Hacker News Reader

Comment by OnlineGladiator | Hacker News Reader

Hulu is so buggy on my TV I regularly think of cancelling it. I'm not sure how valuable their technical infrastructure is.

View on HN

The problem is probably your TV. All TV manufacturers try to get away with the cheapest bill of materials possible for their “smart” components. Roku’s CEO said during a Recode Media interview that it’s their goal to make their platform run well while only adding about $20 to the hardware cost. You really can’t expect much from a low cost streaming stick or the built in components on TVs.

I got two free AppleTV 4K’s by taking advantage of a promotion from DirectTv Now, the difference in performance between them - with an Apple A10x chip - and the built in Roku TV is noticeable.

But if you have a smart TV that’s not a Roku, it’s probably even worse.

If it were the TV, why would the problem only happen with Hulu and not Netflix or any other app?

Also I bought a very expensive TV, and while I didn't dissect it I don't think there are any cheap parts in it - and the reviews all agree it had a top-of-the-line processor at the time and that was only a year ago. I mean it even has glass bezels for the OLED panel.

I don't think anything you say applies to my situation at all. I think Hulu just has some shitty software.

The Hulu Android TV app crashes several times a week for me, and about 25% of inputs are ignored. It used to work just fine, but then they redesigned in a few months ago and it went to shit. The interface got significantly worse as well, why can I only see 3 items at a time when browsing on my 50-something inch TV?

They made that change on Roku 2-3 years ago. Before that you could see 15 or so shows at once, but half the images would get stuck and never actually load. My assumption is they gave up on having a reasonable UI for technical reasons.

Hulu on my Apple TV is excellent - I find the interface to be much less "noisy" than Netflix and I like the large back catalog on a lot shows. Honestly I subscribed for one show (forget what it was now) but found I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

I'm not talking about the interface. I mean it literally won't load or crashes regularly. I have fiber internet and no issues with Netflix or any other streaming service.

I'm glad it works for you, but it's pretty awful for me.

Strange. I also have no issues with it, although I don't like the UI.

Does Hulu work on your normal computers (e.g. not a network-related issue)? Everything updated?

I don't know if this works or not, but you might want to try and plug it into a Mac and launch Console to get a sense of what's going on....

yeah, the same happens for me - i have a relatively recent vizio tv, and the hulu app is terrible - video skips and freezes or the whole app crashes. I've taken to just using my mediapc to run hulu in a chrome tab instead. Both devices are hooked to the same ethernet hub, and other things like prime video and netflix run just fine on the vizio.

It’s the TV. The built in apps on all smart TVs are subpar.

Keep in mind that the Netflix and Amazon prime apps on the TV work fine. Even the Plex app works well. Just the Hulu app that stinks. I don't disagree that it's likely a tough platform to develop for (and having a htpc is super useful still) but it's really just the Hulu app that is unusable.

I constantly am fighting Hulu, the stream will crash. It looses my place, shows like 6 ads and is a pain to seek to the place I was last at. It’s also super jumpy and will jump out of the video if you look at the remote wrong. Such a messed up interface.

Hulu on my Apple TV 4K works great for me. I've been very impressed although I also have a good experience with Netflix and Amazon Prime and I do have a fiber internet connection.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com