Streaming
It used to be that if you were streaming TV shows on the web it was because you were on some shady website that allowed you to watch them all without commercials. Fortunately, the TV companies realized that they can either fight the future or work with it, to our benefit! While you can still find those shady websites out there, why bother when you have two serious players that allow you to watch new and old television shows with ease:
Hulu
Hulu is a free streaming website that has thousands of TV Shows and over 29,000 episodes available to stream. They offer the last five episodes of shows that are currently on the air as well as a few hundred movies (although you’ve probably never heard of most of them). There is no software to download since you stream everything directly from in your browser, although if you are using Plex for your personal media library there is a Plugin available so you can access everything from within plex (slightly buggy though).
One of the downsides to Hulu is that you have to watch commercials. So while you may not be watching TV through your cable or satellite provider, you are still getting all the ads just as if you were. Your stream quality is limited to standard definition (480p), which isn’t great, but hey, it’s better than nothing. Considering that you are viewing everything on a website, it is designed to act like a website would. This means that if you are sitting on your couch, everything is pretty small and hard to read. They may be leading the way with online TV, but they are failing at making it accessible from across the room. The best feature, in my opinion, is that you don’t even need to sign up to start watching, for that I applaud them (but if you do you can track your favorite shows, so it does have some merit).
All in all, Hulu is excellent for when you want to watch something and want a massive, free library to choose from. The interface good, but not great, and if you watch your new shows on a weekly basis, then you will always be up to date. The commercials bug me, because there is literally no difference between watching the show on TV vs Hulu. But if you are trying to cut your cable bill, it’s a necessary evil that keeps it free.
Price: Free!
Website: Hulu
Hulu Plus
Hulu Plus is Hulu you have to pay for, it must be that much better right?! Eh, not really. For $7.99 per month you still get commercials, you get a few extra shows (some are pretty good though), you get movies from the Criterion Collection, you can view select shows in 720p high definition and you can view Hulu on a variety of devices.
I will admit that if you have an HDTV, it does make sense to watch your shows in HD. But is it worth paying an extra $8/month for? Or maybe you travel a lot and accessing Hulu on your iPad is the only surefire way that you can watch all your shows. There are definitely scenarios that warrant the monthly fee, but ultimately it is something you will have to decide.
Hulu vs Hulu Plus Comparison Image
Price: $7.99/month
Website: Hulu
Netflix
Netflix is to Movies as Hulu is to TV. However, Netflix also has TV shows. Confused? You shouldn’t be. Hulu is certainly TV centric in the sense that it carries lots of old shows as well as the most recent shows. Netflix is mainly focused on movies, but will also offer shows once the entire season is over. This makes perfect sense considering that Netflix started out by just mailing movies to people on DVD. They wouldn’t have been able to send you any TV shows until they were on DVD, so they stuck with that method when it came to streaming as well. Got it? Good!
Recent TV shows aside, Netflix has a very extensive library of movies and television programming. You can stream them (in HD) to consoles, computers and a selection of devices and the best part is that there are NO commercials, none. This reason alone puts Netflix in a different category than Hulu. There is a monthly fee of $7.99 per month, just like Hulu Plus, but you get so many more movies without the headache of time wasting commercials that it is the clear victor.
They offer a free, 1-month trial, so you can use it quite a bit before committing. If you are trying to cut your cable bill down, this is easily one of the best ways to baby step your way towards doing so.
Price: $7.99/month
Website: Netflix
Apple iTunes & Amazon Unbox
No. Just no. I am not recommending these services in any way shape or form. Why? Because I respect you and your wallet. Both Apple and Amazon will happily sell you single episodes of recent shows for between $1.99 to $2.99, per episode. They will also sell you a ‘season pass’ that will automatically download every recent episode at a reduced fee. However, the season pass is not a fixed number, and instead is based on how many episodes the season has. If you wanted to get the Season Pass for Season 3 of Community it would cost you $48.99. Who is paying for this stuff?
Yes, you can download the shows in beautiful HD. And yes, they are on your HD so you can watch them over and over until you are blue in the face, but if you wanted to watch your favorite shows, you could be looking at spending several hundred dollars per year. Now lets take a step back and realize that you can watch most if not all of these shows on Hulu for free. Or if you are lazy and missed a season, pay for Hulu Plus or Netflix and watch all your shows for only $7.99 per month. Or you could just learn to use BitTorrent or Usenet and download them (and a hell of a lot more) for between free and $15/month.
There is literally no situation where you should purchase a show from Apple or Amazon. None whatsoever. And if you think there is, don’t try to change my mind, instead head to the doctor and get your brain checked. Something is wrong with you.
Price: Too much!
Website: Why bother
