It used to be that movies could only be watched on the big screen, then technology evolved to allow us to watch on the little black box, thanks to things such as the Betamax and VHS. Do you still remember those?
Today, we can watch movies practically anywhere – from TVs to laptops to phones. We can even watch movies without having a separate disc that contains the material. The storage drives in our devices work just as well, maybe even better, and there is the possibility of streaming movies directly via the Internet.
There is, of course, the ever present question of the legality of downloading and/or streaming movies. Just so we are clear, this post does not mean to promote illegal downloading, although various methods and alternatives for downloading movies will be covered.
Read on to learn more about downloading and watching movies online.
Torrents
For a lot of people, the mere mention of the word “torrent” raises shady connotations at best. While we cannot deny that there are illegal downloads to be found on these platforms, that is not always the case.
The premise of torrents is for people to share huge amounts of data over the Internet. It is technically described as “peer-to-peer file sharing protocol”, but all you really need to know is this: people can share their files with each other wherever they may be located, as long as they have a client/program which supports the protocol. These files, as you may already surmise by now, include movies.
Here are some of the most popular torrent clients which you can use.
- uTorrent
- BitTorrent
- Vuze
- Transmission
In order to download movies via these clients, you first have to find a torrent of the movie you want. You can do so by visiting torrent web sites. You can even do a search on Google (or any search engine) using key words such as “[movie title] torrent”.
Again, please note that many movies and other files you find on these sites are subject to copyright laws. Be careful and discerning before downloading.
Pay Services, Streaming
With the movie industry going up in arms about piracy, various services have cropped up; services that offer download and streaming movies for a fee.
While there are people who may immediately feel an aversion to having to pay for movie downloads, but if you think about it, there really is no such thing as a free lunch anyway. People have invested time, effort, and money in making movies, so paying to watch and enjoy them should not be a big issue. More so, the online services which offer movie downloads have pretty good deals which should suit even the average person.
One concern about these services is that many of them are location-based. In the US, for example, one can easily take on the services of Netflix, Blockbuster, CinemaNow, and iTunes. If you want to compare their services and features, you can check out this movie download comparison chart. If you are in Australia, download movies from Quickflix, which is one of the better known services.
The good thing about these services is that you are sure that you are not breaking the law. Sure, you have to spend some money, but you put yourself in a position where you can make demands as a customer. You can also get perks, as these services compete with each other. For example, if you are a new subscriber, you may have access to free movies and rentals for a period of time.
Whichever route you take, downloading movies is definitely much better than going to the movies and queueing up!
Image via GoodNCrazy