Today’s Internet speeds and availability of online media are a far cry from just a few years ago. Whether it’s movies, music, games, or anything else, streaming content has become far simpler and more accessible to the common user. But the streaming vs. downloading debate extends beyond just simplicity or convenience. Let’s address some of your concerns about streaming vs. downloading your favorite content.
Tip: need to download videos for personal use? Learn how to easily download streaming video on any platform.
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Streaming vs Downloading
Let’s take a look at the basics first.
Streaming is the process of accessing audio, visual, or textual content (movies, TV series, music, video games, books) over a server and playing it in a media player or browser. When you stream TV shows, movies, or songs over the Internet, you’re transmitting portions of it at a time. You can start playing streamed content without waiting for the complete thing to arrive on your device. But once the stream ends, you don’t have possession of the file.
Downloading is the process of accessing online content by obtaining a copy of a file and storing it physically in your local storage. This can be your computer, smartphone, TV, etc. When you download a YouTube video, you have unlimited access to it. You can play it as many times as you would like without worrying about spending any additional Internet bandwidth or money (unlike streaming).
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While you may be clear on how streaming and downloading are different things on a fundamental level, there are other factors to consider when choosing which one to use.
1. Legality
Before you consider anything else, you should be clear about where streaming and downloading stand from a legal standpoint. When you download a file online, the onus is on you to ensure that you have the right to store the file on your local device permanently.
Typically, when we consider streaming, we’re thinking of sites like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, music apps like Spotify or Apple Music, YouTube, or apps like Plex Media Server, or one of the many Plex alternatives. As you’d expect, these platforms are perfectly legal. Whether free or requiring a paid subscription, you can rest assured that you aren’t infringing on any digital rights.
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Downloading is more complicated when it comes to intellectual property (IP) rights. When you download a file online, the onus is on you to ensure that you have the right to store the file on your local device permanently. Many licensing agreements expect users to consume the file only for personal use and not redistribute it by copying it or uploading it for others to download.
Many users don’t know or don’t care about these licensing agreements and what they entail. They freely download copyrighted content using torrent clients, illicit platforms, and from friends or other users.
Good to know: need to stream your game on multiple platforms? Try these budget-friendly multi-streaming platforms.
2. Quality
In the case of streaming, the quality of a video or audio file is hugely dependent on your Internet connection. If you expect uninterrupted and instant access to your favorite content on your TV, computer, or phone (especially in 4K), your data plan and speeds should be up to snuff. Typically, a 50Mbps (megabits, not megabytes) connection is enough for a house with a small family.
Streaming almost always means you’re watching a compressed version of the original file, even if it’s a 4K stream. Another limitation or inescapable reality of streaming movies on platforms like Netflix is the stream quality itself. For many titles, streaming sites will sometimes only stock 1080p versions. In other cases, they’ll paywall 4K streams behind a higher-tier subscription plan. Whichever the case may be, streaming involves certain compromises when it comes to quality. You need to play by the rules of the streaming platform.
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Downloading, on the other hand, doesn’t need an Internet connection once you’ve downloaded the file to your device. Provided you have a fairly fast connection to download the file once, you can access it as many times as you want. Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and others let you download videos for offline usage (only within the app), which lets you watch them on airplanes or when you’re away from your home Wi-Fi.
Plus, these days, you can download Blu-ray versions of any movie you want (after its digital release). You’re not limited to lower-resolution files. Instead, you can buy 4K versions of any movie or TV series you want to watch. But keep in mind that you’d need to pay for every title, instead of accessing a huge library of titles with a single subscription.
FYI: need to watch Netflix on the go? Better to download Netflix content to watch offline.
3. Data Usage
Data usage is less of a concern today than it was years ago, considering most home Internet plans provide unlimited data. But if you’re a frequent traveler and like to take your content with you, the amount of mobile data you need to expend becomes much more important.
Streaming consumes data every time you need to access a file. Outside of a few edge cases, where your browser cache stores the video temporarily, you always need to expend your Internet bandwidth to stream a video or audio file.
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Downloading, on the other hand, needs Internet access only once, i.e., during the download itself. Post that, you don’t need to think about data usage, as you can play the file offline as many times as you want.
The amount of data consumed in streaming vs. downloading is often similar if factors like resolution are the same.
Tip: running out of mobile data? Learn how to stop apps from using mobile data on Android.
4. Storage
Besides data usage, you also need to think about device storage. This might be more of a concern on mobile devices with 128GB or 256GB of total storage.
As streaming simply accesses content from an online server and doesn’t store the file on your device (except temporary cache), it doesn’t consume much storage, other than the size of the streaming app itself.
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Downloading requires physical storage space on your computer or smartphone. With multiple movies, TV series, music, and more, this quickly adds up, and you may be forced to delete some of your content to make way for more (or simply to avoid slowing down your device). With the prevalence of 4K content, downloading needs more space than ever if you wish to maintain a huge offline library.
Good to know: want to simulcast videos with friends? Watch videos on these apps with your online friends.
5. Availability
This may be a minor issue for most people, but movie enthusiasts may get upset if they find that the title they want to watch isn’t available on the streaming app they’re subscribed to.
Licensing agreements and a myriad of other issues have resulted in a fragmented streaming universe. Your favorite movies may be on Netflix, while the TV series you’ve been itching to watch is on Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+, or Max (HBO). Plus, your favorite title could disappear from a streaming site overnight – you don’t own anything, as you’re just renting it.
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Downloading isn’t really different, as you’re still dependent on the platform where you’re buying the title. With platforms like Movies Anywhere, you can at least buy any movie you want without paying for multiple streaming platforms. Of course, this will be financially feasible, only if you’re buying movies every now and then, and not buying every movie you want to watch.
The streaming vs. downloading decision depends on whether you value convenience or quality more. For most of us, watching movies or TV series in lower resolutions or compressed formats isn’t a deal-breaker. It’s possible we may not even notice it.
But, if you’re an enthusiast and want to own your media collection, downloading can be the preferred option. Just make sure to assess the costs involved when buying multiple titles to create your offline collection, as the investment could soon spiral out of hand.
Good to know: tired of streaming limitations? Check out the best Blu-ray players.
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Tanveer Singh
After a 7-year corporate stint, Tanveer found his love for writing and tech too much to resist. An MBA in Marketing and the owner of a PC building business, he writes on PC hardware, technology, video games, and Windows. When not scouring the web for ideas, he can be found building PCs, watching anime, or playing Smash Karts on his RTX 3080 (sigh).
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