If you’ve not heard or experienced it already, iflix now has an offline mode. The feature was officially launched yesterday morning but current subscribers have had access to the preview since the first week of this month. The download-first-play-later feature is a great addition to an already exciting service, and it should help iflix to gain more acceptance than the other VOD options that are available in Malaysia.
Users can now download up to 10 shows per device in advance and these will be available for up to 7 days after downloading. The videos are also supposed to ‘self-destruct’ in 48 hours after watching but this never happened to the ones we had in our devices. The downloaded videos did go off after the 7-day limit but it’s no biggie as users can download again as many times as they would want. The only problem with that is the time and effort that it takes to download the entire video again.
The download option is currently not available for iflix’s entire catalogue, (and we’re not really sure how they make the call about the ones which get to have the feature) but it’s nice to see a huge number of shows already supporting it. For movies, the button will show up at the top right under the subtitle information (as shown on the Batman Begins image), but for serials it will appear on each individual episodes.
Some of the shows that are available for offline viewing.
Activating the download is pretty straightforward and downloads will start in just 2 easy steps: select the content and make sure the download option is there, followed up with the clicking of the download button and selecting the video quality. The list of downloaded videos, the viewing status (on how much of the episode has been watched), and the validity/expiry of each videos can then be found in the ‘My Downloads’ menu.
The download status will be shown in the space where the quick info is located, and of course via the ‘My Downloads’ menu. Downloads can run in the background but it won’t show up on the notifications bar for Android, but a notification does come up when the download completes. Furthermore, there will also be a check mark on each individual episode to indicate that it has already been downloaded.
When initiating a download, there will be an option to ‘Allow download over mobile networks for this download’. If checked, users will be able to continue downloading using either Wi-Fi or their own mobile data. If it wasn’t, then downloads can only be performed via Wi-Fi and downloads will be automatically paused when connection fails (currently there are no options to manually pause the downloads but the downloaded files can be deleted individually to remove them from the download queue). Users who initiated a Wi-Fi only download won’t even be able to force-start the download when internet connection is switched to mobile, as there are no menu options for that action. Another important point to note is that a partially downloaded file will not play on its own. Instead of playing what’s already downloaded and then continuing with the remaining download in the background, users will have to opt to stream the entire video instead. So, it’s always better to add a check to the mobile download option before starting as well as to let the download finish before disconnecting from Wi-Fi. In any case, iflix encourages Wi-Fi for downloads because of the data usage.
Data usage for these downloads can be heavy for mobile internet users. For a 64 minute show, the file sizes for the video goes from 98 MB for the ‘Low quality’ option, to 224 MB for ‘Medium quality’, and finally to 453 MB for the ‘High quality’ option. The same goes for a 22-minute video which comes in at 34 MB, 75 MB, and 157 MB in the same sequence. These work out to about 1.54 MB/min for Low, 3.45 MB/min for Medium, and 7.11 MB/min for High. Even though the options are there, all we can ask is not to skimp on the quality and to go for the highest, always! See why below:
High quality
Medium quality
Low quality
The execution of the offline feature on iflix delivers is a slightly more fluid experience than other competing platforms and is a godsend. It’s a shame that Netflix does not have this feature yet but we’re hoping with iflix’s expansion and increase in demand, the former will take this as a challenge and roll out a similar feature too in the future.
The offline feature is available now on both the iOS and Android apps but not for desktops (as browsers are considered to be less secure). However, iflix has indeed planned to roll out for desktop browsers next year, when and if it’s ready.
Those who have not already subscribed, iflix is available on either the RM 10 monthly plan, or pay in advance for a year and bring the charges down to RM 8/month. New users can sign up for a 1-month trial period, but Digi’s partnership allows its subscribers get a complimentary 60-day access, and is topped up with 1 GB extra for iflix streaming via mobile internet. Users can even take advantage of the Lazada promotion of a Chromecast dongle + 1 year of iflix subscription (worth RM 266 in total) for RM 179.
The post We checked out the offline option for iflix and we’re quite impressed appeared first on TechAttack.my.