Tech Olive

Hulu’s new paid subscription service marks a revolutionary step for watching television content online. $10 a month gets you entire seasons of numerous TV shows and the ability to stream them in HD, as well as watch content on your iPhone, iPad, and PS3. However, is it good enough to ditch your current cable/satellite provider and stick solely with Hulu Plus? We’ll find out, thanks to the guys over at Hulu, who gave us an invite to check out their new service.

First off, Hulu Plus isn’t actually a separate hub from the free Hulu that you know and love. It’s built into the website mixed in with the free content, which we like. All you do is login and it automatically switches over to Hulu Plus (assuming you paid the $10 first).

A huge feature about Hulu Plus is the ability to watch content in 720p HD. I knew Hulu would be bringing HD streaming eventually, and finally we get to experience that. However, not all paid content is in HD. There are quite a few shows that only have the most recent season in HD. All the others were in 480p standard def. So don’t expect the ability to watch everything in higher def.

The quality of the HD streams are pretty decent. Not great, but decent. Below is a screenshot of a 720p HD stream that is maximized on a 22-inch 1680×1050 monitor (Click for full size).

Of course, we also hooked up to a 32-inch HDTV to see what that was like. Again, the quality was decent, but not great. However, we were ecstatic to be watching an HD stream of a Family Guy episode that actually looked good (even if it was still 4:3).

Now let’s talk about Hulu for the iPhone. I know we’re a PC-only blog, but this is a big feature of Hulu Plus and we’d be crazy to just skip over it. Please spare me a few minutes while I share a quick video walkthrough of the Hulu Plus iPhone app:

Not only is Hulu Plus available on the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad, but it will also be available for the PS3, as well as newer Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players when Hulu Plus officially launches later this month. They’re also planning on adding Hulu Plus to the Xbox 360 for Live Gold subscribers sometime in “early 2011″ and also newer Sony and Vizio TVs and Blu-ray players this Fall.

One big question that I asked myself (and I’m sure most people will) was “would I ditch my cable and just go with Hulu Plus?”

The simple answer is, “Maybe.”

One big gripe that I have is that Hulu doesn’t have all of my favorite TV shows. It doesn’t have any CBS shows, nor does it have anything from the Discovery Channel, TLC, History Channel, etc. Granted, Hulu links you to different network websites where you can watch these shows on their own websites, but that’s not as fun and can be more restricting with less features.

Then again, I’d only be paying $10/month, instead of several tens of dollars a month. And instead of having cable TV tell me what I’m watching, I can watch anything (restricted to Hulu’s catalog) at anytime, no questions asked.

So, I’m still up in the air about whether or not I’ll keep paying $10/month for Hulu Plus. Chances are I’ll spend the rest of my life deciding, and in the mean time I’ll still be spending $10/month for Hulu Plus.

Currently, Hulu Plus is invite only. So if you feel lucky, you can head on over to Hulu’s email submission page and pray that you get in, but don’t come crying to us if you’re left in the dust.