Hulu/Headscratchers


 * (Given the content of most of this page, added here) : Hulu can be accessed via certain VPN services for about US$7-mo. These guys have been verified to work.
 * Verified non-US countries that this works in (please add in alphabetical order for your fellow readers' convenience):
 * Hong Kong
 * Do they have a strategy with the anime series they're adding? Naruto, Bleach, and I suppose Death Note are pretty clear. Speed Racer and Astro Boy, I guess they're trying to hook the older crowd. But the rest - Ikki Tousen, Mushishi, Blue Gender, and Shikabane Hime? What's up with those?
 * They are letting you watch movies and TV episodes in their entirety for free. I therefore imagine the only shows from any genre to end up there will be ones not expected to make much of a profit with the mainstream younger generation, i.e. older shows and cult shows, so that they can get hooked and go out and buy the box set.
 * They have Family Guy, The Simpsons, House, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Heroes among their most popular series. And I don't think Shikabane Hime really qualifies as a "cult show." Naruto certainly doesn't. If they were going for that, you'd think they'd have gotten Haruhi Suzumiya or something.
 * In regards to this: Hulu is owned/operated by NBC-Universal, as are all of the television series mentioned here. If they own them to begin with, they can do whatever they want with them, and putting them on Hulu allows for a solid base of popular shows to draw in viewers for the lesser know series on the site.
 * Actually, Hulu is owned by Hulu LLC, a joint venture between 3 of the 4 MAJOR distribution networks (guess the one that isn't participating) and still has to work out their deals with the individual companies that own the show in question for streaming rights. Most shows on the same broadcast network will have the same, if not, similar distribution schemes (Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains and just about every other current USA program have a 30 days after air for all but the first episode or two of the current season and almost all shows have a limit of the 5 most recent for free viewers).
 * On further examination, Mushi-shi, Blue Gender, and Shikabane Hime are all FUNimation titles, and are also available on their YouTube channel. (I was surprised to find that SH was Gainax's latest series, and that it's STILL AIRING IN JAPAN. Wow. Maybe I'll watch it on Hulu, just for that.) So Ikki Tousen (GONG) is still unexplained (trying to get the panty-shot demographic?) but the rest are. If Bandai Entertainment follows in Funimation's footsteps, we should be seeing Haruhi and TTGL before too long. Now what about Slayers and One Piece?
 * TTGL ended up being sublicensed by Manga Entertainment for Hulu.
 * Blue Gender makes sense because it's basically a nerd's dream series. It's Starship Troopers with the sex cranked up to 11 and all the satire surgically removed.
 * Well, okay. But look at the aggregate of what Funimation has given Hulu. Is there any pattern there? Considering that there's still no One Piece?
 * There is One Piece on FUNimation video now.
 * Probably legal issues. The law is fucking complicated.
 * Hulu doesn't decide what anime it shows; it's up to companies to decide which of their anime they will allow Hulu to stream. Hulu could refuse to show the anime they are allowed to, but I think at this point their strategy is to take whatever they can, so their selection is actually the agglomeration of individual company decisions on which individual anime to allow streaming of rather than the result of some grand strategy.
 * This is more a question about licensing in general, but...why is Ikki Tousen listed as being from GONG and not Media Blasters?
 * Why can only Americans use Hulu?
 * Because distribution rights are country-specific.
 * Same dumb reason only Britons can use the iPlayer.
 * THIS! &%$# iPlayer...
 * Country-specific distribution rights and their ads are for American products and services.
 * So does anybody know of any legal sites that *do* have a wider range of countries in which their services are available?
 * See the top of the page for help.
 * And on behalf of Myself and canada, ¤±&* you hulu!
 * More like F--- you RIAA and MPAA. It's pretty much their fault. I'm quite certain Hulu isn't just keeping it from you out of spite any more than Netflix was. It's the content guys that are. No Export for You should not exist in the modern age, and yet it does.
 * Why the hell is Hulu such a bitch to actually watch stuff on? I'm trying to watch the new episodes of Shippuden they've got up, and I've been plagued with error messages and ridiculously slow load times. I've encountered the problem several times before, and I'm fairly sure my internet's good enough for it. Anyone else have this problem?
 * Your computer and/or internet conneciton really sucks. Sorry to put it that way but I've NEVER had problems with stuff loading from Hulu.
 * Is this troper the only one seriously disturbed by the current Hulu commercials with the aliens?
 * What exactly are you disturbed about?
 * I presume you're talking about the Nightmare Fuel in those ads, like this one?
 * Why do they remove episodes and movies after a while? I can kind of understand them showing only the last 5 or so episodes of an popular ongoing series; there is some logic behind that. But movies and episodes from older series spontaneously expire for no apparent reason. What the hell? I was hoping that Hulu would keep growing and having a huge selection someday, but the way they keep getting rid of videos... it's probably the companies pulling off the episodes/movies, but I'm still pissed off.
 * Pulled straight from the Hulu site: "In some cases, an episode or movie may expire from Hulu. Streaming clearances can be limited by any number of legal or business agreements that differ from video to video. An episode or movie may expire due to myriad reasons, including music clearances, impending DVD sales and syndication deals, among others."
 * I think its because their servers/bandwidth/whatever-the-videos-are-stored-on would not be able to handle all of those videos.
 * The companies are waay more likely the cause than any hypothetical technical issues (heavy sever load just equals more ad revenue). The rights holders might just be failing to renew the contracts.
 * With the region-block in mind, how come people keep linking to Hulu when there's an international readership on a forum/blog/whatever?
 * Because America is the only country in the world. Duh.
 * Because it's the only place where you can link to a video and reasonably expect it to still be there an hour later.
 * There are lots of reasons. Maybe they can't find the video elsewhere, and figure giving a link that only Americans can use is better than not giving a link at all. Maybe they figure the majority of their audience is American and will not have trouble with the georestrictions while at the same time enjoying the benefits of fast streaming and higher quality videos (as opposed to, say, a YouTube copy of the video). Maybe they found it on Hulu first are too lazy to look for an alternative source, so they just post the link they have at hand. Finally, while one may intellectually be aware that people on the other side of the world can't access the same videos one can, it can be hard to remember this abstract knowledge at times and they may innocently be posting the video without thinking about the poor souls who will not be able to make use of it.
 * Proxies, dude. If I can learn to use them so I can watch BBC's iPlayer and order stuff from Japan's iTunes Store, so can you.
 * A lot of people (this Troper included) aren't aware that Hulu is America Only until somebody from another country tells them.
 * Hulu is going to start charging. Goddamit, I thought somebody in the media business had finally gotten it, but I guess I was wrong.
 * Yeah, but that seems a little vague. Are they going to charge for existing content? Or are they going to add a "premium" channel on top of the free stuff? Fingers crossed, people.
 * It's a premium channel.
 * Still. Not. Available. In. Canada.
 * Still. Not. Available. Anywhere. Else.
 * ...Leonidas? You got quieter...
 * Sorr. I. Have. A. Sore. Throat. *Drinks water* THIS. IS. MUCH BETTER!
 * Why is that whenever I watch Glee (please don't judge me), it stops for a commercial only to advertise the exact same show I was just watching?
 * The AdBot there must not be as sophisticated as some.
 * WHY SO MANY ADS?! yes, it runs on ads, that's how it makes money. I'm aware. 3 ads placed at certain intervals of my show, I can handle. But 2 ads before it starts, another right after the theme song, and two more throughout the show? Now your just fucking with me.
 * You get to watch shows on demand for free. Why are you complaining about anything so trivial?
 * Because that's the explicit purpose of this page. It's not as though he(or she)'s personally insulted, it just bugs him.
 * It breaks dramatic flow to go from a tense moment to TROJAN ECSTASY CONDOMS.
 * It's no worse than watching live television. And each Hulu commercial break usually has only one commercial, or maybe two.
 * Exactly. It can't really "break dramatic flow", since that's the point the show's creators have chosen to get their flow broke.
 * Given that television is more 60 years old and there are NUMEROUS programs from the US,Canada,Australia,and the UK (for English language programming)that Hulu could show from that time period,why is their selection so limited?
 * Ugh, I know; that bothers me so much. I wanna watch old episodes of Twilight Zone, dammit, and I wanna watch them on my time! Not at ass o'clock in the morning or during the annual New Year's Eve marathon!
 * You could buy the DVD's, or, you could go to the network that owns the show.
 * That link no longer works.
 * Well, you see, there's this thing called "copyright" that Disney and other movie studios lobby politicians to extend every time it is about to run out...
 * Has anyone else been having a problem with the sound shutting off abruptly and not coming back?
 * Concerning the ads played, why can't they use the info I provided when I signed up (that I'm a 21 year old male) to figure out which ads are probably not up my alley, such as ads for feminine specific products, products aimed at old people, and the worst offender in my book, the alcohol ads I saw for the 4 YEARS before I turned 21. On the alcohol one, seriously, WTF, Hulu is AMERICA only and there is are federal laws forbidding the sale of alcohol to minors. I. TOLD. THEM. I. WAS. UNDERAGE. and they were still showing me the ads.
 * There are no laws (well kinda) against advertising such products to minors. "Get 'em hooked early" as the old saying goes.
 * Also, how many times do I have to tell you that the ad for the (government agency/nonprofit) trying to get kids to exercise is irrelevant to my 21 year old, NOT A PARENT ASS, before you quit telling me and my nonexistent kids to GET OUT AND PLAY!
 * Related to the ads: does Hulu even pay attention to where the ads in movies are? I just finished watching a movie with some friends, and the Mood Whiplash was just awful. The first commercial cut in right as a gun was pointed at a little girl. We wondered if the whiplash would get any worse; our questions were quickly answered when a man recounted to us the virtues of Geico, right in the middle of a main character's goring.
 * I doubt anyone at Hulu is getting paid to go through movies and find a good spot for a commercial and even then they aren't going to worry about whether the ad is tone appropriate for the movie. Movies aren't designed to have ads in them like TV shows so the Mood Whiplash is pretty much inevitable.
 * Is anybody else starting to get annoyed with how Hulu plus has taken over almost every TV series?
 * OK, the free service has every right to force ads down your throat. After all, you're not paying for it, so quit whining, bum. But when you actually subscribe and agree to pay them money, they still make you watch the damn ads! Why do they make you watch ads when you're already agreeing to give them money? You have less ads, but fewer than before is still more than none.
 * Hulu Plus's service isn't to remove ads, it's to give you access to more shows and episodes. Giving you fewer ads is just a bonus, and if they gave you no ads (especially for the same price instead of a higher price), they would start losing money every time someone watched an episode after their Xth episode per month.
 * Okay, this is about a specific show: Firefly. So, why do you have to have Hulu Plus to watch episodes 1-8 and 14 and the rest you can just watch without having to pay?
 * Because they don't want you to have access to the entire show for free. They're treating it like the current season of a live show where you can see a handful of episodes for free and the rest are on Hulu Plus. Since it was only one season they can't treat it like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and have one season for free for a month and rotate.