Hulu is one of the best places to find full-length, high quality movies and television shows on the Web today. This fantastically addicting site features full episodes of TV shows both current and classic, full-length movies, original Web content, and clips of just about everything you can think of.
All the multimedia content here is of the highest quality, and many people use this service to keep up with their favorite TV shows, either as a supplement to their existing cable subscription or as a standalone source.
What’s the big deal about Hulu?
If you’ve ever heard the term “cut the cord” or “cordcutter”, this is where that starts making sense; rather than continuing to pay for an expensive cable subscription full of content that doesn’t get viewed, more and more people are opting to instead cancel their cable and pay a much lower price for Hulu instead. Not only is this service much less costly, users are able to pick and choose exactly what they would like to view, and when.
A Brief History of Hulu
Hulu got started in 2007 as an invite-only service, and opened to the public in 2008. The site carries media from a wide variety of providers, including NBC, ABC, Fox, PBS, SyFy Network, Style, and Oxygen.
In 2010, Hulu premiered Hulu Plus, a subscription service that givers users the opportunity to watch even more multimedia, including full seasons of network shows, usually aired within 24 hours of their original viewing. Hulu fans also have the option of watching on their TV sets at home via a simple HDMI connection or an Internet TV device.
Hulu offers an extremely wide range of high quality multimedia for the Web searcher, anything from full length movies to animated shorts. There are a number of ways you can use Hulu to find multimedia:
- Head straight to the Movies section. Hulu is well-organized and puts all its full-length movies in one place.
- The Movie Search page lets you filter content alphabetically, by keyword, by channel, by sub-channel, by studio, by decade, if it’s family friendly, etc. In other words, you have a good range of advanced search options here.
- Check out the Most Popular movies to see what other Hulu fans are looking at, or see the most Recently Added multimedia (both of these also offer RSS feeds so you never miss anything).
What Can I Watch on Hulu?
Hulu has partnered with major content providers such as Fox, the Comedy Channel, and various movie studios to bring you full episodes of your favorite shows. For example, you could catch the latest Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Office, Nip/Tuck, 24, and of course, plenty of full-length movies. Most television shows are updated to show up on Hulu within 24 hours or less or their original airtime.
How to Find What You’re Looking For
There are a number of ways you can filter what you want to see on Hulu.
- Search by name or actor
- Browse specific channels
- Decide if you want to see just clips or full-length episodes or movies
- Click on the What’s New or Most Popular links
How To Keep Up With Your Favorite Shows
Hulu has provided an easy way for users to track their favorite shows.
On the main page for every show, there is a Subscribe button (you’ll need to be a registered user of Hulu in order for this to work). You can subscribe to any show’s episodes or clips; you’ll get these in your user queue, and then can watch them at your leisure.
How to Find Movies You’re Interested In
One of the more popular destinations at Hulu is its movies section. All the movies here are organized in one convenient place, found either on the top navigation tab or by simply navigating to Hulu.com/movies.
Hulu has a wide variety of movie genres ranging from Action and Adventure to Sports. In order to get a big picture of what they have to offer you in the way of movies, head directly to the Browse Movies page, where all of Hulu’s movies can be searched for via several different filters: alphabetically, by genre, sub-genre, rating, decade, display, family-friendly, with captions, or by keyword.
You’ll also want to check out the Most Popular Hulu movies, most Recently Added,Documentaries,and movies from specific companies, such as Lifetime Movies and Syfy Movies.
Playlists
One of the more enjoyable ways to explore what Hulu has to offer are the Playlists. These playlists are groups of movies or videos that are related to each other in some way; for example, a list of the funniest Saturday Night Live skits, or the best of an actor’s repertoire. Users can make their own playlists (must have a Hulu account; registration is free) and make them public or private.
If you want to stay on top of the latest releases, you’ll definitely want to check out Hulu’s RSS Feed page, which lists every feed they have to offer from Recently Added Movies to Soon to Expire Videos.
Is Hulu Still Free?
Hulu was a free service (with subscriptions available) for several years; in 2010, users were given the opportunity to sign up for Hulu Plus, a subscription service that opens up the entire Hulu catalog including all season episodes, both past and current, movies from the Criterion Collection, limited advertising, and the ability to watch Hulu multimedia anywhere, not just on your computer. For avid watchers who enjoy all that this phenomenal service has to offer, Hulu Plus is definitely an option to think about.
One of the most attractive options that Hulu Plus offers is the ability to watch content on your TV via various connection devices (Wii, many Blu-Ray players, XBOX 360, etc.). Subscribing to Hulu Plus gives you the option to watch anything that Hulu has to offer from the comfort of your living room, just like you would with “regular” TV programs, with very limited advertising.
In August 2016, Hulu made the decision to discontinue their free service completely, giving users the option of subscriptions with or without ads.