How To Download Free Hulu Movies To Your Computer
I’m a big fan of Hulu. It lets me catch up on my favorite shows, and, thanks to generous advertisers, doesn’t cost me a dime. Hulu has new programs, reruns, and full-length movies.
One problem, though. Hulu videos stream in Flash video, and there wasn’t any way to download and save programs for mobile viewing. That was true until I read up on the appropriately-named Hulu Video Downloader, a simple yet powerful little program, for which I have yet to find a free equal.
Using HVD couldn’t be much easier. Once you navigate to your desired program in your browser of choice, highlight and copy (Ctrl+C) the page’s URL. If it’s from a supported site, it will appear in HVD’s top field automatically. From there, you select the format for your target file, and click Add. HVD takes over from there, downloading and converting the video file.
Video formats available in the free version include MPEG2, AVI, and native FLV. To convert to other file formats, such as iPod or PSP, we suggest the recently-reviewed VideoSpiritLite. The GOM Player can playback FLV video files without conversion.
Once the download’s complete, you simply open the resulting video file in your favorite media player. Now you need not worry about episodes of your favorite show “expiring” from the site. I wish now that I had found this program before Dollhouse episodes started disappearing.
If you want to download HD versions of the shows, or download more than one show at a time, you’ll need to upgrade to the pro version, which lets you pull videos from a dozen other sites besides Hulu.
There’s more Hulu on MakeUseOf, right this way. How do you archive your favorite shows? What are some can’t-miss shows on Hulu? Play program director and let us know some of your favorites in the comments.
(By) Tim Watson is a full-time student, husband, father of two, and head of Dork Lotus Enterprises. He's on Twitter @TimDub.
My favorite show to catch on Hulu is “In Plain Sight”, a show about US Marshals in New Mexico. I will have to try this tool out. Thanks for writing about it!
(Comments wont nest below this level)I recently lost my cable T.V. But i had my internet still on and HULU kept me up to date with my favorite shows like Burn Notice,royal pains, and to Lmao Family guy. I will definitely check out This down loader.Thanks for the great post this tool will Truly be valuable.
(Comments wont nest below this level)One bad thing is this site only allows US traffic.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Sounds wonderful only if I could find the download link. I have been thru so many links only to be sent to the home page. Appreciate help for this inexperienced geek.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Very detailed explanation to download movie into PC.
(Comments wont nest below this level)This working perfectly.
The problem is…….you have to buy the Pro edition($34) AND the extra pack($10) to get HULU. Go figure
(Comments wont nest below this level)Downloaded it finally after jumping through a bunch of hoops, and it doesn’t work. I guess it is like Leeon says you have to pay to upgrade to Pro to download anything with it. So…No, it is not free.
(Comments wont nest below this level)GetFLV is the most popular Hulu Downloader, Converter and Player chosen by millions of people.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Download Hulu shows, videos and movies easily with great speed.
Auto resume on broken downloads.
Easily convert downloaded Hulu videos for your portable devices like iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune, etc.
Play downloaded Hulu video offline with GetFLV Player.
I’d rather use Tunebite, it downloads from hulu and other sites like this, even music from music web sites. Besides that it converts many files into the formats I need, so I don’t have to get 2 software for downloading and for converting.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Cool tool except I sure as heck would not waste my time or HD space on Obama’s Homecoming Open off Hulu but hey…
(Comments wont nest below this level)GetFLV is the most popular Hulu Downloader, Converter and Player chosen by millions of people.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Download Hulu shows, videos and movies easily with great speed.
Auto resume on broken downloads.
Easily convert downloaded Hulu videos for your portable devices like iPod, iPhone, PSP, Zune, etc.
Play downloaded Hulu video offline with GetFLV Player.
Does this GetFLV downloader really work ? I have been trying to download tv show episodes from hulu for some time now and can’t get anywhere. I already downloaded several tv shows from hulu without any problems. All of a sudden, I can’t download from hulu. Does anybody know why ?
(Comments wont nest below this level)All I’m trying to do is download old tv shows that I used to watch.
I’m betting that GetFLV is a pile of crap and will infect your computer. Just look–they already have identical spammers working this site.
Well, we cannot download hulu’s shows anymore, because the files are not in flash video anymore, they are encrypted files and those kind of files cannot be downloaded with any youtube downloader or that getflv, even the name says that.
(Comments wont nest below this level)Anyway, if you really want to have your fav shows on your machine, I’d recommend to use some screencapturing software which just capture the video streaming. I’d rather vote for that tunebite, because it must record hulu’s shows and saves them on pcs: http://audials.com/en/how_to_record_stream_capture_music_videos_movies_from/hulu.html
This tutorial offers us all the steps for its usage on hulu. Really nice!
I paid for the upgrade, $49.99 the thing worked on hulu for a couple of days and then simply would not download from hulu anymore. I have emailed the company numerous times with no reply, I am getting ready to go to paypal for a chargeback.
(Comments wont nest below this level)I also use Tunebite, indeed it does a great job, what is most important is that it is a hulu downloader and can record hulu’s movies and shows and captures any video streaming not only from hulu. It has many other features, it’s an youtube downloader a converter, it converts videos to many formats such as avi, 3gp, wmv, mp3, so that I can transfer my videos to any devices, even to ipod. Anyway, I think that it’s a very good screen recorder.
(Comments wont nest below this level)DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY, HULU DOWNLOADER DOES NOT WORK. THIS IS A RIP-OFF AND A CON.
(Comments wont nest below this level)THESE FOLKS ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF TAKING YOUR MONEY PERIOD!!