I believe that when you pause playback the resolution is displayed in the info bar.

 

Not in the newer interfaces. As for what shows are coming and going a number of sites post those monthly. Just do a search on Hulu .

 

Topic title edited to make more specific.

 

Isn't the question you should be asking, "If I can't tell that this show is in HD by watching it, then what does it matter?" If you can't tell a show is in SD because the picture looks bad (or that it's in HD because the picture looks good), then it doesn't really matter which one you're watching.

 

No, you often want to know whether a show is in HD prior to viewing; for example,. is a classic TV show in HD, or should I try it on another source, or I may have the show in DVD already, wanting to know if the service offers it in HD. In addition, there are various resolution levels of HD; e.g., 720p, 1080; 1080p (as noted on Netflix); further, some HD is so bad that it is difficult to discern from HD; if this is their version of HD I want to know.


Regarding when a program expires. the Hulu help center has the following:


Whenever a video is about to expire, we do our best to provide information in advance to our users. "Heads up" about expirations are posted in the video description when you hover over a video's thumbnail image two weeks before it is removed from our site. You can also find general availability notes on the main page for many shows.

Hulu picks this image which shows no evidence of when the show expires! Incredible, how poor or stupid are the people who run Hulu? (For those about to reply you need to hover, Hulu should show you what you see when you hover; only need to add to avoid useless, almost insulting, replies like the prior message).


And even IF the above is true, is there not a method to know which shows expire without having to hover over every program?

 

I did check the interface on my Sony S1200 BD player. I had to use it to watch Hulu a couple weeks back because the Hulu app had been broken on the Shield TV. I'm not sure if the button was there or I ignored it two weeks ago but when checking yesterday it doesn't list resolution but lets you select bitrates up to 3.2 Mbps. That's not on the web interface nor on the Shield TV and android phone app. The web interface will let you just choose quality at three levels. Using a debugger I can tell what the different stream resolutions are on the Shield TV and the phone too.

 

No such capability to my knowledge with the PS3.

 

Given a choice I do prefer HD but I really can't understand the notion of not watching something that isn't 'HD'. In these modern times are there really people so hung up on delivery versus content that SD -vs- HD is a consideration when watching classic TV shows?

 

Last night I wanted to watch the UK series "The Aliens" which was added yesterday. Apparently so did a lot of other people because Hulu had a hard time getting a stream to me (it was a little after 8 PM PDT). When it did get going again, according to my logs, it was at 640x360. Went to Netflix and watched a movie, came back to Hulu at around 10:30 PM and two episodes playing okay in HD (720p). If a show is popular it may be difficult to get an HD stream. This is an admitted problem both by Netflix and Hulu.

 

Interesting. I have DSL and often the picture quality is better late night; given your info, the lesser resolution earlier; e.g., prime time, could be number of people watching the show versus with my DSL provider. I have received different opinions on whether DSL in better when fewer people are using the internet.


How did you know the resolution on Hulu? I know I could burn it to Blu-Ray and find that way on my PS3, and have found that on a PC it will tell you the quality being low, medium, high, or HD; however, this information is not conveyed on the PS3 Hulu app. Thanks.

 

DSL is probably not the problem but more at the CDN (Akamai in Hulu's case). You can probably only provide so many streams off servers then you have to downgrade the quality to provide to more users. It's been a big problem with streaming services and why they sometimes don't list titles that may be popular immediately on their app. I notice this particularly with Netflix. The IT folks here probably have a better idea though CDN stuff is probably quite a bit more arcane. At one point on Friday Hulu just put up an error message that they couldn't provide the show at this time.

As for finding the resolution I watch using an Nvidia Shield TV and am an Android developer (with apps on Google Play since 2009). I should have done this last year after arguing Hulu resolution elsewhere but I wasn't expecting the logs to provide all kinds of information such as what resolution is being provided and what codec being used. I mainly used the debugger to install and test apps on the Shield TV. I had the debugger hooked up to try to catch a spontaneous reboot bug during shows the Shield has with some units. Haven't seen anything saying 1080p yet though they are streaming some well done 720p and it's all h264. I guess they are playing safe and conservative despite what their lead tech had to say in an interview.

I think a lot of companies are waiting for AV1 to be released next spring rather than invest in h265 (with royalties) or VP9 (no royalties). YouTube uses VP9 on devices like the Shield TV that support it as one can see by selecting "Stats for Nerds" but not on my Sony BD player. AV1 may well be VP10.