News: Hulu Plus a Negative on Xbox Live?

If you powered up the ol' Xbox 360 last night to watch Netflix, you probably noticed that a new streaming service moved into Xbox LIVE—Hulu Plus. Netflix finally has some competition. Or maybe not. But with a week of free service, they're sure to attract some would-be watchers.

The free week of Hulu Plus is available to all Xbox 360 owners with an Xbox LIVE account, free or Gold. You get one week of free viewing, no strings attached, until May 6th. Students with an .edu email address can sign up for 1 free month online. Once the free trial is up, you'll have to start paying the $7.99 monthly fee, which is the same price that Netflix charges for stream-only content. So, it costs the same, but is it better?

You can get access to Hulu's exclusive films from The Criterion Collection, something Netflix doesn't have. And you can play, pause, fast forward and rewind via the Kinect by speaking or waving your hand. But there's no search function for the large catalog of Hulu clips, just shows and movies, so you have to add shorts to your queue via the website. Another negative—it's still an ad-based service, so all of your favorite TV shows will have commercial breaks. And reports say that some users are experiencing more buffering interruptions than Netflix. Also, closed captioning seems to be absent.

But with a week of free Hulu Plus, you can see for yourself. Sign up and tell us what you think in the comments.