Tech —

Hulu Plus UI on Apple TV: a photo tour

The interface is Apple-ified, but it works well across devices.

Hulu and Apple recently partnered up to bring the (paid) streaming TV service to Apple's set-top box. Though I poked some fun at the number of Hulu Pus subscribers who might take advantage of the service on Apple TV, there are quite a few subscribers who have chosen Hulu Plus over competing services like Netflix. Hulu Plus's $7.99 monthly service tends to focus more on new and current TV offerings than Netflix (which largely focuses on movies and older seasons of TV shows). As such, it makes sense for Hulu Plus to join Netflix on the Apple TV, even if its addition does seem a couple years late.

Hulu Plus is already available on a number of other devices, such as the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and even the Roku set-top box. But as many readers know, the interfaces between these devices can offer significant differences, so we thought we'd take a look at the Hulu Plus interface on the Apple TV. Below is our photo tour of Apple's implementation of Hulu Plus—it generally follows the same interface style as the rest of Apple's offerings, but with plenty of hooks into Hulu's Web service.

(Side note: apologies in advance for any reflections. The room where my TV is located is chock full of bouncing light.)

The new Hulu Plus "app" is located on the Apple TV's main screen next to Netflix and underneath "TV Shows" (which denotes Apple's TV shows offered through iTunes). The app was pushed to supported Apple TVs from Apple's servers, so an update of the Apple TV's firmware isn't necessary in order for it to show up. I used a second-generation (720p) Apple TV for this demo.

Upon first click, Hulu Plus doesn't know who you are—you must either log in with your existing account or create a new account, which comes with one free week of service.

Interestingly, even if you log in with your own existing Hulu account, Hulu Plus on the Apple TV will sign you up for billing through your Apple ID instead of through Hulu. I assume this was the case for me because my Hulu account wasn't previously paying for Hulu Plus. But if you're already a Hulu Plus subscriber, it's likely that your billing will remain through Hulu and not your Apple ID. Even logging into Hulu's website after the fact confirmed this:

You can see your subscription status and who's billing you through Hulu's website.
You can see your subscription status and who's billing you through Hulu's website.

Even though you're billed through your iTunes/Apple ID, you can still cancel your subscription through Hulu's website. The screen on the Apple TV also claims you can cancel your subscription through your iTunes account, though when I checked, I couldn't find Hulu anywhere within my subscription settings.

Hulu Plus's main interface on the Apple TV
Hulu Plus's main interface on the Apple TV

Once you've either signed in or signed up for Hulu Plus, you're kicked to the main Hulu Plus interface. If you're already familiar with the rest of the Apple TV, this won't look like anything new—art for the TV shows and movies scrolls by CoverFlow-style on the left side while your menu options are on the right.

The Popular and Recommended option shows you exactly that: what's most popular on Hulu, as well as what's recommended for you based on your past (or current) viewing habits. In this sense, it's very Netflix-like in functionality.

Marry me, Doogie Howser, M.D.!
Marry me, Doogie Howser, M.D.!

Favorites and Queue is where Hulu Plus brings in whatever you've already added from Hulu's website or another device. I haven't used Hulu in a long time myself, but I still had a few items in my favorites and my queue, which were all brought in on the Apple TV. You can also mark new shows/movies as favorites and add them to your Hulu queues right from the Apple TV as well. Just navigate your way to a TV show that you want to add in order to find these options:

You can add a show to your Hulu favorites when you navigate to the season you want.
You can add a show to your Hulu favorites when you navigate to the season you want.
And if you want to add individual episodes to your queue, you must navigate to those first.
And if you want to add individual episodes to your queue, you must navigate to those first.

When viewing a whole season of a show, you can see "Clips" and "Add to Favorites" at the top—the former allows you to watch the short clips that have become popular on Hulu's website, and the latter lets you add the whole season to your list of favorites. But if you click on an individual episode, you can add just that episode to your Hulu queue, which will then be synced back to Hulu's website and across any other devices where you can find Hulu Plus.

Even if you watched these episodes on the Web or another device, you can see them on the Apple TV.
Even if you watched these episodes on the Web or another device, you can see them on the Apple TV.

Again, Hulu Plus on the Apple TV hooks into its Web service by allowing you to access your viewing history, even if you viewed those shows on another device. They're categorized by show at the top, or individual videos below.

Want to browse TV-only? Here are your options.
Want to browse TV-only? Here are your options.

When it comes to TV viewing in particular, you can browse by either genre or network. Most regular TV watchers don't keep a running list of which shows belong to which networks, so I think the latter option is a little less useful than Hulu probably thinks it is. But if you are a die-hard fan of NBC Universal, then Hulu Plus makes it easy for you to navigate there and see what the peacock folks have to offer.

If you do find yourself browsing by network, the results are categorized by what's popular and what was recently added to Hulu.
If you do find yourself browsing by network, the results are categorized by what's popular and what was recently added to Hulu.

When you do browse by network, the Apple TV displays the offerings in a logical way: Most Popular, Recently Added, and alphabetically.

Movies are similar to TV, but no browsing by movie studio for you!
Movies are similar to TV, but no browsing by movie studio for you!

The movie interface is slightly different—there is no way to browse by movie studio (which I would argue makes more sense, for the reasons stated above). Instead, there's the option to browse by Popular and Recommended, Genres, alphabetically, or somewhat strangely, Criterion Collection.

The Criterion Collection: because why not?
The Criterion Collection: because why not?

Hulu Plus also allows you to browse through movie trailers, which is a nice addition even if you can already browse movie trailers through Apple's built-in offerings on the Apple TV.

In all, the interface is fairly straightforward. There aren't any surprises and things largely function as expected (aside from not being able to find how to cancel a Hulu Plus subscription through iTunes). It's possible that a new subscription might take a while to make its way through Apple's servers and show up on your iTunes account, but for now, it seems like the best way to manage your subscription is through Hulu's own website.

Have you been using the Hulu Plus app on Apple TV? If so, have you found any interesting easter eggs, or infuriating gotchas?

Channel Ars Technica