Netflix Vs. Hulu Plus

About a year ago I wrote about the Roku player that I had purchased so that we could watch Netflix on our big screen HDTV rather than just on our little computer screen. At the time I wrote about what a great product the Roku player was. A year later I still love the thing, and I'd easily rather give up cable than give up Netflix (In fact, we HAVE given up most of cable; we have the lowest tier our cable company offers, which gives us only local channels and WGN). One problem with Netflix, though, is that while it has hundreds of TV shows available for viewing, they're never the current episodes. For instance, though The Office can be viewed at any time on Netflix, THIS SEASON'S episodes won't be available until late summer.

Enter Hulu Plus. A few months ago Hulu, which is a free online website that features TV episodes FROM THE CURRENT SEASON, began offering a paid subscription service called Hulu Plus. It's available in various formats, including on the Roku player. Roku is offering a free one month trial, and I took them up on the offer this month so that my wife, who discovered the TV show Brothers and Sisters on Netflix, could watch this season's shows. And I have to say this: I hate it.

There are three things about Hulu Plus, at least on the Roku, that I hate.

1. Navigation. While there's room for improvement to Netflix's navigation on the Roku, the Hulu navigation is TERRIBLE. There's no way that I can tell to search for a specific show by name. To get to Brothers and Sisters, I had to click on "TV Episodes"-->"Alphabetical"-->"B" and then scroll one at a time through all of the shows available on Hulu Plus that begin with the letter "B." You CAN subscribe to a show, but getting to the subscription page isn't a whole lot easier. And moving around inside of a show, which is hard enough in Netflix on the Roku, is almost impossible in Hulu Plus.
2. Loading Time. Loading Hulu Plus from the Roku, and loading specific shows from inside Hulu Plus, take forever.
3. Commercials. This is the one that REALLY gets to me. I could overlook #1 and #2 above, but the fact that there are commercials on Hulu drives me crazy. Which is funny, because before DVR's and Netflix I used to sit through five or six commercials between segments of a show, but on Hulu I get irritated that I have to watch ONE 30 second commercial between segments. I've been spoiled by Netflix, I guess.

So I'm sorry, Hulu, but once my free month is up, I'll be dropping my subscription. In fact, now that my wife has gotten caught up on Brothers and Sisters, I think I'll go drop it now before I forget.