Download Free Movies
Are you an entertainment junkie who's too poor to quench your thirst for interesting movies using conventional means? If so, you're not as out-of-luck as you might think. You can try downloading movies for free. Here's what you need to do.
Contents
Steps
Finding Free Movies
- Use a torrent search engine. A torrent search engine will comb the Internet for a user-inputted keyword and bring up any torrent files matching or relating to that keyword.
- Type the title of the movie you are looking for into the search engine. If you do not know a specific title, you can type in a keyword, instead. Hit the “Search” button and scroll through the hits as you would with a standard search engine.
- Once you find a hit that seems promising, click on the hyperlink to access the file.
- Check out various collections of free, legal movies. For an all-around safer approach to finding free movies available for download, try a free movie database with a good reputation. Aside from being safer and legal, free databases often give you a variety of viewing and downloading options, so you might be able to download a good movie without using torrents.
- For many of these collections, you will be presented with the option to download the file as a torrent or as another file type. For instance, you might be able to download it as a Flash Video or Ogg Video.
- Note that all of these movies have a "Creative Commons license," meaning that they essentially belong to the public domain and are legally able to be viewed and downloaded by anyone.
- A few online databases worth checking out include:
- The Internet Archive; filled with old movies, foreign films, and documentaries. Find it here: http://archive.org/index.php
- Emol; a site packed with comedy movies and cartoons.
- PublicDomainTorrents; mostly contains B-rated movies, but a few old cult classics can be found here, as well. Find it here: http://www.publicdomaintorrents.info/
- AtomFilms; a database of user-created movies. Find it here: http://www.comedycentral.com/cc-studios
- Once a Week Online Film Festival; an online film festival with new movies on a weekly basis.
- Culture Unplugged Studios; filled with full-length documentaries. Find it here: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/
- Consider watching free streaming movies, instead. While this is not quite the same thing as downloading free movies, there are a variety of websites that allow you to watch free movies while you are connected to the Internet. Moreover, since movie downloads often take a long time to finish, this option might also be faster.
- You do need a fast connection when watching streaming movies, though. If your connection is slow or tends to drop frequently, you probably won't be able to watch a full movie from beginning to end without having to refresh the page or wait as the movie buffers.
- A few popular and reputable websites with free streaming movies include:
- Hulu Movies; many movies are only available with a paid subscription to Hulu plus, but there are a few free ones, and you can also try a free trial of Hulu plus. Check it out here: http://www.hulu.com/movies
- YouTube Movies; some movies do require money to watch, but many on the channel are free. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/movies
- Crackle; all of the movies are "free and uncut," and there is a pretty wide variety available. You will not be able to find any new releases on the website, but you can find popular hits from a few years back. Check it out here: http://www.crackle.com/
- Snag Films; the selection is completely free and includes movies ranging from documentaries to movies from Sundance film festivals. Check it out here: http://www.snagfilms.com/
- Popcorn Flix; there are a variety of free movies available through the website, and most are also formatted for viewing on portable devices. Check it out here: http://popcornflix.com
Working with Torrents
- Understand how torrents work. The torrent communications protocol allows users to share large files with one another by breaking the files into small bits or pieces. These pieces are reassembled by a special torrent program upon the completion of a download.
- One advantage of torrents is that, if your connection is interrupted, you can basically pick up where you left off in the downloading process later on.
- Torrent tracking servers also monitor whether you share your files or merely "leech" off of other users. The more you share, the more bandwidth you get. The less you share, the less bandwidth you get.
- Download a torrent program. A torrent program is a necessary component of the process because it allows you to download all the little pieces making up a torrent movie file.
- Torrent files saved from the Web only provide directions to the actual movie file. You need a torrent program to actually locate and download the movie based on those directions.
- A few popular torrent programs include:
- BitTorrent: http://www.bittorrent.com
- uTorrent: http://www.utorrent.com/
- Vuze: http://www.vuze.com/
- ABC (Another Bittorrent Client): http://pingpong-abc.sourceforge.net/
- Save the torrent file to your computer. After you find the torrent file using one of the methods described in the “Finding Free Movies” section, click on the “save” or “download” hyperlink to save the initial torrent file to your computer. This file will download quickly, but it is not the complete movie.
- If using a community torrent searcher, like isoHunt, check the ratings and comments before you download a file. Doing so will let you know if there are any bugs associated with the download.
- Another way to tell if the file is a good choice is to check the number of completed downloads. The higher the number, the more promising your results will be.
- When you save a torrent file from the Web, you will be saving a text file. This file points to the movie you want to download, and only torrent software can read these files and download the corresponding movie file.
- Open the torrent file with your torrent program. With your torrent program open, navigate to your torrent file and open it up. This will initiate the actual download of the movie.
- When you open the torrent file, the program will read the instructions in the file and locate the file for download
- The exact method of opening the file will vary based on the program you use, but usually, it will be as simple as selecting "Open" from your "File" menu and navigating to the saved file.
- Also note that you should specify the location on your computer where you want the final movie file to download to. Otherwise, it will end up in your default download folder.
- Let the movie download. The exact speed will vary based on how large the file is and how slow or fast your Internet connection is. You will need the completed torrent to download before you can view the movie on your computer.
- This could take a couple of hours with a good Internet connection and plenty of bandwidth. If you do not have much of either one, a feature length movie could take a couple of days to download.
Watching Downloaded Movies
- Watch the movie on your computer. This is the simplest option. Playing a downloaded movie on your computer only requires you to have a program capable of opening it.
- Convert the file if necessary. If you have a program on your computer that can open and play the movie file as is, you do not need to convert it to anything else. If not, though, you will need to convert the movie file to a different extension so that the software on your computer can recognize it.
- In order to convert a video file to another format, you will need to download a separate video converter. Many are available as freeware or free trials, but when searching for one to use, make sure that it has good user reviews. Check reviews on a third party website instead of trusting those posted on the freeware's website.
- Make sure that the freeware you use can convert the file into a format playable on your computer.
- Connect your computer to your television. If you want to watch the movie on your television, you might be able to get a special cable capable of connecting your computer to your television set. This will allows you to play the movie on your television screen as it plays on your computer.
- Usually, the cable you need will be an S-cable. Verify that both your TV and computer have the necessary ports to work with an S-cable.
- Watch movies on another device. If you want to watch movies without using your computer, you might need to convert them to another file format using your computer and converter software. After that, you will need to transfer them over to whatever device or tool you want to use.
- Watch movies on your cell phone or other portable devices. As long as you have the right software installed and have managed to convert the file into a readable format for that software, you can make your downloaded movie collection even more portable by watching them on your smart phone, iPod, or PSP.
- Burn the movie to DVD. If you have a DVD burner and DVD burning software, you can burn a copy of the movie onto DVD for playback on your television.
Warnings
- When downloading a torrent from an unreliable third party source, check for reviews. If there are no comments or bad comments, the torrent may contain a virus or malware.
- Illegally downloading licensed movies without permission can result in serious consequences, including large fines and even jail time. It is strongly recommended that you only download movies legally available.
