# How do I download movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 17, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547 "2013-01-17T20:41:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Craneop2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Craneop2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Craneop2)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547/21 "2013-01-18T05:35:24Z")
I thought Netflix was kinda like my wife is able to do with her library. She can check out a book, load it to her Kindle and return it after she gets finished reading it. I thought that was the same arrangement with Netflix etc. I could rent or buy a movie, download it, watch it at my leisure and return it electronically if we rented it. If I could do that then I wouldn’t be using my bandwidth limit(if that is what it is called.)if I could do this between midnight and five AM. Sounds like its doubtfull I can do that due to low download speed. Is it illegal to download tube clips and such ? like I mentioned I am older and not very computer savvy. BTW If I over reacted eearlier I sincerely apologize. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547/22 "2013-01-18T05:45:18Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I’m another bloke just past the flush of early youth… Once you download a movie to your PC, can you burn it to a DVD, and watch it in a DVD player? Or are you kinda stuck watching it on your PC? From the iTunes store, you can burn downloaded films to data DVDs for backup purposes, but they will not be playable on a DVD player. If you want to watch the film on a television, you can either connect your computer to your TV with physical AV cables or get an Apple TV which will allow you to wireless stream the films from your computer to your TV. ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547/23 "2013-01-18T06:53:01Z")
> [@Craneop2](#): > > I thought Netflix was kinda like my wife is able to do with her library. She can check out a book, load it to her Kindle and return it after she gets finished reading it. I thought that was the same arrangement with Netflix etc. I could rent or buy a movie, download it, watch it at my leisure and return it electronically if we rented it. Netflix doesn’t work like that, but iTunes does. With Netflix, you have to watch the movie as you download it (this is called streaming). iTunes allows you to download an entire movie and watch it later. You can buy the movie (which costs more, but allows you to keep the file indefinitely), or rent it (which costs less, but the downloaded file is only playable for three days or so). > [@](#): > > Is it illegal to download tube clips and such ? I don’t know what you mean by “tube clips,” but it’s not illegal to download movies or TV shows as long as you use a legitimate service and pay for them (or in some cases for TV shows, watch commercials in order to get the program for free). > [@](#): > > like I mentioned I am older and not very computer savvy. Fortunately you don’t need to know a lot about computers to use the legal services. They have been designed to be easy to use. It’s watching stuff illegally which takes real computer skills. Follow **Keeve** ’s instructions to see how many movies you can download before your ISP starts charging you more money. As a very rough guide, a movie requires about 2 GB to download, so you can probably download a couple each month. ---
**Author:** ![firstname](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7ab992/32.png) [@firstname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/firstname)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547/24 "2013-01-18T07:01:40Z")
Ironically what you are asking to do is extremely easy to do when downloading movies illegally, which is almost certainly why you get free download after midnight from you ISP. If you are looking for legal options I’d suggest looking into what services (if any) you ISP allows you to use unmetered, and not worry about the after midnight option. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547/25 "2013-01-18T07:08:33Z")
> [@Craneop2](#): > > I thought Netflix was kinda like my wife is able to do with her library. She can check out a book, load it to her Kindle and return it after she gets finished reading it. I thought that was the same arrangement with Netflix etc. I could rent or buy a movie, download it, watch it at my leisure and return it electronically if we rented it. If I could do that then I wouldn’t be using my bandwidth limit(if that is what it is called.)if I could do this between midnight and five AM. Sounds like its doubtfull I can do that due to low download speed. > > Is it illegal to download tube clips and such ? > > like I mentioned I am older and not very computer savvy. > > BTW If I over reacted eearlier I sincerely apologize. It sounds like you are conflating the two services Netflix offers- one is where they send you a physical DVD via real mail which you can keep as long as you want and once you send it back, they will send you the next DVD you have ordered. The other service is over the internet where you pay them for access to stream their movies/TV shows/documentaries. With the internet service, you have immediate and unlimited access to their entire internet library of films. (And you can also sign up for both services because the libraries they offer are different- some films they have available on DVD, for example, are not available to be streamed over the internet.) If you sign up for the internet service, all you can do is stream movies, you cannot download them. Streaming means, essentially, you watch it as it happens and it is not saved locally on your computer. If you wanted to watch it again, you would have to stream it all over again, using up precious bandwidth. Downloading is saving a local copy on you computer. Once you have downloaded it to your computer, you don’t have to worry about using any more bandwidth. In other words, your 5 hour window is of little use because you cannot save these movies as individual files on your computer to be viewed later at your leisure, you can only watch them as if they were live TV (but you can still pause, rewind, etc), so there is no “returning electronically.” In your situation, then, it would seem you would only want to use this service between midnight and five. If those are primetime hours for you, it might be worth it. If not, Netflix would go through your 10 gigs like Garfield goes though lasagna. Just for the sake of comparison, iTunes does it the other way- there is no streaming option, only downloading. If you wanted to watch Howard the Duck from iTunes, the file you would have to download is 1.62 gigabytes (and the high def version is 3 times larger). I assume you have satellite internet, so your speed will vary, but with a satellite connection I’d guess downloading Howard to your computer would take roughly 5 hours. The biggest concern you should have with downloading YouTube clips is that you do it between 12 and 5. On preview, I see some of this is already answered. I hope it’s between 12-5 when you read this, otherwise I just cost you some bits. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547/26 "2013-01-18T08:19:02Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > Isn’t Youtube a streaming only service? Doesn’t saving videos off-line violate their terms of use? No, it doesn’t. It’s perfectly legal to download YouTube videps as long as the video content itself is not copyrighted. Essentially there’s no difference in law between downloading and streaming since the latter involves downloading to the computer cache anyway. In fact even if you stream a YouTube video you cab find it in your temporary internet files afterwards and watch it from there too if you so choose. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2013, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547/27 "2013-01-18T08:30:18Z")
Addendum to the previous post. Ah, I see that YouTube does cover this in their TOS. > [@](#): > > …you agree not to access Content or any reason other than your personal, non-commercial use solely as intended through and permitted by the normal functionality of the Service, and solely for Streaming. “Streaming” means a contemporaneous digital transmission of the material by YouTube via the Internet to a user operated Internet enabled device in such a manner that the data is intended for real-time viewing and not intended to be downloaded (either permanently or temporarily), copied, stored, or redistributed by the user. Frankly that last clause makes little sense. You cannot stream the video without temporarily copying it to your computer, that’s how streaming works. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-download-movies/647547.md?page=1)