The Hulu Android TV app has been updated from 720p to 1080p on some devices

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Hulu Android TV apps can finally stream in 1080p on the set-top boxes of Nvidia Shield TV and Sony Bravia TV, as seen by users on Reddit, and written by Gizmodo, Android Medium, and 9to5Google.

Users first noticed the change on the “App & Device Info” page in the Hulu app. After an update, the app lists the latest video resolution as “1920 x 1080”. It’s kind of a gentle way to make the change. Looking at the update description on the Play Store, there is no mention of it, so it is possible to change something on the Hulu server side as well.

Hulu’s App & Device Info screen showing the new max resolution.
Image: 9to5Google

Gizmodo says it has been able to confirm that At least Nvidia Shield from 2019 and Bravia TVs received the 1080p chunk on March 23, but the change was not reflected in the Hulu support pages, which were last updated February. Hulu doesn’t seem to specifically list which devices will be streaming in all resolutions (outside of Live TV streaming) on ​​its support site, but it does offer minimum bitrates for each man:

  • Standard Definition (SD): 1.5 Mbps
  • High Definition (HD) 720p: 3 Mbps
  • High Definition (HD) 1080p: 6 Mbps
  • 4K Ultra HD: 16 Mbps

For the latest Chromecast with Google TV, which runs a skinned version of Android TV, it’s unclear when Hulu’s 1080p support was added, or launched with it. I was able to check out my own Hulu app at Chromecast and it currently supports 1080p. We’ve reached out to Hulu to determine which other Android TV devices may have been affected by this update.

4K streaming is even more limited on Hulu. 4K content is largely limited to Hulu’s original displays and movies, and according to Hulu’s old-fashioned list, the devices that can stream in 4K are the 5th generation Apple TV, the Chromecast Ultra, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, LG UHD TVs from 2017 onwards, Roku devices, Vizio TV with SmartCast, and the Xbox One S and X.

It’s good that more devices could theoretically flow in higher resolution, especially for people who have put out money for higher-resolution shows. I think it’s worth mentioning, however, that some of the Redditors who first discovered this change had no idea that they had been streaming in 720p all this time. .

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