Hulu on Mobile Devices?

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No doubt, Hulu‘s been kicking butt in growing their web audience by providing legit, mainstream television content. And word is they’re now considering international expansion. So Engadget’s ‘Best portable Internet device‘ query has got me thinking… Are there any mobile devices capable of streaming Hulu shows?

Let me start by saying “best” is a relative term term – In my experience, the iPhone provides the most efficient and enjoyable way to browse the web on a small form factor device. However, it’s obviously not the “best” browser for visiting sites that embed Abode Flash. While Apple’s gone outside the browser to offer YouTube via a custom interface and H.264 content, a large percentage of web video is off limits. Such as Hulu.

The Nokia N800 and N810 Internet Tablets also utilize a highly regarded web browser – Mozilla-based and with Flash support. Though, you’ll probably need to use the stylus… Supposedly YouTube does OK, but reports on Hulu have been mixed as Steve O’Hear of Last100 and I discovered this AM – seems like the CPU and/or Flash version aren’t sufficient to present smooth video playback.

Other than bringing a Windows UMPC into the mix, is anyone aware of a mobile device that’s capable of streaming Hulu video?

(And let’s not even talk about Netflix Watch Instantly and Microsoft DRM… Though, Silverlight will be going mobile – which might have come in handy at NBCOlympics.com this month.)

20 thoughts on “Hulu on Mobile Devices?”

  1. “..Other than bringing a Windows UMPC into the mix, is anyone aware of a mobile device that’s capable of streaming Hulu video?”

    Ask the people over at Adobe’s “Open Screen Project” skunkworks thingy, they have an answer to your question:

    “…The Open Screen Project is dedicated to driving consistent rich Internet experiences across televisions, personal computers, mobile devices, and consumer electronics. The Open Screen Project is supported by technology leaders, including Adobe, ARM, Chunghwa Telecom, Cisco, Intel, LG Electronics Inc., Marvell, Motorola, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Verizon Wireless, and leading content providers, including BBC, MTV Networks, and NBC Universal, who want to deliver rich Web and video experiences, live and on-demand…

    …The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment and will address potential technology fragmentation by allowing the runtime technology to be updated seamlessly over the air on mobile devices.”

    http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/

  2. I am running skyfire beta browser on my AT&T 8525 and hulu as well as most video sites runs very well on the phone.

  4. Im waiting on the Skyfire beta for the iphon…ohh right, why would apple allow another browser on the app store when they’ve already coded “The Perfect Browser”…

  6. Obviously theres a need for three things here.
    1) Form factor. 4+” screens for the long-format.
    2) 3G
    3) Processing power in CPU or hardware.

    I believe Hulu uses FLV doesnt it? H.264 has got to be the way forward here as hardware decoding chips are popping up all over the place.
    Intels Atom-based MIDs and Archos new 5G are the perfect place to start. The hardware market is only just beginning to get ready for this though.

    Steve

  7. Screen size is probably debatable and a personal preference. And instead of just 3G, I’d say 3G or WiFi. Processing power is debatable in some ways – I’ve been watching Slingbox on mobiles for a couple of years, including the old, krusty, and tired Palm OS. Though who knows what the requirements of Hulu are – their site is obviously not optimized for a mobile device.

    Hulu may use Flash as an enclosure, but the content itself may be H.264. Not sure.

  8. Wow, Skyfire really does a rather amazing job rendering some of these complex web pages. I’m amazed at how well it works on hulu and youtube. If you’ve got a supported handset (I’m using a non-3G AT&T Nokia E61i, so the Symbian version) you really should try it. This new approach (basically remote viewing of a page rendered elsewhere) seems to be pretty viable…

  9. I have moto q9c with wm 6.1 and skyfire 1.0 but cannot get hulu to work; however, have gotten other sites that require flash player to work. Do I need to install flash player 9 first? I have been looking forward to a browser with flash player for a long time… thanks skyfire!!!!!!!!!! :D

  10. I was runing skyfire on my moto q 9c and hulu worked ok, but after skyfire updated it no longer played hulu. now im using opera browser and when I try to watch hulu a message pops up saying I need flashplayer 9.. I thought F
    P9 was for the big computer..am I mistaken? maybe im looking in the wrong places? if anyone knows could you please let me know? thank you very much… :)

  11. Skyfire is admittedly one of the best browsers out there. But unknown to the public. Skyfire uses a central server to (pre)-render the page for you. This is why you can see content like hulu. I am still waiting for a “true” mobile device browser that can render flash 9+ content. I sure hope Windows Mobile 7 will be delivering this kind of experience.

  12. Well I like hulu as a computer website, but if you want to watch videos without YouTube then you should try ” iwoopie” it is a great app to watch videos

  13. well skyfire is the solution for that question..it doesnt need 3G or wifi.i have a tmobile dash which uses edge and skyfir works perfect way faster than any mobile browser videos stream fine all the time ofcourse the wifi makes it better

  14. You guys suck i wish i could watch hulu on my iphone make it happed its 2010 stop hiding the tecnology we know you have it u just waiting for someone to sponser $$$$$$$$$$$

  15. For Nokia S60/Maemo devices with Flash Lite 3.0 support, it will handle Hulu with Skyfire perfectly, I mean it loads the pages fast, although the playback is choppy.

    For Windows Mobile-based phones, you have to install Flash player separately, and watch Hulu with Skyfire.

    For Java-based phones with Flash Lite 3.0 support, it will load the website, although it doesn’t show the whole page due to the capacity of the internal phone memory, and the amount of RAM.

    For iPhones, sorry guys, you’re out of luck.

  16. For other phones (eg. LG, Samsung, Blackberry), sorry guys, you’re definitely out of luck, you shouldn’t be even reading this article.

  17. Can i get watch movies on hulu with my pantech p7000 from AT&T. Ive tried to download the flash player but i am so confused and frustrated because i understand what i need to go to to make this work on my phone. anyway if someone can help that would be wonderful.

  20. i am running wm 6.5 on my HD2
    and am using skyfire
    and it works really really good
    except it kinda lags a little in the video playback and loads pages kinda slow bit otherwise the browser is perfect

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