The video format of the downloaded movie may not be compatible with your computer's movie player. This usually requires a simple software update or downloading any accessible program that can play the movie file. Another option is to use file-conversion software to make a video file compatible with your player.
Sometimes, checking the file extension of the movie intended for download isn't enough to determine if the video will be compatible with your computer's player. For example, an MPEG-4 file with file extension "MP4" may generally be compatible with your player, but if it is a 1080p high-definition movie, your computer may not be able to play it correctly because the file is too large. This causes the movie to freeze after a few seconds, while the sound continues to play without any problem. This is a hardware issue and would require upgrading the computer's RAM (random-access memory) to at least 2 GB, but preferably 4 GB.
There are a variety of reasons why you get an incomplete or corrupted movie file download. While some source files are really incomplete or corrupted, one of the most common causes of this problem is a weak Internet connection. There are also times when your computer may be suffering from an intermittent Internet connection, which also results to incomplete or corrupted downloads.
Depending on the program used for the download process, you may be required to restart the download from the beginning or simply continue downloading from the part where the download stopped. Another Internet-related issue that may result to an incomplete or corrupted download is when you have too little bandwidth allocation available in your Internet service.
When downloading very big video files, especially those that are larger than 1 GB, the download may seem to take too much time. It might look like it never finished downloading even after a few hours. While this can be caused by Internet connection problems, it is also possible that the download time is simply too slow because the file is too large for your Internet connection to accommodate.
You may also encounter this problem in smaller files and with decent Internet connection speeds if too many programs are running in your computer. In such a case, close all unnecessary programs and avoid using computer utilities and software programs during the download.
One of the more serious problems you may encounter with movie downloads is the risk of the corruption of the software you use or even the crashing of your computer due to a harmful file posing as a movie file ready for download. This is quite widespread in a number of illegal download and file-sharing sites where a free movie download may possibly bring virus, malware or spyware to your computer. More than just a technical issue, this becomes a security threat that may affect not only the downloaded file or the software used, but the entire computer used for the download as well.