00:00 Today we're talking about Hulu with Live TV, hereafter known as Hulu Live, because
I'm too lazy to say the entire thing.
Anyway, when it comes to Hulu Live, it, just like Hulu itself, it's great on paper.
There are a few things, though, that are, in practice, maybe not quite so great.
Technically, you should know that Hulu Live is still in Beta.
They've been in Beta for what seems like forever.
Also, compared to some of their competitors, there seem to be some reliability issues.
There have been two recent big-time outages where the Live TV feed has essentially cut,
so that's something to be aware of.
It's great that they're still in Beta, because they can use that as an excuse, but it may
be an issue for you to be aware of.
Anyway, when it comes to the details, though, let's take a look at those.
Let's dive in and look at Hulu Live.
One of my favorite things about Hulu Live is the simplicity of its pricing.
We'll get to what that pricing is compared to the other services, but one of the things
I like about it is that it's, well, it's simple.
There aren't a bunch of tiers to navigate.
There may be an unremarkable channel count.
It's an average number of channels that you would get with the streaming over-the-top
service like this.
But you don't have to worry about, do I want 20 channels or 50 channels or 80 channels?
There's just one tier.
I'm a sucker for simplicity so for me, that goes in the strengths column.
As for another strength for Hulu Live, local channels are a big deal.
Now, Hulu Live has the most volume of local channels nationwide, just the sheer number
of local channels available.
As far as population coverage, it's not as strong as, say, YouTube TV, and so it all
kind of depends on which market you're in, as far as which channels are going to be available.
So, make sure you look into that before you take Hulu for a test drive.
Other features that I like, they do have some add-ons that allow for extra DVR and unlimited
streams, as long as you're doing those unlimited streams at home.
I'll get to more of that in just a moment, but those make the service a little bit more
palatable for me.
The other thing that I love is Hulu Live is part of Hulu, and so if you get it, you get
access to all of the regular Hulu content as well.
As far as original content, they do have some strong original content, and a huge nostalgia
factor.
That's one of Hulu's strengths going back a ways.
So, if you like old Criterion movies, or old sitcoms, what have you, there's a lot of that
available on Hulu.
That all comes with Hulu Live.
Not a bad deal.
As for things that are neither strengths nor really weaknesses, I would say price on this
one, it's average.
It's right in line with everybody else, 40 bucks a month for Hulu Live.
You can get the no-commercials version for 44 bucks.
That does not mean you get no commercials on Live TV.
It just means that the on-demand content, the regular Hulu content, has no commercials.
That's 44 bucks.
I would definitely say it's worth the extra few bucks a month to get the no-commercials
version.
As for the video quality, I would also put this in the category of neither a strength
nor a weakness.
It was good video quality.
I saw a little bit of blurring around the edges, but nothing egregious, and it's hard
to judge all that, since it's so dependent on what your internet connection is at that
moment.
Now, Hulu Live does have some weaknesses.
The extra features that I mentioned are pretty pricey.
The DVR that comes with Hulu Live gives you 50 hours a month, and that's going to run
out in a blink.
However, you can upgrade for 15 bucks a month to get 200 hours.
That's just not a lot of DVR time.
You're going to see that fill up really fast, and 15 bucks is a lot to pay every month for
just a little bit of DVR capability.
The other thing is, unlimited streams, also 15 bucks a month.
Now, the unlimited streams means that you can't share it with all your friends.
It's only unlimited streams within your household.
They keep track of that by tracking your IP address.
So, it's only within your household.
If you have a big family, a lot of people are tuning in to Hulu a lot, then it's something
that may be worth it for you.
Otherwise, 15 bucks a month is a lot to pay for unlimited streams.
Now, with the interface, the interface is a big thing for Hulu, because, well, frankly,
everybody hates it, and I'm one of them.
I don't really like the interface for Hulu.
It's something that they really need to get a handle on.
That's a big weakness for me.
The channel guide is a big deal when it comes to that.
The channel guide, actually, only tells you what's on, not what's coming up, which seems
a little bit weird.
The recommendation algorithm is also something where you want it recommend new movies or
TV shows for you.
Their recommendation algorithm is pretty terrible, as far as I'm concerned.
Getting to the DVR recordings within that interface is also not a great experience.
And once you do get into that DVR, something to be aware of is that instead of shutting
off any auto-recordings you have, if you fill up your DVR capacity, it'll simply delete
all of your old shows and keep recording the new ones.
That may be what you prefer.
I don't know.
But for me, it was very annoying once that DVR filled up to see all those old shows just
get deleted without me being the one to go in there and do that.
But, that may not be a big deal for you.
So do we recommend Hulu TV, Hulu with Live TV?
I'll say it one more time, I suppose.
Maybe.
Yeah, I think I would recommend it if you're already a Hulu user.
If you're a heavy Hulu user, then it's nice if you want the Live TV to add this on to
there.
But for anybody else, I might point them toward one of the competitors to Hulu?
But that's the beauty of free trials.
If you're curious about it and you want to give it a try, they'll do a seven day free
trial for you, so you can hop in there, give it a shot, see what you like, see what you
don't like.
And there's no contract anyway, so if you do want to do it for a month or two or three
months, you can always find out whether you like it and then cancel anytime.
That's one of my favorite things about any streaming TV service is no contract.
So, give it a shot.
Let us know what you think, whether you've already tried it or you sign up for it after
watching this video.
Let us know what you think.
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