Why is Netflix Killing the Video Feed to My Tv on My Computer

It's hard to remember a time before streaming video services were everywhere. It's almost impossible to pick up a device with a screen that doesn't support them, especially the big two: Netflix and Hulu.

Netflix got started in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail service with no late fees. That idea pretty much put movie rental places out of business. In 2007, it started offering streaming content, which has quickly become its core business (and a major source of internet traffic (Opens in a new window)).

Netflix has 151 million members(Opens in a new window) worldwide as of Q2 2019; right now 60.1 million of them are in the US(Opens in a new window) (about 2.41 million still get DVDs). While movies were once the main reason to watch Netflix, these days it's known for original TV programming that has inspired many a binge watch. It literally spends billions on original shows and movies.

Hulu started as a similar beast, though centered more on network TV than movies. It launched in 2008, mainly as a syndication engine for its owners, like NBC Universal, and quickly became the go-to service for finding programs from most of the major television networks (minus CBS and The CW) shortly after they aired.

Hulu is only available in the US (with a knock-off service in Japan; you can't even get it in Canada) and recently hit 28 million subscribers (Opens in a new window). That's great growth, more than double what it had in 2016.

Hulu's biggest change came in May 2017 when it jumped into supporting live TV. That is a service on par with Sling TV and AT&T TV Now, so we're not really considering it here. But if you need a live TV streaming service without paying for basic cable, Hulu with Live TV is our Editors' Choice.

If you're the type of person who will only subscribe to one video-streaming service, how do you pick? We'll look at each service and pick a winner in several categories to determine which service is best.

Price

Hulu used to have a free tier with limited shows and advertising, but killed it in 2016. Right now, the base price is a flat $5.99 per month.

That price is great, but the biggest problem with that base tier is that it still shows commercials. If you're okay with that, then enjoy. But you can go commercial-free for $11.99 per month, save for short clips before and after a show. With that tier of service, you can view Hulu on only one device at a time officially (Opens in a new window), but typically it'll run on two or three at a time. Create up to six different profiles (Opens in a new window) per account, and put a Hulu account on hold (Opens in a new window) for up to 12 weeks if you're going to be traveling. (Hulu With Live TV will set you back $45 per month—increasing(Opens in a new window) to $54.99 beginning Dec. 18.)

Netflix pricing is a little more complicated. As of its 2019 price hike, standard definition (SD) is $8.99 per month for one stream at a time; two screens simultaneously in high definition (HD) is $12.99 a month. That HD part is key—two screens are fine and all, but HD is a necessity on most TVs and computers. SD just doesn't cut it, quality-wise.

You can go to four screens at a time for $15.99 a month—and with that Premium plan you also get support for Ultra HD (Opens in a new window). That's necessary for a 4K TV...as is a pretty rock-solid 25 Megabit per second (Mbps) or higher internet download connection and some specific hardware (Opens in a new window).

(Netflix plan breakdown)

All Netflix tiers are ad-free (beyond it pimping its original content on log-in screens incessantly). You get up to five profiles per account, so everyone in the household can have their own "My List" of shows. Also, while Netflix likewise states in its terms of service (Opens in a new window) that users shouldn't share their password, the company is on record saying it doesn't really care about that. It's also testing a $4-per-month, mobile-only subscription. Netflix does not have a live TV option.

WINNER: Tie. Netflix Standard is worth that extra dollar per month over Hulu, even commercial free.

Overall Content Selection

The most important criteria when it comes to picking a video-streaming service is what you can watch.

Netflix used to be all about the movies, going back to its days as a DVD-rental service only. A lot of muck is made about the ever-changing state of the Netflix movie catalog. In the fall of 2016, the number of films in the IMDb Top 250 had dwindled to just 31, or 12 percent(Opens in a new window). (But guess what? That was still more titles(Opens in a new window) in the IMDb Top 250 than carried by Hulu.) In total, Netflix has decreased its streaming movie list by 2,000 titles since 2010, according to Flixable(Opens in a new window).

There's a very good reason for that. In the last few years, Netflix has become much more TV-oriented. Most of its original content comes in the form of entire seasons of a television show, usually about 10 to 13 episodes, all of which drop at once for binge viewing. It's a strategy that works well for Netflix, and many of its shows are critical darlings, from Orange is the New Black to newer fare like Ozark, Peaky Blinders, and Mindhunter.

Hulu, you would think, would be in a little better position since it was essentially owned by three TV networks at one point (Disney controls it now), but the individual shows carried by Hulu are not always owned by those networks.

Take The CW shows, for instance. Hulu had a five-year deal to show all CW shows (like Arrow, The Flash, Supernatural, etc.) the next day after air; that contract expired (Opens in a new window). Now all CW shows go instead to Netflix—but not until a week after the season ends. (Netflix also has the entire backlog of each season of all The CW shows).

Hulu is also frequently missing lots of back seasons of TV shows. When it does have the whole back catalog of a major show—like it does for Family Guy, South Park, or (for now) Seinfeld—it makes a big deal out of it. But it's few and far between.

That said, if you want to watch next-day airing of network TV shows from ABC, NBC, and Fox for one price, Hulu is a must. And its original shows are only getting better and better, like breakout hit The Handmaid's Tale.

On both services, content is locked by region, so you can't watch UK-only shows from the US and vice versa, for example. Some have tried VPN services to get around this, but companies have moved to block them. There are still some that work, though. For that, check PCMag's roundup of the Best VPNs for Netflix and How to Unblock Netflix With a VPN.

WINNER : Tie

Add-Ons

Add-ons are when a streaming service provides access to content from another service. To be honest, the best at this is Amazon Video, which lets you add "Amazon Prime Video Channels" with the complete content of HBO, Showtime, Starz, PBS Kids, Cinemax, Sundance Now, CBS All Access, Hallmark, AcornTV, and many others, starting at $4.99 per month.

Hulu now offers four add-on "channels": Starz is $8.99 per month, Showtime is $10.99 a month, Cinemax is $9.99 a month, and HBO costs $14.99 a month (the same as paying for separate HBO Now, but the first week is free on Hulu). Using the add-on provides the convenience of not needing a separate app to stream Game of Thrones. With each, you get the full back catalog of all the original programming from each service. To find them, go to Account > Your Subscription > Manage Add-ons.

Over on Netflix, there aren't any content add-ons. You could consider the DVD plans an add-on, I suppose. Otherwise, it's one price fits all the content on Netflix.

WINNER: Hulu

Exclusives and Originals

Hulu has some exclusive shows that are cultural phenomena—Seinfeld and South Park—as well as exclusivity on many current network and cable-only shows, like past seasons of Rick and Morty and Fargo.

It has a handful of modestly great original shows as well: Shut Eye, Chance, Future Man, Casual, and the multi-Emmy-winning The Handmaid's Tale. Seriously, for The Handmaid's Tale alone, it's worth subscribing to Hulu. Castle Rock, based on tales by Stephen King, is also a big hit. Shows like this are why Hulu has doubled its subscriber base in two years.

Netflix has a lot of exclusives, sure—it paid a lot to own 83 hours of Friends and reintroduced it (Opens in a new window) to a whole new generation, then it spent millions more to keep the show around (for now(Opens in a new window)). But what Netflix offers in the way of originals is on another level. It budgeted $13 billion (with a B) on original content(Opens in a new window) for 2018 alone. Originals get released at an increasingly faster clip, with what seems like new TV shows and stand-up comedy specials every week, with the occasional original movie tossed in.

The list of Netflix Originals is too large to list, but some have become legends, such as Ozark, Patriot Act, Grace and Frankie, GLOW, 13 Reasons Why, Love, The Keepers, One Day at a Time, The Crown, House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Stranger Things, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Master of None, Dear White People, and BoJack Horseman. That's just the standouts. Then there are the movies like Okja, Bird Box, Outlaw King, and more. Plus documentaries and comedy specials. It's a bit too much, really. Take a week off, Netflix. Let us catch our breath.

WINNER: Netflix

Device Support

The list(Opens in a new window) of Netflix-compatible devices is pretty comprehensive, covering set-top boxes, streaming media hubs, gaming consoles, handheld devices and OSes, smart TVs, desktop OSes, and Blu-ray players.

Hulu has a pretty thorough list(Opens in a new window) of its own supported devices, split by those that support the new Hulu interface that came along to help support Live TV, or the "classic" version. Seriously, try to find a device or operating system that doesn't support either service.

WINNER : Tie

Downloads

You are no longer forced to watch Netflix and Hulu only when attached to the internet. On mobile devices, you can download shows to watch later. With a few caveats.

Netflix has had downloads for a while, and lets you nab almost all its original shows on iOS or Android devices. You can get as much as your device can hold—up to 100 titles, which is probably plenty. How long they'll remain on your device depends on(Opens in a new window) licensing agreements. The movies and shows you can't download are annoying, but Netflix's large catalog of originals takes the sting out. Best of all: the Smart Downloads feature means when you finish one episode, the next time you're on Wi-Fi, the app will grab the next episode automatically while deleting the viewed episode.

Hulu finally added the ability to download content in October 2019, but only on iOS and iPadOS. For now it appears to work with Hulu originals, but not with all of the next-day content Hulu can show. I could, for example, get last weekend's Saturday Night Live, but not the most recent episode of The Good Place. Nor could I get anything from add-in channels. The options will probably improve. However, the biggest caveats hurt: Downloads only works if you pay for the ad-free version of Hulu, and you're limited to 25 episodes/movies. You get either 30 days of storage or two days of storage after you start watching it. You can renew it once you're online again, but renewing makes it feel like an annoying rental.

WINNER: Netflix

Interface

It's hard to quantify the interface between services like this—they differ from platform to platform, even versus themselves.

Netflix tries to make its interface as uniform across platforms as possible. The differences between what it offers on desktop versus Xbox One versus iPhone are honestly negligible: there's a lot of scrolling up and down to see different categories, then left to right to see the offerings in those categories. Hulu is honestly quite similar—up/down, left/right.

Netflix offers users a "My List"—a watchlist of all the saved movies and shows you want to watch later (or in perpetuity). It replaces what used to be the "Netflix Queue" from the DVD days; with My List (found at netflix.com/browse/my-list(Opens in a new window)) you can watch shows in any order, anytime. If there is any major problem with the My List other than endless side-to-side scrolling, it's that Netflix does nothing to tell you when items on your list (or anywhere else on the service) may be expiring. Netflix doesn't really like to trumpet the fact that it loses items, though it does put out a list of expiring items each month.

Hulu's My Stuff is much the same. Click the plus sign on any movie or show to add it to the My Stuff list. It's enhanced with the smarts to show you new episodes of shows as they come available, usually the day after airing. It's much improved since Hulu's interface on PCs and mobile devices and set-top boxes have finally started to match. You can go to it directly via hulu.com/watchlist(Opens in a new window). Hulu used to list expiring shows in your My Stuff, but now it doesn't.

When it comes to doing a fast forward or rewind on any programming, the options are nicer on the desktop or a mobile device where you can scrub, or run the place indicator along the bar to go back and forth. Hulu and Netflix both have one extra-nice option on PCs and mobile: a nice 10-second rewind skip back and 10-second skip forward. On mobile, Hulu actually replaces the skip forward with a 30-second option. But not on the skip back.

We've all be spoiled by nearly two decades of clear, clean FF/R on DVRs. On a smart TV or set-top box, the streaming services can't do that. They opt for a small picture-in-picture row to approximate your location. This is a problem on all streaming services, and not one they're likely to address.

WINNER: Netflix. By the slimmest of margins.

And the Winner Is...

Netflix is the winner in six out of the seven categories (including ties). But it was close. Hulu took four with the ties—and that's after improving a lot from the earliest versions of this story.

Naturally, this is very subjective: there are plenty of people who would be happy with Hulu alone. Especially if you're willing to pay for live TV services that replace your cable set-top box entirely.

But for now, it's still Netflix's world. All the other services are just streaming in it.

Video Streaming Services: What You Should Know

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/netflix-vs-hulu-streaming-service-showdown

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