The conundrum continues over which subscription service is best for streaming movies and TV shows. Today’s comparison puts veteran contender Netflix up against the relatively new Hulu Plus. Both offer affordable prices for streaming content, but which is superior? Movie buffs and die-hard TV fans might have different opinions to this question, but here’s what we narrowed it down to.

Background

Netflix has been top dog in video subscription for a minute, taking out the likes of Hollywood video and in some cases, many of Blockbuster’s stand-alone stores. It first started out as a DVD-by-mail program, but then evolved to include streaming movies, which is what many take advantage of now. Hulu jumped on the scene in 2007 and started as a free online video service that offered a selection of hit shows, movies and more (which is still does with a regular Hulu membership), but recently added Hulu Plus as an ad-supported subscription service that offers more content over the free version.

User Friendly

Like most video subscription services, both Hulu Plus and Netflix are accessed via the Internet (initially at least). You sign into both your Netflix and Hulu account to access all the movies and shows you desire. Both offer free trials to test out if you like their services.

Hulu Plus is a streaming only service, while Netflix also offers a DVD mail program, where you pick your titles online and form a “wish list,” then get them sent to you via mail with no due date. Once you finish watching the movie, send it back and another from your list gets sent out.

Winner: Tie given both are fairly easy to operate. Just sign up online, create a password and you’re ready to start watching your favorite movies and TV shows, as well as discover new titles.

Compatible Devices

So far, Netflix has a number of compatible devices. Maybe it’s because it’s been around longer or because it’s been a leader in the industry, but whatever the case is, you can access your account and watch movies and shows via: PC and Mac computers, gaming consoles like Xbox 360, PS3, Wii; plenty of iOS devices; Android-based devices; the Windows phone; some Internet-connected Blu-ray players HTDTVs; TiVo or Roku; D-Link; and home theater systems from a number of manufactures. Users can easily connect various devices to one account and then jump from one device to the next seamlessly.

Hudu Plus doesn’t have as many options, but still has most of the most used ones on their list. Compatible devices include: Xbox 360, PS3, Roku, iOS devices, Android phones/tablets, Amazon Kindle Fire, Nintendo 3DS, Samsung TVs/Blu-ray players, Sony TVs/Blu-ray players, VIZIO TVs/Blu-ray players, TiVo Premiere, LG TVs/Blu-ray players, Panasonic TVs/Blu-ray players, computers and WD TV Media Players. It’s coming soon to Wii gaming consoles, too. Hulu Plus also allows viewers to migrate their viewing experience across several devices like Netflix.

Winner: Netflix has more devices so it wins here.

Titles

Netflix has tons of titles in their library, with more than 100,000 titles on DVD and Blu-ray (even some that are unrated and NC-17). The company also states that they have “tens of thousands” of titles available for streaming (including HD options). Hulu Plus doesn’t say their exact number of titles, but does state that they have “thousands of critically-acclaimed and award-winning movies, many featuring no commercial interruption.” But it’s estimated (from other sources) that it features more than 43,000 TV episodes from more than 1,650 current and classic television shows, as well as more 2,500 films including exclusives from the Criterion Collection.

Winner: Since Hulu Plus doesn’t want to give up their exact number of titles (it’s probably not as much as much as Netflix anyways), Netflix is our winner.

Membership Perks

Netflix boasts membership perks like a month of free service (when first testing it out), the ability to rate videos for future recommendations, offers suggestions that are based on your past viewing patterns, allows you to keep track of the videos you have already seen and those you’d like to see in the future. And it allows you to halt your subscription for a few months if you won’t be using the service for let’s say a vacation, etc. Hulu Plus offers die-hard TV fans the ability to watch the most recent seasons, with new episodes uploaded the day after the show airs on TV.

Winner: Tie because the latest in TV episodes are great, but then again so is having the ability to freeze your Netflix account.

Content

Netflix loads of great content thanks to its various big licensing deals with the likes of CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, BBC libraries, Sony, and DreamWorks Animation (which is totally exclusive but doesn’t start until 2013. But Hulu Plus isn’t doing so bad either given it streams current episodes of TV shows from the channels and networks like Fox, NBC Universal, The Walt Disney Company, The Biography Channel, MTV Networks, National Geographic Channel and Public Broadcasting Service. It also scored an exclusive deal with the Criterion Collection.

Winner: Netflix still offers more of a variety in both movies and TV shows than Hulu Plus.

Speed of Service

For Hulu Plus, you need specific requirements when streaming videos on your computer. You’ll need: Adobe Flash Player 10.1.53.64 or above; Internet Explorer 7.0 or above, Firefox 2.0 or above, Safari 3.0 or above, or Chrome; Microsoft Windows XP SP2 or above, Macintosh OS X 10.4 or above, or Linux; and JavaScript and Cookies enabled. For Netflix, it’s recommended that users have a minimum speed of 500kps (0.5 MB) for maximum viewing results.

Winner: Tie

Quality

Netflix offers HD movies and can stream videos and shows in 1080p video. Hulu Plus streams in HD when available, with shows having a high-def. (720p) resolution.

Winner: Netflix’s ability to stream 1080p tops Hulu Plus’ 720p.

Limitations

Netflix increased its price, which turned many away, while Hulu Plus still includes advertisements, which can be a huge turnoff for many. They do this to reduce the monthly subscription price of service since it’s costly to make and license a lot of its content (especially current TV seasons).

Winner: Ads are never great so Netflix takes triumphs here!

Price

Hulu charges customers $7.99/month and you can cancel anytime. Netflix has a couple tiers for their pricing. For $7.99, you get unlimited streaming movies OR unlimited one-disc at a time rentals ($11.99 for two unlimited). If you want both, you have to pay $15.98. If you want Blu-ray discs, you’re going to have to dish out an extra $2 a month.

Winner: Netflix provides more bang for you buck (without ads).

Overall Winner

Netflix still overs the best value when it comes down to it. Sure, TV buffs will love the fact that Hulu Plus offers videos of the most recent episodes to a variety of shows, it still doesn’t have Netflix’s extensive title offerings. Plus ads can be vary annoying no matter how low the subscription price is!

In addition to adding HBO Go to their list of channels, Roku today introduced the Roku LT. The LT might as well refers to light, as in a light price since it only costs $49.99, $10 cheaper than the model up. But all things relative (to other Roku players) you get what you pay for. This box caps streams at 720p, while their other higher end versions (XD and XS) can perform 1080p. However, they have still managed to squeeze in WiFi, an HDMI port and VGA connectivity for those still using a non-HD television.

The Roku LT will ship sometime this November and you’ll be able to grab it from Amazon and other major retailers.

On another note, we should point out that the LT can stream from sites such as Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Rdio, Cnet, Flickr and whole bunch more – 320 channels to be exact. It’s $10 cheaper than the Roku 2 HD, and from where we sit the only difference seems to be that the LT can’t play games and has a purple finish.

Hulu Plus is now open to the public and costs $7.99 a month, which is $2 less then the beta price.  Beta customers will be credited the difference, though we’re not sure if it will have to be used towards future payments of the TV service.  With that announcement, Hulu has also released an updated version of their Hulu Plus application for iOS devices, which includes the following features:

• New split-screen player on iPad
• Enhanced queue and subscription management
• Improved playback performance
• New thumbnail viewer on iPad
• Miscellaneous bug fixes

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Hulu has finally announced their paid site, Hulu Plus.  As we previously reported a $10/month subscription will give you access to a show’s entire season and even include some past seasons.  Hulu Plus subscribers will also be able to enjoy 720p content as oppposed to 480p, which based on our experience is just atrocious at times, though they’ll still experience adverts like the free site.

It looks like the service will be coming to a wide variety of devices – we don’t know if you’ll have to be a Plus subscriber -  including the Playstation 3 (coming soon), Xbox 360 (early 2011), Sony TVs (fall 2010), Vizio TVs (fall 2010) and is already available on select Samsung devices.  Hulu has also indicated that Hulu will be available on iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone, though no specific launch date has been provided.

Interested in obtaining a subscription of Hulu Plus?  Hit their site and request a beta invite.

Update: The free content on the Hulu Plus iPhone app is very limited.

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What is probably the result of shareholder scrutiny, Hulu, the company that streams shows from Fox, NBC and more, will soon charge a monthly subscription fee of $9.95, at least according to the LA Times.  Fortunately, the good news is that the subscription plan, called Hulu Plus, won’t negate their current user base.  Instead, shows, such as Glee, Family Guy and others will be available for free, but streaming will be limited to the 5 most recent episodes (that seems like alot, so my guess is 3).  If viewers want to see older episodes they’ll need to fork over the required monthly rate.

As of now Hulu turned a profit in the last two quarters and has generated more than $100 million in revenue from advertising since its inception 2 years ago.

So will you pay the tariff?  I probably won’t but I’m a very, very casual TV watcher.  If I miss it on TV I’ll wait for it to come out on Netflix, which as of now charges less for unlimited streaming of over 15,000 TV shows and Movies.

There’s a rumor floating around that Apple might lower the price of TV shows to $1, which is a 50% discount over their current pricing structure for standard def shows.  The news comes on the heels of the recently announced iPad, which could possibly facilitate an influx of TV and movie purchases from the iTunes store.

But why the rumor?  Well, for one, many TV shows are now available for free online.  Most if not all of these won’t play on the iPad, so this could be seen as a significant hurdle for many to invest in the device. Lowering the price of the shows lowers the hurdle.  Also, there are numerous outlets that provide more media for less of a cost, such as Netflix.  For just $8.99/month you can score yourself a DVD to your home and unlimited streaming of more than 15,000 TV shows and movies, which mind you won’t be compatible with the iPad.

So is a $1 TV show enough to get me to buy an iPad?  Hells no.  But give me an ‘all you can eat monthly subcription’ and Apple might have one more person signed up.  Fortunately, another rumor emerged this week that Hulu is working on an iPad (hopefully this also means iPhone) compatible version of their website.  One can only hope this is the case, but then again this is a rumor, and it’s just about fact that Hulu will start charging for content as soon as this year.

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Holy crap!  Hulu might start charging all you free loaders in 2010.  That isn’t to say there won’t be any free content, just that some of their more premium shows will cost you a penny or 1000.  Personally, I don’t watch my content on Hulu, but after bearing witness to a Boxee install on a Mac Mini I’m not too far off from taking the plunge.  Then again, I’m in no position to kill my cable subscription for fear of losing touch with reality (I never leave my place and require CNN and other skewed news sources to be on at all times).

So, Hulu users, what’s your plan?  Would you drop some greenbacks to watch content online on what was once a free service?  If you ask me it never really panned out for Napster, although they did get bought, but at what profit, if any, I don’t know.

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How sweet that would be.  Attack of the Show host Olivia Munn’s Twitter feed denoted that she had just finished a promo for a Microsoft/Hulu event on June 8th.  Telling eh?  Not that this means anything in particular but it is a fingers crossed sort of situation.  Just another nail in the PS3 coffin I say.  More info will surface on this in the weeks to come I hope.

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In a sad bit of news, Boxee is removing their much beloved Hulu support at the request of content providers. A specific reason was not given but I imagine it all boils down to one thing. Actually, most everything these days boils down to one thing: the love of money. Pretty sad really and the ones who are losing out are the users. We can only hope this doesn’t turn into a trend.

[Hulu Blog]

Shane Kim, head of Microsoft’s game studio, wants to “open” up the Xbox 360 platform like it did with the Netflix service. Rather than focusing on quantity, their plan is to integrate high quality content such as the Hulu and Youtube streaming services.

I think this is an awesome idea since it’ll open up a host of FREE, high quality online content. Think about it: watch your favorite TV broadcasts via Hulu, peruse the latest and greatest on Youtube, or catch a favorite flick on Netflix. If this becomes a reality my cable service, along with any social life, will go on the chopping block.

[New York Times]

With 65 million users how could NBC resist. That’s right, NBC shows are once again available on iTunes. After pulling out of the World’s most popular music store almost a year ago, NBC has signed a new deal with Apple to distribute its shows. To bolster engagement, NBC will be offering one free standard definition download of some of its top shows for the next 2 weeks. I can only imagine the shit eating grin Jobs had on his face when they came crawling back.

If you recall, NBC partnered with Fox to produce the free streaming site ‘Hulu’. Hulu offers standard definition and 480p quality video from many popular TV shows and movies, and based on my experience works almost flawlessly. Hulu rocks, but it ain’t iPod friendly.

[AppleInsider]