TV Torrents?

[Satchel]

Looking for a torrent of tonight's L Word...BTEFNET.net doesn't have it...

anyone know of another good TV torrent site?

[debtoine]

Try this one in a few hours:

http://www.tvtorrents.ws/

(thanks, Doug)

deb

[DevdogAZ]

It's on btefnet now

[MacThor]

For the second straight week, my local fox affiliate lost its signal, ruining 24. Once we discovered the error, we were able to watch the second half on DirecTV.

I'm trying the torrents, but I must be doing something wrong. I have the JRE, and downloaded Azureus. When customizing, I get a "NAT error" when testing.

Downloading (or whatever it's called - I don't need a ten-page semantics argument) gets me a "yellow dot" and last week's episode has been stuck at 99.x% for hours......even though the software says it's downloaded more than the file size.

I assume I'll need a viewer too? Or will it work on WMP 10?

[toddvj]

If it's at 99.x%, I'd try playing it anyway. I've not used Azureus, but with BitComet, you have to change the filename, it puts a .BC! extension to unfinished files. You probably have the whole thing. I bet if you check what other peers have, you'd find they are all stuck at 99.x% as well.

[DevdogAZ]

I use WMP10. Should work just fine. If it doesn't, there are three plug-ins that I have been told you need. Once I installed them all, I haven't had any problems playing anything. No idea if all three are actually needed.

Try this: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm
and this: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/GSpot.htm
and this: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/AC3_Filter.htm

As for why your download is hung up, I don't know. I've never had that happen. If I'm watching the download as it gets near the end, it usually does download a little more than what it says the file size is, but not significantly. You might try exiting the program and restarting it. It will then resume your transfer and might kickstart it.

[Jeeters]

I'm trying the torrents, but I must be doing something wrong. I have the JRE, and downloaded Azureus. When customizing, I get a "NAT error" when testing.
I just use the original bitorrent client authored by the creator of Bitorrent itself (Bram Cohen). No Java or anything necessary. It integrates with Internet Explorer... you click on a torrent file on one of the torrent sites, and it asks where you want to save the file, then gives you a download window all very similar to what you get when you download a regular file using Internet Explorer. You can get it here... http://filesharing.isgreat.tv/programs.html

[aadam101]

I use BitTornado. I've tried others but this one works best for me. I like the Azereus interface but I couldn't get good download speeds. I think I was setting it up wrong. Even when I removed my router/firewall the speeds were still awful. I get 60-70KB kB/s on average usually. I couldn't get above 15 with Azereus.

[DevdogAZ]

I've tried 3-4 different clients and Azureus was by far the best for me. I've had some files that will come in at well over 100 Kbps. That's not the average, but it has happened.

[Freki]

BitTornado has the ability to let you only download specific episodes of a multi-episode torrent, which is nice. I hate having to download a whole season of some show when I'm only missing one or two episodes.

I've had a couple of downloads hang at 99.x% done and never finish. When I stopped the download and restarted it, it showed as done after it did the file check. If you got a lot of bad segments during the download, it might have lost track of what pieces it successfully downloaded.

[thatmeowgirl]

I must be doing something wrong.

New to torrents and I'm using Aureus. This thing has taken sooooo long to download.
Was I supposed to configure something differently in Preferences before I started? It's so slow, it's discouraging.

I'm at 98.2% right now after too many hours.

[dswallow]

I must be doing something wrong.

New to torrents and I'm using Aureus. This thing has taken sooooo long to download.
Was I supposed to configure something differently in Preferences before I started? It's so slow, it's discouraging.

I'm at 98.2% right now after too many hours.
A lot simply depends on how many other people are seeding or leeching the file.

If you're NATted behind a router and don't have the TCP incoming port that you have configured in Azureus opened in your router for incoming connections, you'll experience problems. If you've seen it maintain a decent upload rate as well as downloaded that much then you're probably OK in this regard; if it never uploaded anything, then this is probably why you're having trouble.

[thatmeowgirl]

Thanks dswallow!

Okay it's at 99% and staying there, which according to info posted above, is okay,

I've read a lot of posting re: how to view, but of course, I'm still confused.

What is the best software for viewing. It looks like the file saved as a Quicktime file.

I know I can get this, then I'll be done with the questions, promise, lol.

[dswallow]

Thanks dswallow!

Okay it's at 99% and staying there, which according to info posted above, is okay,

I've read a lot of posting re: how to view, but of course, I'm still confused.

What is the best software for viewing. It looks like the file saved as a Quicktime file.

I know I can get this, then I'll be done with the questions, promise, lol.
Quicktime is very uncommon for TV torrents; are you sure? If it's AVI or MPG you'd use Media Player or an equivalent, but just need to have installed any codecs required; usually most of these are DivX or XviD encoded; the links devdogaz gave above for the FFDShow codec are good as it'll handle a variety of different encodings. A handful need the AC3 codec for audio.

If you have a recent version of WinDVD or other DVD player that might bundle MPEG4 codecs compatible with DivX or XviD into them you're all set; you can just try playing the file you download and if you get audio and video, you need do nothing more. If you get no video, install the FFDShow codec; if you get no audio, install the AC3 codec. Alternately you could get the curretn DivX and XviD codecs themselves instead of using FFDShow -- www.xvid.org and www.divx.org is where you can start looking for links to Windows DirectShow filters of them.

[thatmeowgirl]

Ooo you're right, it is an avi file. Sorry, I think the rain here in LA has washed away my senses.

Okay proceeding with devdogz' links.

Thanks again dswallow!

[thatmeowgirl]

Grrr, the links are for Windows users and I'm on a Mac.

[dswallow]

Grrr, the links are for Windows users and I'm on a Mac.
I'm sure some Mac-head around here will step up to the plate to help you, lest it become possible to point out another reason a PC is better; you, however, might need to create a thread with a title that attracts such people. :D

There should be some links to such things via the XviD and DivX links I gave, though.

[thatmeowgirl]

I'm determined to figure this out.

You've been so helpful dswallow, thanks!

[dswallow]

I'm determined to figure this out.

You've been so helpful dswallow, thanks!

XviD: http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~naegelic/index.php
DivX: http://www.divx.com/divx/download/

[cmontyburns]

Grrr, the links are for Windows users and I'm on a Mac.

Good for you! :) Quicktime is a bit annoying in its insistence that it can play AVI files, which are very common on Bittorrent. Sometimes it can, but usually you need to go to another player. (It of course has no problem with mpg files, also common on Bittorrent.)

MPlayer is a good multiformat player for OSX. It will play almost anything (MPEG 1-4, DivX, AVI, ASF, Ogg Vorbis, RealMedia, QuickTime Movie, MPEG layer 1-3, AC3, WMA, and probably more). You can get it here:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/16623

Have fun!

[thatmeowgirl]

cmonty, I had discovered the MPlayer and had downloaded it. Dropped in the avi file and yes, it's playing.

However, it's stuttering, both picture and sound. I'm now searching forums for info on streamlining.

Any suggestions?

And yes, always been a mac person and always will :)

[cmontyburns]

However, it's stuttering, both picture and sound. I'm now searching forums for info on streamlining.

Hmmm. Here are a couple of suggestions.

MPlayer is still in beta, and a lot of the feedback is that it's getting worse with each beta release, not better. I haven't seen the kind of stuttering you mention, but that doesn't seem out of line with feedback posted by other users. There is a body of opinion that earlier releases were better for AVI files, among other formats. So you might try going backwards in time a bit. One user specifically mentioned Beta 5 as the best version for AVIs so far. You can get all the versions here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=62947

A second thing to try is another player altogether! VLC (which I have not used, but have been meaning to sample) seems to be very well thought of. You can get it here:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/14738

Hopefully one of those will do the trick.

Oh, and to cover a really basic area.... do you have adequate RAM?

[thatmeowgirl]

Okay I will first check the VLC and go from there.

Thanks for the advice!

Oh and I have 256MB RAM. Should be adequate, yes?

[cmontyburns]

Okay I will first check the VLC and go from there.

Thanks for the advice!

Oh and I have 256MB RAM. Should be adequate, yes?

Oooh, maybe not. That's the bare minimum for running OS X alone. It would be so much happier with 512. I could believe that, at 256, it would stutter playing a (presumably) few-hundred MB AVI.

[thatmeowgirl]

Yeah I know, I should have more RAM.

But I quit out of all other apps, and it works fine now, so thanks nonetheless.

Still it took so long to d/l just one show, I don't think this is something I'll be using to often.

Can someone explain how the downloading is actually working? Why does it need to collect pieces of the file from so many different ppl? Is this why it takes so long? How is it different than say Limewire?

[dswallow]

Can someone explain how the downloading is actually working? Why does it need to collect pieces of the file from so many different ppl? Is this why it takes so long? How is it different than say Limewire?
It's not that it has to, it's that it can get them from wherever it can. Everyone downloading is simultaneously sharing what they've already downloaded. This creates swarms of people who are capable of uploading at least parts of the file to others.

"Seeders" have 100% of the file; "Leechers" are downloading it and sharing what they've got so far.

The more different people with different pieces it can connect to, the better tha chances of getting those parts of the file faster. In practice, I've found it's rare that a semi-popular file takes long to download -- presuming there's not other things limiting you.

Some ISP's are attempting to throttle bandwidth over commonly used ports; some may even block it entirely. Your client can also be configured to place some limits on it so it doesn't overwhelm/max out your bandwidth. BitTorrent lets you change the ports used by it to most anything you want, and it's good to do exactly that -- get away from the "commonly known" ports by default.

[MacThor]

1) "Windows Media Player cannot find the codecs needed to play this file" - Reboot?

2) I have DVD software and a DVD burner on my PC. Should I skip WMP entirely and try to play the torrents through the DVD software (I assume it can play .AVI)? Could I potentially burn it onto a DVD and watch on my TV, or are we then talking about some monster XBOX mods...?

[thatmeowgirl]

I think I'm getting it now.

My first d/l was an older ep of a show (3 mos old), so it took longer. Now, I'm testing on 24 from last night and it's quicker.

Makes sense.

So now I think I'm good to go, for now at least.

Thanks so much to everyone for your help!

[ronbo]

VLC is also good for playing TV torrents on a Mac.
http://www.videolan.org/

edit: Doh! sorry for the stale reply. Had this window open a while in the background, i guess.

[marksman]

I used to use azuerus but it is a horrible memory and processor hog.. I have some other programs that I like to leave running in the background as well and AZ would always much them up.

I started using Bit Spirit, as it has a much friendly footprint, and have had no complaints.

[jkindley]

TV torrents are a great alternative to those of us that only have a single tuner TiVo.

[DevdogAZ]

MacThor,

Download the codecs I linked earlier in this thread. With those three and WMP10, I've never downloaded anything that wouldn't play.

As for burning to DVD, that's very possible. I've done that with some eps of Lost that I downloaded and they played just fine on my standard DVD player.

To answer thatmeowgirl's question about speed, it definitely makes a difference how new the file is. Like you noticed, a TV show that aired last night probably has quite a few seeders and therefore transfers pretty fast. A show from weeks or months ago has fewer people demanding the file and therefore transfer speeds will be slower. I've had an ep of The West Wing that I got in under 20 minutes, and I've had shows take close to 24 hours. Just plan on starting the transfer before going to bed and most of the time it will be done when you wake up. Also, it's important to keep your torrent open after it's done downloading so you can provide the file to others who are still trying to get it. I try to make sure I share at least twice as much as I DL.

[Peter000]

I've gotten quicktime to play DiVX AVI files fine. In fact, it works better than Windows for keeping sound sync. I had to download the mac drivers though... they're availabe for download by googling for DiVX XVid Codec Mac. Also you may need to download the audio driver as well... it's available by searching about the same way.

[Kevdog]

cmonty, I had discovered the MPlayer and had downloaded it. Dropped in the avi file and yes, it's playing.

However, it's stuttering, both picture and sound. I'm now searching forums for info on streamlining.

Any suggestions?

And yes, always been a mac person and always will :)

TMG, I'm a mac user and a recent convert to the whole torrent thing. I've found VLC to be a great program for viewing pretty much any torrent file. No problems with stuttering or sound sync on either my Powerbook or dual G5. You can get it here:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

You *can* view .avi files in quicktime, but it requires the installation of additional codecs.

I've also been through the process of setting up an airport network for downloading torrents (which can be a bit tricky and is not well-documented). Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Cheers!

KevDog

(another Mac-for-life person. ) ;)

[thatmeowgirl]

To answer thatmeowgirl's question about speed, it definitely makes a difference how new the file is. Like you noticed, a TV show that aired last night probably has quite a few seeders and therefore transfers pretty fast. A show from weeks or months ago has fewer people demanding the file and therefore transfer speeds will be slower. I've had an ep of The West Wing that I got in under 20 minutes, and I've had shows take close to 24 hours. Just plan on starting the transfer before going to bed and most of the time it will be done when you wake up. Also, it's important to keep your torrent open after it's done downloading so you can provide the file to others who are still trying to get it. I try to make sure I share at least twice as much as I DL.
Got it, thanks!

Yeah, my slow d/l mentioned earlier was a West Wing ep, several weeks old.

Once again, thanks everyone for your help!

[thatmeowgirl]

TMG, I'm a mac user and a recent convert to the whole torrent thing. I've found VLC to be a great program for viewing pretty much any torrent file. No problems with stuttering or sound sync on either my Powerbook or dual G5. You can get it here:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-macosx.html

You *can* view .avi files in quicktime, but it requires the installation of additional codecs.

I've also been through the process of setting up an airport network for downloading torrents (which can be a bit tricky and is not well-documented). Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Cheers!

KevDog

(another Mac-for-life person. ) ;)
Thanks Kevdog, I'm going to check out VLC. Was curious why Quicktime doesnt work, now I understand :)

[Hoffer]

For slow download speed, trying limiting your upload speed. Using Azureus, in the transfer tab under options, change your upload speed. It is probably set to zero now, which is unlimited. If you leave it at unlimited, so much of your internet activity is used for uploading files, it actually slows your download.

When I had 128kbps upload speed, I used 13kBbps for my upload. That translates to about 100 kbps. That gives plenty of headroom for everything to be happy.

[Hoffer]

Just downloaded VLC for my Mac. Great video player!! I've been using Mplayer for 2 years. VLC is a lot better.

[thatmeowgirl]

When using Azureus, my "health" is always the yellow smiley face. According to Azureus this means: "The tracker is okay, you're connected to peers, but you don't have any remote connection. You may have a NAT problem if your torrents stay on yellow status all the time." But the torrents I d/l with this yellow smiley are fine nonetheless.

So far, I've never gotten the green smiley face for health which means: "Everything is going fine".

Is there really a problem when I get the yellow or should I ignore? I'm downloading the torrents from TvTorrents @ EFNet. Are the torrents from the site bad? Better sites to go to?

Thanks!

[dswallow]

When using Azureus, my "health" is always the yellow smiley face. According to Azureus this means: "The tracker is okay, you're connected to peers, but you don't have any remote connection. You may have a NAT problem if your torrents stay on yellow status all the time." But the torrents I d/l with this yellow smiley are fine nonetheless.

So far, I've never gotten the green smiley face for health which means: "Everything is going fine".

Is there really a problem when I get the yellow or should I ignore? I'm downloading the torrents from TvTorrents @ EFNet. Are the torrents from the site bad? Better sites to go to?

Thanks!
Do you use a router and have your computer configured for DHCP, getting a private IP address from the router?

Then...

In the router, is your computer identifed as a "server", sending all incoming connection requests to it? Then, unless you've got a firewall blocking the TCP port configured in Azureus (Tools / Options / Connection / Incoming TCP listen port), you should be OK.

OR

In the router, are you port forwarding the TCP port configured in Azureu (Tools / Options / Connection / Incoming TCP listen port) to your computer (and if you have a firewall are you allowing that port)? If so, you should be OK.

www.portforwarding.com can give you some help with configuration.

You can also test things if you have access to a computer outside your local network... telnet to your public IP address on the port configured in Azureus. If telnet connects then you're OK; if it doesn't connect, you've got something configured wrong in your router or with a firewall.

[kjnorman]

I needed to get hold of Desperate Housewives this week after our satellite was out due to a build up of wet snow on Sunday.

I used TorrentStorm and had very good luck with it. I opened ports as described in the FAQ on my router/firewall and capped my UL speed to 31 KB/s with 5 max connections (I think). I also used 0.34 of the BitTornado plug in - I set this to a maximum connection of 40. I was pulling up to 120 KBs download so I can not complain.

Now I pulled a xvid file which will play quite happily in DIVX but I would like to burn this as an anamorphic (the source was 16:9) DVD. I found one guide using TMPEnc but that would take about 18 hours. Not worth the hassle. I told my wife (the show is for her) that she would have to watch it on the computer.

But I am curious. Is there an easy/quick way to get a xVID file onto DVD? I do not have a DIVX capable DVD player and I am not going to buy one.

Thank you
K.

[aaronwt]

I just got an email from Comcast thats titled "Notice of Claim of Copyright Infringement". For downloading SG Atlantis in January.
It says
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice of Action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Abuse Incident Number: NA0000000530083
Report Date/Time: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 11:25:58 -0800


AARON THOMPSON


Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber:

Comcast has received a notification of claimed infringement made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the 'DMCA'). This notification, made by a copyright owner or its authorized agent, reports an alleged infringement of one or more copyrighted works made on or over Comcast's High-Speed Internet service (the 'Service'). The works identified in the notification of claimed infringement are listed below. In accordance with the DMCA and Comcast's Acceptable Use Policy, Comcast request that you immediately remove the allegedly infringing works from the Service or Comcast will be forced to remove or block access to the works.

If you believe in good faith that the allegedly infringing works have been removed or blocked by mistake or misidentification, then you may send a counter notification to Comcast. Upon Comcast's receipt of a counter notification that satisfies the requirements of the DMCA, Comcast will provide a copy of the counter notification to the party who sent the original notification of claimed infringement. We will then follow the DMCA's procedures with respect to a received counter notification.

For more information regarding Comcast's copyright infringement policy, procedures, and contact information, please read our Acceptable Use Policy by clicking on the Terms of Service link at http://www.comcast.net.

Sincerely,
Comcast Network Abuse and Observance Team

Copyright work(s) identified in the notification of claimed infringement:

Title: Stargate Atlantis

Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: 14 Jan 2005 04:22:08 GMT
Recent Infringment Timestamp: 14 Jan 2005 04:22:08 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: stargate.atlantis.116.ws.pdtv-lol.[BT].avi
Infringing Filesize: 366311424
Infringers IP Address: 68.48.229.104
Infringers DNS Name: pcp04674714pcs.dalect01.va.comcast.net
Infringing URL: 68.48.229.104:6889/stargate.atlantis.116.ws.pdtv-lol.[BT].avi
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Has anyone received one of these leters before? I didn't even watch the downloaded episode. I was just using it it as a test of the BitTorrent++ program I found online that I use to download the BitTorrents.
Is this going to start happening on other downloads?

[ronbo]

I keep waiting to get a letter like that from SBC. The shows that people have received those letters for are the same ones that I've been d/l'ing.
Some of the other forums where I've read about these letters were full of countermeasures, but I figured I wouldn't pay attention until I got MY letter.
By that time, there'll probably be a new/modified way of getting these feeds.
Legality aside, enough smart people seem to want them bad enough to figure ways around most obstacles and they don't mind sharing the details with those of us not clever enough to figure it out ourselves.

[aadam101]

I haven't received one. Verizon FIOS is coming to my town soon anyway. I couldn't care less about Comcast anymore.

[SamSpudz]

Hey AARONWT - I received an identical email this morning (2/26/2006) regarding a downloaded through Azureus from last night.

The email does not explain how to respond to Comcast. I called and was told to go to the Comcast "CONTACT US" section of their home page.

I searched the web for info on this and some sites say this is a warning while others say it is an alert that further action will be taken.

Does anyone have any real insight or experience with this? As a TIVO user, I have never had need to research this before but I am interested in experiences people may have had.
Thx!

[marksman]

I would do a google search on: dmca counter notification

First thing you need to do is respond properly. Once you do that, Comcast will wash their hands of the whole thing.

What it will basically amount to is you saying you don't have the file or have erased it or whatever. Comcast will pass the response on, and you should have no problems between yourself and comcast. Imagine someone who gets multiple letters might have an issue with their provider, but as long as you respond, you should be fine. As for what the copyright holder intends to do, who knows. My guess is since they sent a DMCA notice instead of just suing you, that you are okay for now.