Hulu vs. Netflix...Which do you prefer?

[DowningRules]

I'm seriously thinking about killing my $70/month Directv and going all redbox and subscriber video service.

 

I don't see a whole lotta TV shows I want to see on Netflix (ie:  Dexter, Mad Men).  But it does have a good selections of docs and random movies.

 

Hulu Plus seems to to have the edge with TV, but Showtime and HBO lock it down pretty good with their shows, so you kinda need a subscription to those outlets to watch their programs.

 

Anyone have a preference?

 

Also, is there a clever way to download movies/TV shows to your phone or ipad without having to live stream?  I'm thinking primarily of airplane travel and overseas viewing.  You can't use netflix or HBO Go overseas unless you do the server thing, and DR don't know how to be that techy.

 

Tips?  Solutions?  Hugs?  Etc?

[Brandon]

I did this quite a while back when I decided to finally check my bank account and saw I was being charged $176 a month for TV and internet. I don't watch much TV anyway except for sports and I just watch at my local pub and have unlimited everything on my phone and predominantly use it for internet....laptop took a shit a while back but the phone works to where I don't even think about getting a new one.

Netflix is cool, just not sustainable for me because of the lack of content. There are a lot of cool docs though. My girlfriend has a Roku player (think a little hub with direct access to all these streaming sites) and I checked out Hulu but it looks the same as Netflix.

I'm in the same boat. I hit up Redbox when something piques my interest and while there are a few must see TV shows I simply stream at my office on a free site like Couch Tuner. Because I don't watch TV as is, I'm usually late to the party with the must see shows and can just sit there and marathon a season or so.

There are definitely a lot more free or cheaper alternatives. The only thing I miss is just being able to put it on ESPNEWS whenever, but I've already scoured the net for sports updates anyway.

[GoodTimesGoneBad]

Both dexter and mad men are on Netflix. As well as breaking bad, the killing, and the wonder years. Netflix is the way to go in my opinion.

[Schildog]

i'd happily give up cable if it wasn't for sports. 

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

I'm with Schildog.  Soon I will likely cut out excess channels but still have basic cable for sports.  Like we've talked about on here before the crappy thing is if you want certain channels you get stuck buying a certain package which includes a bunch of other channels you don't want.  At $150 a month I want to cut my cable bill down.  I've got netflix and for $7.99 a month I can't complain given the price and I'll probably get Hulu at some point.  I recently bought a roku 3 box and also stream stuff from my computer using plex which is making cable obsolete for everything but sports. 

[LBHalos17]

You might try megashare.info it's free.

 

I don't know how recent the shows are there, but it has movies before they're out on-demand, dvd, or the movie channels.  Watched "Olympus has fallen" recently, and see that "A Good Day to Die Hard" is also up.  Don't know if you can download from the site tho.

[stevestevens]

As others have stated, it is great and I have done it, but no live sports sucks. I get baseball through Mlb.tv but as a big college football and basketball fan, you have to have cable. Plus how would you do the Jose motaisms?

[TobiasFunke]

i'd happily give up cable if it wasn't for sports.

QFT

[2002_halos_II]

I have a Roku but only added the Free channels.

Anyone try this? http://www.playon.tv/content-channels

Of course that is fee-based.

[Schildog]

does mlb tv allow you to watch in-market halo games?

[CaliAngel]

The only reason I'd ever get cable is to watch Angel games, but I'm not paying whatever ridiculous monthly fees they want just to watch baseball for 6 months.

 

does mlb tv allow you to watch in-market halo games?

 

Nope.

 

So for someone like me, I'm kinda screwed. The only way I get to watch the ballgames are if they're on FOX or if I'm at a bar or friends house who has FSN.

 

Pretty freakin' lame.

[2002_halos_II]

Well what channels would you get with an antenna?

[HeavenlyHalos]

It's not great quality, but vipboxonline.eu has almost every angels game streaming live. Again it's poor quality, but it is free.

[arch stanton]

As someone living overseas....I thought I would miss American tv a lot more than I actually do. It turns out that I really do have other things to do most of the time. When I was in the States the tv was usually just background noise anyway.

I watch the Angels games via MLBtv. As long as you're in a place with a decent internet it's fine, although the other team's announcers can be a lot to take.

Will probably buy NFL package this year.

I don't mind paying for good content that's commercial free so I buy series via itunes and watch when I'm in the mood to watch. I don't really care about being up to date.

If you get in the mood for a movie you can almost always find a place to buy a pirate copy of whatever you're might want to watch.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

Re: The original question. I have never used Hulu, but I have been generally pleased with Netflix. The main glitch is that sometimes when the signal fades a bit in my wireless network the picture will freeze. I may need to upgrade my router if we're going to use it very much. I'm running a Linksys Wireless G.

[Count Orlok]

For shows that are off air Netflix works fine. Hulu for currently airing shows or you could buy individual episodes for $2 on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, or whatever your preferred e-store is. Definitely beats taking it in the ass from the cable company. For overseas trips the $2 an episode purchase is probably your best bet unless you torrent the stuff and install it illegally. Even if you do the illegal downloads you'd need a separate program to convert the shows to mp4 format  before transferring because Apple refuses to support anything else.

[GuliblGuy]

I did this about a year ago...quit directv, and went to Hulu + for the tv shows I was watching, and tried mlb.tv for the angel games.  

 

Only thing is, if you are in market, you can't watch your team on the net, you can only get out of market teams, so no Angel games was killing it for me, and the fact that Directv throws all sorts of incentives at you to come back, so in the end I chopped my bill in half, and went about one month without Directv.

[Kenny]

Get both, you'd still be paying way less than a cable bill.

[Schildog]

So this might be a way of getting around blackouts of local games for sporting apps:

 

http://www.unblock-us.com/

[mrwicked]

netflix is badass.

ive been using it for breaking bad and its great.

they finally added captions too.

[GuliblGuy]

So this might be a way of getting around blackouts of local games for sporting apps:

 

http://www.unblock-us.com/

Pay for a proxy which you can get for free?