How to Legally Watch TV and Movies Online
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can EditLike a lot of people trying to save money, you may have thought about getting rid of cable at home. Like several other people, you may have already done it. Either way, it can be difficult to give up your favorite shows, or hear everyone at work talking about the new ones in the lineup and not be able to check them out. But did you know you don't need cable to watch TV? If you have an Internet connection and a computer, you can watch TV online.
Don't worry, you don't have to set up any sort of black box, or worry about the Feds coming to take you in for piracy. There are plenty of perfectly legal—and easy—ways to watch both movies and TV online.
Steps
- Television Network Sites. All the major networks, plus several cable networks make many of their shows available to watch online via their own websites. There are a few catches. You may have to wait a day or two for a prime-time show to become available on the site, and you'll have to sit through a few commercials. But the pros far outweigh the cons. You can watch when you want to, or when it fits your schedule, and there are actually fewer commercials online than on TV. But don't wait too long because shows are usually only available for a short time after they've aired.
- Netflix. You've probably seen on the news that movie rental companies like Blockbuster are going bankrupt and closing stores all over the country. That's because Netflix came along and completely changed the way people rent movies. It started out as a service that would allow you to sign up and rent DVDs that they ship to you at home—for free. There are no late fees, either, so you can keep the DVDs as long as you want. They still do that, but they've also added instant streaming to their service, so you can watch movies on your computer, or on your television through an approved device, without having to wait for the mail to arrive. There's a monthly fee, but for the price of one movie theater ticket, you can get one DVD per month, and watch as many streaming movies and TV shows as you want. That's a good deal.
- Hulu. Hulu pulls in shows and movies from several online sources, mostly the major networks and a few cable networks, too. Hulu only makes five episodes of any TV show available at any given time, so if you miss one, you're out of luck. The site is free to use, but they also recently launched their Hulu Plus service where you can watch any episode of any TV show season they have available without worrying about expiration, and get access to other premium content as well. Either way, you still have to sit through some commercials, though.
- Yidio. Yidio doesn't actually show movies or TV shows. It goes one better. Rather than having to search every network site, Neftlix, Hulu, and any other site that may or may not have full episodes available, you can just go to Yidio, search for something to watch by title or genre, and the service will tell you which sites have it. It even links you up and takes you there. The site aggregates more than 500,000 episodes from over 5,000 TV shows, as well as about 30,000 movies, so you should have no trouble finding what you want to watch, or discovering new programs and films you may enjoy. Best of all, it's free! You'll also earn Yidio credits for doing things on the site like inviting friends or even just signing up, and then you can use the credits later to watch premium content.
- iTunes. Apple's iTunes store has a ton of television and movie content available, and downloading the software is free and easy. But the shows and movies will cost you. You can buy individual TV shows for about $1.99 each, or entire seasons for around $30. TV shows are usually available within a couple days of having been broadcast. Movies will set you back as much as buying a DVD. If you really want to save money, you can just watch them on the network websites. But the nice thing about buying them is that you'll be able to watch them whenever you like, for as long as you like, and they won't expire the way they do online. You can also rent movies through iTunes, but they're only available for 24 hours.
Tips
- To watch from your TV, you'll need to be able to access the internet. Most game consoles have internet browsers, and Netflix can work directly with Xbox 360, Wii and PS3. Otherwise you will need to connect a computer or set up a media server.
Things You'll Need
- Internet connection
- Computer or TV and game console or media PC
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