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We live in the golden age of cinema. Young readers may find this hard to believe, but there was a time when watching a movie meant going to the cinema and seeing what was playing, and that was it. There were no home movies. Well, maybe someone had an 8mm projector and some (boring) bear shorts or something, but Star Wars? You saw Star Wars when it was in theaters, or you haven't seen it at all. Times have certainly changed.
Today, we all have access to massive libraries of movies, both new releases and classics (and not-so-classics) from the past. Whether you're using your smartphone, computer, or TV, you can access a huge number of legitimate (and not-so-legitimate) copies of movies. Sites like Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video stream terabytes of video content. You can watch just about anything you want to watch, whenever you want to watch it.
One of the most common solutions for consumers to stream videos to their TV is the Amazon Fire TV Stick. This begs the question: can you download movies to your Fire TV Stick? Not directly. The Stick has no local storage in which to store video; it has to stream stuff from another source. However, there are ways to download movies to other devices for later consumption. Additionally, your Fire TV Stick can access Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, or similar services to get movies that way. In this article, I'll show you several different options for getting movie content on your Fire TV Stick.
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Stream Movies to Fire TV Stick
The first and easiest way to access movies is through Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix, or another service. Just install the appropriate app. You'll need a membership for most of these sites, although there are good free alternatives, and browse the available libraries at your leisure. Note that not all the movies you might want to watch will be available on one service; sometimes you have to navigate between several different sites to find what you are looking for.
There are a number of good paid and free streaming services; here are some of the most popular.
Amazon Prime Video
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Amazon Prime Video is a bundled service that comes free with a subscription to Amazon Prime, Amazon's flagship free, fast delivery option for its online retail business. Prime typically costs $119 per year or $12,99 per month. For most people, the Prime Video subscription isn't the main reason to get Prime, but it's a pretty good bonus with plenty of premium movie and TV content.
Netflix
Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services. With plans starting at $9/month, it's a great choice for a primary video streaming service. There are plenty of movies, TV series, and an ever-increasing amount of original content.
Hulu
Limited offer: 3 months FREE!
Hulu is another major streaming site, with the very attractive advantage of offering upgrades to premium channel packages like HBO and Showtime. It also produces high-quality original content. Starting at $5,99 per month, Hulu also offers free content, usually older seasons of shows it has licenses for and classic movies.
Pluto TV
Pluto TV has the advantage of being totally free to watch, as well as providing a really nice lineup of cable TV type channels that really feels like having a (low end) cable TV subscription . There aren't many premium movies or shows, but the price is right and the service is very reliable.
Classic Cinema Online
Classic Cinema Online is one of the all-time greats among free service providers. There are no new movies here, as CCO only focuses on old classics, and there are some truly amazing movies (and lots of B-movie filler) on the site. This is a must for old Hollywood fans.
Popcornflix
Popcornflix is owned by Screen Media Ventures and has licenses to stream over 1 movies for free. They have a good mix, with movies no one has ever heard of, but some classics and even newer movies.
spectator
viewer is an indie-oriented streaming channel with lots of indie and fan-made content. There's a lot of animation and anime out there, so if you're a fan of those genres, this is definitely a site worth checking out.
Use Kodi to Watch Movies Downloaded on an Amazon Fire TV Stick
If you really want to download content, have it on your local network, and then stream it to your Fire TV Stick on demand, then Kodi is the answer for you. Kodi is a media server system that takes a bit of work to set up, but once it's running it's fantastic. You'll need to install Kodi on both your Fire TV Stick and any computer set up as a media center. Here's how.
- Select Settings on the Fire TV Stick home screen.
- Go to Device & Developer Options.
- Enable Allow apps from unknown sources.
- Return to the Fire TV home screen.
- Use Search to find Downloader and select to install it.
- Open Downloader and allow it to access your photos, media, and files.
- Downloader will ask you for a URL, add 'http://kodi.tv/download' and select Go.
- Select the latest version of Kodi, then install.
- Return to the Fire TV home screen.
- Select your apps and games and search for the Kodi app.
- Install Kodi on the computer that contains all of your media.
- Open Kodi on the computer.
- Select the gear icon to open settings.
- Select Service Settings, then select UPnP/DLNA.
- Enable Share my libraries and all options.
- Open the Kodi app on your Fire TV Stick.
- Select Files from the left menu and Add Videos.
- Select Browse, then UPnP Devices.
- Select Video Library and select OK.
- Rename the library if needed and browse it to play your movie.
If you follow these instructions, you should be able to stream your downloaded movies to your Amazon Fire TV Stick. Kodi is exceptionally good at managing itself and should find the other Kodi app, link to it, and stream content directly there. Another way to enjoy your content!
Want more information on how to stream a video?
Do you like the torrent scene? Check out our review of alternatives to Putlocker for streaming movies.
Want more free options? We have a review of all the best free movie sites. In fact we have more than one.
You need a fast internet connection to get good streams – check out our tutorial on optimizing your network speed.
Want a little more information about Kodi? Here's our guide to watching movies on Kodi.
