Well, Hulu+ is now live, and it looks like the price dropped to $7.99. I just played with it a little bit and things seem to work pretty well. I noticed the outer edges were cropped a little bit, but that could be something on my end, only noticed it on the ads since the "your show will resume in 30 seconds" text was cropped. Anyone else tried it yet?

Congrats to all the Roku folks for what looks like a clean rollout.

Yup, edges are cropped on my traditional CRT TV.

Also, there are occasional audio drop-outs.

I like the interface and Netflix should take notice of a feature that many people have been asking for for years... While playing a video, you can press the DOWN ARROW to see the TIME LINE BAR and EPISODE INFO.

I noticed the clipping as well on my Sony HDTV. Not sure if there's a preference somewhere in the Hulu settings that might remedy that.

The image quality was generally good and I didn't have any drops (audio or video). The commercial placement for the show I watched (first episode of "No Ordinary Family") seemed to match the natural act breaks for the story and were clearly marked in the progress bar, just like with regular Hulu episodes off the web.

One other thing I found interesting was that the show had the logo of my local ABC affiliate (KOMO 4 in Seattle) in one of the lower corners of the screen. Pretty much the same thing you see on just about any TV broadcast (because heaven forbid they lose an opportunity to brand something ), but I thought it was interesting that it was specific to my viewing area.

Davis wrote:

I like the interface and Netflix should take notice of a feature that many people have been asking for for years... While playing a video, you can press the DOWN ARROW to see the TIME LINE BAR and EPISODE INFO.

That's great and also works on Hulu+. When you press the down arrow key or pause a program while watching Hulu+ you get the time bar that shows how much time has elapsed in the program/movie and how much time is left, and also the option to turn auto play on/off and closed caption on/off although I have not tried that yet. Auto play works for sure. Navigation is similar to ps3 from what I have checked so far.

Great add to the Roku. One cappy hamper here, good times!


Peace

brett

keithshields wrote:

The commercial placement for the show I watched (first episode of "No Ordinary Family") seemed to match the natural act breaks for the story and were clearly marked in the progress bar, just like with regular Hulu episodes off the web.

I've only noticed the odd commercial breaks when watching something that didn't have the breaks originally, like a movie or something. I'm guessing they insert the breaks in the normal spots for current TV programs, but when it's something that didn't have natural breaks, they just have a timing algorithm that sticks them in wherever.

I watched a couple of 30 minute shows and didn't have any audio drop outs or video glitches. Quality looks decent to me.

I've only gotten to play with it briefly this morning, but so far I like what I see. The interface is nice and the popup while the video is playing is an awesome feature. Desparately needed for netflix.

Not a huge fan of Black interfaces, primarily b/c LCD panels have always had trouble with true blacks. Some of the newer LED sets may be OK, but older and/or cheaper sets will show more of a grey.

I also like the new $7.99 price. Not as good ast he rumored $4.99, but still better than $9.99.

I think the addition of hulu plus will likely cause me to cancel my monthly TiVo.

First impression after 3 hrs with Hulu Plus:
PRO:
Very happy with $3 drop in price to 7.99 a month
Picture quality for Detroit 187 was terrific on my HDTV.
Sound was terrific on my Bose home theatre.
Tons of shows available.

CON:
UI leaves a lot to be desired. Too many clicks to move around. Searching takes some time. Really bad UI.

HUGE CON:
Some shows web only (Fringe - for one)
Thats ridiculous. You pay 7.99 and one or two big shows get left to web only from the same network that has virtually all their other shows? I'm guessing there is some rights reason to do it. It's still horsecrap on someone's part.

Overall, I'm paying the money and almost ready to ditch sat tv.

Does Hulu+ on Roku support CC/subtitles?

Losan wrote:

Does Hulu+ on Roku support CC/subtitles?

Yes

Davis wrote:

Yup, edges are cropped on my traditional CRT TV.

Also, there are occasional audio drop-outs.

I like the interface and Netflix should take notice of a feature that many people have been asking for for years... While playing a video, you can press the DOWN ARROW to see the TIME LINE BAR and EPISODE INFO.

Same here on my SD TV... but I am just REALLY happy I can watch recently aired shows! Woo hoo!

I was able to stream 2 different shows to 2 different Rokus at the same time. Not sure if that is simply an oversite or they will allow it in the future, either way I'm pleased

I also noticed that the top and sides are slightly cut off. So far on 2 TVs.

I test out the Huluplus channel a little bit. I was not able to try much of it now, but looking forward to checking more out later. I notice it does Close captions.

I think you can watch more then one stream at a time. Will, it work for me anyway. Hopefully that is not a glitch. Also notice that if your have a Chase Card you can get a month free. Now that is cool.

Now for the big question. How do I know that I'm getting a HD video. Will the video I tested looks great. But all in all I think Roku and Hulu did great on this channel. I hope they bring the time-bar with the options of CC (on movie info) to other channels soon. However, I think that might not be available in the SDK just yet. I'm thinking the next one.

PS. I wonder how many people are going to try out huluplus (on the Roku).

I noticed the cropping on both my widescreen TV and the older ones. There's also a minor update you need to do first if you haven't already (for the recent build) and when you add Hulu, you'll have to do a second update (fast and simple one).

I was able to subscribe to four devices BUT only watch on one at a time. When I started a show on one TV and tried to start a show on another TV it told me I could only play on one device at a time. I would have to stop the other device playing. An earlier poster said he was able to run it on two devices--were they both Rokus?

I actually prefer the UI on the Roku over the blu-ray. When you added all the shows to your queue to the blu-ray, you'd have to cycle through all of them to get to the shows in the beginning. In the Roku, they're grouped by show. Much better.

I like the price drop. Would prefer another perhaps higher priced option for commercial free, but we'll see how it goes for now. At the lower price, I'll probably keep it around as an option. It's not that expensive.

It isn't Netflix (and I sure hope Netflix doesn't get any ideas for commercials) but it is nice to have another solid alternative. The video quality is good so far. We'll see what happens with commercial breaks and buffering. Hopefully no buffering issues.

And finally...no more forum entries asking for Hulu. Rahoo!

With this news, I'm a happy camper this morning..

BTW, there is a free one-week trial for you to try it out.