Question for those of you who stream TV

[grampi]

I have noticed while doing a search for a movie on Netflix for example, the movie will be offered to rent or buy. If I buy a movie, I assume this means I can watch it whenever, and as many times as I want. My question is, how do I access it once I buy it? Does it go into some folder than then becomes my movie app, or would I access it through whichever streaming service I purchased it from?

 

[jayjr1105]

There's a digital copy of it saved under the account you purchased it from (google, apple, youtube, etc.) You can download it but no need, it basically means you can stream it whenever you want now that you own it.

 

[gathermewool]

Are you talking about physical media rental? I've never seen a video for rent or purchase on the streaming side of Netflix. If you're talking about the DVD rental side of Netflix, I'm guessing they send you a physical copy of the DVD/BRD you would have rented.

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted by gathermewool

Are you talking about physical media rental? I've never seen a video for rent or purchase on the streaming side of Netflix. If you're talking about the DVD rental side of Netflix, I'm guessing they send you a physical copy of the DVD/BRD you would have rented.

Huh? Have you ever done a movie search on the streaming side? I don't know if I've ever not seen the movie offered for rent or for purchase.

 

[y_p_w]

Depends on who it is. They usually call it a "digital download" although it really depends. Disney used to have a service called Disney Movies Anywhere. They went into a cooperative agreement with other studios and now have Movies Anywhere. Everything I have is available there for streaming. This is the one that most of the major studios use now. I've linked it to my Apple account and I can get a direct download on Apple's TV app on a Mac. Those downloads can be downloaded to any device I have that works with the system without needing internet access. I can also download directly on my devices for later viewing without internet access. I can stream anything I've purchased on an AppleTV app on a device, smart TV, etc.

 

[Donald]

Your Netflix account is marked that you bought it. Your Netflix account can then watch it as often as you want. I doubt Netflix actually makes a copy for your account.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted by grampi

I have noticed while doing a search for a movie on Netflix for example, the movie will be offered to rent or buy.

When you have a monthly Netflix subscription, aren't all movies available to watch at no additional charge? Are you saying you have to pay extra to watch some of them?

 

[fsdork]

Originally Posted by Quattro Pete

Originally Posted by grampi

I have noticed while doing a search for a movie on Netflix for example, the movie will be offered to rent or buy.

When you have a monthly Netflix subscription, aren't all movies available to watch at no additional charge? Are you saying you have to pay extra to watch some of them?

I think the OP might have just picked a bad example of a streaming service where this is an issue. I agree that Netflix doesn't offer rent/buy in my experience. However, my cable provider does. One (lower) price to watch it for 24/48 hours vs a higher price to have access to it indefinitely. Call me change resistant, but I haven't quite bought in to owning media virtually. Streaming is fine, as I know I'm just paying to have access while my subscription is active. If I "buy" a movie through my cable provider, then cancel my service at some point down the road, I don't see them finding a way to let me watch "my" movie. If it's something I know I want to have in my library, I'll keep buying physical media for now. I should probably sock away a Blu-Ray player for when I decide I want to watch Dale and Tucker vs. Evil 15 years from now.

 

[RamFan]

Originally Posted by Quattro Pete

Originally Posted by grampi

I have noticed while doing a search for a movie on Netflix for example, the movie will be offered to rent or buy.

When you have a monthly Netflix subscription, aren't all movies available to watch at no additional charge? Are you saying you have to pay extra to watch some of them?

Yeah, I'm not getting this either. Netflix doesn't offer to rent or buy, it's why you're paying the monthly charge. Amazon, Vudu, etc. have a rent or buy feature.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted by fsdork

I agree that Netflix doesn't offer rent/buy in my experience.

Actually, Netflix still rents physical DVDs, but I assume that's not what the OP was referring to since he also mentioned "streaming." This is one confusing thread. https://dvd.netflix.com/HowItWorks?dsrc=DVDWEB

 

[dishdude]

"Buy" is a poor choice of words by the streaming companies. You're only buying the ability to watch the movie repeatedly, if you cancel your account or they decide to change the terms it's gone.

 

[y_p_w]

OK. I misunderstood the question. I think the idea is about buying a title from Amazon, VUDU, Apple TV, etc. Netflix doesn't do that. They're strictly a subscription service. In that case once it's purchased it can be streamed in perpetuity, or at least while the service is still in business. I remember when Disney had a digital service where one could buy a title in perpetuity. A lot of these it depends on what equipment you're using. I have a smart TV where I have access to assorted streaming services, but it has no large storage that can be used to download an entire movie. That's purely streaming. Some equipment with an Amazon Prime app allow the user to do a download of the entire title for offline use, although it may require syncing periodically to the server. I can download a movie from Amazon Prime to the Prime Video iPad app for offline viewing. I've never bought a movie from Amazon Prime though, but I've done the download of "included with" titles, which should work the same. Once it's downloaded if you try viewing the title, it will play from the local copy rather than stream from the server. When I look up the title it will say that it's been downloaded. There's also a way to look for titles that have been downloaded to the device. However, it depends on the equipment. Some equipment only allows streaming from the server.

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted by Quattro Pete

Originally Posted by grampi

I have noticed while doing a search for a movie on Netflix for example, the movie will be offered to rent or buy.

When you have a monthly Netflix subscription, aren't all movies available to watch at no additional charge? Are you saying you have to pay extra to watch some of them?

I might be mistaken about where the movies I can purchase are available from, but I do know if I am streaming with my Apple TV and I do a movie title search, the offer for me to buy or rent the movie will come up. So what if I buy a movie and can't remember where it was purchased?

 

[Andrew1972]

The only method of renting on Netflix is they send a DVD or BlueRay via mail dependent on plan. The streaming is one fee for all that content.

 

[grampi]

You guys are too focused on where the movie is being purchased from instead of focusing on my original question. I don't really care about where it comes from, I want to know how to access it once I buy it...

 

[Alfred_B]

It's important to know where you buy it so that suggestion on how to access it can be made. I didn't know you could buy movies from Netflix streaming side.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted by grampi

I might be mistaken about where the movies I can purchase are available from, but I do know if I am streaming with my Apple TV and I do a movie title search, the offer for me to buy or rent the movie will come up. So what if I buy a movie and can't remember where it was purchased?

You need to know where you purchased it in order to find it. It sounds like you're talking about the Apple TV app though, in which case you're buying the movie from Apple, so the instructions on how to access previously purchased movies are here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203375 But if you bought a movie from another service, then you'll need to use that service's app to access it, so again, you have to know where you bought it in the first place.

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted by grampi

You guys are too focused on where the movie is being purchased from instead of focusing on my original question. I don't really care about where it comes from, I want to know how to access it once I buy it...

Again - it depends on the streaming service and where you got it. There are just way too many variables to say there's just one answer. These are generally called "on demand" video. It can either be streamed live with very little of the video stored at one time, or it can be downloaded and then viewed without needing internet access once it completely downloaded. Again - depends on the equipment and application used. One example is my DISH service with a DVR. They have a listing of "on demand" titles including some movies. It doesn't necessarily say, but there are some titles where it will literally download the entire video to my DVR and I can play it back. There are some other titles where it will only stream it directly from the internet. If there's no internet access, I can't watch. If it saves it on my DVR, I can watch it because it's all there. I don't have Netflix and I'm not sure there's any way to download an entire video for playback.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted by grampi

You guys are too focused on where the movie is being purchased from instead of focusing on my original question. I don't really care about where it comes from, I want to know how to access it once I buy it...

Whatever service you buy the on-line digital movie from (Netflix, Amazon, etc), it should be in your account access some where as a "purchased movie" that you can watch as many times as you want since you paid to "own" it.

 

[Hall]

Originally Posted by grampi

I have noticed while doing a search for a movie on Netflix for example...

Netflix doesn't rent movies via their streaming service. End of story.

Originally Posted by grampi

I might be mistaken about where the movies I can purchase are available from, but I do know if I am streaming with my Apple TV and I do a movie title search, the offer for me to buy or rent the movie will come up. So what if I buy a movie and can't remember where it was purchased?

Originally Posted by grampi

You guys are too focused on where the movie is being purchased from instead of focusing on my original question. I don't really care about where it comes from, I want to know how to access it once I buy it...

You start of by referring to searching for a movie on Netflix but later you refer to doing a search for a movie on Apple TV. That's two very different things, at least when it comes to renting or buying. The others were 100% correct in focusing on the "where" part. So, let's clear up a few things. You can buy or rent movies from Apple TV, Amazon, Redbox, Google Play, and many more. Each of these are fully independent of each other. If you buy a movie from Amazon, you launch the Amazon app, go to something like "Purchased" and it will show up there. If you go to purchased items under the Google Play app, that movie won't be listed.You need to pay attention to where you choose to buy it from. Since Apple TV is also hardware, like a Roku, when you search for a title, it probably has the ability to search across ALL of the streaming services on your hardware. If I'm in the top-level menu of my Roku, this is what happens. If I'm inside Netflix and do a search, I'll only get results that Netflix has available.