How to stream TV shows, movies — for free

[Cantaro]

Even with a windows antenna you can get 20 channels.

Whether it’s to replace a cable TV subscription or to augment it, millions of Canadians have turned to streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crave, Apple TV+, Disney+, and YouTube Premium, to name just a few.

Therein lies the problem: with prices averaging about $11/month between the big players, subscription costs can really add up — especially if you opt for a few services to binge a variety of TV shows and movies.

It also defeats the purpose of cord-cutting, no?

And so, budget-conscious consumers are discovering completely free (and legal) streaming solutions, collectively referred to as “AVOD” services. As the name suggests, “ad-supported video-on-demand” services contain advertisements between and during content.

But hey, free is free.

Popular AVOD services include Tubi, Popcornflix, Filmrise, and The Roku Channel.

What you need to get going

If you’ve got an internet connection and a screen, you can watch most of these on-demand video services on just about anything.

That is, you can access most on its website, such as tubitv.com (and no registration is necessary), or by downloading a free app (iOS or Android) for viewing on a smartphone or tablet.

When on an iPhone, iPad or Android, you can choose to wirelessly “cast” the video to a nearby and compatible Smart TV or streaming device plugged into a television (like Roku, Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV stick). You need to be on the same Wi-Fi network as your television.

Smart TVs also let you install apps for many of these AVOD services, as well as video game consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Tubi: Access more than 20,000 hours of streaming video content from studios like Paramount, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., and MGM. If you choose to sign in, you can receive personalized suggestions based on your viewing habits and sync your content between devices (such as starting on an iPad and finishing on a Smart TV). A section called Tubi Kids is available within the app and website, too. Recommended content: Titanic, The Notebook, Hell’s Kitchen, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Forensic Files, How to Train Your Dragon, and Super 8.

Popcornflix: According to its parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Popcornflix has about 200,000 monthly active users across Canada. About 3,000 hours of programming is available on Popcornflix Canada, with the five most popular titles this month as follows: Grand Isle (with Nicolas Cage), The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,Bug, The Core, and The Big Short. Unfortunately, the app doesn’t seem to know if you’re in Canada or not, and so you’ll often tap something to watch, like The Great Gatsby, only for it to say it’s not available in Canada.

The Roku Channel: According to Roku, AVOD is the fastest-growing category of channels on Roku’s platform, and that includes Roku’s own The Roku Channel, which aggregates the best of free content on their platform (and licenses content from studios directly, too). Popular titles include In the Line of Fire (Harrison Ford), Black or White (Kevin Costner) and How Do You Know (Reese Witherspoon). A Roku-compatible TV or device is required to view content, which you can search through by phone, if desired. Roku says there are more than 150,000 movies and TV episodes available for free on its platform.

Filmrise: Another popular AVOD service, Filmrise offers thousands of TV show episodes and movies to stream, across a variety of devices. Content includes (mostly) movies of yesteryear Recommended: Christopher Nolan’s Memento, and TV shows like Midsomer Murders, 21 Jumpstreet, Unsolved Mysteries, Boy Meets Girl, and Ramsay’s Best Restaurant. Similar to other AVOD apps, you can search by keyword, browse by theme, add to Watchlist, and choose to share what you’re watching with friends.

Network apps

It would be remiss not to acknowledge many of Canada’s biggest national networks are heavily promoting their own streaming apps, such as CTV, Global TV, and CBC Gem.

These, too, are free to use, but cord-cutters won’t get as much out of them as you unlock all of its content and features if you opt to sign in with your TV service credentials (or pay a few bucks a month).

Global TV: From within the Global TV app or on the web (watch.globaltv.com), stream live and on-demand content, including 24/7 local and national news feeds, a limited-time collection of popular original series from Food Network Canada and HGTV Canada, plus access Global’s primetime shows (free for seven days after their broadcast premieres). To watch shows after seven days, you’ll be required to authenticate with a cable subscription. Content is also available from W Network, HISTORY, Showcase, Slice and, coming soon, National Geographic and Adult Swim.

CTV: Similarly, you can access a vast catalogue of CTV television programming, with no subscription or sign-in required (across the CTV app and CTV.ca), and this includes all CTV Movies, CTV Throwback, and MTV content. Episodes from select prime-time series are unlocked for a limited period. To access all programming available, including live feeds and on-demand content, you are required to sign-in with an account tied to a service provider.

CBC Gem: A TV provider account is not required to access the CBC Gem app (or cbcgem.ca), but there are three membership options available, including an ad-free Premium membership ($4.99/month) that also grants streaming access to CBC News Network, live coverage of Olympic games, past seasons on demand, cross-device continued streaming, enhanced audio and video, and more. All content for kids and tweens is always ad-free.

SALTZMAN: How to stream TV shows, movies — for free

How to stream TV shows, movies — for free

torontosun.com

 

[colton1]

Thank you.

 

[luvyeah]

just use torrents

 

[Sunlight]

Great info. I didn't know about that. Thanks for sharing, I'll give it a try. I cut the cord about two years ago and I also use streaming services instead. But when I choose them, the price is not the only thing I pay attention to. The content plays a great role. That's why I pay for Netflix and Disney+. Also, I'm a new user of Amazon Prime Video (according to the reviews https://amazon-prime-video.pissedconsumer.com/review.html, there are many of us and the number has been growing). I know that I have to pay for such services, but I want to have access to good movies and tv series.

 

[richaceg]

I got netflix and crave and amazon prime...I'm at peace...

 

[Twister]

I got netflix and crave and amazon prime...I'm at peace...

You're getting all that for free?

 

[richaceg]

You're getting all that for free?

Lol no. I got all 3 and we watch whatever we want...if you think about it, if you get a rogers cable box, you needs every room to have a box...I'm paying 30+ a month for all 3.

 

[Twister]

Lol no. I got all 3 and we watch whatever we want...if you think about it, if you get a rogers cable box, you needs every room to have a box...I'm paying 30+ a month for all 3.

Yes not a bad deal, how do you see it in every room? All TV's are internet capable? I use an antenna for some local Canadian and US TV channels and use android devices to watch every thing else. (free)

 

[richaceg]

Yes not a bad deal, how do you see it in every room? All TV's are internet capable? I use an antenna for some local Canadian and US TV channels and use android devices to watch every thing else. (free)

4 smart tvs at home...and my kids can basically watch in their laptops too..

 

[Butler1000]

Kodi, and a 40 buck box a few years ago. Also have an app for various channels that includes cp24.

 

[onomatopoeia]

I'd rather physically own TV shows and movies, either on DVD or digital hard copies. I've recently started reusing a peer to peer file sharing/ trading app that was really big in the years before torrents, but it declined and went underground about 15 years ago: WinMX (Google WinMX patch 3.5.4).

There are a lot fewer members than there used to be, and a more limited selection of files, but WinMX is still a great source for Movies and some TV series.

With bit torrents, a file is broken up into pieces, ("chunks") usually 256 kb - 2 MB, that are dowloaded in a random sequence. You can download from anyone who has a chunk that you don't have, and you can upload to anyone who needs a chunk that you have. When you have all of the chunks, they're assembled in sequence to complete the file. If no one is sharing one or more chunks, no one can complete the file, the full size of the file will be allocated in disk space, and the partial file cannot be opened.

On WinMX, you download from one or more other users who have some or all of a file you want. All downloads are linear, from the beginning to the end. Sharing files yourself isn't mandatory, but many users with good files will block the upload to anyone who is sharing nothing of interest.

With WinMX, you have discretion over the maximum number of current uploads, but you can also manually start anyone waiting in the queue, if they want a small file, or they are a friend. Similarly, you can cancel an upload manually, for any of a number of reasons, or you can ban a handle from downloading from you.

You can browse the shared libraries of any other member by right clicking their handle when it appears in search results, upload or download queue, or in a chat room.

Private messaging is available, and is used for things like negotiating trades. More common is to browse the shared files of someone downloading from you, and select something of theirs. If your download from them doesn't start, you can manually terminate the upload to them, and try to negotiate a trade through messaging.

WinMX will not appeal to anyone who wants their file immediately, or someone who deletes a digital video file after viewing it.

The Movies and TV shows available now are usually DVD or BluRay rips. Current TV is usually identical files as on a public torrent site; older series usually from DVD. Fifteen years ago, .mpg files sourced from TV to VHS, compressed with TMPGEnc, ("Tsunami MPEG encoder"), were very common.

WinMX is probably the best place to download Movies made more than 5 years ago. There's also a lot of porn files, but many of the file names are in Japanese, and the guys sharing it usually have 100+ plus people waiting in the queue ahead of you.

 

[Valcazar]

I might check WinMX for some older, more obscure stuff.

 

[Tomoreno]

Downloading files (torrents) is obsolete today, highly illegal and traceable. Why even bother with that?

Most people have Amazon Prime these days, because many shop online. Amazon gives you free fast shipping, so just that alone is worth $80/year. That same membership comes with video, music, storage services. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

Netflix, Disney+, Crave... all good options.

I'll tell you something most of you are likely unaware of. People with same memberships in USA get more, because their movie libraries are bigger. Heck, even YouTube Movies let's you watch over 500 movies for free.

How do you get all that from Canada??

Well, you get yourself an American IP address by getting a virtual private network (VPN). With my VPN I'm able to access content intended for other countries. Have you ever tried to watch a video clip on YouTube, Twitter or other service and saw a message "uploader made this content unavailable in your country?" Whenever I see that, I connect to my VPN and watch same blocked video a few seconds later.

Those using Kodi likely seen a message warning it's users to use VPN to avoid being traced.

The cost of most VPNs are anywhere between $30-50 per year. I've been using mine for over 4 years.

 

[onomatopoeia]

I might check WinMX for some older, more obscure stuff.

For TV, I'm currently acquiring Search, (early 70's sci fi), The Green Hornet, and The Starlost on MX. Previously I got all of Star Trek - The Animated Series, lots of miscellaneous cartoons, and about 20 good or very terrible movies; I like both. Very soon I'll be starting Movie and TV show threads here in The Lounge with links to where the content can be viewed online, and/or downloaded. I'm still acquiring content, so I haven't started the threads yet. I'll also have a lot of new posts in the Just Cartoons thread, which will also have the view or download option.

 

[Tony Figaro]

Any cheap and good recommendations for a VPN? People have told not to bother streaming these sites until I get a VPN.

 

[onomatopoeia]

Downloading files (torrents) is obsolete today, highly illegal and traceable. Why even bother with that?...yada, yada.

Someone who creates a file that's torrented could be prosecuted. Someone who just downloads it can be traced, and they might get a warning message from their ISP on a specific file, but a civil court case against the downloader would be thrown out. The downloader can rightfully claim that they did not share the entire file, only bits and pieces of it. ISP warning e-mails are also very rare. I've only ever had one, from years of downloading a lot of torrents from public sites.

 

[Tomoreno]

Any cheap and good recommendations for a VPN? People have told not to bother streaming these sites until I get a VPN.

I've been using NORD VPN. Got a 3 year deal for $89. Works for computers and mobile devices. If you're tech savvy, routers can be configured to use VPN to cover all devices on your network.

 

[Tomoreno]

Someone who creates a file that's torrented could be prosecuted. Someone who just downloads it can be traced, and they might get a warning message from their ISP on a specific file, but a civil court case against the downloader would be thrown out. The downloader can rightfully claim that they did not share the entire file, only bits and pieces of it. ISP warning e-mails are also very rare. I've only ever had one, from years of downloading a lot of torrents from public sites.

When you're downloading a torrent, you'll see that there's also upload. Once your file is fully downloaded, you'll become a source for upload... unless you immediately delete .torrent file, but who sits and waits for that?
You might get a warning email from ISP, but at some point it might turn into litigation against you. Why bother with that?

Most of what you're downloading is available legally anyways. Is all that risk worth it to save a few bucks per month?

Streaming is different though. It's download only. Hard to prosecute such offence.

 

[Valcazar]

Any cheap and good recommendations for a VPN? People have told not to bother streaming these sites until I get a VPN.

A fair number of the newer anti-virus suites like Norton and Bitdefender have a decent VPN as an add on. (The base one is usually too limited.)
But things like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, CyberGhost etc are probably your best bets.
Most of the top paid ones are fine.

 

[Renus]

Tubi
Youtube
Dailymotion

You can also order Netflix ... then cancel.

Then order Amazon ... then cancel.

If you see it now, or see it five years from now, its all the same BORING shit.

I still haven't seen those big budget Special FX kiddie ones, like Shazam, Venom, that ugly one about bugs .. um ... Ant man part 2. I'm in no hurry. If I see it five years from now, I'm happy.

Avoid Oscar movie. Snoozefest.