The internet is an amazing tool that can be used in many ways. That includes work, education, and simply watching numerous hours of fun content. But sometimes, we might lose connection and not have stable internet service for a while, making us unable to watch our favorite shows, movies, or videos. But you can avoid getting cut off by downloading your content ahead of time for you to watch whenever you are offline. So, we’ve come up with some helpful ways to help you download anything from streaming websites to watch while offline.
Why Should I Download Streamable Content?
People always ask why they should download content if it is streamable and can easily be watched without the hassle of finding torrents and waiting for it to download. The fact is, nobody can predict what can happen to the internet connection; you could lose your connection because of issues with the phone line, problems from your ISP, or simply have a bad and slow connection day. So, instead of waiting for ages and getting interrupted with constant buffering, download what you want beforehand so you can enjoy it later at any time.
Having the content you need downloaded and stored on your PC or laptop means you won’t need an internet connection to watch it. Also, streaming content can drain your data or the monthly quota for your internet. This is an important issue to consider and you should think about all the gigabytes that you might lose if you stream the same videos you have already watched more than once. So, it would be wise to just download everything you want and store it safely to watch offline. You can enjoy your favorite content without worrying about finishing your monthly quota or being forced to pay more for renewing the internet bundle before its due date.
Software & Apps
4k Video Downloader
You can use the 4k video downloader on your Windows, Mac, or Linux. Luckily, this is considered to be the easiest and simplest way to download content. This tool is very straightforward and gives you a hassle-free experience because of how effortless it is to use. One of the best perks of this method is that it can download content in 720p, 1080p, 4k, and 8k quality. But that only works if the video, episode, or movie is uploaded with that same resolution. Moreover, you can download everything in MKV, FLV, or MP3 formats. All you have to do is copy the URL of the streaming video and paste it on the downloader to start the process. You can download the video’s subtitles too if there were any with the original upload.
Viddly For Windows
If your device has a windows operating system, try using Viddly software on your device. You just need to authorize the downloader and click the destination where you want to install it. After it is installed on your system, you can use Viddly’s YouTube downloader to search for a specific video you want or you could just copy the URL link on its search menu. It will give you a series of format options and resolution types to choose from. You have the option to download a 4k video as an MP4 file if you like. After you click download, the downloader will optimize the download speed and it’s usually very fast because this downloading software is known to be extremely quick compared to others in the market.
JDownloader
The JDownloader video downloader app is available on all operating systems, whether it’s Windows, Linux, or Mac. It supports any type of streaming website and video, allowing you to download from any site you want. You just copy the URL of the streaming site and paste it on the app’s window to scan every single video it has. Then a new window will show you everything and you can pick the right video you want from the list. It’s a great perk of the app where you don’t have to copy an individual link/URL of the actual video. It saves time and effort, as you get to choose and download multiple videos at once. Just remember not to install any of the bundleware from the page that offers you to install a different search engine. It’s best to ignore that and click decline.
Freemake Video Downloader
The popular Freemake downloader is only available on Windows. Sadly, it’s not compatible with Linux or Mac. It’s easy to use and it can download any video from numerous streaming websites. It’s known for having flexible options when it comes to the quality of videos and it has many format options, as well. Your videos can get downloaded in many formats, including MKV, FLV, WMV, MP4, and AVI. Also, it can download audio portions only of the video if you want it in an MP3 format. You can start the process by copying the URL link of the video and then pasting it on the downloader window. It will scan it and give you the button to download the piece of content you want to watch offline later.
GetFLV Downloader
You can use this GetFLV video downloader whenever you find a good video, movie, or show that you wish to re-watch later. It’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and iOS. So, it works on your PC, laptop, smartphone, or iPad too. You have options to convert the videos to various formats and the user interface is very easy to use. It has a video capture plugin that captures the videos as they play. So, you can record it when you first see the video you’re watching. This saves the file in your videos folder to re-watch later when the internet is slow or if you don’t want to stream it again. It has settings for you to set the capture duration, so make sure you choose the same duration as the video you’re watching.
Command-line Tools
YouTube-Dl Or YouTube-Dl-Gui
This YouTube-dl tool operates using a command-line utility, making it different from the rest of the options available. It has a lot of flexibility, even though it doesn’t have a graphical interface. This method isn’t for all users and you should have a background in different command lines that can be available on Mac, Windows, or Linux. It has distinctive features that give you several video selections, numerous quality options, a download rate limit, automatic naming for each file, downloading subtitles, and batch video downloading to get more than one video at once. It supports numerous formats, whether it’s MP3, MP4, MP4A, FLV, 3GP, AAC, WEBM, OGG, and WAV.
Online Grabbers & Extensions
Video Download Helper
This video download helper is a browser extension that is only available on Firefox, or Chrome. It supports a lot of streaming sites and well-known popular ones like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, Lynda, Udemy, Dailymotion, and Twitter. It’s extremely helpful for the people that download many videos daily. You just install it on your Chrome or Firefox browser, and you can click the button on the top right corner of your screen that’s next to your address bar. The video you download will be saved directly in your Downloads folder. It’s very useful when you find big videos with long durations and you wish to re-watch them again without using the internet. It’s very safe and you won’t deal with any ads or random pop-up ads like some of the other methods.
RealPlayer Downloader
The RealPlayer video player has a very nice perk of installing a built-in extension on your browser to download videos easily through a drop-down button that appears when you mouse-over the video screen on any website. Also, you can open the downloader window separately and copy the URL of the actual video and paste it to see if it can be downloaded. You have to set up a RealPlayer account though for this to work properly. The videos you download can be found in your videos folder on your computer, having a separate RealPlayer downloads folder inside it. Most of the videos can be played on different players, but it depends on the format and where you get the video.
SaveFrom
You can use this SaveFrom website to download your favorite shows, movies, or videos. You just need to head to the streaming platform, search for the video you want, select that specific video and copy its URL, and then head over to the SaveFrom homepage and paste the URL in the “insert link” window. After that, you can click the blue button on the right side of the link you added. There will be a download button to click and you can choose the resolution that you want depending on the uploaded video from the original website. It comes in 360, 480, 720 quality, or higher. Then you can save the location and wait for it to finish downloading, which allows you to have that video on your drive to view offline later.
Streaming Services
Popcorn Time
The popcorn time multimedia software app is perfect for all your streaming needs because when you install it, it will show you thousands of different movies, shows, anime, and indie films for you to stream. Think of it as a safe streaming site in the form of an application that has minimal ads. You have two ways to download videos from this app and it depends on your time.
Check the advanced settings of popcorn time and find the Cache Directory window, it will show you the location of this folder on your computer and you can open it. Once it’s opened, search for the movie or show you want and then start the stream. After that, you will see a torrent file appearing and you can use that torrent to download that series episode or movie you want through a uTorrent program that you can download.
The second way to download content is when you choose the format and you have two choices. Either you choose popcorn to stream it normally, or VLC to have it streamed on your VLC player. Once you wait a few minutes for the video to start, you can click on the playback drop-down menu and click record. The movie or episode would have to play and finish loading though, but you will have a saved version ready for you once it’s done. You can find that recorded version on your videos folder and it would be ready for use offline whenever you like.
YouTube Red
You can mainly use YouTube Red on mobile and smart devices. Your smartphone or iPad can view these streaming websites and you just need to download the app. It looks similar to the YouTube logo but it’s smaller and inside a big white rectangle. This is a paid service though, but it’s worth it when you can watch videos offline and on your phone while you’re on the move. You can download numerous videos to store on your smart devices, but you need to set up an account and subscribe to the monthly $10 fee. First-time users can get a 30-day trial.
Once you have this streaming app installed, you can open it and search for the video you want. There will be a button that looks like a square with a three-dotted line. You need to click it and choose to download the video, allowing you to choose the quality and then download it directly to your library to enjoy offline whenever your internet connection isn’t working or when you’re on any public transport and trying to pass the time. The folder that you will find is called Offline videos and this is where your downloaded content will be stored.
You have numerous platforms online that stream thousands of great movies and series. You can be the proud owner of a lot of them by using these steps to download all the content you want. Some of them are simple, some of them are a bit complicated, and most of them need a built-in app or another website to download the content you want. But overall, it’s 100% worth the effort because you will enjoy many hours of fun videos, movies, and shows offline whenever you like.