In the very complicated world of streaming, Hulu has become one of the most well-known names, despite the fact that it’s actually owned by Disney, so is sort of second fiddle to Disney+.
What really matters, though, is that it has a really solid range of movies and shows for you to explore, with some big hits that you can’t find anywhere else. If you’re a US Hulu member and you’re about to travel somewhere or you need an insurance policy against boredom, you can now download shows and movies for offline viewing, too. Here’s how to do it, and everything you should know about it.
What are Hulu offline downloads?
With offline downloads, Hulu is letting paid, ad-free subscribers save content to watch later when they’re disconnected from Wi-Fi or cell service.
The feature brings Hulu in line with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, both of which have offered offline downloads for some time.
Hulu said “thousands” of TV shows and movies will be eligible to be downloaded, but you can’t download everything that’s on the service.
How to download TV shows and movies on Hulu
Actually downloading stuff on Hulu is really easy with the steps below.
- Open the Hulu app on your smartphone or tablet.
- Head to the menubar of the app and tap on the Downloads icon.
- Select See What’s Downloadable.
- Search for the content you want, and if it has a download icon next to it, tap on it to see more details.
- From the Details page, tap on the Download button to start downloading it (this will be next to individual TV episodes in a series).
This will start your download off – you’ll be able to monitor it to see how quickly it’s coming along in the main Downloads section of your app.
Where are my Hulu downloads?
Once you’ve downloaded your choice of movies or TV, it’s pretty easy to find where they are to actually watch them.
- Open your Hulu app.
- Tap on the Downloads icon in the menubar.
- Select your choice of movie or TV show to start viewing it offline.
How to change video quality on Hulu downloads
With storage space at a premium on plenty of people’s phones, it’s useful to be able to control the quality of your downloads on Hulu – since lower quality videos take up less space and therefore allow you to have more stored on your device.
To change video quality on iOS, these are the steps to follow:
- Open the Hulu app.
- Tap on the Downloads icon in the menubar, then the Settings icon at the top of the screen.
- Tap on Video Quality.
- Choose Standard or High quality.
If you’re on Android, the steps are slightly different:
- Open the Hulu app
- Tap on Profile in the menubar.
- Tap on Settings, then Downloads.
- Tap on Video Quality.
- Choose Standard or High quality.
Hulu
How do Hulu offline downloads work?
Hulu’s offline downloading system is a little bit complicated in some ways, and simple in others, so here are all the details you should know before you get started.
No Ads plan required
First off, it’s worth knowing that offline downloads are exclusive to paid subscribers of Hulu’s No Ads plan – so you won’t be able to make any downloads if you’re on the base plan, sadly.
This plan costs $12.99 per month, whereas the service’s base plan is $6.99 per month. Hulu’s business model here, clearly, is to encourage signups to its more expensive, ad-free subscription tier, which is no surprise.
Download limit
There’s a limit on how much you can download, although it’s a pretty big one that is unlikely to affect you that much. You can download up to 25 titles across five different devices.
There’s also a bit of a time limit – you will have up to 30 days to watch the downloaded content. Once you start watching an individual piece of content (so a movie or TV episode), you’ll have two days to finish before it auto-expires. When it expires, you can renew it, if the content is still available, so it’s not that big a barrier if you have an internet connection.
Geographic limits
Downloads on Hulu are only available to its users in the United States – although Hulu is primarily a US platform in the first place, so this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise!
However, once you’ve downloaded something on Hulu, you can watch it wherever you like, so it’s perfect for travel abroad where you want to be sure you have access to that big series you’re right in the middle of.
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