In October last year, Netflix ended support for several old Roku devices. Now Hulu has announced it’s set to do the same later this month.
As Ars Technica reports, very old Roku devices were already limited to the classic version of the Hulu app, which doesn’t offer access to live TV. However, from June 24, both the Roku Streaming Player (models 2400 to 3100) and the Roku Streaming Stick (model 3420 or earlier) will lose access completely. If you want to keep using Hulu, you’ll need to upgrade to a new streaming device.
More recent Roku devices need a firmware update in order to retain access to the latest version fo the Hulu app. Firmware version 8.1 or higher is required to be installed on the following devices:
-
Roku Ultra
-
Roku Premiere and Premiere+
-
Roku Express and Express+
-
Roku 3 and 4
-
Roku 2 (model 4210)
-
Roku Streaming Stick (model 3500 or later)
-
Roku TV
-
4K Roku TV
By ensuring the firmware is up-to-date, Hulu is promising “access to new features and all of the content that you subscribe to” will continue. To tell which device you have, use the Roku interface to navigate to Settings->About where the model is listed.
When Netflix ended support for old devices, it was a more severe cull and included the Roku SD, Roku HD, Roku HD-XR, Roku XD, and Roku XDS. The reason was later explained as due to digital rights management. Netflix relies on Microsoft’s PlayReady DRM to protect its streams and these older devices aren’t capable of supporting it. They relied on Windows Media DRM, which Netflix ended support for and took these streaming devices with it. In Hulu’s case, it seems to be the classic app that’s disappearing and taking the old hardware with it.
