Hulu on Xbox???

[Sai Das]

I can get Netflix access directly on Xbox 360 extender for free, but all I see to do the same for Hulu is getting Play On for $40 upfront then $20 annually. What am I missing here? This doesn't make sense to me.

[barnabas1969]

Really? You get Netflix on the XBox for FREE? Don't you pay for an XBox Live GOLD membership for that privilege? PlayOn is a LOT cheaper than XBox Live Gold.

[Sai Das]

I was referring to having Netflix display in the WMC menu with FiOS, though not being able to access any content through it. I'm confused here (obviously). Here is my take so far. Hulu has a free version that can be used on my PC desktop, but if I want to have it display in WMC, I have to get the Plus version. Hulu support confirmed this. Netflix obviously is paid too. So if I pay for each, then I can access through WMC. I can see having to pay for Netflix as the content is not free, but why would I pay for Hulu premium just to get the free version to run through WMC? So what do I get for $40 for Play On in this regard? A one-time $40 payment isn't going replace the $8 monthly fee I would have to pay for Neflix and Hulu Plus each, right? That would certainly be a no-brainer.

Thanks for your continued patience Barnabas. It has saved me a lot of time and aggravation and is much appreciated.

[barnabas1969]

I'm confused. I use Hulu on my Media Center PC for free all the time. I use the "Hulu watcher" add-in. It basically just runs the Hulu Desktop software, minimizes Media Center, waits for Hulu Desktop to exit, and then it restores Media Center. You can get the Hulu Desktop software free from hulu.com.

Read this article:
http://lifehacker.com/5383474/hulu-desk ... dia-center

Also, the Netflix app in Media Center works fine for me. Are you saying that it doesn't work on yours?

PlayOn makes your PC into a DLNA server for Netflix, Hulu, and many other things. It, plus the TubeCore add-in, allows you to watch those sources on your extenders. Without PlayOn/TubeCore, you cannot watch Netflix or Hulu on the extenders (unless you have an XBox and a Gold account.

[Rockhopper]

Most apps (Netflix, Hulu etc.) available on the Xbox 360 require an Xbox Live Gold account which is $40-$50/year. So in addition to the $8-$10 you pay for Netflix and/or Hulu, you have to pay Microsoft in order to access the necessary apps on your Xbox. With Playon, you just have to pay either the annual ($20 right now I believe) or lifetime fee and you can access all the free content available on your desktop. Obviously, you'd still have to pay for any premium content (Netflix, HBO) on top of that. I've considered getting Playon as I currently have 3 Xbox extenders and it would allow me to access the online content on each. With XBL Gold, I'd either have to logout/login each time on each of my extenders, or get a Gold account for each $$$.

[Sai Das]

Thanks for confirming my take on this. My understanding is that PlayOn has a $40 one-time fee which would certainly be the way to go. Microsoft should really offer this free for Xbox.

[Rockhopper]

Thanks for confirming my take on this. My understanding is that PlayOn has a $40 one-time fee which would certainly be the way to go. Microsoft should really offer this free for Xbox.

They should, but XBL is a gold mine for Microsoft. They already give the guide data away for free, so I guess this is their way of finding a different revenue stream. Unless you're taking up their server bandwidth for online gaming, there's little to no cost to Microsoft for XBL. The only bad thing about Playon is there's no cheap way to integrate it with Media Center on the Xbox. I tried vmcplayit but it consistently crashed. Tubecore is another alternative, but it's not free. Right now it's sufficient just to exit out of Media Center and run the Playon shows straight from the Dashboard.

[barnabas1969]

The only bad thing about Playon is there's no cheap way to integrate it with Media Center

You think that $9.99 for TubeCore is expensive?

[Rockhopper]

The only bad thing about Playon is there's no cheap way to integrate it with Media Center

You think that $9.99 for TubeCore is expensive?

Meant to say "free", not cheap.