Hulu’s new paid subscription service marks a revolutionary step for watching television content online. $10 a month gets you entire seasons of numerous TV shows and the ability to stream them in HD, as well as watch content on your iPhone, iPad, and PS3. However, is it good enough to ditch your current cable/satellite provider? I’ll find out, thanks to the guys over at Hulu, who gave me an invite to check out their new service.

First off, Hulu Plus is not a separate hub from the free Hulu that you know and love. It is built into the website mixed in with the free content, which I like. All you do is login and it automatically switches over to Hulu Plus (assuming you paid the $10 first).

One of the most significant features in Hulu Plus is the ability to watch content in 720p HD. I knew Hulu would be bringing HD streaming eventually, and finally we get to experience that. However, not all paid content is in HD. There are quite a few shows that only have their most recent season in HD—all the others were in 480p standard definition. So, don’t expect the ability to watch everything in HD.

The quality of the HD streams is pretty decent. Not great, but decent. Then again, you cannot expect perfect quality out of an HD stream anyway.
Of course, I also hooked up to a 32-inch HDTV to see what that was like. Again, the quality was decent, but not great. However, I was ecstatic to be watching an HD stream of a Family Guy episode that actually looked good (even if it was still in the 4:3 aspect ratio).

Now, let’s talk about Hulu Plus for the iPhone. I decided to put together a quick video walkthrough of the Hulu Plus app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can view it at www.tinyurl.com/huluplusapp.

Not only is Hulu Plus available on the iPhone/iPod Touch and the iPad, but it will also be available for the PS3 and newer Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players when Hulu Plus officially launches later this month. They also plan to add Hulu Plus to the Xbox 360 for Live Gold subscribers sometime in “early 2011″ and to newer Sony and Vizio TVs and Blu-ray players this fall.

The big question that I asked myself (as I am sure most people will) was, “Would I ditch my cable and just go with Hulu Plus?”
The simple answer is, “Maybe.”

A gripe I have is that Hulu does not have all of my favorite TV shows. It does not have any CBS shows, nor does it have anything from the Discovery Channel, TLC, or the History Channel, to name a few. Granted, Hulu links you to different network websites where you can watch these shows on their own websites, but that is not as fun and can be more restricting with less features. Then again, I would only be paying $10 a month, instead of several times that for cable. And instead of being restricted by cable TV to certain shows at certain times, I can watch anything (within Hulu’s catalog) at anytime, no questions asked.

So, I am still up in the air about whether or not I will keep paying $10 a month for Hulu Plus. Chances are I will spend the rest of my life deciding, and in the mean time I will still be spending the monthly fee.

Currently, Hulu Plus is invite only. So if you feel lucky, you can head on over to Hulu’s email submission page at www.hulu.com/plus/invite and pray you get in, but don’t come crying to me if you are left in the dust: my job ends here.