Where do you download films?

[Emma Raducanu]

Until last week, I always just used pirate bay. Before that, I used to buy dvds!

I don't want to use bit torrents any more for the safety of my laptop and recently I've been impulsively watching the odd film here and there, which got me thinking, where is the best place to download or rent a film? I see you can pay on Amazon and Youtube but are these the cheapest options?

[jonbob]

I've found an app called JustWatch,  you put in the name of what your looking for and it will show all legal options to get it, and the prices

[Dex Sawash]

Is Roku only in US?
Search function on Roku works like justwatch but you can flag stuff you searched and it notifies at the home menu whenever new sources pop up. I don't think you can do the roku searches from the app or a browser though.

[Ham Bap]

If your TV has access to apps. Amazon Prime Video App, Apple TV. Sky Store too if you have a Sky box.

For Christmas there I took a movie subscription to movies on Now TV. Paid for a month, cancelled straight away and got another 3 months for a fiver or something like that. 4 months of Sky Movies for £20 total.

As mentioned the Just Watch app is great. Plug in the movie you're thinking of buying, see where the cheapest is to get it.
I also use this site to track latest price drops for Amazon and Apple.
https://www.blu-ray.com/deals/?retailerid=7&sortby=time

iTunes had a big sale on last week. Films like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was a fiver or less in 4k.
They usually have new deals in every week too.

[touchingcloth]

Internet mainly.

[Misspent Boners]

Until last week, I always just used pirate bay. Before that, I used to buy dvds!

I don't want to use bit torrents any more for the safety of my laptop and recently I've been impulsively watching the odd film here and there, which got me thinking, where is the best place to download or rent a film? I see you can pay on Amazon and Youtube but are these the cheapest options?

Out of interest why are you concerned about bit torrents? Because of the potential viruses or does it somehow harm your computer in another way? Just because I'm downloading like fuck atm.

You could try one of the number of streaming apps available for phones or laptops? Stuff like Popcorn Time and Movie HD available for both. I have Movie HD on my phone and cast it to my smart tv using Allcast, a free app. It can be a bit of a pain at times and the odd file doesn't work but for the most part it's really handy.

[Emma Raducanu]

Because I have the bare minimum of computer knowledge. My last computer ran horrifically slowly after a while. I ran scans etc but the computer just seemed fucked then eventually I got a blue screen of death and that was the end of that. I just got a new computer and it runs like a dream and I just can't be arsed jeopardising that by using web sites littered with pop-ups or risk downloading files with more bollocks than I realise.

The only thing I've put on the computer is soulseek and even that feels dodgy!!

[weekender]

Internet mainly.

HIGH FIVE!

[Sebastian Cobb]

Out of interest why are you concerned about bit torrents? Because of the potential viruses or does it somehow harm your computer in another way? Just because I'm downloading like fuck atm.

You could try one of the number of streaming apps available for phones or laptops? Stuff like Popcorn Time and Movie HD available for both. I have Movie HD on my phone and cast it to my smart tv using Allcast, a free app. It can be a bit of a pain at times and the odd file doesn't work but for the most part it's really handy.

Popcorn Time is basically a bit torrent client that downloads things in the right order so it can stream stuff. It's important to know this as the chances of getting caught infringing are the same as bittorrent if you're not using a von.

[SteK]

Ray Von?

I use Transmission on a Mac, and sure 'ignore unencrypted peers' is ticked - never had a prob.

[Sebastian Cobb]

That setting won't make a difference, your ip will still be visible from the list of clients in the tracker, which is how you get caught.

[hedgehog90]

Because I have the bare minimum of computer knowledge. My last computer ran horrifically slowly after a while. I ran scans etc but the computer just seemed fucked then eventually I got a blue screen of death and that was the end of that. I just got a new computer and it runs like a dream and I just can't be arsed jeopardising that by using web sites littered with pop-ups or risk downloading files with more bollocks than I realise.

The only thing I've put on the computer is soulseek and even that feels dodgy!!

When browsing dodgy torrent sites, the worst that can happen is you accidentally enable site notifications, install a browser addon. Fairly easy to avoid if you're careful, but easy to take care of if you make the mistake. Web sites and addons cannot do serious harm, due to the restrictive environment of modern browsers.
Ad filled sites or popups that beep and tell you your computer is filled with viruses are completely harmless. All bark and no bite. Just close them and move on.
And if one of these awful sites starts a download unprompted, just delete the file from your downloads folder. No harm done.

Regarding downloads - through a torrent client, soulseek or otherwise - the only thing you really need to be wary of is any filename ending with .exe (Executable files). Keep in mind however, potentially harmful files like these do not run themselves. An executable that installs viruses on your system can only do so if you run it. Again, if you see any suspicious looking files in your downloads, just delete them.

Practically everything else - zips, rars, audio or video files, etc. - are harmless.
A video file cannot run malicious code... unless in the incredibly unlikely event that you're using a badly designed video player with an unreported vulnerability, and this specific video file you've downloaded is designed to exploit that. A scenario so unlikely it's barely worth mentioning, as the same issue regarding 'vulnerabilities' and 'exploits' can be applied to any piece of software. That's why it's generally a good rule to keep your software up to date.

[hedgehog90]

Also, I'd recommend magnetdl.com and one of the currently working rarbg proxies for torrent searches.

[Junglist]

Private torrent sites. Theres nothing malicious in there and everything is seeded by seed box users so speeds are insane.

[Head Gardener]

I have access to a private Dropbox on an American forum I've been a member of for years and all the latest movies etc get shared in that, we could even do a similar thing on CaB? Other than that I use torrents and cheap dvds from chazzers.

[SteK]

I have access to a private Dropbox on an American forum I've been a member of for years and all the latest movies etc get shared in that, we could even do a similar thing on CaB? Other than that I use torrents and cheap dvds from chazzers.

I have a Plex server on Dublin on a 1gb pipe no bandwidth limits, has a 4tb USB attached which is film of my crap but there's room for another one. It's a Mac Mini, low power, it's for my work really but there's plenty of spare oomph. It's no flying machine but enough for transcoding video on the fly. 

[Sebastian Cobb]

I'm a subscriber to Mubi, Prime and Netflix. Although I've been thinking of fucking off netflix for a bit and going back when there's more stuff I want to watch on there. Might try BFI Player.

I'm happy to pirate anything on Sky/Now TV because Satellite companies are big faceless corporations and that makes it okay; also most of the films I nick are old noirs, giallo and 70's paranoia so it's not like they haven't made a profit on them already.

[SteK]

I'm a subscriber to Mubi, Prime and Netflix. Although I've been thinking of fucking off netflix for a bit and going back when there's more stuff I want to watch on there. Might try BFI Player.

I'm happy to pirate anything on Sky/Now TV because Satellite companies are big faceless corporations and that makes it okay; also most of the films I nick are old noirs, giallo and 70's paranoia so it's not like they haven't made a profit on them already.

I'm on TVChaos with a positive ratio so I get most of my stuff from there

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

If you're talking about both illicit stuff and paid rentals, I prefer iTunes because it lets you download the rental file and thus eliminates any buffering risks.