Lightbox has a bunch of new options – but are you wondering how to use them? How do you watch movies? How do you download things to your phone? Never fear, tech adept Sam Brooks is here to help.
What’s the difference between Standard and Premium?
With the standard Lightbox plan, you can watch all of Lightbox’s series (and now movies!) on any two screens in your household. This can be two laptops, a laptop and a TV, your phone and a laptop, your phone and a PS4, or any combination of these.
With Premium, you can watch on up to four screens! This can be any combination of the above, or maybe you want your four screens to be the four phones you obsessively keep around you at all times. Live your truth, find your screens.
With Premium, you can also download any Lightbox content (that includes movies!) to a device so you can watch them offline. That means if you’re going on a road trip or somewhere without any internet (poor you!), then you can stock up and be safe.
This all sounds really amazing!
Yes! It does!
So how do I actually upgrade to Premium?
Follow these simple steps.
1. You have to log in to your account through a web browser. Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, whatever your browser of choice is.
If you don’t have an account, get an account. They’re $12.99 a month (or $15.99 a month if you want Premium, which is what I’m going to help you do).
2. Click on your profile name in the top right. If your name is Cynthia Nixon, which it might be, then click on the words Cynthia Nixon. Otherwise, it will be your name.
3. Select your TV plan and payment on the left side of the screen. Then go to where it says ‘Change’ click ‘Change’, then change to Premium.
Done! You’re upgraded to Premium. Use those four screens and downloads at your leisure.
I’m going on a retreat and I want to watch a season of Suits on that retreat, but I won’t have any internet. How can I make that happen?
Good on you! Well done for taking time away from your hectic life to watch Suits in solitude. Follow these steps:
1. Upgrade to Premium! If you haven’t done this, read the above instructions on how to upgrade to Premium.
2. Select the show you want – in the case of this fictional question, you want Suits. In the screenshot below, it is The Handmaid’s Tale. Which you might also want to download.
3. Click on the yellow arrow (you can see it above, it’s that one). You have to download each episode individually, so if you want that downloaded Harvey, you better get your tapping thumb all fit and ready. There’s a maximum of 25 episodes, so spend ’em wisely!
4. Your downloaded items will automatically appear in My Downloads. Also you must have enough space on whatever device you’re downloading the episodes to in order to successfully download them. So maybe delete those screenshots of your ex’s Instagram, you shouldn’t have those anyway!
Winter is cold! I don’t want to go outside, I want to watch a movie! How do I do that?
Good on you! Outside isn’t for people, it’s for trees and wildlife. Stay inside and consume what the media gods made for you: the television. Or in this case, the movies.
Movies on Lightbox works on a pay-per-view basis. New releases are from $6.99, while older library titles are $4.99 and 5.99. Once you pay for a movie, you have 31 days (that’s a month, or a month and one day, or a month and three days if you’re reading this in February) to watch it, and once you start watching it, you have 48 hours to finish watching it.
You don’t actually need to have a Lightbox subscription to watch movies, as they work on a pay-per-view basis. You can just go into the browser, enter your lovely credit card details and watch movies like you would with any of the other things you buy on the internet.
Also, your first movie is free (right up until July) so use it wisely!
But how do I do it?
Gosh, someone wants to watch Dunkirk right fast, don’t they?
1. Click on the Movies section of the site. It’s nudged all snug in between ‘TV’ and ‘Discover’.
2. Choose whatever film you like, live your cinematic truth.
3. Click the ‘Rent’ button!
4. Enter your payment details, whatever they may be.
5. Click the ‘Rent Now’ button! Because you want to watch it now. (But if you want to watch it later, refer to the previous section, re: 31 days/48 hours.)
6. Navigate to ‘My Rentals’. It’ll be under your profile name.
7. Watch your movie! If you rented Paddington, bring even more tissues and some marmalade, to stay on brand.
8. If you’ve rented multiple movies at the same time for a marathon, good on you! You can find these at any time by clicking on ‘My Rentals’, under your profile name.
My kids keep trying to watch The Hollow Crown! Why can’t there be a place on Lightbox where I can keep my children away from ahistoric adaptations of Shakespeare’s history plays?
Firstly, good on you for keeping your children away from Shakespeare. I for one think we should be limiting the youth’s access to Shakespeare.
Secondly, there’s a part of Lightbox which is just for kids! It’s called Kid’s Corner!
Available on both standard and premium plans, it’s a place on Lightbox just for kids. No Offred, no Walter White, it’s all Dora, Thomas, Bob, the Paw Patrol gang and other shows that are appropriate for your children. There’s even a super kid-friendly look to it so it’s easy for your children to browse by show, or even by character.
Better yet, it’s PIN-protected so even if your little rascal wants to watch the escapades of The Good Doctor, they won’t be able to! Wait until high school, kid. There’s so much content to look forward to.
This sounds great! How do I get to Kid’s Corner?
Lightbox will ask if you want to go to your profile or Kid’s Corner when you open up the Lightbox browser or app. If you want to go to Kid’s Corner, that’s what you click on! No sneaky reversals here.
But Sam, how do I set up a PIN?
Did you know PIN is an acronym? It stands for Personal Identification Number! You’re learning a lot reading this. Here are the steps:
1. Find your profile name in the top right corner, hover around it for a bit and then click My Account. You will be required to enter your super-secure password.
2. Scroll down to Profile PIN, set a PIN, make sure not to tell your child it, and set a pin.
3. Scroll down and choose how to use your PIN – whether you want to use it to stop someone from switching profiles, or to stop that rapscallion from creating new profiles or editing their existing ones.
What if I have multiple offspring and want to cater Kid’s Corner to each of them?
Why, Lightbox lets you do that too! Here’s how you can cater for your spawn’s wildly varying interests on account of their age.
1. Find your profile name – if you’ve gotten this far, you probably don’t need to know this at this point, but just in case.
2. Hover over the Kids profile you want to alter and click manage. One is for little kids (pre-schoolers) or older kids (school age). You can also rename these, for convenience’s sake!
3. There are two options for the content rating: G (general) and PG (parental guidance). Pick whichever suits you and your children the best.
But what if I want to deny the existence of Kid’s Corner entirely?
If you want to take that bizarrely hardline approach to your streaming, then you can also do that.
1. Go to Manage Profile
2. Hover over Kids and click on the trash can!
3. No more Kids Corner! If you want to watch kids television again, and nobody can judge you for this, you can just go to the TV section as normal and find it from there. Live your contradictory truth.
If you want a further run down on these features, you can check them out here.
