How do I watch movies and TV shows on my Droid?

 

One of the most frequently asked questions regarding many Smartphones is: Can I watch movies and television shows on my device. The answer is an absolute YES!

 

Is it as easy as clicking on the "Watch a First Run Movie On My Droid" button? No. But it ain't rocket science either.

 

Once upon a time, there was a website (which shall remain unnamed) that converted many of the popular premium cable shows and movies to a format that you could just download and drag to your Smartphone. Due to the fact that the webmaster didn't have all of the proper permissions from HBO, Showtime, 20th Century Fox and others...he was shut down.

 

I missed almost an entire season of "Dexter" and "Weeds" because of this. That can't be!

 

As I'm sure many of you are aware, there are a number of websites which allow you to watch movies and television shows online (including Hulu.com), but my absolute favorite is fastpasstv.com. There you will find scores of movies and virtually any network or cable television show you can think of. All free to watch online.

 

I've tried to do some research on the legality of this site, and so far I can't find anything that indicates that what they are doing this is illegal.

So, now you've found the movies and television shows you want, but how do you get them on your Droid (or other Smartphone)?

 



 

Well, if you visit fastpasstv.com, you'll notice that each show you are looking to watch has a number of feeds (DivX, FLV, Megavideo) from which to choose. If you've downloaded the DivX player (which I recommend) that's my first pick unless there happens to be a Megavideo feed.

Technically, you can watch the FLV direct feed on your Droid now, but unless you're on a WiFi network it's pretty slow unless you wait for the entire video to load before viewing. And I'm not sure  that it will load completely due to file size. It will however easily fit on your SD card and have room for a few dozen episodes or movies.

 

So, how do you get a viewable copy of a TV show or movie on your Droid? The solution is a bit time consuming, but relatively simple.

 

First, search for video capture software. There are a number of free ones but some are limited in time, others just suck. After trying a bunch, I ended up purchasing Replay Video Capture. (It was only $39.95 which I thought was a reasonable price to be able to watch all the movies and videos I wanted on my phone.) The best free option I found was Debut Video Capture, but the sound was usually out of sync.

The video capture software allows you to copy any video you have running on your screen. So, all you do is make a rectangle around the area on your screen which is playing the video, hit play on the video and record on your and you're on your way.

 

But, not so fast! Unless you want to have video of your computer buffering the video, I recommend that you let the entire video load prior to your recording attempt.

 

Now, to add to the hassle, once it's loaded (which can sometimes take as long as the actual program) you have to restart the video and capture software and record it in real-time.

And this is VERY important! During the time you're recording your video you cannot use your computer for other tasks. Why? Because that little video capture box that you created around your video screen will record anything that is behind it on the monitor. So, if you jump over to your gmail account to check your mail, it's going to record the rectangular center of that page.

 

The Replay Video Capture software saves the file as a WMV, which plays just fine on my Droid. After the recording is completed, you must hit Stop (it doesn't know when you're done), and then re-name the file (ex: DexterE02S05).

 

Then, hook up your Droid to your computer via USB, turn on the storage and drag the new video to whatever folder you  use to watch video on your device.

 

I generally run through this procedure when I have other chores to do around the house and won't be needing my computer for a while.

 

Once you see the great quality that you get on your Droid, you may find that it's well worth the hassle to see all the free movies and TV shows you want, wherever you want.

The Android browser wars! Default, Opera or Dolphin?

I use all three of these browsers from time to time. But, the one that is winning my personal browser war is Dolphin.

When I first discovered the Opera Mini browser on my Blackberry, I found it to be a great improvement over the default browser. The interface was smoother and it seemed faster. When I discovered that there was an Opera Mini for Droid I went to market and downloaded.

I liked it on the Droid even more than I liked it on the Blackberry. The fact that it had a sort of tab main page which features your most-often-visited sites was great. I also liked the password storage feature.

The one drawback that kept me from using it more was the fact that even after Froyo arrived and Flash was loaded, watching Flash videos just didn't work.

So, I used it to log into my Google AdSense account and the Scrabble Cheat page, but other than that I kept using the default browser that came with the Droid.

And then....somebody turned me on to the Dolphin browser. No contest. The clear winner. Real tabs, Flash plays fine.

One of features I really love about the Dolphin browser, is that you can set it to delete all of your history and cache each time you exit the browser. This works only if you click the menu button, and then Exit. If you are multi-tasking and simply closing the browser to go elsewhere on your Droid, the Dolphin browser will still have the pages you loaded available to you. Very cool.

Getting started with your Droid

Okay, let's be honest. The first three things you wanted to when you got your Droid was 1) determine how to set up your email; 2) browse the internet; and 3) find porn. Not necessarily in that order.

At some point I'll examine all of this and more, but first let's focus on the first two items. We'll save the Droid porn vs. iPhone porn controversy for a later date. :)

 

Setting up email on your Android Smartphone

 

Because android is in bed with Google, you probably already set up your Gmail account when you activated your phone. If for some reason you bypassed that step (or you hadn't created a Gmail account yet), simply click on the Gmail icon in your Applications Tray and follow the instructions.

Once your Gmail account is set up you will have access to all of your contacts, your calendar and your email. If you add, change or remove any information in your Gmail account (either on your computer or your Droid), the information is updated on both. Very cool.

I currently have four separate Gmail accounts set up on my Droid, and get notified by each whenever I receive an email.

If you need to set up a POP3, iMap or Microsoft Exchange email account it's just about as easy. On your Applications screen, just click on Email and follow the simple steps.

If you need more info on email set up, I recommend visiting Verizon's email setup support page (or if you have another carrier, go there).

Browsing the web on your Droid device is as easy as clicking on the browser icon on your Applications page. However, there are other browsers (specifically the Opera Mini and the Dolphin browsers)  that you may want to download and try from the Android Market. I share my thoughts on the Droid Browser Wars here.