fmovies.to
I've come across one of the best streaming sites on the web, FMovies. It's a great site that provides a wide variety of streaming content.
Created in 2016, FMovies is known for being a destination for cinema freaks. It is a place where people can go to watch movies and enjoy the experience.
If nothing changes, I'll still think it's one of my favorite streaming sites for movies and TV shows.
Why is it that here?
A Simple Design with Useful Features
The website's design is simple. When you land on the homepage, you can search for a video or navigate the menu bar. You can check out videos by genre, country, type (movie or show), new release, and most-watched.
If you're just browsing, you'll likely pick Movies or TV-Series from the menu to browse a library. What you'll immediately notice is that the highest available video quality is displayed right on the video's image. This is extremely helpful in picking through the library.
FMovies has a great filter. You can search by video type, quality, subtitles, release dates, and even by country. Check out what others are watching with the most viewed or check out IMDB recommendations. I've used sites in the past that generate random lists that do not reflect the most-watched videos or IMDB recommendations - but FMovies seems to have this figured out.
If you search by IMDB rating in the Movies section on FMovies, you'll get a list full of classics that are some of the best rated movies by IMDB. A feat that sounds simple, but enough other streaming sites mess this up, so it's worth mentioning that FMovies does this well.
Another great feature of FMovies is the description box that pops up when you hover over a title. This is another small design choice that seems simple but is very useful. If you mouse over a title FMovies will show you the release date, IMDB score, run time, video quality, a short synopsis, and cast info.
Overall, the user experience of FMovies is smooth on both desktop and mobile devices. So if you've navigated any other library online, this one will feel familiar and easy to use.
Keeping the Lights On
Whenever I use a streaming site, I take advertisements with a grain of salt. Advertising is the backbone of free content on the internet, so if you're not paying to keep the servers running, someone else is. So if you see an advertisement on a streaming site, take it with a grain of salt.
On my desktop, I have AdBlock, so I've never seen an ad on FMovies. However, some streaming sites embed advertisements on their videos themselves. FMovies is not one of those sites.
If you're using either of their main servers, there are no advertisements on the videos themselves. This is a bold move for such a massive website. I imagine their light bill is expensive, but they've found a way to keep the doors open with minimal interruptions for their visitors.
However, advertisements on mobile are common.
Again, I find ads on FMovies less intrusive and more manageable than ads on other streaming sites. On my desktop, I don't have a "blocked-popup" notification, and on my mobile devices they are unobtrusive and easy to avoid.
When I was checking out TV-Shows on the site, I noticed that there were two small advertisements that took up 1/3 of my screen. I could easily scroll right past them, and when I found a show to watch, I clicked the episode and it loaded quickly. However, before I could watch it, another ad popped up and I was able to click it out before it could load. So I was right back to the video player.
FMovies definitely succeeds in this balance.
Play on, Player
OK, I finished with pun-y section names. But FMovies has an impressive video player.
FMovies? player lets you choose how to watch your videos, whether you want them to play quickly or in a more leisurely fashion.
Personally, I have a Chromecast for the living room TV. This Chromecast has an awesome feature that lets you connect a chrome browser window to the TV.
There are two ways this can work. Either it can transmit data from your computer to the TV, or it can sync the TV to the source of the video for faster loading. FMovies has built-in Chromecast functionality so your load times are faster, and there is little to no buffering.
The Netflix website has a built-in feature that will play the next video in the series? library. So, if for some crazy reason Netflix doesn't carry The Office, you can still binge-watch it for the 67th time without hitting ?next? after every episode.
And then what? FMovies put two cherries on top.
The first awesome little feature for their player is the ability to turn lights on/off. This darkens everything on the website except for the video player, which I love when I'm watching a movie from my laptop late at night.
If you make a free account with FMovies, you can create a watchlist. This isn't unique to FMovies. Watchlists are usually found on premium sites, not free streaming sites.
A Website That Listens
I like to think of FMovies as a kind of wedding DJ. We take requests and play what people want to hear.
If you can't find the movie you're looking for in the FMovies library, just click "Request" on the menu bar. A popup will ask for your email, the movie name, and any details to help them find it (like a link to IMDB).
I haven't tried using this feature, so I'm not sure how quickly they respond to requests. But I don't know of any other streaming site that has this option.
Dorm Inspection by Sgt. TooPicky (Site Suggestions)
There's not a whole lot to fault this site for. They have a huge library with a wide range of titles in high definition. All for free.
But since I am trying to bite the hand that feeds my movie nights, here are two suggestions I have for the site.
The menu has an "A-Z list" that gave me a 503 error. This doesn't affect the quality of the site since you can view the entire Movies or TV-Shows directory that have a collective 1078 pages of videos.
Second, the homepage does not have a full filter option. Instead, you can see suggestions like recommended, hot this week, hot this month, and most favorited. But you're unable to filter by the video quality. This is the only page I've found on the website that doesn't take advantage of the fill set of filters. Implementing this would be a quick boost to the site's ease-of-use.
Other than that, I haven't run into anything on the site that would make me scared off.
All in All
I've used FMovies as one of the best free streaming sites. It's a great option for movie lovers who want to watch their favorite films without having to pay for a subscription.
FMovies is a rare site that pays careful attention to small details. It has a high-end boutique feel, seeming preoccupied with putting out fires instead of focusing on small details.
The user experience is great- the design is natural, and the technology is quick.
I haven't run into a movie or show that needed to buffer for more than 20 seconds. And I haven't been interrupted in the middle of a film to continue loading (so far).
FMovies is the best website I've ever come across, it's a brand not just a website.
The most important criterion for choosing a friend is the friend test.
If you're looking for a movie to watch, I'd recommend this site.
Yep, I would. And I would do it confidently.
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