Apple TV How to enable Hulu on Apple TV

[bgramer]

Does this work with captions?

Netflix works with Closed Captions/Subtitles listed in AppleTV's global settings (which I leave on.) Hulu has subtitles on the website which I assume XBMC pulls its content from. Would it also work with the CC/ST feature in the AppleTV settings?

 

[patent10021]

Maybe in Hulu Japan?

Most of the popular network shows are streaming the day after they're aired, and many of them in HD.

But I'm using the regular Hulu jailbreak which is Hulu America. Theres nothing on Hulu I can't find online at better resolution. Hulu still looks like YouTube 240p. At least to me it does.

 

[CocoaPuffs]

But I'm using the regular Hulu jailbreak which is Hulu America. Theres nothing on Hulu I can't find online at better resolution. Hulu still looks like YouTube 240p. At least to me it does.

But you're in Japan, right? It probably redirects you to Hulu Japan when it scanned your IP.

 

[ericrwalker]

But you're in Japan, right? It probably redirects you to Hulu Japan when it scanned your IP.

Sounds like he's not interested in Hulu anyway, but if he is he can use the HULU addon and just set up a VPN connection.

 

[CocoaPuffs]

I didn't think that highly of Hulu in the beginning either, but it does have most of the popular network TV shows the day after they aired.

Can't hate on that.

 

[ericrwalker]

I would think it's only going to get better (fingers crossed), between Netflix and Hulu Plus, most of what I need is available for $16 a month. I am ready to drop cable (though I just locked in $89 for 1 year cable with DVR+internet)

 

[dgalvan123]

Got hulu up and running, but it plays the ad brought to you by hulu plus everytime and then kicks back out to the menu. any thoughts?

By the way, I just upgraded my Hulu add-on last night (just go to XBMC --> Settings --> Add-ons -->Enabled Add-ons --> Hulu --> Update) to version 3.4.3.

After doing this update, I got the same problem as you: when trying to play a show, it played the ad, then kicked back to the menu.

In response I did two things: I went back into the Hulu Configuration (same as above except the end is Hulu --> Configure instead of Hulu --> Update), and turned off the ads by reducing the intro add count from 2 to zero. I had wanted to do this anyway, thanks to the comment by ericwalker.

Next, I backed out to the main XBMC menu and exited to the main ATV menu, then re-launched XBMC. Now, when starting a show I get no ads and the show starts playing within a few seconds.

Not sure if one of those actions or both are required, but doing both together solved the problem you are reporting.

 

[scottapotamus68]

HULU in Canada

I'm able to watch movie trailers in HD but whenever I try a TV show I get...

[No Video Streams]
SMIL did not contain video links
Geo-Blocked
[OK]

after I press [OK] I get another window with the following...

[Playback Failed]
One or more items failed to play.
Check the log file for details.
[OK]

I haven't been able to find the log files.

 

[Tinmania]

I am on my Hulu Plus trial but so far it is not working on XBMC. I still am only seeing a handful of episodes whereas if I log into Hulo.com with a browser I see them all. For example 30 Rock shows just 5 episodes but hundreds in a browser. Yet if instead of going through the menus I search for 30 Rock on Hulo on ATV I seem to get all the episodes.

Anyone else seeing this?



Michael

 

[ericrwalker]

Did you put your email address and Hulu password in the Hulu app settings?

I am on my Hulu Plus trial but so far it is not working on XBMC. I still am only seeing a handful of episodes whereas if I log into Hulo.com with a browser I see them all. For example 30 Rock shows just 5 episodes but hundreds in a browser. Yet if instead of going through the menus I search for 30 Rock on Hulo on ATV I seem to get all the episodes.

Anyone else seeing this?



Michael

 

[Ccrew]

I'm able to watch movie trailers in HD but whenever I try a TV show I get...

[No Video Streams]
SMIL did not contain video links
Geo-Blocked
[OK]

after I press [OK] I get another window with the following...

[Playback Failed]
One or more items failed to play.
Check the log file for details.
[OK]

I haven't been able to find the log files.

Are you in an area not serviced by Hulu? Sounds like an IP restriction, ie: that Hulu thinks you're coming from somewhere outside their service area.

 

[Tinmania]

Did you put your email address and Hulu password in the Hulu app settings?

Yes... seems it is some kind of glitch. I can see all episodes if I go to seasons.

Not sure I'm keeping Hulu Plus anyway. I used the iPad Hulu Plus app for about 2 minutes and then closed it--didn't watch anything, only browsed. I was then prevented from running Hulu on ATV, where I was in the middle of an episode, for about 15 minutes. That has never happened to me with Netflix and I don't like it.



Michael

 

[ericrwalker]

That sucks....I've gotten hulu to work very well for me. After the end of the Walking Dead this season I am dropping cable.


There has been a couple of times it messed up in the middle of an episode for me, but I just go back and play a show. Or if I pause a show in the middle, it will sometimes mess up when I play it again.

Overall I am very happy with it though.

Yes... seems it is some kind of glitch. I can see all episodes if I go to seasons.

Not sure I'm keeping Hulu Plus anyway. I used the iPad Hulu Plus app for about 2 minutes and then closed it--didn't watch anything, only browsed. I was then prevented from running Hulu on ATV, where I was in the middle of an episode, for about 15 minutes. That has never happened to me with Netflix and I don't like it.



Michael

 

[Tinmania]

That sucks....I've gotten hulu to work very well for me. After the end of the Walking Dead this season I am dropping cable.


There has been a couple of times it messed up in the middle of an episode for me, but I just go back and play a show. Or if I pause a show in the middle, it will sometimes mess up when I play it again.

Overall I am very happy with it though.

Well looking at it in that light--dropping cable or in my case satellite--it might be worth it. I just don't want to be fighting over who gets to use Hulu lol.

The only things I would miss from satellite is live news and sports. Sports I have handled better though, with MLB.TV etc. I wish the major news channels would just offer live feeds. I have added a repo to XBMC that has some live news but the quality is rather poor.

Oh I will miss the DVR's much more responsive pause and resume--and the guide. One thing I want is better local buffering from streaming services. If I pause a stream I would like for it to continue buffering to the point where as much as stored locally as possible. Ditto for rewinding: seems crazy to have to re-stream some thing I just watched 30 seconds ago. I see no real technical limitation to this: my ATV2 has over 6GB free. I'd gladly use 3-4GB for a rolling buffer.

I am awfully close to just eliminating satellite.



Michael

 

[scottapotamus68]

Are you in an area not serviced by Hulu? Sounds like an IP restriction, ie: that Hulu thinks you're coming from somewhere outside their service area.

Thanks CCrew... Can you think of a way around this issue?
I believe you're correct, it was my first thought as well because of the "disclaimer" that appears on the screen that has the Configure/Install/Uninstall choices.

 

[ericrwalker]

thanks ccrew... Can you think of a way around this issue?
I believe you're correct, it was my first thought as well because of the "disclaimer" that appears on the screen that has the configure/install/uninstall choices.

vpn

 

[scottapotamus68]

vpn

Thank you Eric, but I'm a newbie to this. Could you tell me where to find instructions on how to use the VPN?
I have seen the VPN "files" but if I could find them again I don't know what to do.

 

[ericrwalker]

Thank you Eric, but I'm a newbie to this. Could you tell me where to find instructions on how to use the VPN?
I have seen the VPN "files" but if I could find them again I don't know what to do.

VPN (virtual private network), is a way to tunnel your internet traffic to another place. Basically you want to tunnel your traffic to make it look like you're in the USA. There are companies that provide VPN services ( I don't think any are free). If you know someone with a server that is located in the USA, you could VPN through them. The settings are in the HULU app. When you are on the HULU app, hold down menu to get to the settings.

 

[scottapotamus68]

Thank you Eric, but I'm a newbie to this. Could you tell me where to find instructions on how to use the VPN?
I have seen the VPN "files" but if I could find them again I don't know what to do.

I was wrong, I did not see VPN files, I saw VNC files... Definitely need help with this if could.

 

[scottapotamus68]

Ah, that's where I would fill in the US Proxy, Port... Once I have established my VPN.
many thanks.

 

[ericrwalker]

Ah, that's where I would fill in the US Proxy, Port... Once I have established my VPN.
many thanks.

yeah, most likely you'll probably have to pay for this service. Just so you know, a bad or slow VPN service could be a pain in the butt.

 

[elimmigrante]

Yup PlayOn costs 50 bucks for a lifetime...
Jailbreaking an ATV2 is free.
XBMC is free if you terminal or $29 if you want to use ATV Flash black
I run a virtual machine on my mac which isn't free (unless your friend has a copy of VmWare or Paralles and windows software)

To each their own...thanks for the post

Hey Bud,

I'm hoping you can help me out.

I successfully jailbroke my ATV2 using SeasonPass.

I also successfully installed aTV Flash (black) and XBMC.

I installed latest Parallels and Windows Vista with no problems as well.

After all the installations, I opened Parallels, purchased and installed PlayOn, and set network settings to Ethernet (bridged) in Vista. However, when I go to XBMC on my ATV and click on UPnP Media Servers, I don't see PlayOn like a few tutorials I've read/seen.

Would you know what I'm doing wrong?

HomeSharing is on as is AirPlay.

Thanks.

----------

I wrote up a set of step-by-step instructions to go from an out-of-the-box Apple TV to a jailbroken one with Hulu-watching capability. This is current as of last night (January 7, 2012), using the latest version of SeasonPass, which allows an untethered jailbreak of Apple TV firmware version 4.4.4.

Perhaps some people might find the step-by-step instructions useful. See here:

http://dgalvan.blogspot.com/2012/01/jailbreaking-your-apple-tv-2-to-watch.html

---------------------
Or just see below:

1. Download and install the untethered “Seasonpass” – Latest Version – from http://support.firecore.com/entries/387605. This is the software that will “jailbreak” your ATV, so that you can install non-Apple software on it. You can also read about this process to see what it does here: http://blog.firecore.com/6434

2. Run Seasonpass and follow instructions at this site: http://support.firecore.com/entries/387605
This may take 20 minutes or so. When you are done, read on below.

Your ATV is now jailbroken. (Don’t worry, if you decide you want to go back to the original factory settings, you can always go to “Restore” in the Settings section of your Apple TV.)

3. Hook your ATV back up to your TV and make sure it can successfully connect to the internet/your network. You should see a temporary Firecore emblem in the lower right corner of the menu, indicating the unit was successfully jailbroken.

Now you want to install some software on your jailbroken ATV. This will require the use of the Terminal app on your mac to SSH into your ATV. For that you’ll need to know your ATV’s IP address.
(***NOTE: For a GUI-based alternative to steps 4-9 below, you can purchase and install ATV-Flash Black, as suggested by CocoaPuffs in comment #22 below.)

4. On your Apple TV go to Settings --> General --> Network and note the IP address. Should be something similar to 192.168.0.186

5. Open the Terminal application on your mac and type the following:
“ssh -l root 192.168.0.186” and hit return.
(Don’t actually type the quotes, just what’s inside them. And use the actual IP address of your particular ATV, which is likely different from the number I used above)

6. You will be asked for a password. Unless you have changed it, the default password is “alpine”. You are free to change this later if you wish, using the command “passwd”. But it’s not necessary.

7. Update apt sources - type “apt-get update”


8. Install NitoTV - type “apt-get install com.nito.nitoTV”

(NitoTV is a feature that allows you to easily install other programs on your ATV from the ATV’s menu system, so you won’t have to use the command line as much.)

9. Type “killall AppleTV”. This will restart the Apple TV menu system so you can see the new software (NitoTV) you just installed.

10. On your ATV, go to NitoTV and install XBMC, updatebegone, and openSSH. XBMC is the Xbox Media Center software which will allow you to watch Hulu. updatebegone stops the ATV from auto updating or nagging you about updating to the next Apple Firmware update, since you won’t want to update the firmware until the next jailbreak update comes out. (Otherwise you’d lose your jailbreak when updating to the next Apple firmware.) OpenSSH just makes it easier to install the Hulu plugin for XBMC later. (not completely sure that openSSH is necessary, but oh well)

XBMC has now been installed! But it’s not ready to stream Hulu just yet. . .

Now we need to install the bluecop repository, which is just a zip file containing “add-ons” that will augment XBMC and allow it to stream Hulu. You can see a post about this plugin, with instructions on how to install it, here:
http://www.appletvhacks.net/2011/03/02/how-to-watch-hulu-on-apple-tv-2/

If you are savvy enough with SFTP and the command line to follow the instructions at the link above, go for it and you are done! If you need a bit more explanation, see below.

11. Download the .zip file for the bluecop repository from the above link to your mac.

(***NOTE: For an alternative to steps 12-16 below, you can use a GUI-based FTP client like FileZilla instead of Terminal, as suggested by CocoaPuffs in comment #22 below.)

12. In the terminal application on your mac, exit out of the SSH session you started earlier with your ATV by typing “exit”. Then navigate to wherever the zip file you just downloaded is. For example, if the zip file went into your Downloads directory, you would type: “cd” and hit return to change directory to your home directory, and then “cd Downloads” (and hit return) to go to your Downloads directory. Make sure the zip file is in there by typing “ls repository*”. This will display the file (full name is repository.bluecop.xbmc-plugins.zip) if it is there. It will display nothing if you are in the wrong directory.

13. Type the following: “sftp root@192.168.0.186” (again, use the correct IP address) This sets up a SFTP: secure file transfer protocol session which will allow you to transfer the zip file from your mac to the ATV.

14. Type “cd /private/var/mobile/Media” (this will change directory to a Media folder on the ATV where XBMC will know to look for this zip file.)

15. Type “put repository.bluecop.xbmc-plugins.zip” (this will actually transfer the zip file from your mac to the ATV)

16. Type “quit” to exit SFTP.

17. On the ATV, go to XBMC. Then go to System --> Add-ons --> “Install from zip file”


18. Browse to var/mobile/media (the folder where you put the zip file), find “repository.bluecop.xbmc-plugins.zip” and press OK (Bluecop is already enabled)


19. Go to System --> Add-ons --> get add-ons, find “bluecop Add-on Repository” click OK, choose video add-ons, find Hulu and install it. Note that after it is “enabled”, you can select the plugin again and select “configure” to enter your Hulu login information. Whether you are a HuluPlus subscriber or just a user of free Hulu, the login can be handy because it allows you to configure your “subscriptions” (which shows you like) on Hulu.com via a computer and web browser, and then you can conveniently access just those subscriptions in XBMC on the ATV, instead of having to search or browse through thousands of shows using the remote.

20. Finally, back out to the front XBMC main menu and go to Videos -> Video add-ons. Find Hulu and enjoy (should work with both regular Hulu and Hulu Plus).

At this point you should be able to watch free Hulu on XBMC on your ATV! Life now has meaning.

I downloaded the plugin.

I open Terminal and type in the commands "cd" and "cd Downloads" and it takes me to the directory.

When I type "Is repository*", I get a response that reads "-bash: Is: command not found"

Can you help? Thanks in advance!

 

[Gjwilly]

I downloaded the plugin.

I open Terminal and type in the commands "cd" and "cd Downloads" and it takes me to the directory.

When I type "Is repository*", I get a response that reads "-bash: Is: command not found"

Can you help? Thanks in advance!

You want a lower-case "L" not an "I"
ls repository

 

[elimmigrante]

You want a lower-case "L" not an "I"
ls repository

Thanks. Got it done with Filezilla at 2am.

 

[tido2012]

Hey guys quick question, I've been trying to use Hulu Plus to airplay to my apple tv but it's not working. I haven't read the thread but is it necessary to jailbreak in order to get Hulu Plus on your apple tv? I would read through it, but I'm watching the daily show, jon stewart cracks me up!!