Laptop with Hulu?

[Merkuri]

I'm in the market for a new laptop, and I was wondering if it's possible to get a laptop capable of watching full-screen Hulu videos (even on the lowest quality) for around $500 or less.

Is it necessary to get a dedicated graphics card for this, or can integrated graphics handle it?

My current laptop is failing (whenever I turn it on after an extended shutdown period it thinks it's 1988) and I'm looking to replace it instead of repair. I don't use it often enough to justify spending a lot of money on it, so I feel like $500 is on the high end of what I should spend, but at the same time I think I might get more use out of it if I could use it as a portable Hulu player. My current laptop completely chokes on full-screen Hulu video, even on the lowest quality. The sound keeps going but eventually the video will freeze up and the computer will be completely unresponsive to input.

So I'm trying to get a feel for how much I'd need to spend for a laptop that can play Hulu videos and if I feel like it's worth it for a laptop that I may very well only use for one weekend a month.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Hulu is just streaming video. It doesn't use 3d processing or anything, so any modern video card (even integrated) is more than capable of showing even the highest quality HULU videos.

DS

 

[Thanee]

Yep. The internet connection speed is more of a limiter there, probably.

Most gaming or multimedia laptops should have no trouble with that.

Bye
Thanee

 

[LightPhoenix]

I have a Toshiba laptop that's four to five years old now, and it runs Hulu fine in HD, full screen.

 

[Scotley]

Most laptops your are going to find in the sub-$500 range are going to have 15.6" displays. They'll play Hulu and other media, but the sound and video quality will be limited by the screen size and crappy built in speakers. If you have an HD TV you might want to look for a laptop with an HDMI output so you can plug in and watch hulu on the larger screen with better speakers.

 

[Merkuri]

...the sound and video quality will be limited by the screen size and crappy built in speakers...

Oh, this will not be my main Hulu-watching machine. Right now I do most of my Hulu-viewing on my desktop machine which has dual monitors and is hooked up to a stereo for sound (an older stereo, but still better sound quality than your average computer speakers). And in the living room I have another desktop PC hooked up to our TV and the cable which we use as a DVR and Hulu-viewer when I feel like paying full attention to Hulu instead of just playing it on my second monitor as background.

So this laptop will just be used as a "travel Hulu viewer" (among other things). I have considered getting a machine that has some sort of TV-out connector, but that's a lower priority in my mind.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Oh, this will not be my main Hulu-watching machine. Right now I do most of my Hulu-viewing on my desktop machine which has dual monitors and is hooked up to a stereo for sound (an older stereo, but still better sound quality than your average computer speakers). And in the living room I have another desktop PC hooked up to our TV and the cable which we use as a DVR and Hulu-viewer when I feel like paying full attention to Hulu instead of just playing it on my second monitor as background.

So this laptop will just be used as a "travel Hulu viewer" (among other things). I have considered getting a machine that has some sort of TV-out connector, but that's a lower priority in my mind.

If you got a DVI or a HDMI output, and a TV set with a HDMI input (basically any HDTV; TFT or Plasma), you should be able to connect computer and TV without any issues, you just need the right adapter and cable. Most Notebooks will probably come with one of these, and it should not affect the price much. And you get pretty decent image quality, too.

 

[Merkuri]

For those interested, I ended up getting an Acer Aspire 5532 laptop packaged with a case and mouse for around $350 (including taxes and shipping). To my surprise, it actually had a dedicated graphics card. It was only an ATI Radeon HD 3200, but it seems to be enough for me to play some of my slightly older games (notably Civ IV, which just laughed at my old laptop), which is a big bonus and something I was not expecting to be able to do on my budget.

It runs Hulu fairly well. It's choppier than my desktop but I didn't expect it to be the same quality as my dual-core 64-bit 3 GHz processor 4 GB RAM desktop with a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card for less than $500.

 

[Scotley]

Cool, we've bought a couple of low end Acer laptops at work and found them to be quite good for the price.

I heard rumor that Hulu was considering some sort of subscription model next year. Has anyone heard anything definitive?

 

[Merkuri]

I heard rumor that Hulu was considering some sort of subscription model next year. Has anyone heard anything definitive?

The last thing I can recall hearing was that the subscription functionality would add onto their current videos. I don't think they're going to be taking anything away from the users who don't want to pay.