When Netflix started their streaming video service, dubbed "Watch Now," the first thing that popped into the minds of some people was saving the video to their hard drive. The problem is that the videos are plagued with DRM, as is most digital media these days, and you need to do some things in order to get around it.
One member of the Rorta forum put together a guide on downloading the Netflix movies to your computer. It’s not exactly a two-step process, but it also doesn’t look like it’s all that complicated either. It requires that you look through some HTML source code a little bit, and then use a tool called FairUse4WM to strip the DRM from the 1GB movie.
At the end the result is the Netflix movie in the highest bitrate possible, and it’s saved in theWMV file format. If you use a tool such as Super you can convert that into dozens of other formats, including one for your iPod.
In order to use the Netflix Watch Now service you’ll need to be running Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista. The number of videos that you can "view" is based upon the amount you pay for a subscription: 1-hour of video for every $1 your pay. So if you have an $18 per month plan you’ll get 18-hours of video streaming.
If you plan on sharing these videos with others you should probably be careful. There are some rumors of watermarks being placed on the videos so that the owner can easily be identified. And I surely wouldn’t want to be the person to get caught red-handed on this one.
Source: Rorta [via Hackszine and TVSquad]
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Tags: Web Sites, Hacks, How To, Movies, Tips And Tricks, Videos
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I watched a few television shows using the “Watch Now” service. The quality is excellent. I just don’t care for watching movies on my computer. I have a rather nice television and a comfortable couch that makes any movie more enjoyable.
I’m the same way, but I have my computer hooked up to my TV just for things like that.