How do I download hd ptogrammes and films?
Discussion
Just purchased a 42" plasma telly, but although I have Sky+ at the mo, dont particularly want to pay more for HD. I wonder if it is possible to download content to my laptop and play it through the HDMI output onto the tv? Sorry to be a bit dim, but I have never got involved with this telly malarkey before!
andygo said:
So help me a bit here experts... I can go on to 
, download a film and play it back through my lappy using what - Media player? And how do I know the film is HD before I download it?
It usually says on the tin what kind of movie it is. Also, size should be a giveaway. HD content is usually well over 5GB, even over 20GB., download a film and play it back through my lappy using what - Media player? And how do I know the film is HD before I download it?Playing it could go over your computer (depending on the out- and inputs in both your TV and PC. If it can go over VGA/DVI it'll be no problem, over HDMI will be best, just avoid scart/composite.
Failing that, a Media player could sort you out. Mind you, not all of them play MKV/ISO files, as you often find the movies you want in various formats you'll need something that plays a lot (or nearly all) of them.
I suppose that eventually, if enough people download enough content for 'free', then eventually the movie making companies will go out of business and there won't be anything to watch.
After all, if they're not getting paid for what they do - they'll soon enough run out money.
It's so cheap to join Lovefilm and the like - it just amazes me that people want to download stuff illegally.
Same with music.
iTunes, Spotify etc. are cheap enough - so why download illegally?
If you can't afford it, you shouldn't have it.
Simples
After all, if they're not getting paid for what they do - they'll soon enough run out money.
It's so cheap to join Lovefilm and the like - it just amazes me that people want to download stuff illegally.
Same with music.
iTunes, Spotify etc. are cheap enough - so why download illegally?
If you can't afford it, you shouldn't have it.
Simples
Lovefilm - seconded. Very good service, and you can stream films online for a small fee as well as borrowing DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. It's not expensive, I think their service starts at about a fiver a month. And you can stream to PS3 as well now.
Don't even think of downloading HD via p2p means if you're on Virgin Media either, because by the time you get the file downloaded HD will be dead and gone and we'll all be upgraded to something better.
Don't even think of downloading HD via p2p means if you're on Virgin Media either, because by the time you get the file downloaded HD will be dead and gone and we'll all be upgraded to something better.
andygo said:
Just purchased a 42" plasma telly, but although I have Sky+ at the mo, dont particularly want to pay more for HD. I wonder if it is possible to download content to my laptop and play it through the HDMI output onto the tv? Sorry to be a bit dim, but I have never got involved with this telly malarkey before!
So to sum it all up. Yes it is possible to download HD movies but generally it's going to be illegal. Also at around 10-15GB per movie you had better have a quick broadband connection and a reliable source to download it from. All in all probably not worth the effort.I d/l a full HD version of Avatar - was at 18GB I think. The biggest problem which took me a long time to solve was finding a correct codec and video player to run the file. Someone else mentioned VLC for example. The problem with VLC and all the other free players is that they decode on the fly. Meaning that they simply aren't able to keep up with the massive amount of data a Blue-Ray movie requires to be decoded. I found that they would play for the first couple of minutes and then start to buffer and get out of sync with the audio. I thought at first that it was due to my old CPU and relatively small memory (2GB DDR). However, after quite a bit of research I managed to source some professional video codes and software that could read and decode the files quickly and smoothly.
So yes, it is possible but frankly only worth it is you want "free" (illegal?) movies or "yet to be released" (illegal?) movies. I don't see the point of subscribing to movie sites that you have to download like LoveFilm, when you can just extend your SKYHD subscription and get a far better service.
So yes, it is possible but frankly only worth it is you want "free" (illegal?) movies or "yet to be released" (illegal?) movies. I don't see the point of subscribing to movie sites that you have to download like LoveFilm, when you can just extend your SKYHD subscription and get a far better service.
TEKNOPUG said:
<stuff> I don't see the point of subscribing to movie sites that you have to download like LoveFilm, when you can just extend your SKYHD subscription and get a far better service.
You don't download from Lovefilm.They send you a DVD/BD on a regular basis. My son used them for a while (before he got Virgin HD) and they were good.
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