Hulu and Hulu Plus

[Huey]

Didn't see a specific thread about Hulu, so if there is one, mods please merge. Was going to watch something yesterday on HBO Now, but for some reason it wanted me to log on, I couldn't remember which email or password I used, and any that I tried, I couldn't even get a link to reset the password.

So I had been contemplating getting Hulu as I had missed a couple of Stargate Atlantis episodes before Amazon pulled them last year. Starting the one month trial was easy enough, most of the info was already on there from the Roku, and within minutes I was watching Stargate Atlantis. I got ask, is the picture quality always this bad? It looked only slightly better than dvd. Maybe it's because it's an older show, but it always looked fine on Amazon. Is the quality of Hulu generally poor like this?

 

[mzpro5]

I watch alot of content on Hulu and the PQ is always pretty good.

Now the new user interface, that is another story.

 

[Huey]

I watch alot of content on Hulu and the PQ is always pretty good.

Now the new user interface, that is another story.

I hadn't used the old one, so I have nothing to compare the new one to, but the new one does seem to be clunky as not as intuitive as the Netflix app. I'll have to search out other shows, but Stargate Atlantis looked like dvd quality. Also, it was only ProLogic. Is that common for Hulu?

 

[Flint]

I am watching much less Hulu than I used to because of the interface.

I haven't had issues with image quality as it always looked almost as good as the HD broadcasts it replaces. However, they just updated the app on my Amazon Fire TV devices, so maybe it has changed.

..

 

[Huey]

I was wondering if there was a setting I was missing or something, or maybe they use a lower resolution on the trial?

 

[Haywood]

Picture quality on Hulu is generally comparable to Netflix and Amazon, minus the fact that they do not have 4K content. The main downside is that they only support 2.0 sound. A good deal of the reason I keep it is to provide payment for content I acquire through alternative means, though my wife and older daughter do enjoy the large catalog of Asian dramas and Anime shows.

 

[Huey]

So I watched the very last episode of Stargate Atlantis last night, and picture looked HD, but it was very choppy. Almost like an old silent movie choppy. After a few minutes it would smooth out, that is until it came to a commercial break. I'm trying the month free version Hulu Plus, so there isn't really any commercials, but a brief cut scene of Atlantis. But that starts the loading process all over, so it goes back to being choppy for a few minutes. Checked my internet speed this morning, and I was getting 19 mbps, although I thought it was supposed to be thirty, but 19 should be enough to stream HD I would think. It is with Netflix which I have no problems with.

 

[Haywood]

Hulu seems to take a bit longer than Netflix to detect bandwidth and adjust bit-rate. I've got 150Mbps and even I get 10-30 seconds of fuzz and pixelation from time to time. Netflix does the same thing, but for a much shorter duration.

 

[Huey]

Hulu seems to take a bit longer than Netflix to detect bandwidth and adjust bit-rate. I've got 150Mbps and even I get 10-30 seconds of fuzz and pixelation from time to time. Netflix does the same thing, but for a much shorter duration.

Netflix within seconds will go from kind of blurry to their version of HD. At least with me, Hulu takes at least a couple of minutes before it stops dropping frames. I'll have to check out other programs, maybe it's just Stargate.

 

[Haywood]

Netflix within seconds will go from kind of blurry to their version of HD. At least with me, Hulu takes at least a couple of minutes before it stops dropping frames. I'll have to check out other programs, maybe it's just Stargate.

The amount of bandwidth makes a bigger difference than one might expect. While 19Mbps is theoretically more than enough, I have found that it take a lot more than that to get fully optimal streaming performance. Vudu HDX movies, for instance, tend to have average bit-rates of 12Mbps, but peak out at 20Mbps on more complex scenes. Streaming bit-rates are highly variable based on both the available bandwidth and the requirements of the content in the moment. If you have less bandwidth available than the maximum bit-rate requires, you will suffer from quality loss. That is part of the reason why many people find that some streaming services look almost indistinguishable from Blu-Ray and others think they are nuts.

Bit-rates are also highly variable on Blu-Ray discs. I've ripped hundreds of the things (raw with no transcoding) and the resulting files have average bit-rates ranging from 13Mbps to 37Mbps. Most are in the 18-25 range.

 

[Flint]

What hardware are you using? On my PC and Amazon Fire TV I don't experience anything like that. On my phone I do have similar issues.

 

[Haywood]

I've seen it happen on Roku and Android TV.

 

[Flint]

I had huge issues with my 2nd generation Roku player. Both Hulu and CBS were pretty awful on it.

 

[Haywood]

I have a Roku Ultra, which is the current generation top model. I don't get stuttering. I just get the low-rez effect I get on Netflix when I first fire up a show. It just takes a little longer to resolve on Hulu. Android TV is the same.

 

[Huey]

Watching it through a Roku 4 that for the most part, has always played things flawlessly. I started watching Stargate Universe and it played like it should, no dropped frames or lower resolution, so it must be title specific.