable" amount of time to launch a menu to make a selection? Sounds insane to me. I can perform an entire COLD BOOT of my Linux desktop system AND LOG IN (through the GUI, no less) in less than 30 seconds!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

crxssi said:


> Not that I care AT ALL about Hulu+. But...
> 
> Do you find 20 to 30 seconds an "acceptable" amount of time to launch a menu to make a selection? Sounds insane to me. I can perform an entire COLD BOOT of my Linux desktop system AND LOG IN (through the GUI, no less) in less than 30 seconds!


I can launch my main netbook with Win7 from a cold boot and log in quicker too. But that is also with an SSD and a 1.2Ghz dual core CPU in the netbook.

I can only compare it to the PS3 with Hulu+. While the PS3 loads faster the quality is noticeablly worse since the PS3 does the scaling and doesn't have native resolution output. I already knew what the load times were on the TiVo for the Hulu+ application from what was leaked months ago. I'll take the better picture quality from the TiVo over the quicker loading times of the PS3.

Personally if i had my way loading would be instant. but even a machine as powerful a the PS3 can't do that.


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## TWinbrook46636 (Feb 9, 2008)

crxssi said:


> Not that I care AT ALL about Hulu+. But...
> 
> Do you find 20 to 30 seconds an "acceptable" amount of time to launch a menu to make a selection? Sounds insane to me. I can perform an entire COLD BOOT of my Linux desktop system AND LOG IN (through the GUI, no less) in less than 30 seconds!


It's written in Flash like the rest of the HDUI so it shouldn't come as a surprise I guess. I find it unbearable not acceptable. Launching an app or a menu should not taker longer than it does to boot an OS. Period. On the plus side it makes the rest of the HDUI speedy in comparison.


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## hargreae (Feb 23, 2005)

Wingershute said:


> Also is there any way to move Hulu to the top of the list bypassing the recorded shows. I hate to have to scroll all the way to bottom to get to it and that goes for NetFlix as well.


If you don't want to scroll through your list of recorded shows, choose Hulu+ from the "Find TV, movies, & videos" menu.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

You can also press ->| to jump to the bottom of any menu/list and again to jump back up to the top.


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## Wingershute (Oct 22, 2010)

Another issue I find is that whenever I use HULU I have to enter my email address and password everytime. That seems like a waste. Am I doing something wrong? I don't do that with Netflix.


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## sabixx (Oct 20, 2010)

thats not normal behavior,you should only need to enter it once, in fact,I never entered my info at all. I went to hulu.com/activate and then entered the code from the tivo, you might want to try that.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

My initial observations of hulu plus
So I signed up for hulu plus this evening. My plan is to drop cable and use only OTA because there are only a few shows on cable that I "need" to watch and they can be found on hulu even though they are a few weeks behind. I figured this would be a good test run for Justified (I'm a few weeks behind) and In Plain Sight. Can't get the latest episodes on my Premiere with hulu plus, not even if I have them in my queue. WTF? What's the point of paying for upgraded service that doesn't let you access the free stuff too?
It's useless.
My Netgear box (via Playon) allows me to watch both free and plus content, but it's not HD and I don't need the plus content anyway. I don't need HD either, but it would be nice. I'll stick with the Netgear box and the more current content of free hulu.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

scandia101 said:


> My initial observations of hulu plus
> So I signed up for hulu plus this evening. My plan is to drop cable and use only OTA because there are only a few shows on cable that I "need" to watch and they can be found on hulu even though they are a few weeks behind. I figured this would be a good test run for Justified (I'm a few weeks behind) and In Plain Sight. Can't get the latest episodes on my Premiere with hulu plus, not even if I have them in my queue. WTF? What's the point of paying for upgraded service that doesn't let you access the free stuff too?
> It's useless.
> My Netgear box (via Playon) allows me to watch both free and plus content, but it's not HD and I don't need the plus content anyway. I don't need HD either, but it would be nice. I'll stick with the Netgear box and the more current content of free hulu.


If you don't want HD content then you shoulkd have no issues finding the vast majority of content you need.
Personally I rarely watch SD anymore. Even back in 2001 about half of what I watched was HD. Ten years later I will watch SD occassionally but rarely.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

aaronwt said:


> If you don't want HD content then you shoulkd have no issues finding the vast majority of content you need.
> Personally I rarely watch SD anymore. Even back in 2001 about half of what I watched was HD. Ten years later I will watch SD occassionally but rarely.


Apparently you missed the part where I stated that hulu plus does *NOT* have the content I need. You also seem to have missed the point of the SD and HD comments. But that's OK, I'm glad you found a place to show the world your "superiority" even if it really wasn't the place for it.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

scandia101 said:


> Apparently you missed the part where I stated that hulu plus does *NOT* have the content I need. You also seem to have missed the point of the SD and HD comments. But that's OK, I'm glad you found a place to show the world your "superiority" even if it really wasn't the place for it.




My superiority?? Where the heck did that come from?

I made a comment about the amount of SD I watched over the last ten years. I don't understand your comment from what I posted.

My comment was about SD which has to do with PlayOn and Hulu and other content that is only SD from PlayON. Which is why you shouldn't have any problem finding SD content since that is what the majority of content available is.

Alot of content through PlayOn is only SD right now unless things have changed recently. 
PlayON on my main PC has been updated periodically, and most recently a few days ago, but it's been a while since I've looked at it.


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## LoREvanescence (Jun 19, 2007)

I finally got Hulu plus on my premiere today and signed up for the free week trial

My first thoughts are what a let down, not in terms of the ap, but that I can't watch the show series that I was long awaiting this app for.

I spend about 20 minutes trying to find what I was looking for and it would not show up in my hulu plus app. Adding it to my play list, subscribed to it, played it so it would be in my history, did anything I could think of on the computer but It would not come up on hulu plus. Not even when searching for it.

I then searched google and was brought to a page on hulu that said "We currently do not have the rights to display this program on a TV or any device other then a computer. Click here to be notified when this program becomes available on hulu plus"

sighs...


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## KCcardsfan (Feb 20, 2011)

LoREvanescence said:


> I finally got Hulu plus on my premiere today and signed up for the free week trial
> 
> My first thoughts are what a let down, not in terms of the ap, but that I can't watch the show series that I was long awaiting this app for.
> 
> ...


If the show has a an H+ by it on the HULU website then it is available if not then you are out of luck for now.


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## LoREvanescence (Jun 19, 2007)

^Thanks for the tip, never noticed that before, and I as under the assumption hulu plus was everything plus more then what was online


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

LoREvanescence said:


> ^Thanks for the tip, never noticed that before, and I as under the assumption hulu plus was everything plus more then what was online


I think that's what the Hulu people are counting on.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

crxssi said:


> Not that I care AT ALL about Hulu+. But...
> 
> Do you find 20 to 30 seconds an "acceptable" amount of time to launch a menu to make a selection? Sounds insane to me. I can perform an entire COLD BOOT of my Linux desktop system AND LOG IN (through the GUI, no less) in less than 30 seconds!


I timed the Hulu+ application on my PS3 today. It takes half the time to launch than the TiVo but that is still 10 seconds to 15 seconds.

What is acceptable to each person is subjective. Ideally I would like an application to load instantly. But even just 5 seconds is unrealistic if you look at the PS3 since that even takes two to three times as long as 5 seconds.

The Xbox360 has a different Hulu+ application so I did not look at that. The PS3 and TiVo at least visually have the same application so I was looking at load time between the two. But even though the TiVo takes twice as long to load as the PS3, I'll take Hulu+ on the TiVo over the PS3 for the better picture quality from the tiVo since it has native resolution output.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> But even though the TiVo takes twice as long to load as the PS3, I'll take Hulu+ on the TiVo over the PS3 for the better picture quality from the tiVo since it has native resolution output.


You keep saying that, but unless you are using a 720p TV having the TiVo output natively won't do what you think it will. Your TV will still need to convert to it's native display resolution. I've found the PS3 can convert just as well as my Sony Bravia XBR4 1080p HDTV.


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## LoREvanescence (Jun 19, 2007)

crxssi said:


> Not that I care AT ALL about Hulu+. But...
> 
> Do you find 20 to 30 seconds an "acceptable" amount of time to launch a menu to make a selection? Sounds insane to me. I can perform an entire COLD BOOT of my Linux desktop system AND LOG IN (through the GUI, no less) in less than 30 seconds!


mine takes about 5 to 10 seconds at most. Never had any 20 or 30 second waits.

Wonder if it's based on internet speed more so then what the tivo can handle.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

morac said:


> You keep saying that, but unless you are using a 720p TV having the TiVo output natively won't do what you think it will. Your TV will still need to convert to it's native display resolution. I've found the PS3 can convert just as well as my Sony Bravia XBR4 1080p HDTV.


My main TV does no scaling. It is always sent a 1080P60 signal from my external scaler.
The PS3 can't scale as well as my DVDO DUO scaler/video processor. And I also run the signal through my Algolith HDMI Flea video detailer/enhancer.

They do a much better job than what the PS3 is capable of.(or the Sony TVs, my Dad has a middle range Sony and my brother has an upper end Sony)

I've been using external scalers with my main HD sets for ten years now. While they have certainly improved immensely in TVs and other devices, an external scaler can still do a better job and can be more versatile.
But if I was not used to the external scaler the PS3 probably would be fine. But it's the same way with a TiVo. People who never had one don't know what they are missing until they use one.

I can see the difference everytime I use the PS3 since it is doing the scaling. And everytime I see a lower quality picture than what I get from my external scaler/video processor. And this is after having my set professionally calibrated for the outputs from all my devices.


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## seattlewendell (Jan 11, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> My superiority?? Where the heck did that come from?
> 
> I made a comment about the amount of SD I watched over the last ten years. I don't understand your comment from what I posted.
> 
> ...


It's simple. He said the SPECIFIC show he is looking for is not there. He even listed them. You proceeded to talk about "why you shouldn't have any problem finding SD content since that is what the majority of content available is."
Thanks for paying attention.:down:


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

seattlewendell said:


> It's simple. He said the SPECIFIC show he is looking for is not there. He even listed them. You proceeded to talk about "why you shouldn't have any problem finding SD content since that is what the majority of content available is."
> Thanks for paying attention.:down:


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

LoREvanescence said:


> mine takes about 5 to 10 seconds at most. Never had any 20 or 30 second waits.


OK, let me rephrase then...

Would you find it acceptable for a program to launch in 10 seconds from your desktop computer?

Would you find it acceptable for the Netflix website to take 10 seconds to load on your desktop computer's browser?

Would you find it acceptable for a map to take 10 seconds to appear on your car's touch screen display?

Of course it is going to take SOME time to load... but this is supposedly a LOCAL application on the hard drive of the TiVo!


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## KCcardsfan (Feb 20, 2011)

crxssi said:


> OK, let me rephrase then...
> 
> Would you find it acceptable for a program to launch in 10 seconds from your desktop computer?
> 
> ...


My netflix takes about the same time as HULU on mine. It may be a local application but it has to retrieve information from the internt. Speeds will vary with internet speeds.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

KCcardsfan said:


> My netflix takes about the same time as HULU on mine.


Exactly. And I don't find the [lack of] speed of launching the Netflix module any more acceptable!



> It may be a local application but it has to retrieve information from the internt. Speeds will vary with internet speeds.


Yes, but In my example above, it takes my web browser 2 seconds to load on my desktop computer, and it takes it about 1 second to load the Netflix page....


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## KCcardsfan (Feb 20, 2011)

crxssi said:


> Exactly. And I don't find the [lack of] speed of launching the Netflix module any more acceptable!
> 
> Yes, but In my example above, it takes my web browser 2 seconds to load on my desktop computer, and it takes it about 1 second to load the Netflix page....


I am sorry but I don't expect it to keep up with a computer. It isn't any slower then the ROKU which is the only other device that I have to judge it by and the ROKU's only job is to run apps that access the internet. The TIVO has many different functions. I think you are trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill here.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

I like it!! Wish they'd up the bitrate a bit, and add DD5.1 on shows that have it. If they'd just add the Simpsons, I'd completely ditch cable for Tv.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

crxssi said:


> OK, let me rephrase then...
> 
> Would you find it acceptable for a program to launch in 10 seconds from your desktop computer?
> 
> ...


But what device launches Hulu+ quickly?Of course I would like it to be instant but that is unrealistic I can only compare it to other devices.

Even the PS3 takes 10 to 15 seconds to lauch the Hulu+ application. And the PS3 Hulu+ appllication looks like the TiVo Hulu+ app. The 360 version is different.

How long does it take to launch similar Hulu+ apps on other devices? Since the PS3 takes 10 to 15 seconds, I would think it might be longer for all the other ones with the same interface.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> But what device launches Hulu+ quickly?Of course I would like it to be instant but that is unrealistic I can only compare it to other devices.
> 
> Even the PS3 takes 10 to 15 seconds to lauch the Hulu+ application. And the PS3 Hulu+ appllication looks like the TiVo Hulu+ app. The 360 version is different.
> 
> How long does it take to launch similar Hulu+ apps on other devices? Since the PS3 takes 10 to 15 seconds, I would think it might be longer for all the other ones with the same interface.


The Hulu Plus app on my iPad 2 takes less than 4 seconds to launch from the time I run it till the time it's fully usable (instantly for resuming). The interface isn't the same as non-portable devices, but it is similar.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

crxssi said:


> Of course it is going to take SOME time to load... but this is supposedly a LOCAL application on the hard drive of the TiVo!


 FYI technically this is an HME application which is being hosted over the internet. i.e. It's actually running on server side and TiVo is essentially a dumb graphics terminal. That's the rub with TiVo HME applications in general when running across internet. Having said that the Netflix and Pandora HME app speeds are not that bad for me (I especially like the Pandora one). I have no interest at all in Hulu+ however so have not even taken it for a spin to compare, but I could certainly understand any lags being reported.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

moyekj said:


> FYI technically this is an HME application which is being hosted over the internet. i.e. It's actually running on server side and TiVo is essentially a dumb graphics terminal. That's the rub with TiVo HME applications in general when running across internet. Having said that the Netflix and Pandora apps are not that bad. I have no interest at all in Hulu+ however so have not even taken it for a spin to compare, but I could certainly understand any lags being reported.


Hulu Plus is not an HME app in the traditional sense. I believe it was coded in Flash. As it requires 14.8, at least some of the app's code has to be stored locally.

As for the Hulu Plus app itself, the actual app loads fairly quickly on most devices, it's the "Loading..." stage that takes a long time.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Remember that TiVo actually opened up Hulu+ to some people before they even had 14.8. So 14.8 may make experience better but was not required. Could be that it does indeed require Flash which would be one explanation why it won't be available on S3 platforms and also may explain why it is slower than traditional HME apps. One note though: Hulu+ is available via Premiere SDUI, and I don't know if Flash is even active/available at all when using SDUI?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

moyekj said:


> ...One note though: Hulu+ is available via Premiere SDUI, and I don't know if Flash is even active/available at all when using SDUI?


Would it matter? I'm thinking about how TiVo deals with other HME apps, such as: Stream Baby Stream in Java, and HME/VLC in python. If the app conforms to TiVo specs, what it's written in shouldn't matter, should it?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

orangeboy said:


> Would it matter? I'm thinking about how TiVo deals with other HME apps, such as: Stream Baby Stream in Java, and HME/VLC in python. If the app conforms to TiVo specs, what it's written in shouldn't matter, should it?


 The server side can be written in anything that conforms to the HME specs. The difference here is if Flash is needed for display purposes on TiVo side. i.e. There could well be HME extensions for Flash based display. I'm guessing probably not but don't know for sure. There are likely some devices supporting Hulu+ that don't run Flash natively, so I doubt it's a requirement.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

orangeboy said:


> Would it matter? I'm thinking about how TiVo deals with other HME apps, such as: Stream Baby Stream in Java, and HME/VLC in python. If the app conforms to TiVo specs, what it's written in shouldn't matter, should it?


All those HME apps don't actually run on the TiVo. The TiVo acts a client interface to a server run application. We know TiVo has expanded the HME capabilities way beyond the public API so the GUI for Hulu Plus may be Flash as opposed to the HME dumb client for apps like the ones you mentioned. As far as I know, no third party app can stream video, let alone do so in video window while interacting with the GUI like Hulu Plus can. That's why I think the _client_ is Flash regardless of what language the server uses.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

morac said:


> The Hulu Plus app on my iPad 2 takes less than 4 seconds to launch from the time I run it till the time it's fully usable (instantly for resuming). The interface isn't the same as non-portable devices, but it is similar.


Somethng must be different since if the powerful PS3 still takes 10 to 15 seconds to launch, something is slowing it up. The PS3 is much more powerful than a TiVo Premiere but how it compares to an iPad 2, I don't know. I heard the GPU in the iPAd2 is supposed to pretty powerful..


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> Somethng must be different since if the powerful PS3 still takes 10 to 15 seconds to launch, something is slowing it up. The PS3 is much more powerful than a TiVo Premiere but how it compares to an iPad 2, I don't know. I heard the GPU in the iPAd2 is supposed to pretty powerful..


It is, but the PS3 should still be more powerful. The CPU in the PS3 is way more powerful than the one in the iPad 2.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

aaronwt said:


> The PS3 is much more powerful than a TiVo Premiere but how it compares to an iPad 2, I don't know. I heard the GPU in the iPAd2 is supposed to pretty powerful..


A GPU's speed wouldn't make any difference in load time or typical processing time. It only affects the fluidity of graphics intensive processes. The PS3's processor is pretty beefy for a [now pretty old] dedicated box.


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