So, I’ve successfully cut the cable, and I’m not going back. I subscribed to
Hulu with the Live option, because I’m an old dog and that’s just how I like to watch tv. Whenever I go through the lists of garbage to stream on any of the services (Apple TV, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime), with few exceptions I usually get overwhelmed with the spectacular volume of crap out there and either fall back on something live, or streaming old episodes of Beat Bobby Flay or Seinfeld. On a few occasions I’ve actually tried to watch something new, but those usually go in the trash heap within a few minutes. But enough of the history lesson.
Hulu Live, when it works, it’s great. I can select favorite channels (the definition of a kluge, but you can’t have everything) to limit the list of stuff I most frequently pick from, there’s a Recents list that holds the 10 most recent channels I’ve watched, and then there’s every channel available when the first two list searches prove fruitless. But here’s where the trouble starts - seems like it’s been daily, sometimes several times daily, the channel guide goes totally wonky. Channels and Favorites lists go completely blank, and the Recents list stops updating my recents. It will stay like this sometimes for hours, making the one feature I use the most almost useless. There are other ways to select live programming, but it requires exiting the show I’m watching and going back to the almost random options on the Hulu home page.
I contacted Hulu support a couple of times about the issue, most recently earlier today, and they said the saw three devices streaming at once, even though I was the only one actively streaming Hulu. I did open it on my iPad to see if the guide was working there (it wasn’t), but then closed it. I have two Apple TV’s, but only one is ever on at a time, never both. My wife has Hulu on her iPad as well, but she wasn’t streaming it at the time. No idea if the apparent multiple devices streaming was the cause of the problem or not. Could even be that Apple devices apparently don’t completely close apps, even when they’ve been force-closed. But to further the strangeness, I switched to my wife’s Hulu profile on my tv, and the guide was working properly; switched back to mine, and it was still gone. I logged out of the app on my iPad anyway, and the Hulu support guy reset and synched my account on his end. When I reopened the app on my tv, the channel guide was back to normal. So it’s fixed … for now.
This problem happens randomly, but frequently enough that it’s gotten annoying as hell. I just (finally) learned you can force-close apps on Apple TV, so next time this happens, I’ll close Hulu and reopen it. If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably delete my profile and recreate it. I don’t know what else to do. So I’m wondering if anybody else is running Hulu Live on Apple TV and having any similar issues, or if anybody has any other suggestions.
Hulu with the Live option, because I’m an old dog and that’s just how I like to watch tv. Whenever I go through the lists of garbage to stream on any of the services (Apple TV, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime), with few exceptions I usually get overwhelmed with the spectacular volume of crap out there and either fall back on something live, or streaming old episodes of Beat Bobby Flay or Seinfeld. On a few occasions I’ve actually tried to watch something new, but those usually go in the trash heap within a few minutes. But enough of the history lesson.
Hulu Live, when it works, it’s great. I can select favorite channels (the definition of a kluge, but you can’t have everything) to limit the list of stuff I most frequently pick from, there’s a Recents list that holds the 10 most recent channels I’ve watched, and then there’s every channel available when the first two list searches prove fruitless. But here’s where the trouble starts - seems like it’s been daily, sometimes several times daily, the channel guide goes totally wonky. Channels and Favorites lists go completely blank, and the Recents list stops updating my recents. It will stay like this sometimes for hours, making the one feature I use the most almost useless. There are other ways to select live programming, but it requires exiting the show I’m watching and going back to the almost random options on the Hulu home page.
I contacted Hulu support a couple of times about the issue, most recently earlier today, and they said the saw three devices streaming at once, even though I was the only one actively streaming Hulu. I did open it on my iPad to see if the guide was working there (it wasn’t), but then closed it. I have two Apple TV’s, but only one is ever on at a time, never both. My wife has Hulu on her iPad as well, but she wasn’t streaming it at the time. No idea if the apparent multiple devices streaming was the cause of the problem or not. Could even be that Apple devices apparently don’t completely close apps, even when they’ve been force-closed. But to further the strangeness, I switched to my wife’s Hulu profile on my tv, and the guide was working properly; switched back to mine, and it was still gone. I logged out of the app on my iPad anyway, and the Hulu support guy reset and synched my account on his end. When I reopened the app on my tv, the channel guide was back to normal. So it’s fixed … for now.
This problem happens randomly, but frequently enough that it’s gotten annoying as hell. I just (finally) learned you can force-close apps on Apple TV, so next time this happens, I’ll close Hulu and reopen it. If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably delete my profile and recreate it. I don’t know what else to do. So I’m wondering if anybody else is running Hulu Live on Apple TV and having any similar issues, or if anybody has any other suggestions.
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