Hulu vs. Netflix vs. Amazon Prime vs. ???

[JayFreddy]

Three online movie streaming services. All three are priced similarly (Hulu and Netflix are $8 per mo., Amazon Prime is $79 per year, or about $6.59 per month)

Amazon Prime is a bit different from the other two as it requires a one year contract, but also includes free two day shipping on any item sold on Amazon, as well as some Kindle perks, for people who like to read eBooks.

Unfortunately, the selection of movies on Amazon seems limited compared to the other two, and many movies that are included on Hulu or Netflix cost an extra $2 or $3 with Amazon. So unless you buy a lot of stuff on Amazon and can recover your subscription cost by savings on shipping, AP is probably not a serious contender to Hulu or Netflix at this time...

Netflix was the first to the online streaming game, and seems to have the largest market share, but Hulu seems to be coming on strong, and appears to have more Japanese language content, which is important to my wife and me.

I'm still a little miffed at the way Netflix divested its DVD business, and I don't like the idea of being under contract for a year, so Hulu is looking better all the time.

Are there any other streaming movie providers worth considering?

I'd especially like to hear from people who have tried more than one and can compare their experiences with them...

Thanks in advance!

[Westerly Sunn]

I have all three.

I had a Amazon Prime membership already for the free shipping. I wouldn't buy it simply for the streaming.

Netflix is great. For me, It's the one.

Hulu is pretty good too, but it crashes my Roku, so it's Computer Only. My girlfriend also watches it on her Kindle Fire.

[JayFreddy]

Thank you! That's good information...

[Westerly Sunn]

The "Hulu App for Roku Crash" is a known issue judging from the Roku Forums. It seems to be one of those things where Hulu and Roku each blame the other so it never gets fixed.

I have a newer Roku but I've never tried it as I simply prefer the wider range of connections on the older one. (specifically it has an optical audio output whereas the newer ones do not.)

I would have to suspect that the built-in apps for Hulu on newer TV's would work.

There are of course plenty of free streaming sites that are good for occasional stuff.

[Rolling Estonian]

You could drop a little on an Xbox. They're in a really nice position.

M

[elicross]

Vudu's another choice. It's not a subscription service; more like pay-per-view (except you can also buy permanent digital copies of movies in addition to renting).

I have Netflix (streaming + 2 discs a month) and use it a good bit, but I sometimes watch movies on Vudu via my Xbox 360 because they get the big releases sooner than Netflix streaming, and I might not feel like watching either of the Netflix discs I've got at home (or I might be waiting for the next two discs to get to me). Rental prices are comparable to pay-per-view: about $5 for a 24-hour rental of a new release in HD. Sound and picture quality are comparable to Netflix on Xbox 360; really quite good unless your bandwidth is borked for some reason.

One thing I like about Netflix streaming is that they've got subtitle options for a whole lot of their movies and TV shows. I wish Vudu had that. It works well with my borderline OCD need to catch every single word of dialogue; if I miss something, I can rewind and turn on the subtitles.

I haven't really messed with Hulu or Amazon Prime; I want to keep it to one subscription service, and Netflix has been fine so far.

[greggorypeccary]

Hulu doesn't have anywhere near the movie options as Netflix.

[DeepSouth]

They are all hopeless due to their restrictive nature and I can't be bothered with a VPN to get around it. My money should be as good as anyone else's as far as I'm concerned. All men are created equal as long they live in the continental United States when it comes to streaming video services it seems from where I sit.

[J-man]

Originally Posted by DeepSouth

They are all hopeless due to their restrictive nature and I can't be bothered with a VPN to get around it. My money should be as good as anyone else's as far as I'm concerned. All men are created equal as long they live in the continental United States when it comes to streaming video services it seems from where I sit.

I don't think they're purposefully withholding content, it's just that they have to negotiate/pay separately for the rights to stream content to each country. Most of them launched in the US first, so they have a head start.

[Skully]

As far as free streaming options go, Amazon Prime is a joke.

[DeepSouth]

Originally Posted by J-man

I don't think they're purposefully withholding content, it's just that they have to negotiate/pay separately for the rights to stream content to each country. Most of them launched in the US first, so they have a head start.

Of course you are mostly right - but it's easy to sound milder when you don't have to live in the dark ages.

[J-man]

Originally Posted by DeepSouth

Of course you are mostly right - but it's easy to sound milder when you don't have to live in the dark ages.

Netflix UK has a very small selection compared to US right now, if it makes you feel any better.

[WaylonFan76]

I'm gonna invest in a HD Roku. The picture quality I get with my Wii is starting to really bother me.
I was not very happy with Netflix for pulling a lot of their better movies after the whole Starz debacle, but they have stepped up to the plate and their streaming service has a bunch of really good movies now, classics and recent. I'm glad I stuck with them.

[tele_pathic]

I love my netflix, even after the price hike. I can't imagine streaming to my HDTV through a wii, though, which only has rca outs, not hdmi. It's netflix for me.

As another option, we recently switched to dish, who included a free trial of blockbuster@home. It seems a lot like netflix, but I haven't searched for tv shows, which is what I love about netflix. Blockbuster had a ton of movies that netflix doesn't have. Not sure about the pricing.

[KC]

I have all three, too -- had Amazon Prime for the shipping (I live in Montana so it's worth it), had Netflix already, got Hulu when I pulled the plug on cable. As noted above, the selection of "free" movies on Amazon is pretty lame. Netflix is the one I probably wouldn't do without -- the widest selection of movies, plus Top Gear UK. Lots of music stuff, including some pretty obscure blues stuff that's only surfacing now after years in somebody's basement.

Hulu's a better deal for the TV watcher: they have all the shows my daughter watches, pretty soon after they first go on air. They have Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert the day after they originally air, for instance. And they have the whole Criterion collection, which is an amazing trove of both classic art films (Fellini, Truffaut, etc) and classic Japanese action movies. We worked our way through most of the Zatoichi series last winter.

I run these three through a Roku HD and have never had a problem with any of them. Also the baseball package. Add it all up and it's still not a quarter of what cable was costing me, and is more than enough TV to make me happy. Until football season.

[WaylonFan76]

Originally Posted by tele_pathic

I love my netflix, even after the price hike. I can't imagine streaming to my HDTV through a wii, though, which only has rca outs, not hdmi. It's netflix for me.

Streaming through the Wii pretty much reminds me of VCR tapes...
Do you Roku ?

[mohair_chair]

We have Netflix. It's fairly useless except there is a lot of stuff for kids. Without that, it would be gone in our house. The DVD plan was great but we dropped that.

I tried Hulu. Dropped it after a day. I hated it. With all the commercials they force you to watch, you're better off watching regular tv. I felt cheated that I had to PAY to watch commercials. And there are lots.

Basically, no one does it right yet. Save your money.

[rghill]

We have Netflix and Amazon Prime, on both an HD Roku and Playstation 3.

Netflix is great for the kids, and Amazon is great for renting new releases. You don't need Prime to rent on Amazon, btw.

The Playstation interface is slightly better and resolution seems better, but both work great.

For the price and ease of use, its hard to beat Roku, but so many other devices do it so much better for more $$$. I bought the Playstation for games, bluray, and services like Amazon and Netflix, so the Roku will likely be moved to the bedroom TV.

[elicross]

I don't really get the characterization Netflix only being good for kids. There's much more grown-up content than kids' content in Netflix's "Watch Instantly" inventory.

[Leep Dog]

I have Netflix. I had the 3 dvd's out at once plan and I could stream stuff on my Xbox. When they changed their plans and bumped their prices up, they pi$$ed me off. Their online streaming options became much more limited. I've changed plans so now I'll be stream only. Does anyone know if switching to that plan will open up the viewing options? If not, I may cancel.