Tag Archives | Hulu

Hulu Plus Now Cheaper and Free to Try

Posted by Jared Newman on November 17, 2010 at 8:51 am

Hulu announced today that the preview phase of Hulu Plus is over, and that the service now costs $8 per month.

If you’ve been paying $10 per month during the preview period, Hulu will credit the difference to your account. And if you haven’t tried Hulu Plus, the site is offering free one-week trials (current subscribers will get a free week as well) and a referral program that gives two free weeks to subscribers and the people they sign up. Sony’s Bravia TVs and connected Blu-ray players come with 11 free weeks, and Roku boxes get a free month.

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Hulu Plus Now Open to All

Posted by Jared Newman on November 4, 2010 at 4:55 pm

If you’re itching to pay $10 per month for Hulu Plus, you no longer have to get an invitation to the party.

Hulu announced today that its premium service is now open to everyone. Hulu Plus is still technically in its preview stage, but at least now you can try the service without waiting for an arbitrary go-ahead. (For Playstation 3 users, the service will stop requiring a Playstation Plus subscription within the next week.)

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Roku and TiVo Will Get Hulu Plus This Year

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 29, 2010 at 10:52 am

Good news for Roku and TiVo fans: Roku and TiVo Premiere boxes are getting Hulu’s Hulu Plus service later this Fall. For ten bucks a month, Plus subscribers will be able to get scads of new TV episodes and a sizable back catalog of old stuff, and Roku and TiVo will let them watch it all on their TVs.

It’s good news for Roku and TiVo, too, since Hulu Plus will be an attractive offering that won’t be available on Apple’s Apple TV. I’ll be curious to see which is a bigger hit: Hulu Plus’s all-you-can-eat TV shows with ads, or Apple’s 99-cent HD TV rentals.

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Forget Hulu Plus, PlayOn Works on iPad (Sort Of)

Posted by Jared Newman on August 2, 2010 at 8:52 am

While Harry was writing a short post about PlayOn’s iPhone web app, I immediately started trying to run the streaming video service on the iPad as well. I’m happy to say that with a bit of trickery, I’m now able to watch videos from Hulu, CBS.com and more from the iPad, without paying for Hulu Plus.

To do this, you’ll need a Windows PC, the latest version of PlayOn (you can try it free for 14 days, and the paid version is much cheaper than Hulu Plus), and Atomic Web Browser, an alternative iPad browser that costs $1. You’ll also want a bit of patience, because PlayOn doesn’t officially support the iPad right now and the workaround isn’t flawless.

The trick is simple: In Atomic Web, go to “Settings,” then hit “Identify Browser As,” then select “Mobile Safari – iPhone.” This fools PlayOn’s mobile website into thinking you’re visiting from an iPhone, so it won’t redirect you back to the PlayOn homepage.

Now, run PlayOn on your computer, then visit m.playon.tv on the iPad. Press the button to connect with your PC, and you’re in. Just look at all that content!

Fair warning on some glitches: Each menu page may take a couple seconds to load, and you might stare at a black screen momentarily before videos start playing. Don’t start tapping buttons wildly, just wait it out. Also, my computer slowed down considerably and my router dropped its connection after using PlayOn’s mobile site, but I haven’t experimented enough to say whether those are one-time bugs, critical flaws or total coincidence.

I’m now seriously considering a lifetime PlayOn license (as an aside, I’m thrilled that PlayOn now offers a flat-rate alternative to its yearly subscription plan). PlayOn only works over a home network with a PC in tow, so iPhone support doesn’t really interest me, because I won’t watch video at home on such a small screen. But with iPad support, I can watch Hulu in bed, or subscribe to MLB.tv without also having to buy the $15 iPad app. Until PlayOn adds iPad support officially, or Apple approves PlayOn’s native apps, this workaround is going to be great.

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We Need Real Answers on Playstation Plus and Hulu Plus

Posted by Jared Newman on July 5, 2010 at 7:44 pm

Sony’s customers are still in the dark on whether the premium Playstation Plus service will be required to watch Hulu Plus on the Playstation 3, even as more unverified information comes in.

Last week, I discovered that Hulu Plus on the PS3 may require a Playstation Plus subscription ($50 per year or $18 quarterly), based on some code hidden in one of Hulu’s Web pages. I e-mailed Sony and Hulu for a response, but heard nothing. Sony later dismissed the report as “rumors and speculation,” which is an odd thing to say given that Hulu’s own website provided the evidence.

Now, Playstation Lifestyle reports that PS Plus will only be required during Hulu Plus’ preview period. Invitations for that preview are going out in batches, but there’s no word on when the service will be available to all.

But Playstation Lifestyle’s story doesn’t come straight from Sony or Hulu, either. The source may actually be a Reddit commenter who reached out to Hulu’s generic support line. By Sony’s rules, we can dismiss the second-hand response as “rumors and speculation” as well.

This isn’t the first time Sony has gone dark, letting unverified information fill the news vacuum. At the end of February, owners of non-Slim Playstation 3s discovered that their consoles weren’t working, and they risked losing data just by turning on their consoles. Sony didn’t warn people about the data loss until 16 hours after first acknowledging problems. Meanwhile, PS3 owners were left to fend for themselves in Internet forums, attempting to answer many of the questions Sony never did.

The Hulu Plus situation isn’t as urgent, but with Playstation Plus up and running, subscribers shouldn’t have to get their information from the rumor mill. Sony should explain Hulu Plus pricing to its customers, either by confirming what we’ve seen and heard or acknowledging that the details are still up in the air.

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