Thank You TiVo for Hulu Plus, But No Thank You

TiVo has been rolling out Hulu Plus on their Premier boxes for awhile now and it became available to me around the first week of June. I had used and cancelled Hulu Plus, before so I wasn’t eligible for the free trial. However, the Premier TiVo is connected to our living room TV, and I thought Hulu might be something my husband would like so I went ahead and paid the subscription fee. After using it for ten days I have already decided I am going to cancel it at the end of the month. Part of the reason I am going to cancel is how Hulu works on the TiVo and part is Hulu itself. The first problem I ran into was trying to find it on TiVo, it is not under Video, which is where you would expect it but under Music, Photos and Showcase. The second problem is the number of clicks it takes to get to something you want to watch on Hulu. Lets assume you are watching live TV and decide you want to watch a show you’ve subscribed to on Hulu, here are the steps you have to go through

1.  Hit the TiVo button

2.  Hit the Music, Photo & Show Case button (wait for it to load)

3.  Hit the Hulu Plus Button (again wait for it to load)

4.  Move to and click the Que and Subscription button

5.  Hit the Subscription button

6.  Find and hit the show you want to watch

7.  Find the episode you want, click on it and again wait for it to load.

The above list assuming everything goes has it is suppose to, but inevitably I end up hitting the most Popular button by mistake and have to wait for it to load before I can get to what I really want. That’s the biggest problem, it is not the number of steps, it is that at almost every step you have to wait for something to load. They are not short load times either, sometimes it can take quite awhile. Half way through the process I am thinking do I really want to watch this show is it worth the effort.

Then I finally get to the show I want to watch and start playing it. But wait first I have to watch two commercials and then the show starts. At that point I am thinking ok I knew there were going to be some commercials I am not happy about it but I accept it. Then 10 minutes into the program two more commercials play, then 10 minutes later two more commercials, another 10 minutes two more commercials and finally just before the end of the program two more commercials. Each time a commercial plays I become less accepting and more frustrated, especially since there is no way to fast forward through them. Having to watch eight commercials during an hour show when you’ve are already paying $7.95 for the subscription is just too much for me. To make matters worse you get the same commercials over and over again.

I do appreciate that Hulu Plus is now available on TiVo, however for the above reasons and the fact I can get a lot of the same programs through Netflix and Amazon Video much quicker and without the commercials. I am not going to be renewing my subscription at the end of the month.