More Hulu+ Gripes

As I’ve continued on in my Survivor binge, I’ve discovered more “problems” with Hulu that make it frustrating for me to use. I’ve started using it on my AppleTV (a birthday present that I love!) but it’s difficult to get the streaming across all my devices. I guess my main comparison of the site is to Netflix and its interface but without further ado, here’s part II of my Hulu+ gripes.

Queue feature – I tried to start using Hulu’s queue feature and it’s very confusing and not at all helpful. Unlike Netflix that allows you to add full seasons of shows to your queue, Hulu+ is more geared towards new episodes and whatever is currently playing on TV. This means that the feature only adds new episodes that recently aired and only after you join and log-in. So if I want to add the entirety of season 21 of Survivor, I can’t just add the show to my queue because it’s not newly airing. Instead, I have to individually add each episode of the season into my queue. That’s 15 more clicks of the mouse than I’m willing to do. The closest thing they have to just adding the season is adding the show to my favorites. By adding it to my favorites, I can easily access the show without searching for it and it will save my spot. On my AppleTV, if I finish an episode, however, it won’t know to automatically line up the next one to watch, though it does this on the site.

Browser resize – Hulu doesn’t resize the window for viewing when you change the browser size which makes it so that your window always has to be a certain size. It makes it hard to watch things in the background and make the window smaller so you can work on something else in the foreground.

Device compatibility – After subscribing to Hulu+, you can access your account and stream episodes and movies on several devices, with a caveat, not all the shows can be streamed to your mobile devices (AppleTV included). That means I have to keep track of which shows can be streamed and which ones can’t.

Their show advertising – I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: those Hulu exclusive shows are irritating. None of the advertisings look even remotely compelling to watch. I don’t know if it’s the way they’re presented or just that I don’t see any familiar faces in them, but I find them just so annoying. I’d rather watch a car ad then these Hulu exclusive shows.

Well, there you have it, Part II of things I wish could change about Hulu. If I could get my Survivor binge elsewhere I would, but for now Hulu+ holds the treasure among the rubble.

I read a great article here about why author Simon Dumenco both loves and hates Hulu and I think he does a pretty good job of explaining the problems. I aspire to write better and this is a great example of an article and less of  paragraph-list like mine.