How to Watch Movies on the Internet
Summary
– Method 1: Buy content with Apple iTunes or Google Play Movies to watch a movie on the Internet
– Method 2: watch streaming videos on the Internet with Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and others
Watching a movie or a TV series on your tablet or smartphone, legally, is not only possible but also relatively easy if your Internet connection has sufficient speed.
How to watch a movie on the Internet? There are several technologies, the main one being streaming. Here is a selection of reliable platforms.
Method 1: buy content with Apple iTunes or Google Play Films to watch a movie on the Internet
Apple iTunes
iTunes is the platform for purchasing digital content available on all Apple machines: iPhone, iPad, Mac, etc. Videos are available for rental (for a limited time) and purchase (permanent):
– Touch “iTunes Store” on your device’s home screen.
– Then tap “Movies” at the bottom of the screen, and browse the video store. Use the search box to find a movie by title, director, performers, etc.
– When you’re interested in a video, view its details.
– Touch a preview thumbnail to see a clip or trailer of the selected movie.
– To rent a movie or TV show, tap the button with the rental price followed by “Rent”.
– To buy it, tap the button with the price followed by “Buy”. But be careful: you must have enough space to download the movie to your device.
Note that when you rent or buy a movie, it’s available and viewable on all your Apple devices (your iPad, of course, but also an Apple TV, iPad, or iPod Touch using the same iTunes user account). You have 30 days from the date of the rental to watch your movie and 48 hours after the start of the viewing to finish it. Once the rental period expires, the film is automatically deleted from your iTunes library.
Google Play Movies
If you use an Android smartphone or tablet, it’s hard to miss Google Play Films:
– Go to the “Google Play Store”.
– Download the “Google Play Movies and Series” application.
– Buy or rent videos on your device.
Method 2: Watch streaming videos on the Internet with Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and others…
Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video are multi-platform video on demand systems: televisions, computers, game consoles, tablets, smartphones. They offer unlimited access to an extensive catalog of movies and series, as well as its original productions, for a monthly subscription fee.
The technology used is that of streaming.
Good to know: streaming, which translates as “broadcasting in flow”, consists of using a device to continuously play a video or audio stream as it is retrieved. This is the opposite of broadcasting by downloading a file, which retrieves the entire file to access its content. This process is used for video on demand or listening to music “online” with services like Spotify or Deezer. These applications give access to an almost unlimited catalog: you don’t download the movies and songs but take advantage of the streaming to watch or listen to the ones you want. (Note that in reality, there is a download operation that takes place in a particular memory called “buffer”, which is used to prevent a slowdown of your Internet connection from interrupting the broadcast. The buffer allows for the temporary storage of reduced size without creating a file on the machine used for playback).
To watch streaming movies:
– Download the application or program specific to your device.
– Connect to the application or program.
– Then watch movies and series as much as you want!
Please note: The apps mentioned above for tablets/smartphones also allow downloading for offline viewing, i.e., without an Internet connection.