Question about Hulu Plans with StreamFab

jpp72

So i have the Hulu package that includes Hulu, ESPN+ and Disney+.

I am very impressed with the 1080p/H265 implementation for Hulu in StreamFab because after downloading well over 1000 episodes, only 1 episode downloaded at 720p instead of 1080p, the bitrates are also consistent with what i picked and are uniform.

This is a far cry from Netflix's wildly different bitrates and Amazon's random H264 and/or 720p downloads when wanting 1080p/H265.

Hulu has an impressive library but i have found a few things where they tell me that in order to watch a certain show, i need the Live TV subscription:

My question is, if i do sub to the Live TV tier, will that give me access to on-demand for all the shows i am missing? If so, will it be just the current season or also the back catalog?

For example, American Greed says you need Live TV but i want all the early seasons and not just the current. I have all episodes but some of the early season i have in really awful quality.

On Peacock, the newest season they have is season 9 (currently airing is season 15) and they don't have the early seasons.

If anyone has Hulu with Live TV, i'd appreciate if you could shed some light on this.

Thanks!

LycanHD

True Lies from DSNP is better quality and H.265 still isn't 100% direct play on every device while H.264 is and storage is dirt cheap.

MrKrawk

I cannot speak for Hulu, but when you actually pay for a plan on Peacock it expands the on demand library. But I understand that Peacock is ending the free plan.
It makes no sense to me that adding the live tv plan for $70 a month would expand the on demand library, but maybe they do that to make a buck. That is a legitimate question to ask their support department if no one here has an answer.

jpp72

True Lies from DSNP is better quality and H.265 still isn't 100% direct play on every device while H.264 is and storage is dirt cheap.
LycanHD

My friends and family follow my recommendations and they all have devices that can Direct Play H265 with Plex. My local devices all run Kodi and of course they also all play H265. Dirt cheap when you have 30 TB... i have ~400 TB and no more physical space to buy more. I am now pulling smaller drives and replacing them with larger ones. A lot more cost effective to lower the footprint of the library. Disney Plus is 720p so even if it has a better bitrate, won't look as good as the 1080p one on a 65"+ 4K TV.

In any case, i want to get as much as i can from Hulu specifically because of the consistency and the StreamFab experience...

IMHO, it is the best StreamFab experience out of all the modules i use because:

Everything that is Hulu native (not the addons) is in 1080p H265
Everything has subtitles
Analysis is super fast when queuing and even faster when starting the downloads
Bitrate selected is actually bitrate downloaded

jpp72

I cannot speak for Hulu, but when you actually pay for a plan on Peacock it expands the on demand library. But I understand that Peacock is ending the free plan.
It makes no sense to me that adding the live tv plan for $70 a month would expand the on demand library, but maybe they do that to make a buck. That is a legitimate question to ask their support department if no one here has an answer.
MrKrawk

Ya i guess i will have to ask them...

KidJoe

Consider posting the question in either r/Hulu or r/HuluLive on reddit

LycanHD

Disney Plus is 720p so even if it has a better bitrate, won't look as good as the 1080p one on a 65"+ 4K TV.
[/LIST]
jpp72

Plex/[TV]/[New]/True Lies/Season 01/True.Lies.S01E01.Pilot.1080p.DSNP.WEB-DL

jpp72

Consider posting the question in either r/Hulu or r/HuluLive on reddit
KidJoe

Great idea thanks!

LycanHD

Disney Plus is 720p so even if it has a better bitrate, won't look as good as the 1080p one on a 65"+ 4K TV.
jpp72

Just because you & StreamFab don't know how, doesn't mean Disney only has 720p to download and not 1080p, 2160p, Dolby Vision or HDR10.
Complete name : True Lies S01E01.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 2.32 GiB
Duration : 42 min 48 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 7 775 kb/s
Writing application : mkvmerge v74.0.0 ('You Oughta Know') 64-bit
Writing library : libebml v1.4.4 + libmatroska v1.7.1

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 42 min 48 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 7 133 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 12.7 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.143
Stream size : 2.13 GiB (92%)
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Format : E-AC-3
Format/Info : Enhanced AC-3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital Plus
Codec ID : A_EAC3
Duration : 42 min 48 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 640 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 196 MiB (8%)
Language : English
Service kind : Complete Main
Default : Yes
Forced : No

Text [NODE="1"]Home[/NODE]
ID : 3
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Duration : 15 min 57 s
Bit rate : 2 b/s
Count of elements : 12
Stream size : 332 Bytes (0%)
Title : Forced
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : Yes

Text [NODE="2"]Forum[/NODE]
ID : 4
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Duration : 42 min 45 s
Bit rate : 91 b/s
Count of elements : 958
Stream size : 28.7 KiB (0%)
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Text [NODE="3"]Blogs[/NODE]
ID : 5
Format : UTF-8
Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8
Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text
Duration : 42 min 45 s
Bit rate : 97 b/s
Count of elements : 1015
Stream size : 30.4 KiB (0%)
Title : SDH
Language : English
Default : No
Forced : No

Menu
00:00:00.000 : en:Chapter 1
00:10:05.115 : en:Chapter 2
00:18:58.115 : en:Chapter 3
00:26:59.115 : en:Chapter 4
00:34:58.115 : en:Chapter 5
00:42:17.115 : en:Chapter 6

ADMIN PROBABLY WON'T ALLOW THIS POST TO BE APPROVED AS USUAL.:mad:

jpp72

Just because you & StreamFab don't know how, doesn't mean Disney only has 720p to download and not 1080p, 2160p, Dolby Vision or HDR10.

ADMIN PROBABLY WON'T ALLOW THIS POST TO BE APPROVED AS USUAL.:mad:
LycanHD

Do i know you? Do you know me? Have i done something to offend you somehow? Don't presume shit you have no idea of...

This is a StreamFab forum so i was asking a StreamFab question.

KidJoe

....Hulu has an impressive library but i have found a few things where they tell me that in order to watch a certain show, i need the Live TV subscription:

My question is, if i do sub to the Live TV tier, will that give me access to on-demand for all the shows i am missing? If so, will it be just the current season or also the back catalog?

For example, American Greed says you need Live TV but i want all the early seasons and not just the current. I have all episodes but some of the early season i have in really awful quality.

On Peacock, the newest season they have is season 9 (currently airing is season 15) and they don't have the early seasons.

If anyone has Hulu with Live TV, i'd appreciate if you could shed some light on this.

Thanks!
jpp72

Btw, True Lies is available via Paramount+ (If you subscribe to Paramount+ via Amazon Channels, is there too)

I wonder if other series on Hulu locked behind that "need LIVE TV Subscription" are also available on other streaming services?

Although American Greed doesn't fit this case. Season 15 is available to stream on NBC.com, and Seasons 9-14 are on Peacock.

jpp72

Btw, True Lies is available via Paramount+ (If you subscribe to Paramount+ via Amazon Channels, is there too)

I wonder if other series on Hulu locked behind that "need LIVE TV Subscription" are also available on other streaming services?

Although American Greed doesn't fit this case. Season 15 is available to stream on NBC.com, and Seasons 9-14 are on Peacock.
KidJoe

Ya if you look at the 2nd screenshot in my previous post, i have True Lies in H265 that i downloaded from APV's Paramount+ Channel.

I also am downloading American Greed Season 15 as it is posted on NBC.com. I misspoke when i said only Season 9 was on Peacock. I meant that's the last one i downloaded.

StreamFab's Peacock module pisses me off to no end cause i have to keep the SF browser on that page or it will not work. I gave up downloading seasons there but now that i know what to do, i'll do the rest. I will run them through VidCoder after cause 8000kbps for a show with just interviews is overkill.

I have seen plenty of series that are on the Hulu Live TV that are also available on an Amazon Channel. It also helps that i have Amazon Canada and US. I have seen stuff that i need to pay for on Amazon US but are free on Amazon Canada and vice versa.

oldschool

I do have Hulu + Live TV and yes, "True Lies" (2023) is available for download (and it works just fine), so far 4 episodes.

Unfortunately, there is no general rule for on-demand availability. Which means, stuff that airs on live TV is not necessary available on-demand afterwards (e.g. a soccer game on FS1). Especially for TV shows, it's up to the owning network if episodes are available on-demand at all, for how long, or for how many seasons back. It really depends on the particular show.

LycanHD

Do i know you? Do you know me? Have i done something to offend you somehow? Don't presume shit you have no idea of...

This is a StreamFab forum so i was asking a StreamFab question.

jpp72

True Lies is a CBS show, so obviously there's nothing above 1080p.

Cats4U

Not to worry... True Lies was cancelled on May 8, 2023.

jpp72

Not to worry... True Lies was cancelled on May 8, 2023.
Cats4U

Lol yeah i know... Anyway i was able to get it in H265 from Amazon with my Paramount+ channel