Offline Chromebook Google Play movies enabled

Google has delivered offline playback for Google Play multimedia on Chromebooks, with a new version of the app allowing local caching of movies and TV shows. The functionality, promised at Google and Intel's Chrome OS event last month, further cuts the ties of Chromebooks from their original always-on requirement.

A new "download" option is added to content in the Google Play Movies & TV app for Chrome. When clicked, it saves the video to the notebook's own internal storage.

Of course, that assumes you have sufficient space on your Chromebook for that, a factor which may become increasingly pressing as offline functionality increases. One of the advantages of the cloud-centric approach Chrome OS took was that manufacturers could save money on local capacity, and indeed many models ship with just 16GB.

The actual size of the media varies, though HD movies can clock in at 3GB apiece on average. It's worth noting that, even if you have a memory card installed, you can't transfer videos to external storage without first rooting your Chromebook and then patching the SD card so that the DRM will recognize it as local capacity, something most users aren't going to do.

Meanwhile, several newer Chromebooks have form-factors that seem tailor made for multimedia viewing. Models like the Lenovo N20p, for instance, can have their display folded back to turn the ultraportable into an A-shape, for easier hands-free video consumption even on smaller surfaces like airline tray tabes.

SOURCE Chrome Store