| How to view Amazon and Netflix offline |
In
the old days of a few years ago, downloaded movies and TV series were
transferred from PC to devices like ipods to watch them when you were in
motion. But the omnipresence of streaming services means that all the
entertainment you might want is at your fingertips, as long as you have a
good Internet connection. But what if you don't have it? The Wi-Fi is
not everywhere and the dead areas are real. Ask anyone who has to go
through a tunnel on their way to work. There is nothing worse than
approaching the end of an episode and realize that the video buffer is
over. Fortunately, many streaming services now have the option to
download the content to view it without a connection. That means you can
finish that episode or that movie as you go into a tunnel, or you're
aboard a plane.
Netflix
We
recently saw this option come to Netflix. It's not close to having the
entire catalog available to download, but you can get your original dose
of programming (stranger things, 13 reasons why, Unbreakable Kimmy
Schmidt) to begin with. To find something, select the Hamburger menu
(the three-line) > available for downloads.
How
do you download a movie or a series? Go to a title and look for the
download icon under the description (an arrow pointing down to a line),
if it's a TV series, come down and look for the icon on the side of the
episode you want. Dale Click on the arrow and the title will download to
your device, when you want to see it, go to the Hamburger menu and
select "My Downloads".
On
Android devices, you can select where you want to save the content,
particularly an SD card if your phone or tablet supports it. Give the
app permission to access the card, and it's ready – the downloads on
your card will not occupy the precious space in the internal storage.
Playback is limited to the device where you downloaded the series or
movie; The app basically puts a DRM in the file, securing it on the
device in which the app that made the download resides. So you can't
change cards with your friends or with your other devices (like a PC).
If
space is a concern, make sure Netflix is set to standard video quality,
which downloads faster and uses less space. Select the menu of burger
> Settings > video quality > standard. In Settings, you can
also configure your app to download only via Wi-Fi, see how much storage
space you have left and how much you are currently using Netflix
videos, and delete all downloads at the same time. To manually select
the downloads you want to delete, go to my downloads > Edit and dale
Click the X in the red box on one side of the movies and episodes you
want to get rid of.
Amazon Video
Certain
movies and videos on Amazon video streaming – available through Amazon
Prime for $99 a year or 8.99 dollars a month – can be downloaded to your
mobile phone or tablet running iOS, Android or the Amazon Fire OS. Note
that you must be a member of Amazon Prime to be able to download. You
will see a download button on certain videos in the Prime Video app.
When
a download is complete, a "Downloads" tab appears in the iOS app.
Select to access all your downloaded videos. On Android, select the
Burger menu to find them. If storage is a problem, go to Settings >
streaming & Downloads > Download quality and select Good, better,
or best, which are described depending on how much space you use one
hour of video (best is 1 hour using 0.9 GB of data and storage in iOS
and 0.46 GB in Android). Android users get a data saver setting for
small low-resolution versions. It on just download via Wi-Fi to save you
the charge of using data.
In
terms of availability, there are limits. The Oscar nominated film
Manchester by the Sea can be downloaded at Amazon because it has all
rights as a distributor, and you can probably expect the same download
option for the Oscar Moonlight winner (winner of the best movie) when
it's available for streaming through Amazon on May 21st.
In
addition, Amazon has many original series such as Bosch, Catastrophe,
man in the High Castle and the Emmy winner, Transparent. Of course,
Amazon is more than willing to sell or rent individual titles that are
not in prime streaming. Apple iOS users will have to buy or rent in
Amazon.com through their browser, and then return to the app to see
(That way Amazon does not have to give Apple a part of the purchase
price. Just select the option Library on iOS (menu of Hamburger >
library on Android) and the app finds your purchases.


