Bit torrent Question.. I need someone to walk me through like I am 5

[MasterOfPuppets]

Dubya's To Do List:

1. Find Osama
2. End that whole Iraq thing
3. Bust those damn TCF BitTorrenting bastards

Be afraid...be very afraid...

On a more related note...I find BT to be very easy to use, especially since I learned about port forwarding and am now enjoying much faster download speeds...like everything, it's easier once you've had time to play with it...

[MasterOfPuppets]

Ok, heres my question...

I downloaded a movie and it comes in 2 folders, CD1 and CD2. How do I combine it so that my player knows to play them consecutively when watching the movie??

Did you download it in VCD format??? I dunno how to answer question, assuming you're talking about playing it on your Tivo...
Download in unsplit format next time...heh :up:

[Mr. Soze]

I downloaded both Azureus and utorrent. As a near 5 year old, I prefer utorrent, as its help stuff got me through the messing with my router bit. Works great, but I will need to research speeding thngs up and streamlining the process. It was pretty slick to get a show and move it onto the Tivo.

[astrohip]

I've been reading this thread since the beginning. Great education. Thanks! I have now been using uTorrent for a week or two, and never had a problem (again, thx to this thread).

Couple o' questions:

1) There are many different torrent sites. Why? Why do some torrents appear at one site (say Pirate Bay) and other torrents at isoHunt? Is there a master torrent site or list?

2) Why do torrents get to 99.4% or 99.7%, and freeze? Never to resume again? I have had this happen to three different torrents (out of maybe 30-40 that completed).

[last question, more personal]
3) I have been using torrent to find/dl some old classic rock albums, where I have the vinyl, but have never got around to buying the CD, or they were never reissued on CD. Is any torrent site better at having this particular type of music?

Thanks.

Stuart

[efilippi]

May I offer a suggestion for those who wonder about their download speeds. I too have not had great performance when trying to get various files. My download speed almost never exceeded my upload speed, and I think 30 or 40 was about the best I ever achieved. But so what, I thought, just let it run overnight and all is ok in the end.

This past week my podcast download of TWIT from Itunes failed. Leo explained it as a problem with AOL and suggested we try some other source, and one of the sources provided was a torrent download. I tried that and was astounded. The thing just ripped along, triple digit speeds. Probably because there were a large number of seeds and peers.

So if you wonder if there is a problem with your download setup, try going to the TWIT site, via leoville or John Dvorak or something, I'm sure you can find it, and see it that download goes faster. If it does, then the speed of your movie downloads is their fault, not your setup.

[Jonathan_S]

2) Why do torrents get to 99.4% or 99.7%, and freeze? Never to resume again? I have had this happen to three different torrents (out of maybe 30-40 that completed).This happens if there isn't a complete copy of the file among the people sharing it. This can happen if people stop seeding completed files. If the same 0.6% of the file is missing from every client in the swarm, then the file will never complete.

(I know in Azurius you can see how many copies of the file exist in the swarm, and if it is less than 1 it will never complete).

I've had a couple torrents that sat for several days at 90+% complete before someone with the missing pieces rejoined the swarm.

[astrohip]

(I know in Azurius you can see how many copies of the file exist in the swarm, and if it is less than 1 it will never complete).


Thanks. I have been peeking around uTorrent, and found where you can see who is seeding/leeching, and what percent they have. The torrents I can't complete, it turns out everyone else has the same 99.x% available. I will take your advice, and leave it up for days (weeks, months, years?) until a 100% comes online :D :up:

[TivoFan]

Dubya's To Do List:

3. Bust those damn TCF BitTorrenting bastards



Maybe not, but you have to admit, if you get caught because of posting on an online forum everybodys gonna think you were an idiot.

[DevdogAZ]

Is anyone out there using RSS to automate the acquisition of TV show files? If so, what site(s) have the best RSS feed and what is the best way to configure it? I found one on TorrentSpy.com but it doesn't appear that there is any way to filter it to just look through the TV category. I found an RSS feed on isohunt.com but that one appears to be purposely crippled to prevent automatic downloading. Which begs the question: what is the point of an RSS feed for torrents if you then have to manually download them? Anyway, just looking for advice on the RSS stuff from those of you with more experience at this than me.

[markz]

Is anyone out there using RSS to automate the acquisition of TV show files? If so, what site(s) have the best RSS feed and what is the best way to configure it? I found one on TorrentSpy.com but it doesn't appear that there is any way to filter it to just look through the TV category. I found an RSS feed on isohunt.com but that one appears to be purposely crippled to prevent automatic downloading. Which begs the question: what is the point of an RSS feed for torrents if you then have to manually download them? Anyway, just looking for advice on the RSS stuff from those of you with more experience at this than me.

I don't have an aswer for you, but would be interested in that too! Hopefully someone knows!

As for uTorrent, I am really liking that program. I missed the first three episodes of a show this season since I changed TiVos since last season and didn't get my season pass setup. However, my wife complains that the Internet is slow when I am downloading stuff. Sometimes it crawls. I just found out that uTorrent lets you set a schedule of download speeds. So, I set it up so that when we are home that it either limits the speed or disables the downloading and then when we are asleep or at work, it can download faster! It works like a champ! Now she doesn't complain as much! However, yesterday she went home two hours early and the Internet was slow for her.

[mtnagel]

I don't have an aswer for you, but would be interested in that too! Hopefully someone knows!

As for uTorrent, I am really liking that program. I missed the first three episodes of a show this season since I changed TiVos since last season and didn't get my season pass setup. However, my wife complains that the Internet is slow when I am downloading stuff. Sometimes it crawls. I just found out that uTorrent lets you set a schedule of download speeds. So, I set it up so that when we are home that it either limits the speed or disables the downloading and then when we are asleep or at work, it can download faster! It works like a champ! Now she doesn't complain as much! However, yesterday she went home two hours early and the Internet was slow for her.Geez. How much stuff are you downloading?!

[kbrunsting]

There's a new program available called Ted.... just search for Ted and Torrent on Google. It automates the process of searching for television shows by using feeds some of the sites use. There's many shows already setup in the interface... so you just pick your show, the season, and the current episode and it will locate the show and fire up your own bit torrent client.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Should I enable UPNP on my router???
My speeds have seemed sluggish lately...

[markz]

Geez. How much stuff are you downloading?!

I don't think it is a matter of how much. I just think I haven't gotten all the settings right to where it doesn't take all the bandwidth.

And usually I am not downloading hardly anything. I just found out I had missed a few episodes of a couple of shows and tagged them all to download. My wife would get home before me and if it was slow, she'd reboot. That would stop my download.

[macdon2]

I first want to thank scubagal for starting this tread as I have been trying to get one episode of something and have been not been successful in obtaining it. I also want to thank dswallow for posting the Azureus link. Next comes lee for the converter link.

Everything fell right into place and I have redeemed myself with my wife for missing the one episode she has been dying to see. And now the SP is set so I won't miss any more episodes.

YOU ALL ROCK!!!!!

[PJO1966]

I've been using ConvertXtoDVD after downloading, and have a question. I'm burning using an internal drive (NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A). Is there any way to reuse these disks after I've seen whatever I've downloaded? I've tried and get a message saying that the disk contains read-only material. I'd rather not have to keep throwing these away after viewing them once. Any suggestions or am I trying to go against DVD+R basics?

[dswallow]

I've been using ConvertXtoDVD after downloading, and have a question. I'm burning using an internal drive (NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A). Is there any way to reuse these disks after I've seen whatever I've downloaded? I've tried and get a message saying that the disk contains read-only material. I'd rather not have to keep throwing these away after viewing them once. Any suggestions or am I trying to go against DVD+R basics?
Are you using DVD+RW disks or DVD+R disks?

[PJO1966]

Are you using DVD+RW disks or DVD+R disks?


DVD+RW

[jcgrim]

I first want to thank scubagal for starting this tread as I have been trying to get one episode of something and have been not been successful in obtaining it. I also want to thank dswallow for posting the Azureus link. Next comes lee for the converter link.

Everything fell right into place and I have redeemed myself with my wife for missing the one episode she has been dying to see. And now the SP is set so I won't miss any more episodes.

YOU ALL ROCK!!!!!

I must second this! I didn't really look very hard but when I first started hearing about bit torrents it seemed a little to much work, but after this thread I can finally download some episodes I have been missing!

[markz]

DVD+RW

On either your PC (assuming you have a DVD burner) or the standalone DVD recorder, you should be able to reformat the disk and then reuse it. You can't just overwrite them again without reformatting, I don't believe.

[markz]

I must second this! I didn't really look very hard but when I first started hearing about bit torrents it seemed a little to much work, but after this thread I can finally download some episodes I have been missing!

I agree as well. I was already using bit torrent before this thread, but it has been a wealth of knowledge that has helped me a lot! Thanks everyone!

[PJO1966]

On either your PC (assuming you have a DVD burner) or the standalone DVD recorder, you should be able to reformat the disk and then reuse it. You can't just overwrite them again without reformatting, I don't believe.

I'm using WinXP and Format does not come up as an option when I highlight that drive in My Computer. It comes up when the Floppy is highlighted but not the DVD.

[mtnagel]

On either your PC (assuming you have a DVD burner) or the standalone DVD recorder, you should be able to reformat the disk and then reuse it. You can't just overwrite them again without reformatting, I don't believe.When I try to burn an RW disc with Nero that already has something on it, it simply asks if I want to erase it and if I hit yes, it erases it and then burns what I was trying to burn. I would think most burner software would do the same.

[lee espinoza]

I first want to thank scubagal for starting this tread as I have been trying to get one episode of something and have been not been successful in obtaining it. I also want to thank dswallow for posting the Azureus link. Next comes lee for the converter link.

Everything fell right into place and I have redeemed myself with my wife for missing the one episode she has been dying to see. And now the SP is set so I won't miss any more episodes.

YOU ALL ROCK!!!!!
O why do you thank me last? :rolleyes: :D :up:

[dswallow]

O why do you thank me last? :rolleyes: :D :up:
Why do they lay the foundation before they put on the roof?

:D

[macdon2]

saving the best for last!

[lee espinoza]

saving the best for last!
:p :p :o

[DevdogAZ]

I have to add my thanks to everyone who has participated in this thread. I thought I was a BT pro prior to this thread, but I've learned quite a bit and I also love the ability to move downloaded files to the TiVo for viewing on the TV. Prior to this thread, I had no idea that was possible or that I would even want to do it.

THANK YOU!!!

[cheerdude]

I first want to thank scubagal for starting this tread as I have been trying to get one episode of something and have been not been successful in obtaining it. I also want to thank dswallow for posting the Azureus link. Next comes lee for the converter link.

Everything fell right into place and I have redeemed myself with my wife for missing the one episode she has been dying to see. And now the SP is set so I won't miss any more episodes.

YOU ALL ROCK!!!!!

What he said... for the same reasons that other thankful people have given.

[PJO1966]

I'd like to add my thanks as well. I've always been annoyed by the short response "Bit torrent is your friend" whenever anyone asked for a missed episode. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was intimidated by the process. It's been made crystal clear and I now have a place to go when I have too many conflicts for my TiVo's two tuners.

Back to the problem I had earlier. I tried putting in a disk that I had already used. ConvertXtoDVD automatically burned over what was there. There was no prompt and I haven't seen anything in Preferences to toggle a warning on. At least I know I can reuse disks. A couple of odd things, though. When the disk is loaded in the computer's drive it still is labeled with the prior recording's name. I also tried to hit play and I got an error. It does indeed work in my home theater's DVD player, and that's all that matters.

[hoopsbwc34]

I'm having trouble getting a port forwarded to utorrent. I've set up the forward from the router to my laptop, set a static IP for the laptop, and opened the windows firewall for TCP and UDP on the port. Still when I test the port with utorrent, it says it's not forwarding and I'm only getting like 30kB download speeds with over 100 seeds (using 38).

[cheerdude]

Got a question on formats to look for:

When looking for torrents to get to be converted via Vidoera to be moved to my TiVo (Series 2) to be displayed on a HDTV (whew)... is there a different in quality between those that say that they are HDTV and those that are HDTV AC3 5.1?

In other words, does TiVo strip the AC3 5.1 upon playback (or transfer) ... knowing that it doesn't record 5.1 itself.

Thanks,

Jeff

[markz]

When I try to burn an RW disc with Nero that already has something on it, it simply asks if I want to erase it and if I hit yes, it erases it and then burns what I was trying to burn. I would think most burner software would do the same.

Same here. However, the OP probably wants to record again on a standalone recorder if I understood correctly, so he/she won't be trying to burn the disk using Nero to get prompted to erase.

But you are correct, Nero or whatever burning software he/she might have should have an erase option. And so should the standalone recorder.

[ddockery]

In other words, does TiVo strip the AC3 5.1 upon playback (or transfer) ... knowing that it doesn't record 5.1 itself.


Yours doesn't do 5.1? I have a series 1 DirecTiVo, and it can record 5.1. My impression was that the standalones can do everything the D* ones can and then some, except for the dual tuners.

[PJO1966]

Same here. However, the OP probably wants to record again on a standalone recorder if I understood correctly, so he/she won't be trying to burn the disk using Nero to get prompted to erase.

But you are correct, Nero or whatever burning software he/she might have should have an erase option. And so should the standalone recorder.

If by the OP you mean me, no I just wanted to reuse my disks the next time I download something from utorrent. It looks like I am able to do it after all.

[markz]

If by the OP you mean me, no I just wanted to reuse my disks the next time I download something from utorrent. It looks like I am able to do it after all.
Yes, OP = original poster = you.

I put "he/she" because I didn't look back to see if you were a male or female. Sorry!

Glad you got it working!

[Cue-Ball]

I read yesterday that the Opera browser is going to support Torrents in their next beta version (due out soon). So anyone who's still having trouble with torrents might want to keep Opera in mind as an alterative.

[lee espinoza]

http://www.bt-chat.com/

[lee espinoza]

a wiki for Azureus
http://azureus.aelitis.com/wiki/index.php/Azureus_FAQ

[tase2]

Can anyone tell me what DVDRip kvcd Jamgood(TUS Release) means? Does that mean that if I download it it can be burned to DVD and be played in a home DVD player with no special encoding or authoring?

[SeanC]

The "kvcd" is a type of disc so someone ripped it and recompressed it to kvcd format. Your DVD player may be able to play kvcd's your owners manual should say.

[tase2]

Thanks Sean
Does the A TUS Release mean anything?

[dswallow]

Jamgood is probably the handle of the person who did the rip, and he's probably part of a group calling themselves TUS that releases such things.

DVDrip means the original source was a DVD.

[SeanC]

Not specifically to me. My guess is that TUS is a user who commonly reauthors video for release to BT networks. It's a way to know a quality download when you get to recognizing certain people's work.

Edit:

What Doug said.

[tase2]

Again thank you for quick response

[krymaney]

BUT, the TUS releases are designed to be burned onto a VCD and as such will fit on a single CD instead of a DVD with a different codec (that's what the KVCD designates).

They are typically very compressed and really designed to be viewed at 640x480 (or standard TV)

When you view them on either a computer monitor or a HDTV they look horrible. They are also a little more difficult to get onto a DVD Player or DVD player format (VCD or DVD)

[scubagal]

Another question... hopefully my last :) But has anyone had this come up yet?

Ok.. we have managed to download, then convert them using Videora, then transfer to watch onto our tivo's... but after we do that, our Humanax DVD Tivo won't actually burn them to a DVD.

Is there anyway to do this? Are we converting them wrong in Videora?

Thanks- this thread has been great so far!!!! :)

[Jim espinoza]

Another question... hopefully my last :) But has anyone had this come up yet?

Ok.. we have managed to download, then convert them using Videora, then transfer to watch onto our tivo's... but after we do that, our Humanax DVD Tivo won't actually burn them to a DVD.

Is there anyway to do this? Are we converting them wrong in Videora?

Thanks- this thread has been great so far!!!! :)
My brother (Lee) knows more about this than I do but i think there is some software on the Humanax DVD Tivo that will not let you burn any TV shows that are transferred to it(at least I think).

[MasterOfPuppets]

I've also heard that the Humax players won't let you burn transferred files...
Use a PC-based DVD burner...it's a much better option anyway...plus you can get em cheap these days...

[Stylin]

I'd like to add my thanks as well. I've always been annoyed by the short response "Bit torrent is your friend" whenever anyone asked for a missed episode. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was intimidated by the process. It's been made crystal clear and I now have a place to go when I have too many conflicts for my TiVo's two tuners.
BIG thanks as well!! I've never used bt or d/l, so am glad to find a place that walked me through it. I love the challenge of learning how to be a techie, when by nature I am not. I'm about to d/l my first tv show ever - yipee!.

Question (prolly 1st of many):
- Best site for UK show? UKnova has a limit on membership, so I can't join. I'm specifically looking for all 5 seasons of Footballers Wives (My cable co does not carry BBC Amer, and my cousin has a recurring bit part in the new season) - What is best site to use, and how do I know which season I'm dl?
- Music- I'm looking for remixes of Sia song "Breathe Me" (6ft under finale song). I have her cd, but it did not include 2 bonus remixes - and I don't see it on the sites mentioned previously in the thread?

[markz]

BIG thanks as well!! I've never used bt or d/l, so am glad to find a place that walked me through it. I love the challenge of learning how to be a techie, when by nature I am not. I'm about to d/l my first tv show ever - yipee!.

Question (prolly 1st of many):
- Best site for UK show? UKnova has a limit on membership, so I can't join. I'm specifically looking for all 5 seasons of Footballers Wives (My cable co does not carry BBC Amer, and my cousin has a recurring bit part in the new season) - What is best site to use, and how do I know which season I'm dl?
- Music- I'm looking for remixes of Sia song "Breathe Me" (6ft under finale song). I have her cd, but it did not include 2 bonus remixes - and I don't see it on the sites mentioned previously in the thread?

season five
tvrss dot net

[dswallow]

- Best site for UK show? UKnova has a limit on membership, so I can't join. I'm specifically looking for all 5 seasons of Footballers Wives (My cable co does not carry BBC Amer, and my cousin has a recurring bit part in the new season) - What is best site to use, and how do I know which season I'm dl?
Be perseverent. UKNova purges non-sharing/old members almost every hour, so if you try regularly you usually will make it.

[Stylin]

season five tvrss dot net
Thanks I'm actually looking for seasons 1-4, but that is a great little tool I'll definitely use in the future.

UKNova purges non-sharing/old members almost every hour, so if you try regularly you usually will make it.
Ahh, didn't know that. Thanks. I'm hoping since it's UK I'll be able to find all seasons 1-4 of FW. Hoping the Sia track is there also since she is a UK artist...

[Figaro]

Any tips as to how to get azureus to not suck under OS X? I can't get the UDP and firewall connections working right. I have an airport express hooked up to an old netgear router. The router doesn't have any fancy protocal settings. All I can do is specify a range of ports to be open. that is all. Any ideas?

[dswallow]

Any tips as to how to get azureus to not suck under OS X? I can't get the UDP and firewall connections working right. I have an airport express hooked up to an old netgear router. The router doesn't have any fancy protocal settings. All I can do is specify a range of ports to be open. that is all. Any ideas?
Azureus only needs one port open (unless you want to run it as a tracker, then you need two).

The port configured is the one on the "Connection" page under the Options section. A simple test is if someone can telnet to that port using your IP address then all should work. If you look on the Tools/Console page after configuring it and trying to start a download maybe you'll see some additional detail as to what's going wrong. If you need someone just to confirm th port's open correctly, you can PM your public IP and port to me and I'll test it.

BTW, TCP is what you need to focus on; UDP is used for the decentralized tracking.

[Figaro]

Ok thanks Doug, I will take a look at that tonight after work.

[MasterOfPuppets]

I'm sure I mentioned this here before...but you can learn pretty much everything you need to know about Azureus at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azureus) and following the links it provides...alternatively you could also run a search there on Bit Torrent in general...

[cheerdude]

In using Videora - what processing speed are you using; 2, 4 or 8 Mbps?

I'm sure that quality improves with more space per second of video... however, if they are shows that you are going to watch once and delete - is 2Mbps "good enough"?

If it matters, it would be shows that are transcoded in 16:9

Thanks,

Jeff

[DevdogAZ]

I've only used 2 Mbps and never had a problem. In fact, shows that I download and transcode look much better on my SD TV than the SD broadcasts I get off cable. If it were something I was planning to keep I might use a higher setting, but the size gets pretty big as it is. A typical 1 hour show is about 350 MB off BitTorrent and it's significantly larger than that when you convert it via Videora at 2 Mbps. Try couple and see what you think, but I'd bet you'd be pleased with 2.

[Guindalf]

Other sources (I didn't read through the posts, so sorry if I smeeked!)

Torrentportal
Thepiratebay
mininova.org

(I'm at work and can't remember the extenders on the first two, but this should help you find them).

Oh, almost forgot isohunt!

[DevdogAZ]

My new favorite is http://tvrss.net/shows/ It lists all the shows and has an index (in order) for each one. Makes it real easy to find what you're looking for.

[TiVo Bum]

My new favorite is http://tvrss.net/shows/ It lists all the shows and has an index (in order) for each one. Makes it real easy to find what you're looking for.Great site! Thanks much for the info.

[Fl_Gulfer]

Just be carful they started busting people that use Bit

[PJO1966]

For a while I've been successfully using torrents as a way to get shows my TiVo didn't record due to crashing. This week I came across a dilemma. I downloaded both Invasion and Will & Grace and the format is different from the usual files I get. Instead of one file that I drop into ConvertXtoDVD, I get a dozen or so zipped files that I am unable to unzip. Here's what I'm looking at:

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/5846/help3po.jpg

How do I go from this to a DVD?

[DevdogAZ]

Those are .rar files. You need to download a program like WinRar (http://www.rarlab.com/) and it will compile all of those smaller files into one big .avi file. Just download the free trial program, it should be all you need.

[PJO1966]

Those are .rar files. You need to download a program like WinRar (http://www.rarlab.com/) and it will compile all of those smaller files into one big .avi file. Just download the free trial program, it should be all you need.


I have WinRar. When I try to open any of these, this is the message I get...

C:\Program Files\Azureus\Will.and.Grace.S08E21.HDTV.XviD\will.and.grace .821.hdtv-lol.rar
The archive is either in unknown format or damaged.

The same thing happens with Invasion & Gray's Anatomy as well.

[GameGuru]

Make sure the file is completely downloading and you are not seeding as you will get this message if you are doing either.

[PJO1966]

Make sure the file is completely downloading and you are not seeding as you will get this message if you are doing either.


I always remove the file from the uploading queue before attempting to open. I've found other versions of these shows that seem to contain one file each. I'm hoping to have better luck with those. I'm hoping to be able to resolve this issue for future reference.

[GameGuru]

I've only used 2 Mbps and never had a problem. In fact, shows that I download and transcode look much better on my SD TV than the SD broadcasts I get off cable. If it were something I was planning to keep I might use a higher setting, but the size gets pretty big as it is. A typical 1 hour show is about 350 MB off BitTorrent and it's significantly larger than that when you convert it via Videora at 2 Mbps. Try couple and see what you think, but I'd bet you'd be pleased with 2.

Why transcode? Watch them on your PC, modded X-Box or any number of DVD players that also play Divx.

[dswallow]

Perhaps you need a newer version of WinRAR?

I've never run into problems with them; I don't really come across them too often, but regularly enough. I guess they're compilations of pieces posted on newsgroups since there's really no reason to compress files being distributed via Bittorrent... and actually is somewhat counterproductive if there's more than one file since you eliminate the ability to just download individual files within torrents.

[PJO1966]

Perhaps you need a newer version of WinRAR?

I've never run into problems with them; I don't really come across them too often, but regularly enough. I guess they're compilations of pieces posted on newsgroups since there's really no reason to compress files being distributed via Bittorrent... and actually is somewhat counterproductive if there's more than one file since you eliminate the ability to just download individual files within torrents.


I did have an old version of WinRar, but I updated it today and still had the same problem. I guess I'll just have to avoid files like that from bit torrent.

[beldar]

The same thing happens with Invasion & Gray's Anatomy as well.It's possible that people are seeding stuff without verifying the contents first. If you see some .par2 files along with the rar files, you can recover from the damage using quickpar or similar tools.

If people are hosting torrents of corrupted .rar files without the .par2 files, they're either morons or are deliberately screwing with people.

Read more about quickpar at the parchive site (http://parchive.sourceforge.net/).

[DevdogAZ]

Why transcode? Watch them on your PC, modded X-Box or any number of DVD players that also play Divx.
I do occasionally watch on the PC, but would prefer to watch on my home theater. Since I don't have an X-Box or a Divx-playing DVD player, I use Videora and TiVo ToGoBack and it works great. Free solutions are always preferable to me.

[newsposter]

are pretty light shows the norm (thwarting pirates?) when trying to frustrate people..i spent parts of 3 days d/l desp H/w and tried it today only to find pretty lights instead of the show...there was an attempt to download a codec and it failed but then the lights wouldn't even play if something was wrong, right?

any way to tell what codec i need?

on the bottom of the player it says song desp h/w

edit ok figured it out..needed xvid

is it a function of a bad recording or is it something in my computer than makes it all pixelated and color challenged? It's like it's a bad OTA connection or something.

[ferreter]

Can you post a screen grab?

Usually fake files show nothing, or a really old movie.

[Lee L]

How about sync issues. I have the right codec (xvid) and all three files I tried start out just a touch out of sync and then get progressively worse. If I drag the progress bar back a littel bit it will get back close to sync but immediately start getting worse.

This is a 2 gig P4 with 768 meg of ram with built in to the MB 128 meg video.

[KwikSilvr]

How about sync issues. I have the right codec (xvid) and all three files I tried start out just a touch out of sync and then get progressively worse. If I drag the progress bar back a littel bit it will get back close to sync but immediately start getting worse.

This is a 2 gig P4 with 768 meg of ram with built in to the MB 128 meg video.

Try uninstalling your xvid build and installing a more efficient codec. Maybe also try a light weight player.

I suggest ffdshow (http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/FFDShow_MPEG4_Video_Decoder/1054056131/1) and Media Player Classic (http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Media_Player_Classic_for_Windows_2000XP/1045531002/1).

[newsposter]

Can you post a screen grab?

Usually fake files show nothing, or a really old movie.

except for printscreen and pasting to Paint, i dont know how to do a screenshot (and of course bmps are over 2mb.

How else can i do that?

the video is definitely real...it's just like before i had my OTA perfected with dropouts and weird colorations/pixels etc. There are no comments on the torrent page saying the file is bad. But i dont know how often people post comments. I sure should!

I'm gonna show her the 75% finished thing tonight to see what she thinks...doubt she will like it though

[Guindalf]

VLC Player (http://www.videolan.org/) is great for playing files. It will even play one that's not complete - you know, the ones that sit at 97.7% and won't go any further. That 2.3% is not vital to the show, but most players reject it as being incomplete. VLC will play it!

[newsposter]

brings me to another question..as a test, i d/l utorrent and started downloading on there....downloaded a bit of the file and noticed the .torrent type. I deleted that and left just the avi there, but it wouldn't even play for a few seconds. Is VLC for viewing in this specific instance? WMP plays the incomplete DH file just 'fine' for me.

[TB805]

I know this thread is months old, but I am just now downloading something using Azureus. After reading this thread though I am concerned about something: Do I need a burner or can I play it on my PC and watch it here? Please try to bring your reply down to the pedestrian level as I am not technically gifted like you guys and am brand new at this torrent stuff. THANKS!

[SeanC]

It kinda depends on what you are downloading, though I have yet to download something that I couldn't play on my PC.

If you are just starting out you should get and install the K-Lite codec pack.

That way no matter how something is encoded (xvid, divx, 3vix, whatever) you'll be able to play it in Windows Media Player (WMP).

If you are downloading something that is an ISO that you won't be able to play on your PC unless you have a way to mount the file to your system. Daemon Tools will allow you to do this, just google for it. But I wouldn't worry about this so much.

Pretty much install the K-Lite codec pack, and you should be good to play any video file you download.

[DevdogAZ]

are pretty light shows the norm (thwarting pirates?) when trying to frustrate people..i spent parts of 3 days d/l desp H/w and tried it today only to find pretty lights instead of the show...there was an attempt to download a codec and it failed but then the lights wouldn't even play if something was wrong, right?

any way to tell what codec i need?

on the bottom of the player it says song desp h/w

edit ok figured it out..needed xvid

is it a function of a bad recording or is it something in my computer than makes it all pixelated and color challenged? It's like it's a bad OTA connection or something.
I have no idea what you are talking about and I've never seen anything like that. I get pretty much all my torrents by using the index at www.tvrss.net and haven't been linked to a bad one yet. I'd bet that it's a codec issue before a bad torrent. As SeanC said, install the K-Lite Codeck Pack. I think the most recent version is 2.7. It should be able to decode anything you get.

As for the .torrent file, that is the file that tells the client (Azureus, utorrent, etc.) how to get all the pieces and put them together. You can't download the .avi file without the associated .torrent file and you can't continue seeding (uploading) once you delete the .torrent. However, once you have seeded an appropriate amount (I always try to do 2x as much as I downloaded), then go ahead and delete the .torrent file. You no longer have any need for it.

[newsposter]

if you've never had multipath on an OTA install, you wouldn't know what i was talking about :) It's the same bad pic when blocks appear during scene changes and there are other weird discolorations from scene to scene. Before i located my antenna outside, DH would have looked like this torrent for me :)

[scubagal]

I am bumping this.... cause I have another question :D

now that I am a bit-torrent whore... I have one other little problem that I can't figure out.

to sum up what I am doing thanks to all the advice of this thread- I am using Azarues, ISOHunt and the Tivo-converter program I believe Lee recommended. Works like a dream..... we convert to 16-9 and it seems to give us the best reception/picture quality- however.... when we transfer to our Humax Tivo- the picture is ALWAYS screwed up.

We mainly transfer to our series 2 Tivo (after trying several conversion settings 16-9 seems to give us the best picture, ie not stretched or squashed), but nothing transfers to the Humax DVD Tivo that is even watchable. We have tried different conversion resolutions, changing the Tivo display stuff....

any idea why it would play on a series 2 Tivo fine, but not on the Humax DVD Tivo?????

[dswallow]

any idea why it would play on a series 2 Tivo fine, but not on the Humax DVD Tivo?????
Someone with more current experience hopefully will chime in, but as I recall one of the differences with the DVD-equipped TiVo units was that they were using slightly different recording settings in order to maintain DVD compatability on the fly.

[Lee L]

Still getting sync issues, though they are better using FFDshow. From what some said, it was a player, but it really looks liek a codec pack that still runs in WMP, right? or am I missing something?

[MikeMar]

No more pirate bay (I actually never used it)

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-piratebay1jun01,1,4095608.story?coll=la-mininav-technology

[dswallow]

Still getting sync issues, though they are better using FFDshow. From what some said, it was a player, but it really looks liek a codec pack that still runs in WMP, right? or am I missing something?
Codecs are used by Windows Media Player for everything; they're installed DirectShow filters that register to handle specific compression formats. Each registration includes some priority info to help the system decide which codecs to use when there are multiple ones that might work effectively, so even installing a new codec package with support might not mean those specific codecs are being used.

Most of the downloaded TV shows I get end up using the DivX codec (www.divx.com) -- which does support a variety of MPEG4 variations, including XviD. It displays a DivX logo in the lower right corner for the first few seconds of playback so it's obvious it's the codec being used.

Of course, there's other DirectShow filters involved, too... splitters to demux audio and video treams, the audio portion of the decoding, and the overlay of the video onto your display. The demux filter is usually in charge of providing timing and synchronization to the other filters; so it's possible the one being used on your system isn't ideal.

It's also possible the sound is just out of sync on the file. Though that shouldn't happen for most files; if you're seeing/hearing it happen more often than occasionally, odds are it's something else.

There is a utility around that lets you manage the registered DirectShow filters as well as seeing what filters would get used for any given file you want to play back.

First thing I'd do to diagnose a problem is make sure I had the latest drivers for my video card installed, and make sure any hardware acceleration settings that could be controlled for it were enabled. Same for the audio hardware. And then the fun begins with testing out various filters and seeing what gets used on your system.

Anyone who ever had installed some of the massive codec packs floating around likely has lots of questionable filters installed that will usually cause odd behavior when they don't work quite right.

Hopefully that's at least a starting point to help you diagnose things.

[Enrique]

No more pirate bay (I actually never used it)

http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-piratebay1jun01,1,4095608.story?coll=la-mininav-technology
they say : SITE DOWN - WILL BE UP AND FULLY FUNCTIONAL WITHIN A DAY OR TWO :confused:

[MickeS]

they say : SITE DOWN - WILL BE UP AND FULLY FUNCTIONAL WITHIN A DAY OR TWO :confused:

They are convinced that they will not be convicted, and that they will have their servers back shortly. There are some other similar cases in Sweden, and there have been no convictions, IIRC. I don't think the authorities can convince the courts that a crime has actually been committed by the website operators... it will be interesting to see how it goes.

[dswallow]

They are convinced that they will not be convicted, and that they will have their servers back shortly. There are some other similar cases in Sweden, and there have been no convictions, IIRC. I don't think the authorities can convince the courts that a crime has actually been committed by the website operators... it will be interesting to see how it goes.
Actually they say they've bought new servers and have been testing them at an ISP in a different country. All you said is true, though... but this is for "in the meantime."

[MikeMar]

Actually they say they've bought new servers and have been testing them at an ISP in a different country. All you said is true, though... but this is for "in the meantime."

Russia maybe?

[Lee L]

Well, calling it The Pirate Bay is not exactly helping their argument. :D

[MikeMar]

Well, calling it The Pirate Bay is not exactly helping their argument. :D

Maybe they founded it on national pirate day :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[jilter]

"Generally all that matters is that it be possible to connect from the internet to your computer on whatever ports are configured for the Bittorrent client, so if that connectivity is blocked, such as with a NAT router or firewall, the software might be detecting that and asking you to select another port that'll be open/passed through to your computer"


My question is this:
My port has been blacklisted.
I get this, but what do I choose as a new port?
I don't even know what a "port" is? How can I choose one or where can I read more about this (in easy terms?)


Thanks!

[cherry ghost]

"Generally all that matters is that it be possible to connect from the internet to your computer on whatever ports are configured for the Bittorrent client, so if that connectivity is blocked, such as with a NAT router or firewall, the software might be detecting that and asking you to select another port that'll be open/passed through to your computer"


My question is this:
My port has been blacklisted.
I get this, but what do I choose as a new port?
I don't even know what a "port" is? How can I choose one or where can I read more about this (in easy terms?)


Thanks!


http://www.portforward.com/english/applications/port_forwarding/Utor/Utorindex.htm

[dswallow]

"Generally all that matters is that it be possible to connect from the internet to your computer on whatever ports are configured for the Bittorrent client, so if that connectivity is blocked, such as with a NAT router or firewall, the software might be detecting that and asking you to select another port that'll be open/passed through to your computer"


My question is this:
My port has been blacklisted.
I get this, but what do I choose as a new port?
I don't even know what a "port" is? How can I choose one or where can I read more about this (in easy terms?)

Some ISPs might block the default ports used by some P2P sharing clients; with Bottorrent that really doesn't matter because you can use any port, and you can't block every port or an internet connection is useless. So just try configuring it with high port numbers, like about 6000 or 7000. If you have a router or firewall, you might need to make adjustments there to allow connections on that specific port to come from the internet to your computer; this is referred to as "port forwarding". The link that cherry ghost provided will have lots of info about configuring specific routers appropriately. And there's often considerable help available with the Bittorrent client. For example, Azureus is a popular client with a considerable community providing support. http://azureus.sourceforge.net.

[TreborPugly]

The Pirate Bay is back. Here's their blog entry about it:


Just some stats...

... here are some reasons why TPB is down sometimes - and how long it usually takes to fix:

Tiamo gets *very* drunk and then something crashes: 4 days

Anakata gets a really bad cold and noone is around: 7 days

The US and Swedish gov. forces the police to steal our servers: 3 days

.. yawn.

Whatever else you might say about them, they are funny guys.. :)

[jilter]

For playback of those torrents on a TV, try this:

http://www.supergooddeal.com/product_p/pmpeg4-15.htm

if you use it enough, it really is a good deal. I have one and it works awesome. Use it like a hard drive, dump your files on it in Xvid (or whatever) format, plug it in at the TV and use the remote to playback. Its the best money i've ever spent (after TiVo of course)




Vito:
That link is dead....what was it?
Thanks!!

[PacMan3000]

Here's what I don't get...I love torrents. You can download full seasons of TV shows, even. But I've tried doing that, and it seemingly takes DAYS. I obviously know if you are downloading 22 episodes of a sitcom, it's gonna take a while.

My thing is that it's offered a lot on sites like mininova...so, here's my question. How are people downloading full seasons of shows? I have DSL, and it still takes forever. Are people using T1 connections or cable or something to download full seasons of TV shows? Or do people just leave their computers on for days and days to download full seasons?

Thanks

[dswallow]

Here's what I don't get...I love torrents. You can download full seasons of TV shows, even. But I've tried doing that, and it seemingly takes DAYS. I obviously know if you are downloading 22 episodes of a sitcom, it's gonna take a while.

My thing is that it's offered a lot on sites like mininova...so, here's my question. How are people downloading full seasons of shows? I have DSL, and it still takes forever. Are people using T1 connections or cable or something to download full seasons of TV shows? Or do people just leave their computers on for days and days to download full seasons?
I don't generally find it taking that long, but it varies depending upon how many seeders and leechers there are for a given torrent. It could also differ if your system isn't allowing connections on the designated port to come in from the internet; that limits the sorts of connections that'll end up working on your system.

But yeah, in general there are times it just is going to take awhile; some clients let you give priority to specific files in the torrent, so, for instance, you can get that first episode downloaded first, then focus on the second, etc., and that way you don't have to wait until they all are received before you can do anything.

I use a 7M/768K DSL connection.

[beldar]

My thing is that it's offered a lot on sites like mininova...so, here's my question. How are people downloading full seasons of shows? I have DSL, and it still takes forever. Are people using T1 connections or cable or something to download full seasons of TV shows? Or do people just leave their computers on for days and days to download full seasons?Tell us more information. What's your DSL download speed? What download speed do you get from your torrents? Are you properly configured to allow uploading, and is uploading taking place? Many torrents will not give you full download bandwidth unless you demonstrate a willingness and capability to upload. Do the torrents you connect to have many seeds? Do your peers actually upload significant rates to you? Assuming you have uploading properly configured, have you changed your listening port to something nonstandard? Since some ISPs are deliberately throttling standard ports, and some torrent operators have therefore decided to refuse to serve data to clients using the standard port.

For a well seeded torrent, with my comcast connection (which is claimed to be 5 or 6 mbps download), I get downloads of 450 KB/sec. For a typical DVD image (4.5 GB), that's a little under 3 hours.

Let's pretend your DSL is 768 kbps, and you get a maximum download speed of, oh, 76 KB/sec. 4.5 GB would take 16 hours.

But, sure, for some big torrents with only a single seed, I'm willing to wait days (or weeks), so I run my client on an always-on server.

[Jonathan_S]

For a well seeded torrent, with my comcast connection (which is claimed to be 5 or 6 mbps download), I get downloads of 450 KB/sec. For a typical DVD image (4.5 GB), that's a little under 3 hours.That's fairly impressive (3.6 mbps).
My FIOS is rated for 5 mbps down, 2 mbps up, and I don't think I've noticed a torrent top 250 KB/sec down (2 mpbs). I do routinely hit the 200 KB/sec limit I set for uploads (1.6 mpbs) though.

But I haven't downloaded that many things, and haven't check the total speed on each and every one of them.

[beldar]

That's fairly impressive (3.6 mbps).I sure like it, having worked my way up from 110 baud modems in high school. The jump from 512kbps DSL to cable was quite perceptible. But I still want MORE SPEED.

For reliable downloads these days you can't beat usenet from a commercial provider like giganews--I get rock steady 450+ KB/sec downloads for hours at a time, and, for the moment, no fears that people are recording my IP address and planning legal action.

[PacMan3000]

Thanks for the responses. I have to say that while I am computer savvy, I'm not computer savvy when it comes to the technical ends of things. And as far as the torrents go...I've only been using it about a month...so I'm fairly new.

So it's kind of hard for me to answer your questions beldar because I'm not 100% how to go about getting the answers. But thanks for the response anyways. Maybe I can find a way to look into it.

[pkscout]

For a well seeded torrent, with my comcast connection (which is claimed to be 5 or 6 mbps download), I get downloads of 450 KB/sec. For a typical DVD image (4.5 GB), that's a little under 3 hours.

Damn, I have DSL from Verizon with 3mb down and 768K up. I have *never* gotten any more than 100 kb/sec, and that was in little sputs. Of course I mostly am getting Doctor Who, so it's probably that little pipe over the Atlantic causing me a problem (at least until there are some US seeds).

[newsposter]

so how long for a season at 56k? ;)

[beldar]

so how long for a season at 56k? ;)Heh, I'll take the question seriously, because that's not an unusual download speed if you're being throttled, either by the ISP or the torrent (for not uploading).

4.5GB in 223 hours--not so bad, assuming you had a really good 56k connection. In real life, maybe double or triple that.

[DevdogAZ]

Here's what I don't get...I love torrents. You can download full seasons of TV shows, even. But I've tried doing that, and it seemingly takes DAYS. I obviously know if you are downloading 22 episodes of a sitcom, it's gonna take a while.

My thing is that it's offered a lot on sites like mininova...so, here's my question. How are people downloading full seasons of shows? I have DSL, and it still takes forever. Are people using T1 connections or cable or something to download full seasons of TV shows? Or do people just leave their computers on for days and days to download full seasons?

Thanks
I think the biggest problem you are running into is that you are trying to DL an entire season of a show at the same time. It's highly unlikely that the early episodes of that season are still in high demand among the users out there. So you are getting files with 5, 10, 15 seeders rather than files with several hundred seeders, which you generally see the first few days after an episode airs. For the shows that I've downloaded entire seasons of, I've done it one episode at a time, once a week as the new eps become available, not all at once at the end of the season.

Having said that, I leave my computer on all the time anyway, so I don't really care how long it takes. When I see something that I want, I start the download. I have Azureus set to download the file and then seed it until the ratio is at least 2.0 (meaning I've uploaded twice as much as I've downloaded). Then it stops. Often I'll come back to my computer the next night and a file will be finished and I don't ever bother to look how long it took. On rare occasions, it will take longer than a day, but I don't really care.

[PacMan3000]

^^Interesting. Thanks for the response. As far as me...I am actually not trying to download a full season of recent shows necessarily. I might be trying to download a season of Boston Public or shows from the 90's.

I did download Grey's Anatomy (1st season) which wasn't too bad--but then again, that season was only like 13 episodes (max--it may have been a little less, even).

[MikeMar]

I think the biggest problem you are running into is that you are trying to DL an entire season of a show at the same time. It's highly unlikely that the early episodes of that season are still in high demand among the users out there. So you are getting files with 5, 10, 15 seeders rather than files with several hundred seeders, which you generally see the first few days after an episode airs. For the shows that I've downloaded entire seasons of, I've done it one episode at a time, once a week as the new eps become available, not all at once at the end of the season.

Having said that, I leave my computer on all the time anyway, so I don't really care how long it takes. When I see something that I want, I start the download. I have Azureus set to download the file and then seed it until the ratio is at least 2.0 (meaning I've uploaded twice as much as I've downloaded). Then it stops. Often I'll come back to my computer the next night and a file will be finished and I don't ever bother to look how long it took. On rare occasions, it will take longer than a day, but I don't really care.

I got the first season of Weeds in one shot and it went really fast.

[DevdogAZ]

^^Interesting. Thanks for the response. As far as me...I am actually not trying to download a full season of recent shows necessarily. I might be trying to download a season of Boston Public or shows from the 90's.

That's just taking what I said and magnifying it. An episode of a current show that aired 9 months ago will probably only have 10-20 seeders. An episode of a cancelled show that aired several years ago will probably have 5 or fewer seeders. Since the speed of the network is entirely dependent on the number of people seeding a particular file, you're in for a long wait on shows like that.

[PacMan3000]

Oh ok then. That does make sense. Yeah...I'm trying to download Malcolm in the Middle and Sports Night....Malcolm in the Middle rate is like 1 kb/s and Sports Night is at 5 kb/s. About an hour ago I went to check...and it stated that Sports Night (which is downloading eps 1-8) will take 1 day and 23 hours...and Malcolm's first season will now take 23 days, haha. It went from 1 day to 4...and just eventually went up and up. I'll probably check again later to see how it is...

[MikeMar]

Oh ok then. That does make sense. Yeah...I'm trying to download Malcolm in the Middle and Sports Night....Malcolm in the Middle rate is like 1 kb/s and Sports Night is at 5 kb/s. About an hour ago I went to check...and it stated that Sports Night (which is downloading eps 1-8) will take 1 day and 23 hours...and Malcolm's first season will now take 23 days, haha. It went from 1 day to 4...and just eventually went up and up. I'll probably check again later to see how it is...

People are probably hoping on and off who have the files

[dswallow]

Oh ok then. That does make sense. Yeah...I'm trying to download Malcolm in the Middle and Sports Night....Malcolm in the Middle rate is like 1 kb/s and Sports Night is at 5 kb/s. About an hour ago I went to check...and it stated that Sports Night (which is downloading eps 1-8) will take 1 day and 23 hours...and Malcolm's first season will now take 23 days, haha. It went from 1 day to 4...and just eventually went up and up. I'll probably check again later to see how it is...
How's Malcolm in the Middle going for you? I started downloading it last night after reading your post just for comparison purposes and this morning it's completed.

[PacMan3000]

^^Really? I left my computer on all night, and it's only at 34%. I don't quite get it.

Does it go slow because I'm trying to download other things as well?

And does it also go slow if I've tried downloading for a few hours...turn it off...then back on hours later...then off...then try to download again a day later, etc?

I'm even trying to download a Rescue Me season 1...left it on all night, woke up today and it says it'll take 29 days.

I've downloaded a few albums from here...and 90% of them download in a very good amount of time. I've downloaded the pilot episode of Boston Legal, and that downloaded quickly. But these full seasons seem to take FOREVER!

[dswallow]

^^Really? I left my computer on all night, and it's only at 34%. I don't quite get it.

Does it go slow because I'm trying to download other things as well?

And does it also go slow if I've tried downloading for a few hours...turn it off...then back on hours later...then off...then try to download again a day later, etc?

I'm even trying to download a Rescue Me season 1...left it on all night, woke up today and it says it'll take 29 days.

I've downloaded a few albums from here...and 90% of them download in a very good amount of time. I've downloaded the pilot episode of Boston Legal, and that downloaded quickly. But these full seasons seem to take FOREVER!
1) Where did you download the torrent from? I got it from http://www.isohunt.com/dl.php?id=11859269. The important identifier is the hash. This file's hash is FFEFB167A6589874720DC49223B6B520D0FFA57B so if that's the same one you're downloading, these are the same torrents with the same seeders/leechers. Right now I see there's 69 leechers and 18 seeders and the average completion is 47.8%.

2) What Bittorrent program are you using?

3) If you PM or email me your public IP address (if you don't know it, check at www.whatismyip.com) and the configured port(s) for your Bittorrent client I'll see if I can connect from the outside to it or not; if not, then that could affect speeds a lot.

If you're saturating your maximum download speed with other things going on, then those other things could affect the speed you'd get this one.

[Malcontent]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4910374

Philips has released a new model of DVD player that replaces the Philips 642 that plays Xvid and Divx video files. This new one is supposed to play those Xvids/Divxs that the Philips 642 couldn't. GMC and Qpel encoded Xvids. It also plays Divx 6 encoded video files.

For those people who are downloading episodes of tv shows and movies in Xvid and Divx format, you can burn them to CD-R or DVD-r and play them in this Philips DVD player without having to convert them first or have to watch them in front of your computer screen.

I would suggest burning Xvids/Divx to DVD rewriteable disk (DVD-RW), that way you can erase them and reuse the disks over and over without wasting disks.

[mtnagel]

In uTorrent, the light in the bottom is always yellow. It never goes to green. I set up the port forwarding through my router. I can still download stuff and sometimes the speed is good, but right now I'm downloading at roughly 25 kb/sec.

Nevermind. I figured it out. I had used portforward.com to set it up after formatting my computer and I skipped a step. Now I have a green light. Still not super fast downloads though.

[efilippi]

The fact that South Park received an Emmy nomination for the scientology episode sent me back to the torrents yesterday. I now have a file that is a bunch of rar's and a hydro file. I used winrar and now have a folder with a large bin file and one cue file. I read that Nero should be able to handle the cue file to enable a dump to cd, but that doesn't work. I get a 'not valid' error of some kind. I then saw that videolan is supposed to be able to play cue/bin files directly. So I downloaded that and can now indeed view the combination cue/bin movie. But I would still prefer to encode it in such a way that I can put it on a cd so I can view it on my television. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

[PJO1966]

I also have a bunch of .bin and .cue files. I have no idea what to do with these. Can someone spell it out for me?

[Sherminator]

.bin & .cue files are disk image files, you can use Nero to make a CD/DVD out of them, or use software such as Nero Imagedrive, or Daemon Tools to mount them as virtual disks.

Some times, these files are made by software which doesn't completely follow the rules, in those cases, try mounting them as virtual disks, or using other software to burn them.

[PJO1966]

.bin & .cue files are disk image files, you can use Nero to make a CD/DVD out of them, or use software such as Nero Imagedrive, or Daemon Tools to mount them as virtual disks.

Some times, these files are made by software which doesn't completely follow the rules, in those cases, try mounting them as virtual disks, or using other software to burn them.


I have Easy CD/DVD creator. I tried using that, but the .bin and .cue files all have the same name. Do I need to make folders on the DVD or will this software not work for this job?

[PJO1966]

I downloaded Nero and am not having much luck... can anyone explain to this 5 year-old?

[dswallow]

In the Nero Burning ROM program there's an option in the menu for "Burn Image...". Select that and follow the instructions; choose the .cue file then begin the recording.

[fmowry]

Slightly OT but I picked up one of these cheap DVD players described here (http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?start=0&catid=18&threadid=627784) for the sole purpose of playing bittorrented stuff on my bigscreen. This DVD player is $34 bucks at Big Lots and has a front USB. I bittorrent shows then copy them straight to my USB thumb drive and play them directly off of it. No converting, no burning to DVD. The thread tells how to use the player with a hard drive and enclosure too.

Frank

[newsposter]

I realize sometimes there are sometimes songs in place of TV shows but what about something like Standoff?

i'm using utorrent 1.6

http://torrentspy.com/torrent/852049/Standoff_S01E01_HDTV_XviD_XOR_avi_eztv_Kimble

I'm ever so slowly d/l over dialup and i started it and it is showing some weird graphics and sayes error dowloading codec but does sound like it could be the show on audio

from that page can't i assume if it's a bad download that someone would have commented by now?

And should i be able to view a partial d/l or the fact that the error codec thing is happening is messing me up?

WMP 9.0...gonna d/l 10 now to see if it fixes it

10 didnt fix it...still tries to d/l codec..andi get the goofy lightshow when i run it

[Sherminator]

The answer is in the file description, it is an XViD .AVI file.

XViD is an open source alternative to the DiVX Mpeg4 Codec.

You need a XViD codec which can be download from here (http://www.koepi.org/xvid.shtml)

[newsposter]

thanks..it worked..weird thing is i already had that .exe on my computer and remembered d/l it last year for one ep of des. housewives for my wife....just reinstalled it and voila!

already 2 d 2 h for the file..only a few more hours to go..hope it's a good show!

[ibergu]

Well, I've just read through the whole thread, and I guess I need someone to walk me through like I am 4 because I'm lost and can't seem to figure out what to do.

Using Bit Tornado, I downloaded an episode of a TV show that I missed and it seemed like everything went well, because it reached 100% and I clicked the Finished button.

When I went searching for the downloaded file, all I found was a very large (350MB) .torrent file and am not sure what to do now.

Help? I've been googling, but can't seem to find an answer!

Thanks in advance.

[Jeeters]

When I went searching for the downloaded file, all I found was a very large (350MB) .torrent file and am not sure what to do now.That sounds like just a misnamed file. Given the size, I'm guessing it's an AVI file since most hour long shows (usually encoded to divx/xvid) are about 350MB. Try renaming the file to be a .avi file and then try playing it. (But you'll need either xvid or divx decoder installed depending on which way it was encoded).

[MikeSh]

I read the first couple pages of this thread back when they were "live" I've just finished reading the rest of the thread and I too would like to thank the many posters that shared their knowledge and experience with those of us less informed.

My D*Tivo HDD crapped out on me a few months ago and I lost the last 3 eps of Prison Break and 2 or 3 of the last Sopranos. Now I know how to go about getting them if I were so inclined.

[amplex4]

when u in stall azerues however u spell it just go to google and type in whatever show u want and at the end of that put torrent files and it comes up for example
*blade the series torrent files*

its much easier most of the time some of those torrent sites dont the the files just google it much faster and easier believe me

[JimSpence]

Please use capitalization and punctuation.

When you start downloading a file using Azureus it creates a file the size of the resultant file. Then that file is filled. The Azureus client asks where the file should be put.

[MikeSh]

My SP for Ghost whisperer was overlaid for Meerkat Manor of all things. So I missed last weeks eppie. Not anymore...

[newsposter]

i'm d/l a file now that is in the format:

episode.pdtv.xvid-fqm.r00

Then the .r00 incrementally increases and each file is only 14,649kb in size. If i only need the first few minutes of the file, how can i put these 20 or so files together? Or must you d/l the entire thing because of the formatting?

[markz]

i'm d/l a file now that is in the format:

episode.pdtv.xvid-fqm.r00

Then the .r00 incrementally increases and each file is only 14,649kb in size. If i only need the first few minutes of the file, how can i put these 20 or so files together? Or must you d/l the entire thing because of the formatting?


That is one part of a RAR file. I believe you need all the parts so that WinRAR can recombine them into one file.

[newsposter]

not what i wanted to hear but thanks for giving me the cold hard truth :)

[Jeeters]

WinRar does want all of the parts. But if you only have the first few parts you can usually tell it to start extracting and when it pops up the error message saying that parts are missing, immediatly go to your Temp folder and you should be able to find what it was able to extract so far. Copy it to somewhere else because as soon as you hit 'OK' on the error message, because WinRar will then delete the files it had extracted so far from the temp folder.

For AVI files, though, most players, especially Windows Media Player, don't like partial .avi files and will refuse to play them. There are alternative players ("BSPlayer" comes to mind) that have no problem with partial .avi files.

[cheerdude]

Downloaded something last night that are mkv files. Is there a way to convert them to something that can be converted by Videoera ?

[ibergu]

That sounds like just a misnamed file. Given the size, I'm guessing it's an AVI file since most hour long shows (usually encoded to divx/xvid) are about 350MB. Try renaming the file to be a .avi file and then try playing it. (But you'll need either xvid or divx decoder installed depending on which way it was encoded).

Thanks Jeeters. That did the trick.

I tried doing that at first, but stopped because I got a warning message that said if you change a file name extension, the file may become unusable. Since it took me almost 5 hours to download an hour TV show, I was afraid to lose it all. But gave it a shot and it worked like a charm.

[markz]

Thanks Jeeters. That did the trick.

I tried doing that at first, but stopped because I got a warning message that said if you change a file name extension, the file may become unusable. Since it took me almost 5 hours to download an hour TV show, I was afraid to lose it all. But gave it a shot and it worked like a charm.

You can always rename a file extension without losing the file. It just may not work as intended. But you can then rename it back if needed.

I cannot send .exe files through my email, so I rename them .xyz or something else to email them. Then the recipient can rename them back to .exe to use them.

Glad you got yours to work!

[appleye1]

Just to emphasize how easy torrents can be for that TV show your Tivo missed:

I had my laptop in my home theater and the wife was complaining about how we only had the first half of The Amazing Race due to football overrun (Burn in Hell CBS!). I had never done a torrent on my laptop, but I told her "no problemo".

Went to www.bittorent.com and downloaded the Windows version and installed it.

Went to www.isohunt.com and searched for "amazing race", found the latest episode and clicked on it. It downloaded the .torrent file and I clicked on it.

Bittorrent started up and then created an .avi file. (Took three or four hours for this part.)

Hooked my laptop up to the big screen, clicked on the .avi file and watched TAR in all its big screen (but not HD :mad: ) glory.

Simple. :)


(TIP - if you have trouble viewing an .avi on your PC, download VLC from www.videolan.org. I haven't found an .avi file yet that won't play on it.)

[markz]

Just to emphasize how easy torrents can be for that TV show your Tivo missed:

I had my laptop in my home theater and the wife was complaining about how we only had the first half of The Amazing Race due to football overrun (Burn in Hell CBS!). I had never done a torrent on my laptop, but I told her "no problemo".

Went to www.bittorent.com and downloaded the Windows version and installed it.

Went to www.isohunt.com and searched for "amazing race", found the latest episode and clicked on it. It downloaded the .torrent file and I clicked on it.

Bittorrent started up and then created an .avi file. (Took three or four hours for this part.)

Hooked my laptop up to the big screen, clicked on the .avi file and watched TAR in all its big screen (but not HD :mad: ) glory.

Simple. :)


(TIP - if you have trouble viewing an .avi on your PC, download VLC from www.videolan.org. I haven't found an .avi file yet that won't play on it.)

I have a DIVX-certified DVD player (about $60). After I have the AVI file downloaded, I take a couple minutes to burn it to a CDRW (you can fit two one- hour shows on one CDRW) and watch it on my plasma TV. Then I just erase the disk before I use it again.

I only have to worry about converting shows to DVD format if I plan to keep them.

[newsposter]

note to those who use work computers with azureus etc:

Even though I use my personal dial up on the laptop (when doing..um..non approved stuff), apparently these sharing programs do show up in the Access Protection logs of mcafee and those logs are sent to HQ when you log on with their VPN or other company connection. I neglected to realize this.

Thankfully my IT dept just thought it was someone trying to hack my computer and after perusing my computer via remote access (after i totally cleaned it and the mcafee logs of course), they deemed me 'virus free.'

no more torrents on my work computer, that's for sure :)

So do i have it right that it's mcafee sending the logs to IT? They told me a program was trying to FTP last week. I wasn't on their network on those days at all. and Yahoo messenger and AIM must not trigger the same warnings as i've been using them a while and no comments were made to me.

if it is the logs, are they only sent when i'm on the companies network or logged on even using my own connection?

[HoosierFan]

Downloaded my first show (Smallville episode I missed last week) and I got the avi file, opened it up and all I have is sound but no picture. I used Azureus and got the file off of isohunt. It has a 5 star rating. Is there something I need to do to get the picture?

[Montana Man]

Download the K-lite Mega Codec Pack. It will have everything you need to watch downloaded shows.

If you want to convert ANY file type download Win AVI. This little handy program will convert just about any type of media into any other type. It can convert a 2 hour movie into DVD format (which will work on ANY DVD player) in about 1 hour.

If you get bin and cue files you can use a program called Isobuster to extract the .mpg file out of them. (if you run into this ask i can give you step by step instructions as it is not that easy if you dont know exactly what you are doing).

I have downloaded every season of just about every show and converted them ALL to DVD so that my friends and family can keep up on shows they havent seen. (my mom is stubborn and wont get a tivo!) These programs work like a charm.

Also the BEST site to find the latest tv shows is on Isohunt.com. However they dont have user comments on that site so if i question the torrent i will use Torrentspy as they have a group there that will tell you about the torrent.

Also the easiest (IMO) bittorrent client to use for beginner is Utorrent. VERY straight forward design.

[newsposter]

http://www.getazureus.com/

is that an official link to program? with all the potential for abuses on these programs, i wanna make sure it's not a pirate site


sourceforge is down and i need to install on another computer to start it on there.

edit..hmmm or is this the offical site http://www.azureus.com/ dang google and me expecting first search hit to be the best

[dswallow]

http://www.getazureus.com/

is that an official link to program? with all the potential for abuses on these programs, i wanna make sure it's not a pirate site


sourceforge is down and i need to install on another computer to start it on there.

edit..hmmm or is this the offical site http://www.azureus.com/ dang google and me expecting first search hit to be the best
http://azureus.sourceforge.net is definitely an official link.

(And it appears www.getazureus.com is the same people.)

[Redux]

Downloaded my first show (Smallville episode I missed last week) and I got the avi file, opened it up and all I have is sound but no picture. I used Azureus and got the file off of isohunt. It has a 5 star rating. Is there something I need to do to get the picture?There are a number of things you can do to change the file or get new playback software for your computer or codecs for existiong playback software.

The easist thing, IMO, is just to have tivoserver running on your pc (or Mac), then just copy the file to wherever you keep the served files. No fuss, keeps the viewing interface/experience the same, Now Playing list.

[HoosierFan]

Downloaded the codec, worked like a charm... thanks

[newsposter]

i've put the files back on my other computer yet now i can't seem to figure out how to let the client pick up where the other left off. I'd tried adding the file but maybe i'm not picking up the right thing. Then there's the box at the bottom that lists apparently the 14 rar files and some have checks and some have blocks. I guess trial and error is all i can do

[PJO1966]

I'm having an annoying issue with Azureus. Since my TiVo was out of commission for a couple of weeks I've been using torrents more. I've had a problem with torrents just stopping mid-download and never starting up again. At first i thought I had too many at once (4)

[PJO1966]

I'm having an annoying issue with Azureus. Since my TiVo was out of commission for a couple of weeks I've been using torrents more. I've had a problem with torrents just stopping mid-download and never starting up again. At first I thought I had too many at once (4) so I deleted them all except for one. That didn't help. I then deleted the one and started over. It quickly ramped up to where it was before and stopped. Then I tried deleting everything, the data as well, and started from scratch. It slowly downloaded to the same percentage (94.1%) and stopped. Currently the seeds read as 0 (4387) & the peers as 48 (2643).It's uploading from the file, but no downloads. I tried this with a couple different programs that I need to download with similar results. They don't stop at the same percentage as the example listed above, but they all stop before completion. I followed the wiki FAQ on optimizing download.

If anyone can offer a suggestion I would be most grateful.

[Jeeters]

There needs to at least be one seed in order for you to get the file. If there are no seeds, then all the peers are doing is trading the pieces of the file they have so far which is likely the traffic your seeing. Once you have all the pieces that can be gotten from other peers, then downloading to you stops and all that happens is the other peers continue to leech from you. Once those others get all they can from you, then the upload traffic you're seeing will stop, too. i.e., it becomes a stalemate without at least one seed.

EDIT: I should say "guaranteed to get the file" in that first sentence. Theoretically, without the seeds, if you have, say, 50% of the file and a peer as the other 50%, the you can both trade your parts of the file and both end up with a completed download.

[dswallow]

I'm having an annoying issue with Azureus. Since my TiVo was out of commission for a couple of weeks I've been using torrents more. I've had a problem with torrents just stopping mid-download and never starting up again. At first I thought I had too many at once (4) so I deleted them all except for one. That didn't help. I then deleted the one and started over. It quickly ramped up to where it was before and stopped. Then I tried deleting everything, the data as well, and started from scratch. It slowly downloaded to the same percentage (94.1%) and stopped. Currently the seeds read as 0 (4387) & the peers as 48 (2643).It's uploading from the file, but no downloads. I tried this with a couple different programs that I need to download with similar results. They don't stop at the same percentage as the example listed above, but they all stop before completion. I followed the wiki FAQ on optimizing download.

If anyone can offer a suggestion I would be most grateful.
With over 4,000 available seeds it's odd you're not connecting; look at the console logs to see if there's any sort of indication based on error messages, etc.

[newsposter]

Alert:1:If you have a router/firewall, please check that you have port 53907 UDP open.
Decentralised tracking requires this.

Ok azureus seems to be working just fine but it gave me this error. So why should i open it? And doesnt' opening up ports make your system more vulnerable?

how would i do this if i choose to?

[cherry ghost]

Alert:1:If you have a router/firewall, please check that you have port 53907 UDP open.
Decentralised tracking requires this.

Ok azureus seems to be working just fine but it gave me this error. So why should i open it? And doesnt' opening up ports make your system more vulnerable?

how would i do this if i choose to?

http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm

Find your router in the list, click on Auzereus and follow the instructions.

[1bcg]

Newgroups are Slick, but not quite the same...... :cool:

[1bcg]

Ahhhh, 1st post!!!!!

[efilippi]

I got a torrent from isohunt and downloaded a foreign movie. It asks me for a password to view it, first time I've seen this. There is a text file included in the download that gives an url to go to to get a password. It has a scantily clad pirate who is asking me to click on to a couple more pages in order to earn my password.

I am not inclined to do that, call me a nervous nellie. Anyone here been faced with this situation and gone through with it?

[Enrique]

I got a torrent from isohunt and downloaded a foreign movie. It asks me for a password to view it, first time I've seen this. There is a text file included in the download that gives an url to go to to get a password. It has a scantily clad pirate who is asking me to click on to a couple more pages in order to earn my password.

I am not inclined to do that, call me a nervous nellie. Anyone here been faced with this situation and gone through with it?I have and I would not again(You never know what those kind files.)

What is the name of the movie? maybe I can help you find another source.

[efilippi]

I have and I would not again

Did something bad happen? Doesn't sound like it, just that it might?

The movie is that Ang Lee thing, Lust, Caution. It's nc17 so it will never come to my local multiplex.

[dswallow]

I got a torrent from isohunt and downloaded a foreign movie. It asks me for a password to view it, first time I've seen this. There is a text file included in the download that gives an url to go to to get a password. It has a scantily clad pirate who is asking me to click on to a couple more pages in order to earn my password.

I am not inclined to do that, call me a nervous nellie. Anyone here been faced with this situation and gone through with it?
It's just someone who earns money on click-throughs; they're making you actually click through to see a word on a page that is the password. This method is harmless, though personally when I find such things, I delete them and find another source. I don't care much for such people earning money from such things.

[Enrique]

Did something bad happen? Doesn't sound like it, just that it might?

The movie is that Ang Lee thing, Lust, Caution. It's nc17 so it will never come to my local multiplex.Nothing bad happened, Just hate to go to some web page just look for a password, Just like dswallow I delete them and find another source.

[efilippi]

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

[ufo4sale]

I just made the switch from Cable vision to FiOS and I'm having difficulty opening up a port for Azerus. I have a Actiontect modem/router version number MI424-WR Rev C. I followed the steps using portfoward.com but I still can't seem to get it to work.

[TivoFan]

Coming up on the two year anniversary of this thread. Isn't it time to end it yet?

[mtnagel]

Coming up on the two year anniversary of this thread. Isn't it time to end it yet?Why? If it still helps people, then that's a good thing. I wish I could help more, but I'm no expert on the subject.

[Enrique]

I just made the switch from Cable vision to FiOS and I'm having difficulty opening up a port for Azerus. I have a Actiontect modem/router version number MI424-WR Rev C. I followed the steps using portfoward.com but I still can't seem to get it to work.You might want to disable UPnP (in Azureus > Tools > Options > Plugins > UPnP) and see if that works.

what port are you using?

[ufo4sale]

You might want to disable UPnP (in Azureus > Tools > Options > Plugins > UPnP) and see if that works.

what port are you using?

I tried a couple of ports but none of them seem to be working. The one it's set to now is 62486.

[ufo4sale]

I got it to work. Thanks.

[efilippi]

No fair. You have to tell us what you did to fix it.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Coming up on the two year anniversary of this thread. Isn't it time to end it yet?

Why?
For noobs to the torrent scene, this is a very helpful thread.

[flaminio]

Why?
For noobs to the torrent scene, this is a very helpful thread.

I agree. I just stumbled across this thread today, and the combination of a torrent client + torrent site + Videora TiVo Converter is making for a very happy TiVo household over here today.

Thanks to all who posted cool stuff, and especially thanks to all who asked the dumb questions so I didn't have to :D!

[Philosofy]

OK, whenever I use uTorrent, it says I have a problem with my connection: there is a yellow triangle with a "!" in it. My laptop does not seem to have that problem, and the speeds can be blazing (up to 400), but I'm lucky to get 150 on my desktop, and it never stays that fast. I've tried port forwarding, but can't seem to get it to work.

This thread is 14 pages long, and I can't find the right info. Can someone help me?

Thanks

[MasterOfPuppets]

OK, whenever I use uTorrent, it says I have a problem with my connection: there is a yellow triangle with a "!" in it. My laptop does not seem to have that problem, and the speeds can be blazing (up to 400), but I'm lucky to get 150 on my desktop, and it never stays that fast. I've tried port forwarding, but can't seem to get it to work.

This thread is 14 pages long, and I can't find the right info. Can someone help me?

Thanks

Sounds like a DHT issue.
Is the port forwarded correctly through your firewall? (Both TCP and UDP)
You should have encrypting enabled in uTorrent.
This thread (http://forum.utorrent.com/viewtopic.php?id=11069) used to be helpful, but the link in the first post no longer works. Still, those forums are helpful.

[ClutchBrake]

Definitely don't close this thread.

I just did a search to see what I could learn about torrents and this looks like a great thread. The only issue being that the info is up to two years old and might be outdated. I'm still gonna give it a shot though.

I'm tempted to start a new thread for up-to-date latest sites, clients and tips. I'll give this thread a thorough read first though.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Definitely don't close this thread.

I just did a search to see what I could learn about torrents and this looks like a great thread. The only issue being that the info is up to two years old and might be outdated. I'm still gonna give it a shot though.

I'm tempted to start a new thread for up-to-date latest sites, clients and tips. I'll give this thread a thorough read first though.

To me, setting up a client looks much more difficult than it actually is.
Once you actually go through it, it's fairly easy. The most difficult part is making sure that all of the ports are open for your firewall.

I recommend:
Client - uTorrent (plus Peer Guardian 2, even if the Vista version may permanently be in beta...like Gmail...or perhaps it's vaporware)

Trackers - mininova.org will suffice for most all non-obscure torrents...as will isohunt.com. There's also always thepiratebay.org, although I've never really used it all that much. For TV, eztv.it is solid as well. Those are all public trackers. There are all sorts of private trackers for various specialized torrents, or if you just dig trackers with ratio enforcement. Usually a Google search will point you in the right direction of anything you can't find.

Tips - I like this guide (http://www.bootstrike.com/Articles/BitTorrentGuide/index.html).

[ClutchBrake]

To me, setting up a client looks much more difficult than it actually is.
Once you actually go through it, it's fairly easy. The most difficult part is making sure that all of the ports are open for your firewall.

I recommend:
Client - uTorrent (plus Peer Guardian 2, even if the Vista version may permanently be in beta...like Gmail...or perhaps it's vaporware)

Trackers - mininova.org will suffice for most all non-obscure torrents...as will isohunt.com. There's also always thepiratebay.org, although I've never really used it all that much. For TV, eztv.it is solid as well. Those are all public trackers. There are all sorts of private trackers for various specialized torrents, or if you just dig trackers with ratio enforcement. Usually a Google search will point you in the right direction of anything you can't find.

Tips - I like this guide (http://www.bootstrike.com/Articles/BitTorrentGuide/index.html).

Thanks for the updates. I'm gonna give this a shot in the next couple of days. :)

[MikeMar]

Anyone have a list of some of the sites that are still up?

[newsposter]

list of sites would be great..i hadnt d/l in months but tivo cut something off and i couldnt find a site right away

[MasterOfPuppets]

I don't use too many different trackers...but.

All Purpose Public Trackers:
IsoHunt (http://www.isohunt.com)
Mininova (http://www.mininova.org)
The Pirate Bay (http://www.thepiratebay.org)
BT Junkie (http://btjunkie.org/) (I hate this one)

Ones I Haven't Used, But Have A Decent Following:
Bite Nova (http://www.bitenova.nl/)
Snarf It (http://www.snarf-it.org/)
Torrent Box (http://www.torrentbox.com)
Torrent Portal (http://www.torrentportal.com)
Torrent Reactor (http://www.torrentreactor.to/)

TV:
EZTV (http://www.eztv.it)
TV Torrents (http://www.tvtorrents.com) (Private, need "credits")

Public Domain:
LegalTorrents (http://www.legaltorrents.com)

This doesn't touch on specialized private trackers, such as BlackCats, since this isn't really the place to discuss such trackers. :p

[atrac]

Thank you for that list of sites! I was literally just going to ask that question when I saw the thread on the first page again. :)

[DevdogAZ]

They used to keep an updated list of the most popular sites on www.slyck.com, but I just went there and it appears they have redesigned the site and I don't see the link to the list of sites.

[cal_s7]

http://torrentscan.com/

Its a search site for the other sites.
Pirate Bay and Mininova are nice in that allot of torrents have good comments about what the torrent is like.

isohunt seems to very good at searching out harder to find torrents, but has no comments.

I have recently discovered
http://www.tvrss.net/shows/
and combine it with something like Netvibes and you get custom rss feeds for torrents with a nice layout.

[amtsuchida]

I will add that I love Torrents. I watch all my tv from Torrents, and I haven't missed anything this season. I mostly use Mininova, but add IsoHunt when I can't find something. The EZTV torrents are good quality, but those can be found on Mininova so you don't really need to go to their site.

And we have been able to find some Japanese anime that my husband was looking for. He was able to catch up three seasons to start watching what is current.

For anyone who will be watching on the computer, get a copy of VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc). It seems to play everything (even when Media Player doesn't like the file).

One question - he wants to put the shows on DVD, but they are in mkv format. My dvd creator program can't read those - is there a free converter anywhere? Or better dvd creator software?

[Dignan]

I convert MKV files with Visualhub ($23) on my Mac to MP4 for playback on my Apple TV. I know Super is supposed to work on the PC side.

I think this writers strike might make torrents a bit more popular. I know I'm downloading a lot, also renting movies.

[Hot4Bo]

How long is it supposed to take to download a two hour show? I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but it always takes days if it even works at all. I don't do it often, only when I miss an episode of some show (like last week's Biggest Loser). It's still trying to download and it's been literally days!

[MasterOfPuppets]

How long is it supposed to take to download a two hour show? I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but it always takes days if it even works at all. I don't do it often, only when I miss an episode of some show (like last week's Biggest Loser). It's still trying to download and it's been literally days!

It depends on your connection speed and how many people are seeding the file.
To a lesser extent it also depends on the ratio of seeders to leechers.

[ClutchBrake]

How long is it supposed to take to download a two hour show? I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but it always takes days if it even works at all. I don't do it often, only when I miss an episode of some show (like last week's Biggest Loser). It's still trying to download and it's been literally days!

I'm still trying to learn BT but would like to help. Take anyone else's advice over mine. ;)

What bittorent client are you using?

What is your broadband connection speed (down and up)?

Do you connect directly to the internet or through a router?

How old is the episode of the show you are trying to get (if it is not last week's BL)?

[Hot4Bo]

I'm still trying to learn BT but would like to help. Take anyone else's advice over mine. ;)

What bittorent client are you using?

What is your broadband connection speed (down and up)?

Do you connect directly to the internet or through a router?

How old is the episode of the show you are trying to get (if it is not last week's BL)?

I'm using Azureus (it was recommended in another thread).

I have no idea what my connection speed is.

I am connecting through a router (actually a cable gateway).

The show is last week's BL.

[DevdogAZ]

How long is it supposed to take to download a two hour show? I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but it always takes days if it even works at all. I don't do it often, only when I miss an episode of some show (like last week's Biggest Loser). It's still trying to download and it's been literally days!

As MasterofPuppets said, it depends on lots of factors, but I'll very often get a one-hour show in anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. This is using tvtorrents.com, which I find to be significantly faster than any other site I've used. When I was still using tvrss.net (which is just an index for mininova), they usually took 2-6 hours.

[Jonathan_S]

As MasterofPuppets said, it depends on lots of factors, but I'll very often get a one-hour show in anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. This is using tvtorrents.com, which I find to be significantly faster than any other site I've used. When I was still using tvrss.net (which is just an index for mininova), they usually took 2-6 hours.
And based on my experience, the time it takes to download is pretty heavily influenced by your upload speed* and consumer broadband tend to be pretty weak on upload (In general DSL is worse than Cable which is worse than FIOS).

*That's because of BitTorrents "tit for tat" balancing system, where a node gives download preference to the nodes which are sending it the most information.

[Hot4Bo]

OK, you all seem to think it should take hours. Since I'm going on a week and it happens every time I try to do this, something is telling me that I probably shouldn't be doing this because I don't know enough about this to troubleshoot it. :(

[newsposter]

OK, you all seem to think it should take hours. Since I'm going on a week and it happens every time I try to do this, something is telling me that I probably shouldn't be doing this because I don't know enough about this to troubleshoot it. :(

you havent told us (i may have missed it) how you connect to the internet. Do you pay for dialup or do you have a faster connection.

I have a mediocre dsl connection and the last time i downloaded a 1 hour show it did take several hours, but less than a day. ( i did it over the course of 3 days actually)

you can check the download speed right on your program...it may be something like 2.0kps or a higher number. Since your show is recent, there should be a lot of people from which to download but as others said, if you arent sending out anything, you wont have the fastest speed of download either, regardless of connection.

if you are positive the thing is being downloaded, even at a slow speed, just keep on doing it, you have nothing to lose. on dialup it did take near a week of me being on the computer in the evening for it to download

[ClutchBrake]

you havent told us (i may have missed it) how you connect to the internet. Do you pay for dialup or do you have a faster connection.

Broadband is cable, per a recent post.

[David Platt]

As MasterofPuppets said, it depends on lots of factors, but I'll very often get a one-hour show in anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. This is using tvtorrents.com, which I find to be significantly faster than any other site I've used. When I was still using tvrss.net (which is just an index for mininova), they usually took 2-6 hours.

Dang, are you sure you have things set up right? I routinely get hour-long shows from tvtorrents in less than five minutes!! :D

[fmowry]

Just a note. mrtwig.com for South Park torrents. No affiliation but I wanted to watch a couple season where I didn't Tivo them so I'll put 'em on my Zen or Zune.

Frank

[newsposter]

Broadband is cable, per a recent post.

oh, didnt know what cable gateway was lol..i thought it was a cable hooked up to something..well..actually it is. Just the term gateway threw me

so i guess i can tell people i have a dsl gateway. You learn something new everyday

[ClutchBrake]

oh, didnt know what cable gateway was lol..i thought it was a cable hooked up to something..well..actually it is. Just the term gateway threw me

so i guess i can tell people i have a dsl gateway. You learn something new everyday

Gateways are HORRIBLE. SBC tried to make me use one once. It forces you to use their crappy software. I sent it back immediately and had them send me a plain jane modem I could connect to my router. It's probably the root of this person's problem.

[PJO1966]

Gateways are HORRIBLE. SBC tried to make me use one once. It forces you to use their crappy software. I sent it back immediately and had them send me a plain jane modem I could connect to my router. It's probably the root of this person's problem.

I have an SBC gateway, but I disabled their software.

[newsposter]

Gateways are HORRIBLE. SBC tried to make me use one once. It forces you to use their crappy software. I sent it back immediately and had them send me a plain jane modem I could connect to my router. It's probably the root of this person's problem.

oh geez, the learning never stops...I had no idea. my dsl modem did come with a disk but it wasnt needed. So i dont have a gateway!

[mtnagel]

Okay, so I'm having some BT issues. So I moved today. I transferred over my DSL service to my new house. They called a couple days before to say I had to get a new modem because they were switching platforms or whatever. So I picked that up today and hooked everything up. My laptop can connect to my router just like before, but I'm trying to download something with uTorrent and I get the dreaded yellow triangle whereas before it was always green. So, what could have changed with the move? I have set up static IPs on my computers and they are still forwarding the port in my router. Any ideas?

[Enrique]

Okay, so I'm having some BT issues. So I moved today. I transferred over my DSL service to my new house. They called a couple days before to say I had to get a new modem because they were switching platforms or whatever. So I picked that up today and hooked everything up. My laptop can connect to my router just like before, but I'm trying to download something with uTorrent and I get the dreaded yellow triangle whereas before it was always green. So, what could have changed with the move? I have set up static IPs on my computers and they are still forwarding the port in my router. Any ideas?What kind of modem is it?

You said you have "static IPs on my computers" when you changed modems did you make sure they are still the same?

[mtnagel]

What kind of modem is it?

You said you have "static IPs on my computers" when you changed modems did you make sure they are still the same?Westell 6100.

I followed the guides on www.portforward.com for setting up a static IP on each computer. And yes, they are still the same and I have the right port forwarded for this IP address in the router setup page.

[Enrique]

Westell 6100.

I followed the guides on www.portforward.com for setting up a static IP on each computer. And yes, they are still the same and I have the right port forwarded for this IP address in the router setup page.I just want to get the straight, You have the Westell 6100 connected into a router or just the Westell 6100? And have you checked to see if the Westell 6100 need to be port forwarded too.

[mtnagel]

I just want to get the straight, You have the Westell 6100 connected into a router or just the Westell 6100? And have you checked to see if the Westell 6100 need to be port forwarded too.Hmmm... Now I'm confused. I have this Westell 6100 connected to my Belkin wireless router. I've never had to forward the port from my previous modem, so why would I need to now? If it matters, the Westell is connected by ethernet to the router, but it also came with a USB cable and it had a sticker that said to install the CD first, but since I wasn't using the USB, I didn't do that. Maybe I should actually try to read the instructions. I just figured it would be a simple swap out of the old modem for the new modem.

Thanks for your help.

[dswallow]

Hmmm... Now I'm confused. I have this Westell 6100 connected to my Belkin wireless router. I've never had to forward the port from my previous modem, so why would I need to now? If it matters, the Westell is connected by ethernet to the router, but it also came with a USB cable and it had a sticker that said to install the CD first, but since I wasn't using the USB, I didn't do that. Maybe I should actually try to read the instructions. I just figured it would be a simple swap out of the old modem for the new modem.

Thanks for your help.

You might look to see if the Westell can be put in a mode where all it does is act as a cable modem... turning off any firewall or routing or NAT it might do, since you have that function being handled by your other router.

[Enrique]

Hmmm... Now I'm confused. I have this Westell 6100 connected to my Belkin wireless router. I've never had to forward the port from my previous modem, so why would I need to now? If it matters, the Westell is connected by ethernet to the router, but it also came with a USB cable and it had a sticker that said to install the CD first, but since I wasn't using the USB, I didn't do that. Maybe I should actually try to read the instructions. I just figured it would be a simple swap out of the old modem for the new modem.

Thanks for your help.OK, now I see were we are at.

Info about the Westell 6100: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/318740/westell_6100_dsl_modemrouter_review.html

And to port forwarded for it.
http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Westell/Westell6100/Utorrent.htm

[mtnagel]

You might look to see if the Westell can be put in a mode where all it does is act as a cable modem... turning off any firewall or routing or NAT it might do, since you have that function being handled by your other router.

OK, now I see were we are at.

Info about the Westell 6100: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/318740/westell_6100_dsl_modemrouter_review.html

And to port forwarded for it.
http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Westell/Westell6100/Utorrent.htmWell I can't log into it using the 192.168.1.1 that portforward is giving me. So I can't turn any thing off.

[Enrique]

Well I can't log into it using the 192.168.1.1 that portforward is giving me. So I can't turn any thing off.Did you unplug from the Belkin wireless router and plug directly into the Westell 6100?

[mtnagel]

Did you unplug from the Belkin wireless router and plug directly into the Westell 6100?No, that would make too much sense. Well actually, I figured since the Belkin uses 192.168.2.1, not 1.1, that I would be okay. That probably sounds stupid. I don't know much about networking. I'll try it when I get a chance.

[mtnagel]

Okay, I'm back. I tried plugging the Westell directly into my PC and I still couldn't get to the setup page for it. But then I found this page (http://www.flex.com/adsl/westell_6100/) that says they come from ISPs so that you can't connect to the setup page for it and that it's in dummy mode. But could that be the case here since it's actually blocking these ports? Is this something I should call my ISP about, but how would I explain what I want to do? This is so annoying because everything worked fine with their old modem.

[mtnagel]

So I found out the modem has an integrated firewall (from the Westell page (http://www.westell.com/broadband-home-networking/liteline-modems.html)), just as Doug suggested. Now I just need to figure out how to turn it off.

[jmoak]

So I found out the modem has an integrated firewall (from the Westell page (http://www.westell.com/broadband-home-networking/liteline-modems.html)), just as Doug suggested. Now I just need to figure out how to turn it off.Here ya go!:)

http://www.westell.com/images/pdf/bc90_6000_6100_6110_ug.pdf

Section 12.1, page 85:

"Port Forwarding Ranges of Ports"

It won't turn it off, but setting a few ports for torrents should be what you're looking for, if it will allow you in.
(I think!)
:)

[Enrique]

Okay, I'm back. I tried plugging the Westell directly into my PC and I still couldn't get to the setup page for it. But then I found this page (http://www.flex.com/adsl/westell_6100/) that says they come from ISPs so that you can't connect to the setup page for it and that it's in dummy mode. But could that be the case here since it's actually blocking these ports? Is this something I should call my ISP about, but how would I explain what I want to do? This is so annoying because everything worked fine with their old modem.If you going to call your ISP just tell them you want to open up a port on your modem but don't know how(they don't need to know what it's for, if they ask just say playing a game on your Xbox(or for your Tivo) or something like that)most ISPs have remote access to there own equipment.

[mtnagel]

Here ya go!:)

http://www.westell.com/images/pdf/bc90_6000_6100_6110_ug.pdf

Section 12.1, page 85:

"Port Forwarding Ranges of Ports"

It won't turn it off, but setting a few ports for torrents should be what you're looking for, if it will allow you in.
(I think!)
:)Thanks, that helps a bit. I've figured out how to access the configuration page, but now I'm having another issue. I used portforward.com to add the port to the Westell, but the last line on portforward.com is to click enable, but when I do that, I get a message that says, "Host Service? Host will allow incoming connections to the local PC. Dynamic will only allow outgoing connections from any local PC. OK = Host; Cancel = Dynamic". If I hit cancel, that doesn't work. If I hit OK, a box pops up that says Host Device, but the drop down is empty or it say specify IP Address and a box. If I put in the IP address of the PC, it says, "Address is not part of the Private Subnet." So what do I do here?

I've already turned off the firewall of the Westell, but is there anyway to just turn off all this router functions and just use it as a modem?

[mtnagel]

If you going to call your ISP just tell them you want to open up a port on your modem but don't know how(they don't need to know what it's for, if they ask just say playing a game on your Xbox(or for your Tivo) or something like that)most ISPs have remote access to there own equipment.Well hopefully I don't need to call. As I said, I am able to access the Westell's configuration page, so hopefully I'm getting closer.

[dswallow]

Thanks, that helps a bit. I've figured out how to access the configuration page, but now I'm having another issue. I used portforward.com to add the port to the Westell, but the last line on portforward.com is to click enable, but when I do that, I get a message that says, "Host Service? Host will allow incoming connections to the local PC. Dynamic will only allow outgoing connections from any local PC. OK = Host; Cancel = Dynamic". If I hit cancel, that doesn't work. If I hit OK, a box pops up that says Host Device, but the drop down is empty or it say specify IP Address and a box. If I put in the IP address of the PC, it says, "Address is not part of the Private Subnet." So what do I do here?

I've already turned off the firewall of the Westell, but is there anyway to just turn off all this router functions and just use it as a modem?

Generally there'll be some way to identify hosts on your network based on the MAC address. It might be a table where you can manually configure them or it might be a table you can populate based on traffic on the network, etc. This usually lets you do various forwarding to a particular system and still use DHCP which may assign different IP addresses on your local network from time to time. Alternately you can assign static private IP's to your local machines, and then there'll be some way to tell the router those IP's (or again maybe it detects them to populate the list), and you'd select from those.

So look around your configuration pages on the router for something that lets you create a list of host names somehow and read up on that in the documentation.

[Malcontent]

I've already turned off the firewall of the Westell, but is there anyway to just turn off all this router functions and just use it as a modem?

You will want to switch the Westell to what is called "Bridged" mode. Which turns the Westell into just a "dumb" broadband modem. It will turn off the built-in router fuctions. In Bridged mode, you can then use your own router if you want or just connect to your computer and use a software firewall.

As to how to switch to bridge mode, I don't know. With my previous ISP, I had to call a tech. and have him switch my dsl modem/router to bridged mode. I was using a different modem then a Westell. I then connected my own router and was then able forward ports ect.

[mtnagel]

Generally there'll be some way to identify hosts on your network based on the MAC address. It might be a table where you can manually configure them or it might be a table you can populate based on traffic on the network, etc. This usually lets you do various forwarding to a particular system and still use DHCP which may assign different IP addresses on your local network from time to time. Alternately you can assign static private IP's to your local machines, and then there'll be some way to tell the router those IP's (or again maybe it detects them to populate the list), and you'd select from those.

So look around your configuration pages on the router for something that lets you create a list of host names somehow and read up on that in the documentation.I do assign static private IPs to my local machines. I tried entering that and it gave me an error so I'm not quite sure what to do here.

Now the Westell is using 192.168.200.10 through something (I'm not in front of my computer) as the range in the configuration page for DCHP, whereas I'm using 192.168.2.2 and .3 for my two machines. Should I change those to fall within the range of the Westell or should I change the Westell range? And there is also an option to turn off DHCP? Do I want to do that? I think I did that and I lost all connectivity. I had to reset the modem.

You will want to switch the Westell to what is called "Bridged" mode. Which turns the Westell into just a "dumb" broadband modem. It will turn off the built-in router fuctions. In Bridged mode, you can then use your own router if you want or just connect to your computer and use a software firewall.

As to how to switch to bridge mode, I don't know. With my previous ISP, I had to call a tech. and have him switch my dsl modem/router to bridged mode. I was using a different modem then a Westell. I then connected my own router and was then able forward ports ect.Well I sent an e-mail to my ISP about turning off the router functionality and this was their response, "Unfortunately, there is not a way to make the Westell 6100 function as a simple bridge on the ZoomTown network, it must be left in router mode." :mad:

Oh and thanks for the help (Doug too). It seems like this should be a lot simpler.

[Johnny Dancing]

I only got through about 8 of the pages here. So I am not sure if this has been posted...

I always had problems with torrent download speeds until I found router bittorent (http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/routerindex.htm) setup site.

They give specific settings and instructions based on the router and the bittorent utility you are using. I went from 25 kbs being normal to 250kbs being a normal download speed after using the recommended settings.

[YCantAngieRead]

Can I ask what torrent sites people use here? I've been looking to download The Closer and am having a terrible time finding it.

ETA: That being-I've found it, but can't find someplace to download it that doesn't take days on end. Not enough feeders.

[PJO1966]

Can I ask what torrent sites people use here? I've been looking to download The Closer and am having a terrible time finding it.

ETA: That being-I've found it, but can't find someplace to download it that doesn't take days on end. Not enough feeders.

I always search isohunt.com first.

[Enrique]

Can I ask what torrent sites people use here? I've been looking to download The Closer and am having a terrible time finding it.

ETA: That being-I've found it, but can't find someplace to download it that doesn't take days on end. Not enough feeders.I use 4 different sites:

tvtorrents.com

all4nothin.net

ilovetorrents.com

thepeerhub.com

These are all private sites(which you can join and make requests for uploads)

[mtnagel]

I do assign static private IPs to my local machines. I tried entering that and it gave me an error so I'm not quite sure what to do here.

Now the Westell is using 192.168.200.10 through something (I'm not in front of my computer) as the range in the configuration page for DCHP, whereas I'm using 192.168.2.2 and .3 for my two machines. Should I change those to fall within the range of the Westell or should I change the Westell range? And there is also an option to turn off DHCP? Do I want to do that? I think I did that and I lost all connectivity. I had to reset the modem.
So I tried turning off DHCP on the modem and that killed my connection. I had to reset the modem to get it back. Can anyone help?

[dswallow]

So I tried turning off DHCP on the modem and that killed my connection. I had to reset the modem to get it back. Can anyone help?

The basic thing going on here is that you're getting a public IP address from your ISP. The Westell router provides a translation for devices on your side of it such that they are given private IP addresses (either through DHCP or through you manually setting static private IP addresses that match up with how the Westell is configured). That's generally called "NAT" or "Network Address Translation". A variant is "PAT" or "Port Address Translation", also commonly referred to as port forwarding, where you tell the router that traffic on a particular port at a particular address should be routed to some other particular port at some other particular address.

Now what you have is another router device connected to the Westell. And that router is going to do the same thing... except that the "ISP" to it is your Westell router, and all your computers and other IP devices are on "your side" of the router. So your router is going to ask the Westell router for an IP address, which the Westell is going to give from its pool of private IP addresses, and then your router is going to give out other private IP address to devices you connect to it, such as your computer. It, too, will also allow you to forward ports as well.

There's a few important prerequisites to know:

1) The private IP addresses the Westell is going to hand out have to be in a different network block than the private IP addresses your other router is going to hand out. For instance, the Westell might be using 192.168.100.x then your other router has to use a different block, such as 192.168.101.x.

2) You need to be aware that you now need to configure port forwarding rules in both places to get incoming ports from the public IP address space to a particular computer on your network. For instance, on the Westell you'd open port 69100 (or whatever port number you selected for this) so it goes to IP 192.168.100.50 (i.e, the IP address assigned by the Westell to your router -- this is just an example), then your router would need to port forward the same port to the particular computer, such as 192.168.101.77 (or whatever IP it has). In such cases you may need to statically configure IP addresses in order to do this, if your router doesn't support a way to create this mapping by a name or MAC address, since DHCP may give out different addresses to the same device.

Now on the Westell side, you may be able to configure a "server" or a "default system" that receives all incoming traffic; then you can avoid having to do the extra port forwards by assigning the IP address it gives to your other router as the destination for all incoming traffic. That is, in a way, similar to what we were trying to accomplish by suggesting using that device more as a bridge than as a router.

A simple way to test if you get port forwarding set up correctly is to have someone else, on a different connection, try to telnet to your public IP address on the port that you've assigned to your Bittorrent client for incoming connections and have port forwarded through your router(s). It'll either connect, or not connect. And if it connects, that means Bittorrent would work with it, too. If it doesn't connect, something still isn't forwarding correctly. You could do this in stages, too... first remove your router completely from the equation and connect your computer directly to the Westell router, configuring it with the proper private IP address or use DHCP, then have someone try to make a connection to the port you've configured, and so forth.

[mtnagel]

Wow, thanks Doug. I know you've helped me before and I appreciate it. I guess I have some more playing around to do. I like the idea of removing the wireless router and just trying to configure the Westell on my desktop first as my desktop is the one that I need more ports open for anyway. I only use Bittorrent on my laptop, so I only need to open one port for it.

I did also e-mail my ISP's tech support and basically they said they don't support, advanced configuration of the Westell router." :rolleyes: But then he went on to give me some help anyway. I guess I have some playing around today when I get home.

[DevdogAZ]

Can I ask what torrent sites people use here? I've been looking to download The Closer and am having a terrible time finding it.

ETA: That being-I've found it, but can't find someplace to download it that doesn't take days on end. Not enough feeders.
For TV shows, I've found TVTorrents.com to be the best and fastest. I just looked and they've got them all, although there aren't a ton of seeders since the show hasn't aired recently. I think because of that, you're not going to find many seeders anywhere. If you don't have an account at TVTorrents.com, PM me your e-mail address and I'll send you one.

[TiVo Bum]

Can I ask what torrent sites people use here? I've been looking to download The Closer and am having a terrible time finding it.

ETA: That being-I've found it, but can't find someplace to download it that doesn't take days on end. Not enough feeders.

For TV shows, I've found TVTorrents.com to be the best and fastest.
Ditto from me on TVTorrents. Was using it so much that I ended up donating to the site and now I get double the upload credits - currently at 1.17TCreds - so anybody needing some credits to start off with, just PM me and I'll be happy to give ya some. :)

Angie, your post reminded me that I needed to grab Season 3 of The Closer so I downloaded it last night. 5.46GB took 2 hours and 16 minutes to finish. Gotta love Verizon FiOS. If you don't want to take the time to d/l the series I'd be happy to burn the .avi files to a couple of DVDs and mail 'em to ya.

[Johnny Dancing]

I have been using thepiratebay.org It seems to be have the largest selection of torrents. Isohunt seems pretty good also.

BTW: Great story on the underbelly of bittorents and piratebay here (http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/08/71543).

[MasterOfPuppets]

isohunt.com has finally adopted a "comments" system.

Once it gets built up a little bit, it could very well pass Mininova as my personal favorite tracker due to the massive volume there.

[David Makman]

So, I followed the directions here, and downloaded Azureus to my Imac, and am trying to make it work. It won't. I ran the "configuration wizard", and encountered a test routine, that is supposed to check my port. It gives me this error.

Testing port 57253 ...
NAT Error - Connect attempt to 24.4.90.153:57253 (your computer) timed out after 20 seconds. This means your port is probably closed.

How the heck does one open a port on an Imac?

[efilippi]

You open the port on your router, not on your computer.

[keyzersoce]

Remove your firewall.

[tase2]

Is there a way to d/l a torrent of say a movie for a s/a DVD player, that you can either d/l with subtitles embedded or burn in such a way that you can have the subtitles option?

[Peter000]

Maybe not torrents, but newsgroups have a much wider variety of program downloads available. I'm not sure I've ever seen english subtitles though.

[EchoBravo]

With initial help from this thread, I just used Transmission on my Mac to get a couple episodes of a TV show I had missed. It was 2 random episodes of a now cancelled series. Because there were only 2 seeders usually (4 at one really strong point), it literally took the better part of a week to download 349 MB.

It would download 1 or 5 or 11 MB at a time, then stop for hours... Then I'd come back and see it downloading a little again.

Pretty cool that it never times out and just keeps chugging along. Am I correct to assume that more popular stuff would have more seeders and download much faster?

[aadam101]

+1 for TVTorrents. I got an invite from someone here and it is by far the fastest torrent site I have ever seen. They have very strict sharing rules but it is worth it. I have a few invitations if anyone wants one.

[MasterOfPuppets]

With initial help from this thread, I just used Transmission on my Mac to get a couple episodes of a TV show I had missed. It was 2 random episodes of a now cancelled series. Because there were only 2 seeders usually (4 at one really strong point), it literally took the better part of a week to download 349 MB.

It would download 1 or 5 or 11 MB at a time, then stop for hours... Then I'd come back and see it downloading a little again.

Pretty cool that it never times out and just keeps chugging along. Am I correct to assume that more popular stuff would have more seeders and download much faster?

Anything with a solid ratio of seeders to leechers will download much faster.
Technically if there were 4 seeders and only you were leeching, then it should be reasonably fast.

[phox_mulder]

Am I correct to assume that more popular stuff would have more seeders and download much faster?

I'm downloading something at home right now that has over 1100 seeders.
1.4 gig is supposed to take only 4-6 hours to download.

There are a couple BBC programmes (note the British spelling ;)) that have upwards of 600 seeders for about a week after they air, then it starts falling off when the new episode shows up.

There was one I was trying to get, rather old, and there was only a couple seeders and it was going to take over a week to download, so I cancelled.


phox

[tase2]

Any other thoughts on downloads w/ subtitles?

[logic88]

Is there a way to d/l a torrent of say a movie for a s/a DVD player, that you can either d/l with subtitles embedded or burn in such a way that you can have the subtitles option?

Use something like DVD Flick (http://www.dvdflick.net/) to convert to DVD Video. It supports SRT subtitles.

[tivolovr]

+1 for TVTorrents. I got an invite from someone here and it is by far the fastest torrent site I have ever seen. They have very strict sharing rules but it is worth it. I have a few invitations if anyone wants one.

I know it's been a few months but if your offer still stands I'd appreciate the invite to TVTorrents.com. Also if you or anyone else here has an invite to Demonoid.com that would also be appreciated.

Please PM me if this is still available.

Thanks! :)

UPDATE: Someone here sent me the invite! Much thanks.

[LoadStar]

I know it's been a few months but if your offer still stands I'd appreciate the invite to TVTorrents.com. Also if you or anyone else here has an invite to Demonoid.com that would also be appreciated.

Please PM me if this is still available.

Thanks! :)

+1 :D

ETA: Never mind. I was looking for an episode I couldn't find on usenet, but I subsequently found it. I'll stick with usenet, I rather dislike BT.

[Enrique]

I know it's been a few months but if your offer still stands I'd appreciate the invite to TVTorrents.com. Also if you or anyone else here has an invite to Demonoid.com that would also be appreciated.

Please PM me if this is still available.

Thanks! :)

+1 :D

Pm me your email address(I only have 2 left for TVTorrents.com).

[TiVo Bum]

I'm back up to 3 invites for TVTorrents so if anybody else needs one just PM me your email address and I'll set you up with 10 gig.

Update: All 3 sent out. I'll post here as I'm able to send more.

[jilter]

/subscribe

Question.....
I am trying to see episodes of a show from Season 1.
They appear with seeds, but stay at 0 for days.
Should I leave the client running and eventually something will appear?
Sorry for being so dumb, just trying to figure it out.
Definite novice here.