# Th New Hulu App has arrived



## TivoJD (Feb 8, 2005)

Hi all, last night I received the new Hulu app on my 3 Roamio boxes. I have an OTA, Plus and a basic. All 3 boxes show 2 Hulu apps now, Hulu and Hulu Plus. I did watch a show, no issues with drop outs. None of the Minis have it yet though even after connections and power cycles.


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## Chuck_IV (Jan 1, 2002)

Yep, same here. I haven't checked my other Tivo or my minis but my Tivo plus shows 2 Hulu apps now.

It's about time


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## davefred99 (Oct 31, 2004)

Yep, Same here I received the new Hulu App last night as well. Tested it a bit to see whats different and noticed it has a new interface, same as on my FireTv it looks like. I used to have lots of buffering on the old app but my limited tests showed no such problems so far. 
I do wonder why Tivo now shows both the old Hulu Plus & the new Hulu App on the Programmers screen. I just turned the old one off as I do not see why I would want both ?
I also noticed a whole new Opera Apps Store with many of the old Apps now gone like all the Networks. Not much there that I would use that I could see now.
Now if they would just add CBS all Acess , SlingTv & PS Vue apps & maybe a few more They would be an almost perfect cordcutter solution.


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## jollygrunt777 (Feb 28, 2012)

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll check it out when I get home from work.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

If you lookup a show via Search and then play it on Hulu, does it automatically use the new app?


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## mark1958 (Feb 13, 2005)

TivoJD said:


> Hi all, last night I received the new Hulu app on my 3 Roamio boxes. I have an OTA, Plus and a basic. All 3 boxes show 2 Hulu apps now, Hulu and Hulu Plus. I did watch a show, no issues with drop outs. None of the Minis have it yet though even after connections and power cycles.


I checked my Pro's and can confirm there are 2 Hulu app's now, Hulu & Hulu plus


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## jollygrunt777 (Feb 28, 2012)

It's definitely better than the old app, but I'm still having buffer problems where it pauses for a second, or two, and shows "loading".

I switched to Hulu app on my Roku to see if the same issue would show up, but it plays smoothly at 1080p.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Everything was good at first. Modern UI with access to Showtime. Content streaming in native 24p. Picture quality as good as in the older Hulu Plus app. Rewind during playback worked well with quick play resumption. But while watching a CW show just now, the Hulu app hung on a black screen after the final ad break and wouldn't go back into the show. No button presses had any effect. I had to unplug the power cord from the back of my Roamio OTA and reboot the whole machine. Hope this doesn't happen again. If so, it's a worse fail than the old Hulu Plus app.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

No love for the Minis yet, I had thought the Minis, especially with a Bolt on the account should have received priority for the new Hulu App so the OnePass will work.

My Roamio Pro no longer even lists Hulu Plus in "My Video Providers", just the new Hulu.

My XL4 still only has the Hulu Plus App.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Not on my Minis yet either. 

But glad to see it on my Roamio. :up:


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## TivoJD (Feb 8, 2005)

Hulu Plus gone as of last night, now only the new Hulu app remains on Roamios. Minis still have the old one.


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## wouldworker (Sep 7, 2004)

The new app resolves the problems I had with the old app (screen going black, scrambled video, missing captions) but it's also better at playing ads. The old app would often pause to play ads but then go right back to the show without playing any. The new app plays the ads without fail.


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## TivoJD (Feb 8, 2005)

wouldworker said:


> The new app resolves the problems I had with the old app (screen going black, scrambled video, missing captions) but it's also better at playing ads. The old app would often pause to play ads but then go right back to the show without playing any. The new app plays the ads without fail.


yeah, I was hoping the ad part didn't get fixed ...


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## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

Yeah - having a Hulu app that failed to play most of the ads made the Hulu app on the TiVo the preferred Hulu app in our house.


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## senorgregster (Nov 12, 2005)

I only received one Hulu app. I believe it is the plus app as it asks me to sign in? This was a few days ago. Is that what everyone is seeing? I see mention of two apps.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

senorgregster said:


> I only received one Hulu app. I believe it is the plus app as it asks me to sign in? This was a few days ago. Is that what everyone is seeing? I see mention of two apps.


The new app is called "Hulu" in the TiVo interface. The old one is being killed off.


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## JohnS-MI (Jan 25, 2014)

So I'm a little confused. Hulu used to be free/ad supported when viewed on your computer, but not available on Tivo, Roku, etc. Hulu Plus was subscription and was available on Tivo, Roku, etc.

Is Hulu 100% subscription now, on computers, Tivo, Roku, any device. Is the subscription $7.99 with ads, $11.99 with "hardly any" ads per month now? They don't explain it very well on their site.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

It is all just Hulu now. I don't know if there is still any free content but the paid services are at the proves you quoted with hardly any commercials and commercial free. There is a hitch on commercial free. Some shows require commercials per their contract so they show you one at the start and one at the end (im sure no one hangs around for the latter).


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## senorgregster (Nov 12, 2005)

I just looked on Hulu as well. They've really made it confusing. It looks like free Hulu via a browser still works. This is really deceptive.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Just showed up on one of my minis. So did the updated MLB app.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

senorgregster said:


> I just looked on Hulu as well. They've really made it confusing. It looks like free Hulu via a browser still works. This is really deceptive.


Dropping "Plus" from the paid services name is deceptive? My guess is they dropped the "Plus" because there are now several different levels of paid services versus only one paid option when they started using "Plus".

However I do agree that figuring out what you have to pay for and what is available on devices if you do pay has always been somewhat confusing.


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## senorgregster (Nov 12, 2005)

atmuscarella said:


> Dropping "Plus" from the paid services name is deceptive? My guess is they dropped the "Plus" because there are now several different levels of paid services versus only one paid option when they started using "Plus".
> 
> However I do agree that figuring out what you have to pay for and what is available on devices if you do pay has always been somewhat confusing.


A lot of people want options for free access to shows and know that meant (now past tense by looks of it) getting Hulu and avoiding Hulu Plus. Now ads show Tivo (and I'm guessing other streaming devices) with the plain Hulu logo rather than the Hulu Plus logo. It will trick a lot of people into mistakenly buying devices. Deceptive - yes.

Edit: Here is an article on the change. Seems it was a while ago. I haven't kept up with it. Either way, I'm not a fan since Hulu was synonymous with free access. 
http://www.businessinsider.com/why-hulu-dropped-the-plus-from-name-2015-6


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

atmuscarella said:


> Dropping "Plus" from the paid services name is deceptive? My guess is they dropped the "Plus" because there are now several different levels of paid services versus only one paid option when they started using "Plus".
> 
> However I do agree that figuring out what you have to pay for and what is available on devices if you do pay has always been somewhat confusing.


Yeah. And from a branding standpoint, Hulu Plus didn't really catch on. If you were a paid subscriber, you still just said you subscribed to "Hulu," not "Hulu Plus". Having those sorts of wording differences can create confusion in the public mind.

And remember that when Hulu started out, free ad-supported access to shows via web browsers was their only offering. Then they launched the same content via mobile and set-top apps as a paid subscription and called it Hulu Plus. Over time, the library of content available to Hulu Plus (but not at the free Hulu.com site) continued to grow. For some time now, that paid subscription offering has clearly been their main thrust, not a side business. So giving the paid service/app the flagship brand name "Hulu" makes sense. Meanwhile, their original business model of free ad-supported content in browsers has been deprecated. If you're not a paid Hulu sub and go to Hulu.com, you basically just see a big ad to become one. At the bottom of the page there's a tiny little link to "enjoy sample content," which includes the last few eps of only certain shows.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

The new Hulu app is now on all my Minis. :up:


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

My initial impression was that the HD picture quality was as good in this new Hulu app as it had been in the old one but having used it a fair amount over the past six weeks or so, there have been several times when I've thought that just wasn't the case. In some instances, I've noticed the picture not looking as sharp, kinda blurry, and even somewhat pixellated in some intricate fast motion scenes.

I've noticed that this new Hulu app's video quality settings max out at 1.5 Mbps while the old one went up to (I think) 3.2 Mbps. (1.5 Mbps is *really* low, even for 720p stereo in h.264.) 

So I fired up the Hulu app on my Apple TV 3 and watched a scene that I had recently noticed looking particularly bad in the new TiVo Hulu app. Sure enough, it looked much better on the Apple TV. I could see the difference in a number of scenes on various shows. I don't know why, but it appears that Hulu doesn't provide its best quality HD streams to every version of their app.

So, on top of the instability issues with this new app (it completely froze up my TiVo again last night), it would appear that it gets served second-rate quality video. TiVo continues to be the red-headed stepchild among Hulu clients.


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## alleybj (Dec 6, 2000)

NashGuy said:


> My initial impression was that the HD picture quality was as good in this new Hulu app as it had been in the old one but having used it a fair amount over the past six weeks or so, there have been several times when I've thought that just wasn't the case. In some instances, I've noticed the picture not looking as sharp, kinda blurry, and even somewhat pixellated in some intricate fast motion scenes.
> 
> I've noticed that this new Hulu app's video quality settings max out at 1.5 Mbps while the old one went up to (I think) 3.2 Mbps. (1.5 Mbps is *really* low, even for 720p stereo in h.264.)
> 
> ...


I've also noticed that Hulu on my Appletv has a significantly better picture than Hulu on my RoamioPlus. It used to be the other way around.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

alleybj said:


> I've also noticed that Hulu on my Appletv has a significantly better picture than Hulu on my RoamioPlus. It used to be the other way around.


I can't say I ever recall it looking better on the old Flash-based TiVo app than it did on Apple TV; they looked about the same to me. But the new TiVo app definitely looks worse than either of those two. Glad someone else's eyes confirm that.


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## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

I've been thinking about subscribing to commercial-free Hulu on my Roamio now that the app has been updated. 

720p at 1.5Mbps? Good grief.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

mrizzo80 said:


> I've been thinking about subscribing to commercial-free Hulu on my Roamio now that the app has been updated.
> 
> 720p at 1.5Mbps? Good grief.


I know. But it looks better than you would think for such a low bitrate. That said, Netflix used to encode their 720p streams at 2.35 and 3.0 Mbps (before they moved to their current custom-bitrate-ladder-per-title scheme).

http://techblog.netflix.com/2015/12/per-title-encode-optimization.html

So clearly, 1.5Mbps is low. (Good heavens, just read through the article above and see what care Netflix takes in delivering the best possible quality balanced against bandwidth considerations. And then think about how Hulu wants to be considered a "big boy" streaming service in the same league as Netflix, despite the fact that they top out with 720p video and stereo audio. Sad.)

I wonder if Hulu's new HTML5 app for TiVo is limited to 1.5Mbps because that's the max bitrate that Hulu allows in web browsers? Seems like I've read that it is. And Opera HTML5 apps like TiVo and various smart TVs use are essentially just full-screen web browsers without any app controls showing.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Depends on the frame rate if that's low. If that's for 24fps content it's not that bad. If it's 60fps then that's really low. 

Although it looks fine to me. Compared to my over compressed cable it looks pretty good actually.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

The Hulu app on the Bolt top out at 6Mbps

Premiere, Roamio, & Minis
The drop to 1.5Mbps on the new Hulu app is relatively new, when the new Hulu app was first added it did top out at 3.2Mbps, but there wasn't the Auto option either.

The Hulu app on my Samsung TV still has 3.2Mbps as an option, but no Auto option.

Hulu seems to have implemented a "hard" 1 stream at a time limit, and it now takes over five minutes to clear the previous device session before I am able to access Hulu on another device. That 5 minute delay only applies if I exit Hulu with the TiVo button or Live TV. If I exit Hulu via the Hulu menu, then the session is cleared instantly.

From the Hulu Help:
https://help.hulu.com/articles/20196801
For a smooth playback experience, a broadband internet connection is required. The most common causes for stuttering or buffering videos are a slow download speed and an inconsistent wireless connection. We require a download speed of *at least 3 Mbps for High Definition* videos and 1.5 Mbps for Standard Definition videos.​


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

CoxInPHX said:


> The Hulu app on the Bolt top out at 6Mbps
> 
> Premiere, Roamio, & Minis
> The drop to 1.5Mbps on the new Hulu app is relatively new, when the new Hulu app was first added it did top out at 3.2Mbps, but there wasn't the Auto option either.


Wait, are you saying that when the new HTML5 Hulu app was added to the Roamio several weeks ago, it originally allowed a max bitrate of 3.2 Mbps but has since dropped down to 1.5? Or are you just confirming my recollection that the old Flash-based Hulu Plus app for Roamio had a 3.2 Mbps max?

I can't imagine any reason why Hulu would allow 6Mbps on the Bolt but only 1.5 on the Roamio. Netflix, Amazon and Vudu all stream with bitrates as high or higher than 6Mbps on the Roamio.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

Yes, the new HTML5 Hulu app on Premiere, Roamio & Minis did have a 3.2Mbps setting until 3-4 weeks ago. I noticed the change on April 20th, but the "Auto" setting was not listed when 3.2Mbps was still an option.

I have no idea why the Roamio and Minis do not allow 3.2Mbps any longer, I assume "Auto" will reach 3Mbps, because that is Hulu's minimum requirement for HD, as posted above.

The Bolt only shows the 6Mbps option on certain titles, Hulu original content has 6Mbps, but The CW shows only have a 3.2Mbps option.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

CoxInPHX said:


> Yes, the new HTML5 Hulu app on Premiere, Roamio & Minis did have a 3.2Mbps setting until 3-4 weeks ago. I noticed the change on April 20th, but the "Auto" setting was not listed when 3.2Mbps was still an option.
> 
> I have no idea why the Roamio and Minis do not allow 3.2Mbps any longer, I assume "Auto" will reach 3Mbps, because that is Hulu's minimum requirement for HD, as posted above.
> 
> The Bolt only shows the 6Mbps option on certain titles, Hulu original content has 6Mbps, but The CW shows only have a 3.2Mbps option.


Hmm. Interesting. I had assumed "Auto" would just automatically select from the bitrate choices listed underneath in the menu, with 1.5Mbps being the maximum. I did try switching back and forth between Auto and 1.5 on my Roamio while watching Angie Tribeca (TBS) -- I'm not sure I could see any difference. It looks like either low-quality HD or very-high-quality SD. Hard to say. At any rate, "Auto" on my Roamio definitely doesn't look as good as the same material in the Hulu app on my Apple TV 3. (I have a 25Mbps internet connection via ethernet for both boxes, BTW.)

I also tried streaming episodes of the Hulu original series The Path and 11.22.63 on my Roamio. I checked and the bitrates settings menu was the same on both, nothing higher than 1.5Mbps was shown, except for Auto. Playback at Auto didn't look any better for those shows than it did for non-original content and, at times, even looked worse. So I don't think Hulu serves its originals at 6Mbps to Roamios at all.

I should also mention that the TiVo Hulu app froze up two different times this evening when I tried switching bitrates in the playback settings menu; the second time I had to physically unplug the power cord on the TiVo to reboot it. Good stuff.


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## CZBrat (Dec 26, 2002)

NashGuy said:


> My initial impression was that the HD picture quality was as good in this new Hulu app as it had been in the old one but having used it a fair amount over the past six weeks or so, there have been several times when I've thought that just wasn't the case. In some instances, I've noticed the picture not looking as sharp, kinda blurry, and even somewhat pixellated in some intricate fast motion scenes.
> 
> I've noticed that this new Hulu app's video quality settings max out at 1.5 Mbps while the old one went up to (I think) 3.2 Mbps. (1.5 Mbps is *really* low, even for 720p stereo in h.264.)
> 
> ...


IMO, I wish Tivo would get the vendors apps in shape. I find the quality from Hulu on Apple TV superior vs Tivo, dont know why. HBO works on Apple TV but not on Xfinity with Tivo. So I find myself switching between Tivo and AppleTV. Oh and Vudu works on Tivo but not on AppleTV....

Sent from my VS990 using Tapatalk


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

CZBrat said:


> IMO, I wish Tivo would get the vendors apps in shape.


TiVo is a great DVR but a second-rate streaming box. That's just how it is, at least for now.


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