Everything you need to know about Netflix downloads
Netflix finally, finally lets you download movies and TV shows for offline viewing.
It's really catch-up for Netflix, to be honest. Amazon Video has had downloading and offline viewing for over a year now. Still, better late than never.
The only thing you'll need to do to start downloading videos for offline watching is update the Netflix app for iOS 8 or later or Android 4.4.2 or later.
I took the new feature for a spin on an iPhone 7 and Google Pixel XL to see if it's any good.
To start, downloading content is really easy. There's a new "Available for Download" section in the navigation menu. Click it and you'll be brought to a page of content.
Netflix's blog post says there's "plenty of content" available for download, including Orange is The New Black, Narcos and The Crown."
My own check confirms there's a good amount of original Netflix series available, but not a whole lot of movies. And yes, Master of None and Stranger Things are available for download.
The "Available for Download" section makes it easy to find content at a glance, but the search feature is almost entirely useless. You'd think tapping the search icon while in "Available for Download" would only bring up results for videos that are downloadable, but no, it searches all of Netflix, which makes it more difficult to see what is and isn't available for offline. And, of course, not everything that is downloadable is presented in thumbnail form on the "Available for Download" screen.
Downloadable videos have a "↓" next to them. Tap it and the video will save to the Netflix app, pending your iOS or Android device's available storage.
There doesn't appear to be any limit to how many videos you can download. Well, any reasonable amount of videos, at least. I had no problem downloading the entire seasons of Master of None, The Crown, Stranger Things, Orange is The New Black (season 2) and the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi to my 256GB iPhone 7; a total of 41 episodes and one movie. And I could easily add more.
Videos appear to be reasonably compressed and optimized for storage. Of course, file sizes will vary, but these are some I was able to collect, to give you an idea:
30-minute episode of Master of None: 97.7MB-159MB.
1-hour episode of The Crown: 202.7MB-280.4MB.
1 hour 22 min movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi: 672.4MB
2 hour 9 min movie The Sting: 585.1MB
These file sizes are on par with what you'd get if you ripped a movie or TV show to DVD (480p) quality. Which is the type of video quality you can expect from the default "Standard" quality the app downloads at. There's a "Higher" quality setting in the settings, but I couldn't get videos to download in this setting; they just stayed queued up, even though I was on a fast Wi-Fi connection at work. For what it's worth, the "Higher" quality setting will definitely use more storage, according to the app.
No more waiting for videos to buffer!
Videos look good. Not crispy-sharp or anything, but they look good enough on a phone screen. And offline viewing is pretty cool. I can't wait to download Netflix shows and watch them on my train commute where the LTE connection always cuts in and out. No more waiting for videos to buffer!
One thing to note is that you'll only be able to download videos to one device per account. When I tried to download the videos to my Pixel XL, the app threw up this message:
I've got the two-screen + HD ($9.99/month) plan, which is good for streaming to two screens simultaneously, but not for downloading to two screens, apparently. The only way to enable downloads for another device on your account is to delete them off another; in my case, deleting all videos from my iPhone 7 granted access for downloading videos to my Pixel XL.
On the plus side, Netflix wisely included an easy way to bulk-delete all downloaded videos by tapping the "Edit" button within the "My Downloads" page, like so:
Netflix downloads works as advertised. I'd like to see more movies and a search just for downloadable videos, but even so, for a launch, pretty darn solid.
Binging is now even better.
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
