PDF download Download Article PDF download Download Article

With a broadband connection and a bit of work, you can watch many movies and TV shows online for free. There are many sites that offer free access to visual media. It's just a matter of finding them. Read these steps to learn how to watch movies and TV online for free.

Method 1
Method 1 of 4:

Streaming Video Legally

PDF download Download Article
  1. YouTube is the largest and most popular video streaming site by far. It's also a good place to listen to popular music, including current hits.
    • YouTube is also rife with homemade shows and series of all kinds. These usually have low production value but can be quite entertaining and informative.
    • Movies and mainstream TV shows can be found on YouTube, but more popular and well-known properties usually get taken off the site for copyright reasons. There are, however, a whole lot of movies in the public domain (not under copyright anymore).
  2. Hulu is a mainstream video site like YouTube that bridges the gap between free content and professional content. It features a rotating menu of films and TV shows for free, plus a more expansive monthly pay service.
    • Hulu tends to have a lot of free TV shows, but very few A-list shows. There's usually a mix of older and newer shows available.
    • Hulu's free film selection is fairly small, but it's easy to search. Again, expect a mix of old and new titles.
    Advertisement
  3. This site is a direct competitor to YouTube. As with YouTube, all of Vimeo's content is free, but users can pay a fee to upgrade to higher-quality streaming and more space to upload their own videos.
    • Vimeo features independent, professional-quality work, such as artistic short films, as a point of pride. It also features plenty of ordinary user-created content.
    • TV shows and wide-release movies are rare on Vimeo, but obscure and small-budget projects abound.
  4. Advertisement
Method 2
Method 2 of 4:

Streaming From 3rd Party Sites

PDF download Download Article
  1. If you do not download a movie or show and instead stream it off a website, you are not legally responsible for the movie. However, putting up video for other people to stream is illegal if you do not own the copyright. It is also illegal to stream video for a public performance or to download any part of the video.[1]
    • If you do not own the rights to something you are always, in some small way, legally at risk when streaming.
  2. There are plenty of other, smaller competitor sites that stream videos for your enjoyment. Nearly all of them are free. A Google search should reveal a few quickly.
    • Commonly used sites include Project Free TV, Megashare, Putlocker, Sockshare, Dailymotion, and WatchCartoonOnline.
    • A good template to find videos is: "(movie or show) full (put either *movie* or *episode* here) free." For example, "Game of Thrones full episodes free."
    • More specific queries will get more specific responses, such as Game of Thrones full episode 3, season 2, free."
  3. These sites are funded with dubious advertisements and potential viruses. Usually, good common sense is enough to avoid issues, and when in doubt you should not click on a sketchy link. You can safely navigate to your video as long as you know what to avoid:
    • Download links
    • Advertisements
    • Claims to "speed up your computer," or update your browser.
    • "Personalized" chat rooms, text bubbles, or conversations.[2]
    • Claims that you have a virus, need to clean up something, or need "Administrative Privileges."[3]
  4. Most streaming sites don't actually host the videos you want to watch. They are more like filing cabinets, holding links to every movie and episode they have access too. Once you click on a link from you internet search you'll go to a page with series of links, often with names like VidShare, PutLocker, MooShare, etc. These links have the actual videos in them, and are usually ranked by usability.
    • There is often a "score" next to each video, telling you how good the quality is.
    • Never click on a "download" link, or click links outside of this list, as they are usually spam.
  5. The title of the episode or movie is usually colored and bolded. This is your link. Click here to be taken to a new page with a rectangular video player in the middle.
    • If you are not taken to a video screen, exit out of the page and try another link.
  6. There may be a lot of other buttons an the site, but these are for ads. You can exit out of them by clicking on the small "X" in the upper right corner of the ad, but most of them disappear once your click the play button. This is usually in the bottom left corner of the video player.
  7. There are many foreign streaming video sites that exist in a legal gray area thanks to lax or out-of-date copyright protection laws in countries such as China and Russia. Though a dubious choice at best, these sites sometimes feature streaming media (especially major movies) that can't be found for free anywhere else.
    • Exercise caution when dealing with foreign sites. Malware and spyware are common. Never download anything from these sites, and be sure that your antivirus program is up to date.
    • Expect extraordinarily slow load times. Unlike YouTube and other popular Western sites, most of these sites use outdated hardware that causes their videos to load slowly even on fast computers.
  8. If you are having a ton of trouble finding a working link on your search engine, click to "Read the DMCA complaint." It's a compiled list of links that search engines aren't allowed to display on a search page. The links do still work, however, and if you copy and paste them into the search bar they will go to the correct page.
  9. Advertisement
Method 3
Method 3 of 4:

Torrent Movies and TV for Free

PDF download Download Article
  1. Downloading TV and movie files directly onto your computer is not recommended due to the risk of lawsuits and viruses. If you get caught, you could face very stiff fines and/or jail time. That said, millions of people torrent across the globe to find exactly the movies and TV they want for free.
  2. A torrent client is how you download torrents and convert them into a format you can watch. There is no central server – torrents are a way to share information from one computer to another. There are multiple clients available for free online. Some of the more popular ones are:
  3. There are a variety of websites that list torrents, which you can find by searching for "torrent tracker" online. The most reliable ones are easy to navigate, have a variety of links, and are not impossibly cluttered with advertisements.
  4. Most public trackers will have a copy of every recent show and movie shortly after they are released.
    • Use popular shorthand for finding the file you want. For example: if you need the second episode from the third season of a show, search for "show name s03e02."
  5. Torrents are popular when they have "seeders," which is often noted right next to the title after you search. The speed at which you can download a torrent file is determined by the number of seeders available.
    • Most torrent sites allow you to sort search results by the number of seeders by clicking on the word "seeders" at the top of the page. Torrents with many seeders are less likely to have viruses, as multiple people have used it successfully.
  6. Most sites have a comment section underneath the link to "download torrent." Read as many comments as possible to determine if other users feel that the quality of the file is good and worth your time. Many sites also have a rating system that can help your quickly determine if the torrent is good.
  7. This will open the torrent in your client and automatically download the file. When it is done you can watch your videos!
  8. These files are slightly different than a standard torrent file. They match content based on an identifier that can then be found without central trackers.[4]
  9. Advertisement
Method 4
Method 4 of 4:

Ensuring Your Computer Can Watch Movies

PDF download Download Article
  1. Visit YouTube and choose a video that's at least a few minutes long, such as a music video. Does the video load within 10-20 seconds and play back without pausing or skipping? If so, your connection is probably strong enough for most streaming video services. If not, look into getting a newer computer or a faster Internet connection.
  2. To check your connection speed, visit SpeedTest.net and click the green button that says BEGIN TEST. Anything slower than about 256Kbps might be too slow for adequate video streaming.
    • Mbps is a higher number than Kbps. If your number has Mbps after it, you probably have an adequate connection speed. However, 0.535 Mbps is the same speed as 535.55 Kbps.
    • Nearly any new computer will be more than adequate for streaming video. If your computer is the problem, feel free to buy something very cheap as long as it's new.
  3. Sometimes you'll find a video that won't play until your download a specific plug-in, which teaches your computer how to read the video. While you should always be aware of scams, the three main plug-ins to update are Microsoft Silverlight, DivX, and Adobe Flash.
  4. Depending on how badly you want to view movies and TV, you may accidentally stumble upon sites with bugs and viruses. If you avoid downloading and clicking on ads, most of these can be avoided, but you should still be prepared.
  5. Advertisement

Community Q&A

Search
Add New Question
  • Question
    Could I get a virus doing this?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    It's always a possibility. Make sure you have a good anti-virus software that checks the websites you try to load before opening them, and run a virus scan on any files you download.
  • Question
    Can a Chrome Book stream movies from sockshare.com?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    Yes. You can stream as long as you are connected to the Internet.
  • Question
    Can I watch some movies on websites without an internet connection?
    Community Answer
    Community Answer
    You cannot access a website without an internet connection. If you want to watch movies without a connection, you will have to download the movies first.
See more answers
Ask a Question
200 characters left
Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
Submit
Advertisement

Tips

  • Until relatively recently, YouTube had a roughly 10-minute video length limit throughout the site. This means that sometimes, movies can be found on YouTube divided into several 10-minute segments. If you're willing to deal with each one loading separately, they usually work fine.
Submit a Tip
All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published
Name
Please provide your name and last initial
Thanks for submitting a tip for review!
Advertisement

Warnings

  • Downloading movies and TV shows without paying for them is piracy, make no mistake. Only take this risk if you have a good reason. Remember, public library systems and video rental services are cheap or free, and entirely legal.
Advertisement

Things You'll Need

  • A computer, preferably a fairly new one
  • A broadband Internet connection
  • The proper software

You Might Also Like

Choose a Good Movie to WatchChoose a Good Movie to Watch
Enjoy a Movie at Home Watch and Enjoy a Film at Home
Ways to Download YouTube Videos7 Easy Ways to Download YouTube Videos
Find a Movie That I Can't Remember Find the Name of a Movie You Can't Remember
Download Movies Using uTorrent Safely and Securely Download Movies Using uTorrent
Download Subtitles from SubsceneNeed Subtitles? A Guide to Subscene and VLC Player
Add Subtitles to a Movie Attach Subtitles to a Movie
Watch Movies in Theaters at Home Watch Movies in Theaters At Home
Attend Movie PremieresAttend Movie Premieres
Find Full Length Movies on YouTubeEasy Ways to Find and Watch Full Movies on YouTube
Make a Funny VideoMake a Funny Video
Add a Film to IMDb Submit a New Movie Title to IMDb
Stop Being Scared After Watching Scary MoviesStop Being Scared After Watching Scary Movies
Rent Movies from Redbox Rent Movies from Redbox
Advertisement

About This Article

Tested by:
wikiHow Technology Team
wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 170 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 757,512 times.
213 votes - 72%
Co-authors: 170
Updated: August 23, 2024
Views: 757,512
Categories: Movies
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 757,512 times.

Reader Success Stories

  • Anonymous

    Anonymous

    Feb 26, 2017

    "How to avoid viruses and malware was the most important part of my research."
Share your story

Did this article help you?

Advertisement