When picking out your ideal viewing experience, there are a lot of factors that you need to consider. Brightness, contrast, etc. are things that will be more important for some than others, but at some point, something being too dark or bright may just well ruin the viewing experience. One issue Hulu users have reported while watching is that Hulu looks too dark, and sometimes becomes darker seemingly out of nowhere, but why does that happen?
Hulu has issues with certain shows, where the screen may get darker at both the beginning and the end of a show. This seems to mainly occur with shows that autoplay, as the show thinks that it’s time for the next episode to play, despite the show still having actual content. However, it is still possible that the screen may become darker in the middle of the show, seemingly out of nowhere.
To figure out why this is happening, how to fix it, and other reasons why Hulu may appear to be dark or become dim on your television and other devices, check out the article below.
Why is Hulu so Dark on my TV?
There are multiple reasons why Hulu may be dark on your screen, and some may have easier solutions to fix than others. One problem that occurs with Hulu is that sometimes, the screen will begin to dim, seemingly at random moments, with this being a regular feature of Hulu (that sometimes does not work as it should). For example, Hulu sometimes dims shows at the beginning and end, particularly if they autoplay, in order to convey, essentially, that the next episode is about to start.
It is also possible that you may be experiencing issues that have nothing to do with Hulu, but instead have to do with your television; for instance, a lot of televisions, smart TVs or otherwise, have a built-in sleep timer. This sleep timer can manifest as a timer to turn off an app or TV altogether, or to dim/turn off the TV after a certain length of inactivity. If this is the case, go into your TV’s settings and navigate until you find the relevant sections to disable these features.
You may also simply be experiencing issues with your television being darker than normal, which would result in not just Hulu, but also other apps on your television being darker. To fix this, go into your TV’s settings and increase your TV’s brightness. A good way to tell if your TV’s brightness is too low is if more than just the video is low brightness (such as Hulu’s menus).
Why does Hulu dim after advertisements stop playing?
Sometimes, you may experience Hulu becoming dark after the advertisements have stopped playing, which for obvious reasons is quite annoying since you would have to fix the issue every time it happens.
The best solution in this case would be to upgrade to the ad-free tier, as this would prevent the ads from playing in the first place. However, if your primary reason to get this is because the ads ruin the experience of the actual show, that’s not a great reason to pay the extra cost in the first place.
Is Hulu still having problems with the screen being too dark?
While it is possible that Hulu is still experiencing issues with the screen being too dark for seemingly random reasons, some users have reported that after an update, the problem had been fixed. If it is still experiencing issues, however, there are important steps that you should take.
For one, be sure to get in contact with Hulu so that you can report the problem to them. They are the ones who need to know this, as they are the only ones who are actually capable of fixing it. If you do not say anything to them, then your only options are to just deal with it, or hope that they fix it on their own.
Workarounds to fixing the darkening issue on Hulu
While these workarounds are far from ideal, they do exist, and are an effective way to at least temporarily fix the issue, such as backing out and into the episode, or specifically choosing the episode instead of it autoplaying. Another option viewers have reported is to exit and open the episode back up again. However, other viewers have reported that after only just 15 minutes (give or take), the problem comes back.
What do I do if my Hulu video is completely pitch black?
While people have reported issues with Hulu dimming, there have also been issues with the video screen being completely black. Where one might think that this is just because the video is buffering, they would realize that the video is actually playing the audio, but not showing anything. This problem occurs on a variety of devices, including (but not limited to) multiple brands of smart TVs.
In order to fix this annoying issue and make sure Hulu works as more than just a radio, the first thing you should do is make sure that the Hulu app is fully up-to-date. If it is not, this may be an issue that a previous Hulu version accidentally caused. If that does not fix the issue, your next step would be to do a power cycle for your device, which involves:
- Removing devices from your Smart TV
- Turn off the Smart TV and unplug it from the outlet
- Turn off the router
- Wait about 10 minutes
- Turn the router back on
- Plug your Smart TV back in, reattach all devices previously connected, and turn it back on
If this fails to work, reinstalling the app altogether may fix the issue as well. This solution is specific to Smart TVs, though the problem can occur on other devices, like your smartphone. If it does, you should try to clear Hulu’s cache on your phone.
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