Load up with movies on your tablet, phone or computer before you travel

Watching TV shows and movies on a mobile device is a great way to keep you and your family busy on long flights, between sightseeing, or just for quick entertainment on a rainy day.

That means planning ahead and using your subscription service(s) to download what you want to watch on your smartphone, tablet or computer before you leave. why before you go? partially so you can control your internet data limit. tap or click here to find out which is better: unlimited data or a limited plan.

don’t play movies while you’re away from home. it’s a surefire way to chew up your wireless data plan, and that’s if you’re lucky enough to have stable coverage along the way.

do you have access to wi-fi away from home? that’s great, but it’s a good rule of thumb to avoid public wi-fi networks whenever possible. Tap or click here to see why you shouldn’t connect to public Wi-Fi without extra layers of protection.

here’s what you need to do to make sure your devices are ready for those large file video downloads and also how to download from disney+, netflix, prime video and a few other streaming sites.

how to check the storage of your phone, tablet and laptop

The first thing you should do before loading your phone, tablet, or laptop with videos is to make sure you have enough storage space. Please note that a full-length movie can take up 500MB on your device. that’s about the same size as the netflix app.

The steps to check your device’s available storage may vary slightly depending on your device’s make, model, and operating system, so we recommend that you do this at home, well before you leave.

iphone and ipad:

settings>> general>> iphone (or ipad) storage.

android devices:

settings>> storage. you’ll see how much storage space you have at the top of the screen.

portable – mac

apple>> about this mac >> storage tab

laptop – pc

start(windows icon) >> settings(gear icon) >> system >> storage

how to download content from netflix

To download Netflix shows and movies, you’ll need to have a Netflix account and make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi. we recommend doing this from home because it is likely to be your most secure network.

Depending on your mobile device, these are the minimum system requirements to download from the netflix app:

• iphone, ipad, ipod touch running ios 9.0 or later
• android phone or tablet running 4.4.2 or later
• amazon fire running fire os 4.0 or later
• a tablet or laptop running windows 10 version 1607 (Anniversary Update) or later
• the latest version of the netflix app

The last point is important. If you don’t have the app installed on your device, you won’t be able to download or save the video. sad news for mac users; There is no downloadable app for Netflix, so you won’t be able to download videos to watch on your laptop unless you have an Intel-powered Mac running Windows.

once you’ve signed in to your netflix app from your mobile device, choose the downloads option at the bottom of your screen. this is what you should see the first time you visit this tab:

Anything that is a netflix original should be fine to download. Everything else (movies and TV shows) depends on the license and other types of agreements that Netflix has with the source of the content. If you see a down arrow on a movie or show’s description page, you’re in business.

licenses will play a factor after the download is complete. some titles will expire within 48 hours of playback. For others that don’t expire as quickly, Netflix will show the amount of time left when it drops below the seven day mark. This and more information can be found on the download page of the application.

Once you’ve downloaded a movie or show, you can explore more on Netflix and continue to download show episodes, movies, and originals. once an episode or movie is downloaded, the download icon turns into a blue iphone with a check mark.

If you want to conserve storage space on your device, swipe left when you’re done watching a show or movie, then tap the “x” and it will be removed from your phone or tablet .

and you should have enough shows to watch. Netflix allows a maximum of 100 titles to be stored on a single device at any given time.

netflix smart downloads feature manages your downloaded tv shows. when you finish watching a downloaded episode, it will automatically delete it and download the next episode. This feature will only work if you’re connected to Wi-Fi, so you don’t have to worry about going over your data limit.

how to download movies and tv from amazon

If you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, then you have access to everything Prime Video has to offer. Similar to Netflix, Prime Video has a fairly wide variety of movies and TV shows, along with its own original programming.

To view it on your iPhone, iPad, tablet, or Android device, you’ll need to download the app. even if you buy the video and add it to your main video library, you need the app to see the title.

Another similarity is that not everything is available for download. it’s still about rights and license agreements. When you find a title you’d like to watch offline, open the video details in prime video and look for the download icon.

In the image above you will see that there are a couple of download options for a TV series. you can download the entire season of a series at once or download one episode at a time.

If you tap on the settings tab at the bottom right of the app, you can decide the download quality, streaming quality, and whether to download and stream only when connected to Wi-Fi.

how to download from disney+

disney+ is a new popular streaming service that will likely remain popular forever. disney has original content, classic movies, pixar shorts and more. To access these titles, simply log in to the app and choose a title.

To download any of the content, simply tap the download arrow next to the movie title, episode, or season number. you can download entire seasons at once or choose which episodes you want.

If you want to adjust your download settings, such as video quality and mobile data usage, tap your profile icon at the bottom right of the screen and tap app settings . then you can toggle your settings to your liking.

how to download from hulu

If you subscribe to Hulu, you know you have access to original content, great movies and TV shows. To download content, simply log in and tap the downloads tab.

From here, you can tap “see what’s downloadable” and the app will take you to the “downloadable” page. here, you can search for TV shows and movies by genre.

To download a title, simply tap the movie or show you want and tap the download option from its title page.

To adjust your settings, tap the account button at the bottom right. From this page, tap settings. here, you can adjust the autoplay toggle, mobile data usage, and download preferences.

how to download from apple tv

If you’re an Apple TV subscriber, all you need to do is sign in to your account and search for the title you want to download. if it’s available for download, you’ll see a small download arrow inside a cloud. touch it to download the content you want.

To adjust your settings, touch its icon at the top right of the screen. this will open a menu that allows you to clear your watch history, if you don’t want to admit that you advanced on that show before your partner could watch it with you, redeem a gift card or code, manage your subscriptions, and other account-related settings .

how to download programming from other sites

if you buy digital movies, you can access them through vudu (via walmart.com) or movies anywhere. To learn how, visit Vodu’s download and purchase pdf.

There are also other apps, like prime video, that allow you to simply download your shows to your device by tapping “download” or the download icon. this moves content from digital storage directly to your device.

Don’t forget that some channels offer apps where you can stream content, but not all allow you to download and watch later. some of these channels include:

• at&t tv now: currently only allows cloud storage with the app.
• cbs all access: learn how to download here.
• hbo now: currently allows allows does not offer the ability to download content.
• starz: You can download movies and TV series. Learn how to do it here.
• YouTube Premium: You can download ad-free videos on your devices. visit google support page to know how to do it.

download something different to your devices

Feel like you’d like to listen to a lecture and maybe learn something or be inspired? Ted Talks allows you to download your videos to the application installed on your iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet. sorry, no downloads from their website to your laptop, be it pc or mac.

here’s a place we’re pretty sure you never considered: the library of congress. The Library of Congress has a huge library of video content that is in the public domain. tap or click here for more information.

You won’t find new releases here, but you will find fun stuff like a silent movie documentary featuring thomas edison and how he invented the light bulb. tap or click to view our show selections page to check it out. or you can go to loc.gov and select movies, videos and search and download from your library.

Hopefully, most of your vacation will be so exciting that you won’t need to watch much of what you’ve downloaded. but if you do, we’ve got you covered.