Hulu’s Android TV apps can finally stream in 1080p on new Nvidia Shield TV set-top boxes and Sony Bravia TVs, as noted by users on Reddit, and written by 9to5Google
Gizmodo says it could confirm that at least the 2019 Nvidia Shield and Bravia TVs received the 1080p bump on March 23, but the change isn’t reflected in Hulu’s support pages, which were last updated in February. Hulu doesn’t seem to specifically list which devices are streaming in each resolution (outside of Live TV streaming) on ??its support site, but it does offer minimum bitrates for each:
Standard definition (SD): 1.5 Mbps
High definition (HD) 720p: 3 Mbps
High definition (HD) 1080p: 6 Mbps
4K Ultra HD: 16 Mbps
It’s unclear when Hulu made the change, but it could be tied to a recent update to the Hulu app on Android TV devices. It should also be noted that while the 2019 version of the NVIDIA Shield supports 1080p, the 2017 version remains stuck at 720p resolution, meaning some Android TV devices may not support the new resolution bump.
The resolution woes that Android TV users have faced with Hulu are quite curious since the app supports 1080p on many of the best streaming devices, including the Chromecast with Google TV which runs a skinned version of Android TV. In fact, most streaming devices support 4K streams on Hulu, making Android TV the odd one out since that doesn’t seem to come with the latest update. With any luck, this can only signal the imminent release of 4K support for Android TV users, but given Hulu’s track record, don’t get your hopes up. As Ara Wagoner pointed out last year, Android TV apps tend to fall behind other platforms.
The Hulu app should automatically update, but if not, you can follow our guide on how to update apps on the NVIDIA Shield TV. Fortunately, the process should be the same for just about any Android TV.
