Download movies to PC for offline viewing

[jtwilber]

Help !

We've been doing short run RV'ing for a year in hope of someday taking a year off to RV. We have a TV with all the right jacks but have never figured out how to download movies and TV's to my PC laptop to play on the TV without internet. All the big players (Amazon, Netflix, Hulu etc etc) have mechanisms to play movies offline on iphones, ipads and android devices .(none of which have HDMI outputs to go to TV). I'm not looking to get things for free. I dont want to use DVD's. I just dont want to have to watch movies on an ipad when we have a nice big TV at the foot of the bed.

I know this group has answers. Can anybody help me ?

Thanks so much.

Jonathan

[okcnewbie]

I use my Samsung Note 4 with an MHL adapter to show the movies on the TV in the same resolution (If possible).

[okcnewbie]

Also, If you can get the movies to your phone I believe you can create a Mobile hotspot and connect a Chromecast to it.

[FlyingDiver]

It's going to be different for almost every service. For iTunes or Amazon or GooglePlay, if you buy the movie you can download it to your PC.

For streaming services (Netflix, etc), most of them do NOT have provision for downloading to a PC.

BTW, an HDMI adapter for iPhone/iPad is available, and works quite well.

[TriGlider]

I use the HDMI Adapter from Apple on some streaming video that doesn't play well on my Apple TV. Everything that I have downloaded to my iPhone and iPad usually plays fine using AirPlay on the Apple TV.

Here is link to the HDMI Adapter.

Lightning Digital AV Adapter - Lightning to HDMI - Apple

Alan

[hawkeye1995]

You may want to try this> Video Capture Card | Dazzle DVD Recorder HD

[Tom_M]

Originally Posted by hawkeye1995

You may want to try this> Video Capture Card | Dazzle DVD Recorder HD

That will not capture any streaming services.

Check this site:
https://www.playon.tv/

[Santa_Claus]

FWIW, PlayOn requires a pretty substantial computer to run since it has to download, play, and record your screen all at once, and even with a beast of a machine you will probably occasionally get hiccups. But, it's THE only way to record protected streams automatically. If you don't mind a more manual method, you can do a screen recording yourself.

[MSHappyCampers]

Hi Jonathan! Welcome to IRV2! We're sure glad you joined us!

Sorry I can't answer your question! Keep her between the ditches!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

[Ron_H]

As mentioned above, there are HDMI adaptors available for most devices and there are additional options such as Apple TV/Airplay and more for getting a portable media player's image onto your big screen. I personally find many of these frustrating to use as they rely upon a fast internet connection which is not alway available. Instead I download movies and complete seasons of TV shows to my laptop and then play them on the TV when desired.

If the desired video content is from YouTube or another source played through a web browser, I use Firefox as my browser and one of several extensions that allow you to save the videos to your hard drive.

Torrents sites are another option, but with a major caveat. Even though this is the easiest method for downloading and saving media to a hard drive most of the content available from torrent sites is pirated and illegal to download. I recommend you don't take this approach.

Another option is to use Kodi (formerly XBMC), a free, open-source media player software developed by the non-profit consortium XBMC Foundation. Kodi is available for multiple operating systems and hardware platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows and Mac. You can stream video, including live TV, or download content and save it to a hard drive to view later. though Kodi can be used for streaming and downloading illegal (pirated) content it can also be used to access legal content through the many add-ons available.

[dea49]

I am not going to tell you which site I use but if you search for free movies online it should give you a plethora of sites. You then D/L an addon for Firefox called Download helper and while you're streaming you can D/L to a file, save to your laptop and play through an HDMI to your TV. If you need to pipe your sound through a surround system, you then connect the digital coax out of your TV to the digital coax of your receiver/radio or what ever you use to pipe the sound out and you then can play all you have downloaded. That is how I set up mine.

[okcnewbie]

In the first post the OP mentioned he wasn't looking for "free" movies. Just looking for the different ways people are getting by without DVD's and still watching on the TV.

[dea49]

I understand. I was just telling him how I do it and he can garner what info he needs to help his cause. I usually d/l old movies from different sites that most people have never heard of. Just like the movie shown in the pict I uploaded.

Do you know what movie that pict came from?

[wildtoad]

Im in the process of downloading selected movies to 500g thumb drives which can be played by my smart tv just by inserting it into a USB port.