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Be Ready for Your Next Power Outage With an Entertainment USB Stick

 



No Power and Nothing to Watch

I was recently without power for a couple of days after a big storm, and I realized something. Not that long ago, a power outage meant every electronic device in your home was unusable. Nowadays, we have phones, laptops, and tablets running on battery power, but does it matter? Depending on the situation, mobile data may be unreliable. This is exactly what happened to me.

Galaxy S25 USB port.
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The storm forced us to take shelter in the basement, and the mobile data signal was very weak down there. We were in the middle of watching a movie when everything went dark—except the projector. It was in that moment that I remembered my projector can run on battery power (cool!), but without internet, there was nothing to play on it. That got me thinking.

Completely Offline Content

While it may not be feasible to run your TV off a battery pack, there are plenty of other media-consumption devices that can. Tablets and laptops are obvious choices, small phone screens can suffice if necessary, and battery-powered projectors are especially awesome. The real key, though, is having something to watch without needing an internet connection.

Woman using a tablet on an airplane with an illustration related to watching movies on the screen.
Related
How to Download Movies and TV Shows to Watch Them on an Airplane (or Anywhere Else Offline)

Solid Internet connections aren't available everywhere. If you want to watch streaming movies and TV shows on an airplane, on the subway, or somewhere out in the wilderness away from cellular towers, you can download them ahead of time.

Now, you may be thinking that many streaming apps support downloading content to watch offline. This is true, but it does have limitations. Offline downloads aren't transferable. If you download a movie on your phone, you can't decide to watch it on your tablet or laptop later on. Also, streaming apps for smart TVs don't have this feature, so it's not much help if you do happen to have a battery-powered projector.

My answer is a USB stick with movies and TV shows loaded up and ready to watch in an emergency. All of the devices I mentioned above can accept a USB stick—yes, even iPhones and Android phones. And it's a whole lot easier than figuring out how to run a Blu-ray player on battery and connect it to a tablet. A USB stick can be easily popped into any device you want (or just whichever one is charged).

Hand holding a TV remote while watching shows on a streaming service via Apple TV.
Related
Streaming Services Should Let Us Download Content on TVs Too

If you use streaming apps from Netflix or YouTube on a phone or tablet, you can download video content to watch when there's no internet. However, on streaming boxes such as Apple TV, Android TV, and Google TV systems, you can only stream that content. The presumption is that you always have internet, but even so, there are reasons to want a download option here too.

Digital Content That's Truly Yours

The big question, though, is how to get movies and TV shows onto the USB stick. There are obviously less than legal ways to obtain digital media, but there are legal methods, too. For the DVDs and Blu-rays you already own, it's best thing to do is rip them. This gives you high-quality digital video files that you can move onto a USB stick. Many physical discs also come with a redeemable digital copy as well, which is even easier.

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