Wait for your file to download. Once you open the torrent file in your client, it will begin connecting to seeders and downloading. Torrent downloads typically take a little while to 'warm up', but once you connect to a few good seeders you should see your download speed reach the max limit. If/when a download ever appears to slow down or freeze, it never hurts to right-click a torrent and click Update Tracker. This prompts the client to refresh the list and hopefully find more peers. Before you can download P2P files, you need to install an application capable of downloading torrents. No matter if you use Windows, macOS, or Linux, you won’t find this option enabled by default on your operating system.
This article shows you how to download movies on Mac different ways in 2019.
It’s a good idea to download movies to watch them on a plane or anywhere else with no or poor Internet connection. Can you download movies on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac? The answer is definitely yes. Actually there is more than one way to do this. Some of them are free.
Quick navigation
How to download movies on Mac from YouTube and similar sites
How to download movies on Mac from torrent sites
How to download Netflix movies on Mac
How to download Amazon Prime movies on Mac
Some other sites or platforms to download movies for offline viewing
Below are some common ways to download movies on Mac, Windows or mobile. And they will be covered in this article.
- Save movies from YouTube and other video sharing sites using video downloader software
- Download movies using the offline modes provided by YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, etc.
- Use torrents
- Directly download from public domain movies sites
How to download movies on Mac from YouTube and similar sites
YouTube is one of the best places online to watch movies, TV shows, news and live streaming content, just to name a few. It’s super easy to watch free movies there, but it’s not that straightforward when it comes to downloading them. Don’t worry! The instructions below will show you how to easily find and download free movies from YouTube to Mac.
#1 Tips to find movies on YouTube
- Go to https://www.youtube.com/. If you already have a movie in mind, type the title in the search box and see if it’s available.
- Type “full movie” in the search box and click the search button. Additionally, you can click FILTER and choose TYPE > Movie.
- Discover movies worth checking out in subreddit r/fullmoviesonyoutube.
#2 How to download movies on Mac from YouTube
Step 1. Download and install video download software iFunia Video Converter for Mac. Launch it.
At the top of the interface, there are four tools: Video Conversion, DVD Burning, Video Download and Share. Choose the third one, Video Download.
Step 2. Copy the link address of a YouTube movie and paste it in the URL box at the bottom. Click the download icon, and it will start saving the movie to your Mac. To do it in batch, just repeat the process.
Pro tip: You can use the app’s conversion feature to convert downloaded movies to any format you need.
You can also use iFunia Video Converter for Mac (which supports 1000+ sites) and the similar steps to save movies from sites like Dailymotion, Vimeo and more.
How to download movies on Mac from torrent sites
If you want to download files from Internet, torrenting can be a good choice. It’s an extremely popular system for quick peer-to-peer file sharing. Downloading torrent movie and video files on a Mac requires specialized software. You’ll need a torrent website, a Mac torrent downloader and a movie player.
#1 Best torrent websites
- EZTV EZTV is a great website specifically designed for downloading television shows. The interface is easy to use, and the torrents are laid out by their air date, which makes it really easy to find the show you are looking for. If you are like me and think about television in terms of what night what show is on then EZTV is great. There are also useful features such as filtering and show list.
- The Pirate Bay The Pirate Bay brings a huge list of all kinds of torrent files such as movies from across the web. It is made up of many different users who upload torrents to the site. This can be very good for variety but can also be very bad for finding the right torrents.
#2 How to download torrent movies for Mac
The first step is to open your Internet browser, be it Safari, Internet Explorer or Firefox, etc. Go to a torrent hosting website listed above.
Use the site's search box to find the movie you wish to download. When you search, note the seeds and peers counts listed on the movie torrent files. Peers are other downloaders like you, while seeds are those who already have the movie file and are sharing it with the peers.
Download the movies’ torrent files. Note that they are not the actual movie, but files used by a torrent downloading application to download movies on Mac. Open a new window in your browser and use a search engine to find a torrent downloader application for Mac.
Below are two free torrents clients that you can use.
- BitTorrent client is a program that manages torrent downloads and uploads using the BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent is the global standard for accessing rich media over the Internet. It supports Windows, Mac, and Linux.
- UTorrent is one of the most popular programs used to open torrent files and can exchange data between hundreds or even thousands of people from just one file. UTorrent was primarily focused on using the Windows operating system. And now it also supports other platforms including Mac, Linux and Android.
#3 How to play/open torrent files on a Mac
Once you have downloaded a torrent, however, you may have to convert, unzip or decompress the file before it is available for playing on a Mac and Apple devices. By using the aforementioned iFunia Video Converter for Mac, you can convert torrent movie files into MPEG format and any other video format. MPEG video files typically have .mp4 or .m4v extensions and can be played on iTunes on computer and iPad, iPhone and iPod and other players and mobile devices.
Step 1. Download iFunia Video Converter for Mac. Install and run it.
Step 2. Drag the downloaded torrent movie files into the app.
Step 3. Click the RVC button to open the output format window. Click General Video and select the format you need. Hit the conversion button.
How to download movies on Mac from Netflix
Netflix is definitely one of the best and most popular video streaming services. It has over 130 million subscribers. If you are one of them, then it’s very likely that you can download movies from the site. Netflix officially allows subscribers to download movies (not all of them though) to view offline on iOS, Android, Fire OS and Windows. As can be easily noticed, macOS is currently not among the supported operating systems. As a result, it’s not possible to download Netflix movies this way.
But there’s a workaround. You can record the screen of your Mac as you play a Netflix movie. If your Mac runs on macOS Mojave, you perform a screen recording by pressing Command + Shift + 5. Earlier versions will need QuickTime Player. Also, there are many third-party recorders available.
One of the benefits is that you can play the captured movie using the media player you like. With the official method, the playback is only supported on Netflix apps. Of course, the drawbacks are obvious. It’s far less straightforward. Also, there will be downgrade in video quality when compared with the original source. It’s a better idea to download offline Netflix movies on a supported device.
How to download Amazon Prime movies on Mac
Amazon’s Prime Video is also a popular service to provide movies and television shows. Just like Netflix, it also let users download movies for offline viewing. However, this offline mode only applies to Fire tablet, iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Apple computers are not supported.
To make it’s possible to watch Amazon Prime movies offline on Mac, you will need to resort to screen recording. Thanks to macOS’ built-in screen recorder, it’s not that hard to do.
On a side note, Hulu, another big name in the content streaming industry, still doesn’t offer the offline viewing feature as of 2019.
Some other sites/platforms to download movies on Mac
#1 The iTunes Store
When it comes to downloading movies to Mac, one can hardly missing out the iTunes Store. You can find movies of almost all genres there, from action to romance. To be able to download a movie to watch offline, you need to purchase it first. There are also free movies there. Just try to type “free movies” in the search box in the upper right corner of iTunes for Mac.
#2 Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an online digital library where you can find, among others, free movies. And many of them are in public domain. On the Movies page, you can watch and download movies, documentaries, trailers, etc. Most of them are grouped by type like Sci-Fi/Horror, Comedy Films, Silent Films, Home Movies, etc. On the left side of the page, you can easily filter movies by year, topic, language and more.
It’s easy to download movies on a Mac for free from the site. Open a film. Navigate to the right part of the page and find the Download Options section. Hover your mouse over the format you need, and a download button will appear. Click the button. Some common available formats include MPEG4, MPEG2 and OGG.
#3 public domain movies
The site is dedicated to offering public domain movies for view and download. There isn’t a search feature, and you can only look for movies by category or tag. Each movie comes with a poster and a detailed introduction. To download, click the poster to open a movie and click the option Download Movie [Video Format: MP4].
How To Download Torrents On Microsoft Edge
Conclusion
Above are the common ways on how to download movies on Mac. Thanks to the offline viewing modes provided by some of the big online movie content providers, things become extremely easy. In addition, you can also efficiently rip movies from sites like YouTube. Are you a big fan of movies? Do you know other easy ways to download movies? Welcome to share your opinions and thoughts!
Every computer user’s first roadblock (usually) is using Torrents. We’ve all heard of them, and are quite curious with what they have to offer. I can’t quite imagine what life would be like if I didn’t know how to use torrents, so I’ll teach you enough to get along and walk on your own two feet.
First, I want you to remember that what you download and do with your computer is your own responsibility! Unfortunately, we are not in the position to help you out if you “accidentally” pirate any software or seasons of Friends.
You’ll need a BitTorrent client for your computer. As a Mac user, I prefer Vuze, although I’ve heard great things about Transmission and uTorrent as well.
How to use Vuze
You can usually get by with any ol’ client, as long as you can interact with it. Make sure you’re familiar with the UI! You should be familiar with where the download progress bar is, where the expected time remaining is, and how to set upload/download max limits (can usually be done by right-clicking).
How To Download Torrents On A Mac
The torrent client isn’t exactly the most important part — the torrent is! Here, I’ll introduce you to two sites that aggregate torrents, meaning they gather torrents from around the Internet and index them, and thus allow you to sort from a greater variety.
There are tons of confusing things about torrents: trackers, specific files, and legality issues — but ultimately, the only thing you need to know is that the seed-to-leech ratio needs to be high. (Although brushing up on legality issues should be a priority as well. ;))
What is a seed-to-leech ratio?
A seed-to-leech ratio is the number of seeders to leechers. You want this number to be as high as possible! Basically, always pick the torrent with the highest number of seeds (hosts/uploaders) to leeches (downloaders). (In the picture, the green numbers represent the number of seeds and the blue zero is the number of leechers.)
Torrent On A Mac
If you’re given an option to go with 300 seeds and 500 leeches or 50 seeds and 30 leeches, go with the torrent with 50 seeds. You’ll notice that the speeds are dramatically faster and often quite capable of reaching breakneck speeds.
If/when a download ever appears to slow down or freeze, it never hurts to right-click a torrent and click Update Tracker. This prompts the client to refresh the list and hopefully find more peers on, which you can obtain the file from.
Where do Downloaded Files go?
You can set a location for your files to get downloaded into. By default, Vuze creates a Vuze Downloads folder in your Downloads folder.
You can always change the location from within Vuze. Simply click the Vuze menu, and select Preferences. From there, select Downloads and you can change the location within the bar.
Mac Torrent Do
How can I Stop Seeding?
I usually don’t prefer for people to stop seeding (sharing is caring). If in some cases, your Internet is lagging though or if you’re not legally allowed to upload music but are allowed to download, then I can sympathize with you. Stopping uploading (seeding) is simple: simply select the torrent that’s complete, and select Stop at the top.
Start Getting Friendly with Torrents!
They’re only going to be more and more mainstream: HD trailers and documentaries are starting to be released via torrent. It’s useful to learn how to better use torrents, and how you can take advantage of this nice piece of technology.
The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
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