Explain torrents to me in the simplest possible terms.

[cherry ghost]

In addition, you must be seeding or uploading files to the TVtorrents.com tracker to gain credits. Any torrents seeding or uploading to other sites will not count toward your credits on TVTorrents.

How do I know if my torrent is going through TVtorrents tracker?

Did you download a show from somewhere else and now you're trying to seed it at TVtorrents?

[ufo4sale]

Did you download a show from somewhere else and now you're trying to seed it at TVtorrents?

Yes. I can't download anything on that site because I have zero credits. In order for me to get credits I have to seed a show but I can't due that because I have no credits.

[dswallow]

Yes. I can't download anything on that site because I have zero credits. In order for me to get credits I have to seed a show but I can't due that because I have no credits.
You need to find a torrent available elsewhere that is also being offered via tvtorrents.com. Download it from elsewhere, then download the same torrent from tvtorrents.com allowing it to use the file downloaded from the other source so it begins seeding right away. Once that's seeded for a short while, your credits will be building up and then you can download directly from tvtorrents.com.

Most any of the popular TV series current episodes should be easy to locate in both places. Just compare file names and reported file sizes and you should be able to find one that's the same in both places.

[cherry ghost]

Yes. I can't download anything on that site because I have zero credits. In order for me to get credits I have to seed a show but I can't due that because I have no credits.

You need to find a show somewhere else that is identical to one at TVtorrents, download it from the other site and then seed it at TVtorrents. Try Isohunt and look for some of the popular shows like 24 and Heroes.

[sync]

The easiest thing is to donate a few dollars and get download credit to get you started.

[ufo4sale]

Are there certain extentions that I have to use for tvtorrents in order to seed?

[cherry ghost]

Are there certain extentions that I have to use for tvtorrents in order to seed?

As long as the file you downloaded elsewhere is the same as one on TVtorrents, seeding should work.

[YCantAngieRead]

Okay, I need help again.

Azureus isn't working for me again. This is a screenshot of what I'm seeing.

[sync]

Okay, I need help again.

Azureus isn't working for me again. This is a screenshot of what I'm seeing.
I assume the Ugly Betty download is the one you are asking about. I don't use Azureus but it looks like you haven't connected to any seeders or peers yet for that torrent. It can take a while sometimes.

Has it started dwonloading yet?

[sync]

Another possiblity is that you are trying to download from a tracker that requires you to be registered with them.

If you can post a screenshot like this one:
http://azureus.sourceforge.net/doc/Azureus%20User%20Guide.htm#_Toc93175498

for that torrent, then it will show what the problem is.

[YCantAngieRead]

Well, yes and no. Basically I just wanted to know why I'm firewalled again.

[logic88]

So does anyone have a spare Demonoid invite?

Thanks.

[coldtoes]

I just want to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread! I just got started with this and have had no problems thanks to your help.

I chose uTorrent as some people suggested it was less of a resource hog, and it seems great for a newbie - when you first install it it automatically directs you to portforward.com, so I was able to get my router configured correctly right off the bat, and then it tests it for you and tells you if you've done it right. I've never tried Azureus but uTorrent seems great.I do all the above steps and then run it through videora tivo converter and then watch them on tivo :)I downloaded this (it's free!) and it transcoded my first download (a 60-min show) in a mere 20 minutes, then I pulled it to my wireless S2 DT in like 1/3 or 1/4 realtime and watched it. Awesome! Videora is great and easy - I am a person who would never watch shows on my PC so this was what I needed to make bittorrent work for me.

You guys are the best, as always.

[cherry ghost]

I downloaded this (it's free!) and it transcoded my first download (a 60-min show) in a mere 20 minutes, then I pulled it to my wireless S2 DT in like 1/3 or 1/4 realtime and watched it. Awesome! Videora is great and easy - I am a person who would never watch shows on my PC so this was what I needed to make bittorrent work for me.

You guys are the best, as always.

Now your next step is to give Tivo.net a try. It transcodes and transfers at the same time and will save you that "mere 20 minutes."

[DevdogAZ]

Now your next step is to give Tivo.net a try. It transcodes and transfers at the same time and will save you that "mere 20 minutes."
Please elaborate. I've never heard of this.

[cherry ghost]

Please elaborate. I've never heard of this.


Here's the thread. It's a work in progress and works better for some than others.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=337822&page=1&pp=30

[coldtoes]

Here's the thread. It's a work in progress and works better for some than others.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=337822&page=1&pp=30Wow, that sounds awesome! Thanks for the tip. I have spent too much time this week messing around with bittorrent but once I have managed some billable hours testing out TiVo.net will be next on my list. :)

[Hot4Bo]

I decided to give torrents a try tonight because my darn cable company went dark on NBC so the TiVo didn't record Grease tonight. I downloaded Azureus and I'm searching for the torrent.

My question is this - how soon after a show is a torrent usually available? I can't seem to find tonight's episode.

BTW, this was a great thread! Very informative! Thanks for starting it, Angie!

[cherry ghost]

I decided to give torrents a try tonight because my darn cable company went dark on NBC so the TiVo didn't record Grease tonight. I downloaded Azureus and I'm searching for the torrent.

My question is this - how soon after a show is a torrent usually available? I can't seem to find tonight's episode.

BTW, this was a great thread! Very informative! Thanks for starting it, Angie!

For a show like Grease(no offense intended), I wouldn't expect to find it until the next day.

[Hot4Bo]

Darn! I know it's not real popular but a few of the girls at work and I all watch it and I know they'll be talking about it tomorrow.

Thanks!

[DevdogAZ]

I tried to find it this morning for my wife and it wasn't there yet. Some shows are there within an hour or two. I'm in the mountain time zone and I've even found things online before they even air in my timezone. But as cherry ghost said, something like Grease isn't that popular and might not show up for a bit.

[Hot4Bo]

At least I know I'm not doing something wrong now since I still can't find it.

Episode 7 (last week) seems to be really popular. I still can't find Episode 8 anywhere and I'm getting frustrated.

[Hot4Bo]

OK, it's been 24 hours. Does it really normally take this long for someone, somewhere to post a torrent of a TV show?

[MasterOfPuppets]

I'm not a fan of the show, but I just checked over at http://www.nbc.com/Grease/episodes/ (Possible spoilers) and the latest episode recap is for episode 7.
Are you sure that an episode 8 has aired?

[David Platt]

Yep, there have been eight episodes, according to www.epguides.com

[Hot4Bo]

Yes, episode 7 was shown on 2/25. Yesterday (3/4) was episode 8.

[Hot4Bo]

It so figures that it's now 48 hours. The first time I ever even try to do this and the one show that I want doesn't exist. Amazing!

[MasterOfPuppets]

All I can recommend in this case would be going to some sort of Grease fan forum and asking them if they know of any links.

[Hot4Bo]

Thanks. I'll try that.

[David Platt]

It so figures that it's now 48 hours. The first time I ever even try to do this and the one show that I want doesn't exist. Amazing!

I don't know what's going on with that episode-- a really reliable site I visit has every episode, but not that one.

[Hot4Bo]

Just my luck!

[Hot4Bo]

FYI for anyone else who's looking for it, it's going to be on Bravo on Thursday night and Friday night. I don't have Bravo (I have a really, really bad cable company) but I'm sure some of my family must have it.

[DevdogAZ]

According to http://tvrss.net/search/?show_name=Grease+Youre+the+One+That+I+Want&show_name_exact=true, episode 8 hasn't been posted yet, and episode 5 never showed up either. I guess this show a) isn't really the type of show people want to watch days later, and b) it's not that popular.

[tlrowley]

I have a copy of Grease Episode 8 - it still has commercials in it - it was recorded from OTA digital then compressed to 1G for the hour. If you want to figure out some way of getting it (maybe Pando?) let me know. (I'm not interested in seeding a torrent - I'll get eaten alive for having commercials and I have no way of removing them).

Tracey

[dswallow]

Episode 8 of Grease: You're the One That I Want is available at www.tvtorrents.com now: http://www.tvtorrents.com/loggedin/show.do?id=637

[Hot4Bo]

Thanks for the link.

I actually got the show on *gasp* a VCR tape from my mom who has Bravo (they repeated the show yesterday).

I did try the link though just because I've never done a torrent and figured I'd try it. It doesn't work for me because I have no credits. How do they expect you to get credits if you've never done this before? I'm going to go back and re-read this thread because I seem to recall reading about this before.

[dswallow]

Thanks for the link.

I actually got the show on *gasp* a VCR tape from my mom who has Bravo (they repeated the show yesterday).

I did try the link though just because I've never done a torrent and figured I'd try it. It doesn't work for me because I have no credits. How do they expect you to get credits if you've never done this before? I'm going to go back and re-read this thread because I seem to recall reading about this before.
You have to work a bit for it; we've talked about it several times in this thread. But the basics are that you get a popular torrent download from another site that's identical to one on tvtorrents.com (there are many), download it via the other tracker, then start the tvtorrent tracker version and point to the previously downloaded file; it'll start seeding it and you'll start earning credits.

Another way is for an existing member to issue an invite to you and transfer some of their credits to kick off your account.

[sync]

You can also donate a couple dollars via paypal to started. That is what I did.

[sync]

You can get that episode here
http://www.mininova.org/get/613462
and you won't need credits.

[MasterOfPuppets]

You can also download it from EZTV (http://www.bt-chat.com/download.php?info_hash=3fc0f5ff215008be0ce8f87b4275b0b446e8c 352)
EZTV is another TV torrent website, but it doesn't require credits. It's also where the Mininova torrent originated from.

[David Platt]

Another way is for an existing member to issue an invite to you and transfer some of their credits to kick off your account.

That's a good bit of info to know-- I didn't realize you could do that! I've got so many credits built up that I could never use them all. :)

[DevdogAZ]

That's a good bit of info to know-- I didn't realize you could do that! I've got so many credits built up that I could never use them all. :)
I'd be happy to take some of those off your hands. I always get my stuff from mininova (via tvrss.net) but the Grease thing this week threw me off since it never showed up there (until after it re-aired on Bravo). I'd like an additional place to check for shows.

[dswallow]

I'd be happy to take some of those off your hands. I always get my stuff from mininova (via tvrss.net) but the Grease thing this week threw me off since it never showed up there (until after it re-aired on Bravo). I'd like an additional place to check for shows.
Anyone here who'd like an invite to tvtorrents.com can just send me their email address in a PM and I'll send off an invite. The invite is good for one week; it's usuable either for a new account or to activate an existing account, though for existing accounts you have to email the invite on to the tvtorrents.com admins who'll manually transfer the credits, and that can take a couple hours.

Make sure any spam filtering you have will allow email from @tvtorrents.com.

[Hot4Bo]

Thanks everyone for all your help. I'm going to try downloading again when I get home tonight just to see how this works for me.

Thanks again!

[David Platt]

Anyone here who'd like an invite to tvtorrents.com can just send me their email address in a PM and I'll send off an invite. The invite is good for one week; it's usuable either for a new account or to activate an existing account, though for existing accounts you have to email the invite on to the tvtorrents.com admins who'll manually transfer the credits, and that can take a couple hours.

Make sure any spam filtering you have will allow email from @tvtorrents.com.

The same offer goes for me. I'll send anybody who wants one an invite with 1GB of credits so you can start downloading immediately.

Please note that I reserve the right to rescind this offer at any time if the response is overwhelming and I don't have enough credits to give out. ;)

[dswallow]

Please note that I reserve the right to rescind this offer at any time if the response is overwhelming and I don't have enough credits to give out. ;)
Having more than 500GB of credits, I'm not particularly worried. :)

[Hot4Bo]

OK, I must have done something wrong. I went to the mininova link and downloaded the torrent there. It finally just finished and I double-clicked on the file in Azureus. It opened my WMP and started to play but there's no video, only audio.

Did I screw this up?

[dswallow]

OK, I must have done something wrong. I went to the mininova link and downloaded the torrent there. It finally just finished and I double-clicked on the file in Azureus. It opened my WMP and started to play but there's no video, only audio.

Did I screw this up?
You probably need to install the DivX codec... www.divx.com

[Hot4Bo]

Thanks, Doug. I'll try that.

[DevdogAZ]

So I downloaded my first show from tvtorrents.com last night (Thanks Doug). I was shocked at how fast it came. It was a one hour show (the pilot of "The Riches) and it finished downloading in less than 8 minutes. However, for some reason my seeding of that torrent has been horribly slow. After 30 minutes connected, my share ratio was .001. Nearly ten hours later, my share ratio is .387. Usually when I download something from mininova, it doesn't come down quite as fast, but I seed much faster and I usually hit my self-imposed share ratio of 2.0 within 8 hours or less.

So my question for you tvtorrents pros: Is there anything I can do to speed up my seeding? Is it just this particular file that just doesn't have a lot of people looking for it? Under Peers in Azureus, it says 0(2). My NAT OK light was green, but now it's yellow because it says there haven't been any incoming connections for such a long time. Am I doing something wrong or is this particular file just an anomaly?

[dswallow]

So I downloaded my first show from tvtorrents.com last night (Thanks Doug). I was shocked at how fast it came. It was a one hour show (the pilot of "The Riches) and it finished downloading in less than 8 minutes. However, for some reason my seeding of that torrent has been horribly slow. After 30 minutes connected, my share ratio was .001. Nearly ten hours later, my share ratio is .387. Usually when I download something from mininova, it doesn't come down quite as fast, but I seed much faster and I usually hit my self-imposed share ratio of 2.0 within 8 hours or less.

So my question for you tvtorrents pros: Is there anything I can do to speed up my seeding? Is it just this particular file that just doesn't have a lot of people looking for it? Under Peers in Azureus, it says 0(2). My NAT OK light was green, but now it's yellow because it says there haven't been any incoming connections for such a long time. Am I doing something wrong or is this particular file just an anomaly?
It's probably just an anomaly; especially if there's a lot of other seeders. You do earn credit simply for being connected as a seeder for a torrent, too... you don't actually have to be uploading to someone at the time; as long as the tracker knows you're there and available.

[DevdogAZ]

It's probably just an anomaly; especially if there's a lot of other seeders. You do earn credit simply for being connected as a seeder for a torrent, too... you don't actually have to be uploading to someone at the time; as long as the tracker knows you're there and available.
Ah, cool. So how do I know when it's OK to stop seeding if I'm not actually seeding, but still getting credit? If my credits now are higher than when I started, does that mean I'm good to go?

[dswallow]

Ah, cool. So how do I know when it's OK to stop seeding if I'm not actually seeding, but still getting credit? If my credits now are higher than when I started, does that mean I'm good to go?
There's no hard and fast rule to worry about. Overall you earn credits when you seed and you spend credits when you download. If you don't earn credits to cover your downloads, you won't be able to download.

[logic88]

So my question for you tvtorrents pros: Is there anything I can do to speed up my seeding? Is it just this particular file that just doesn't have a lot of people looking for it? Under Peers in Azureus, it says 0(2). My NAT OK light was green, but now it's yellow because it says there haven't been any incoming connections for such a long time. Am I doing something wrong or is this particular file just an anomaly?

I noticed the same thing with tvtorrents torrents. Perhaps their server is underpowered and can not track that many torrents. Even with 23 peers and only 4 seeds, my upload rate for one particular torrent ranges from 2K to 25K at any particular time. With torrents from other sites, my upload speed is almost always pegged at max.

[YCantAngieRead]

Anyone want to help me again? I'm getting firewall/NAT reachability status unknown. And about 7k per second.

It's been that way for a while and I can download, but it's just very, very slow. I'm not sure what changed because it was working just fine.

[rawbi01]

/subscribe

[SeanC]

Anyone want to help me again? I'm getting firewall/NAT reachability status unknown. And about 7k per second.

It's been that way for a while and I can download, but it's just very, very slow. I'm not sure what changed because it was working just fine.

Not knowing anything about how you are setup (static or DHCP assigned IP for instance) my first guess is that your IP address changed so now the port forwarding you setup in your router is not set to the proper IP.

That's a WAG though.

[sync]

That is probably a very good guess.

portforward.com is a good place for info on how this should be set up

[MasterOfPuppets]

Anyone want to help me again? I'm getting firewall/NAT reachability status unknown. And about 7k per second.

It's been that way for a while and I can download, but it's just very, very slow. I'm not sure what changed because it was working just fine.

I had this problem over the winter with uTorrent 1.6, but supposedly 1.6.1 addressed the problems that they were having...then again, I have no idea if you're even using uTorrent.
Also, if you set up your router to only do port forwarding, enabling UPnP is really the way to go if it's supported.
Or, as SeanC stated, perhaps your IP changed if you don't have a Static IP.
Another possibility is that you got throttled by your ISP.

Really just stabbing in the dark here.

[rambler]

I quit HBO a while ago, but with Sopranos and Entourage starting up again, I had to do something.....so I have done the bittorrent thing for the first time ever.

I am experiencing sync problems on 2 of the 4 shows I DL'd. The other 2 look magnificent. Can I assume the issue is with the torrents and not my PC? Is this common where a file might be distributed far and wide even though it is crummy quality?

EDIT - it was the torrents that were the problem. I DL'd others that worked fine. Also have verified that Videora works fine to modify the torrent file for the Tivo. Also have burned the original torrent file to dvd, with free programs called Avi2Dvd and ImgBurn. So I learned a lot this week! Biggest problem is no closed captions are available - which I like so as not to have the volume cranked at night, disturbing my sleeping kids.

[Montana Man]

Best thing to do is download the K-lite Mega Codec pack. With this pack you will have all the possible codecs you will need to view everything. Also the VLC player will usually play any video you download. Both are free and easy to find on the web.

Also DigitalHive.org is a VERY good place to find any torrent you may be looking for. They may have gone to invite only however. I usually pull upwards of 800kb/s from them on most torrents. I will have tv shows in less than 10 minutes usually and most movies/video games in under 2 hours.

[Rugged]

Need some torrent newbie help.

first of all thanks for the tutorial here. I was up and running in just a day and have downloaded countless torrents. I even downloaded the right codecs to watch them on my PC with WMP10. The problem I have is that I want to watch them on my DVD player but my Sony DVD doesn't support DivX...what options do I have. 2nd--I heard that my playstation 2 might support DivX...anyone know how I find that out. Finally, I tried to use WMP10 to burn the AVI files to my DVD-R and I got an error message--Code C00D1199.

I appreciate your help.

[rambler]

Run the .avi thru a free program called avi2dvd. It will take some time, I usually have the PC do it while I sleep. You will need to rename the source file beforehand to something short and simple without a lot of punctuation marks or you will get an error message.

Then take the .iso file, and burn it to dvd with another free program called imgburn.

[PJO1966]

Need some torrent newbie help.

first of all thanks for the tutorial here. I was up and running in just a day and have downloaded countless torrents. I even downloaded the right codecs to watch them on my PC with WMP10. The problem I have is that I want to watch them on my DVD player but my Sony DVD doesn't support DivX...what options do I have. 2nd--I heard that my playstation 2 might support DivX...anyone know how I find that out. Finally, I tried to use WMP10 to burn the AVI files to my DVD-R and I got an error message--Code C00D1199.

I appreciate your help.


I use ConvertXtoDVD. (http://www.vso-software.fr/products/convert_x_to_dvd/) After the download is complete I just drag it to ConvertX, drop a blank DVD in the computer and hit Convert. It takes a while, but it's really easy to use. There's a free trial, and I think it's $40 to purchase it. If you're going to be doing this a lot, it's worth the investment.

*edit* I just saw on-line that the free version leaves a watermark.

[dswallow]

For $40 (actually for less than $40) you can just buy a DVD player that supports DivX directly.

Or get a network media player that can play DivX and eliminate the need to even burn it to DVD or CD.

[PJO1966]

For $40 (actually for less than $40) you can just buy a DVD player that supports DivX directly.

Or get a network media player that can play DivX and eliminate the need to even burn it to DVD or CD.


I've actually been considering a network media player. I'm looking for one that upconverts to HD. Can you recommend any?

[dswallow]

I've actually been considering a network media player. I'm looking for one that upconverts to HD. Can you recommend any?
Avel LinkPlayer2 (typically $200-$230) and SwissCenter software (free). Supports HD DivX and has component output.

[PJO1966]

Avel LinkPlayer2 (typically $200-$230) and SwissCenter software (free). Supports HD DivX and has component output.


Ooh! Shiny! Time to start saving my pennies. Thanks.

[MasterOfPuppets]

PeerGuardian 2 has been available in a Beta release for Vista for a little while now...in case anyone has been waiting and would like to give it a try.
Fetch (http://forums.phoenixlabs.org/showthread.php?t=14168)

[ChickenCheese]

PeerGuardian 2 has been available in a Beta release for Vista for a little while now...in case anyone has been waiting and would like to give it a try.
Fetch (http://forums.phoenixlabs.org/showthread.php?t=14168)

What exactly does PeerGuradian do?

[Jebberwocky!]

For playing .avi movies on your TV, I am currently using my Zen Creative Vision W - picture looks as good as it does on the PC.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BYA8X3MNL._SS400_.jpg

There is an output to the three RCA colored plugs - and with the optional remote control, you can control the movie (pause, FF, RR . . .) just fine. The best part is that it doesn't require any conversion (most of the time)

It doesn't work with all movies, but it can convert many to the proper format (I converted some windows media movies) but it is not a quick process.

[wes000]

Ok I have tried this to view torrents on my 360 but it seems the link no longer works to dl the zip file or whatever. I was able to dl the player but now how can i set this up to covert things for my 360? I know Montag was able to do this but that was like 7 months ago.

[dtle]

What exactly does PeerGuradian do?

It prevents you from sending anything (especially torrent packets) to sites known to collect info about you.

[MasterOfPuppets]

What exactly does PeerGuradian do?

It prevents you from sending anything (especially torrent packets) to sites known to collect info about you.

If you're downloading torrents, you should absolutely be using PG.
Some people will take shots at PG and say "Well, it only blocks known domains and doesn't block your IP address from showing up".
That is true, but it is much...much better than using nothing at all.
Think of yourself as a safe sex advocate, and PG as your condom. :up:

Plus your IP showing up doesn't prove that you're sharing/downloading anything.

[lodica1967]

Quick question. I bought the Philips DVD player that plays avi files. In theory it looks like I could fit 12 episodes of an hour long tv series on each blank DVD, right? I am not converting them to dvd format first.

Is there any loss in the quality of the avi files by putting that many on there. Should I put few episodes per disc for better quality. Since they are data files does it matter?

Burning dvd's is pretty new to me so be gentle. Thanks all!

[David Platt]

The files you burn to the disc are exactly the same quality as what you have on your computer. It doesn't matter how many you stick on a disc; the only thing limiting how many you can put on there is how much data the disc will hold. Go ahead and fill it up!

[lodica1967]

Cool. Thanks!

I tried loading 12 episodes and the audio was way off when I played it. I thought maybe I had put too many shows on a DVD! I will start looking for other answers to my audio glitch.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Some burning programs will automatically compress your files if you go over the disc limit, so keep an eye out for that.
I convert all of my files to mpeg2 format...don't usually burn them to disc, but I can fit tons of a certain series onto 1 disc.
Victory!

[ufo4sale]

What player /codecs should I use with Vista in order to watch shows on my computer?

[dswallow]

What player /codecs should I use with Vista in order to watch shows on my computer?
Generally most common TV episode and movie torrents are provided in a form that either the DivX or the XviD codecs can decode.

[Mike10]

yah most shows require divx/xvid they are basically the same thing but if you dont want to download any codecs you could just use a program like mediaplayer classic, VLc player or Mplayer

[MiakioAmy]

Torrents have been working great for me. I haven't missed a show yet - everything is available within a day or two, and most by the time I get home from work the next day. It is 10pm Wed night (9am eastern) and I already have Bones, House and NCIS from last night. :up:

I now have an etiquette/safety question. How long should I leave the torrent and file on my machine and seed it? I have been watching most stuff right away, and would like to go ahead and delete most of them.

I still have some disk space available so that isn't a problem.

I don't want to just be a leecher, but am I exposing myself by keeping uTorrent running? I know what I am doing is not legal, and I am downloading shows daily. Advice?

[sync]

I don't think anyone has ever been prosecuted for downloading tv shows. The worst I've heard of is losing ISP service. And I've only heard of that happening within the USA.

slyck.com is a good place for learning more about this.

[Jonathan_S]

I now have an etiquette/safety question. How long should I leave the torrent and file on my machine and seed it? I have been watching most stuff right away, and would like to go ahead and delete most of them.
It's polite to at least let the upload ratio get back to 1. (You've uploaded as many mb as you'd downloaded).

I think I set up some slightly more complicated rules in Azureus, something like: automatically stop sharing at upload ratio 2.0 unless there is less that 3 seeders online.

[MiakioAmy]

It's polite to at least let the upload ratio get back to 1. (You've uploaded as many mb as you'd downloaded).

I think I set up some slightly more complicated rules in Azureus, something like: automatically stop sharing at upload ratio 2.0 unless there is less that 3 seeders online.

Rules! I didn't realize I could do that. I will check to see what uTorrent can do. Thanks.

[MiakioAmy]

It's polite to at least let the upload ratio get back to 1. (You've uploaded as many mb as you'd downloaded).

I think I set up some slightly more complicated rules in Azureus, something like: automatically stop sharing at upload ratio 2.0 unless there is less that 3 seeders online.

Wow. If uTorrent is correct, my ratio for some files is really high. I have some Psych episodes showing a ratio of 18 and 19!

[MiakioAmy]

It's polite to at least let the upload ratio get back to 1. (You've uploaded as many mb as you'd downloaded).

I think I set up some slightly more complicated rules in Azureus, something like: automatically stop sharing at upload ratio 2.0 unless there is less that 3 seeders online.

I can stop sharing when the ration hits a certain number, but uTorrent doesn't let me specify number of seeders. Instead I can specify the seeding time. I can have it continue to seed if the seeding time is less than 5 hours, for example. I don't know what a good number is for that so I just picked one. Once I set the preferences to 200% ratio or seeding time is less than 3 hours - uTorrent marked some files as Finished instead of Seeding. I guess I can go ahead and remove those.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[DevdogAZ]

It's polite to at least let the upload ratio get back to 1. (You've uploaded as many mb as you'd downloaded).

I think I set up some slightly more complicated rules in Azureus, something like: automatically stop sharing at upload ratio 2.0 unless there is less that 3 seeders online.
I have the same rules set up. I upload twice as much as I download. It's my way of feeling productive even though I never contribute to any of the sites or developers, and never provide any content to be seeded.

[PacMan3000]

I have a question...how many seeders is needed to get a quality download? If I want to download a file-be it 350 MB or 1 GB--how many seeders is "enough" so that I know I can get the file?

I see files that I'd want, but there's only 3 seeders. Or six. Is that far too many? If I tried to download that file, what would happen?

What's a good number of seeders to allow for a properly downloaded file?

[SeanC]

1 seed is all that is necessary. The more seeders the faster it will download though, so more is better.

[phox_mulder]

1 seed is all that is necessary. The more seeders the faster it will download though, so more is better.

Only if that one seed has the entire file.

I've had a couple downloads that took days because there were no seeders with 100%.


phox

[AstroDad]

Only if that one seed has the entire file.

I've had a couple downloads that took days because there were no seeders with 100%.


phox

If he doesn't have the entire file he isn't a seed, he is a peer

[phox_mulder]

If he doesn't have the entire file he isn't a seed, he is a peer

Got my seed and peer mixed up.


phox

[PacMan3000]

Is there any danger in seeding? Does it leave you open to have people connecting to your computer to give you viruses or steal your information, or just be spied upon?

[PacMan3000]

Not sure if anyone would know, but..

How do you burn a downloaded Video Ts folder so you can watch it on dvd (I'd much rather put the shows on dvd rather than watch on my computer screen)?

I have Ulead for my dvd buring software, but it doesn't seem to have to ability to burn these folders.

The Video TS folder is 4.28 GB, so what do i need to use to burn it and what are the steps I would need to take to burn it successfully onto dvd?

Thanks.

[Shawn95GT]

I open it with shrink and roll it up into an ISO.

Nero etc should be able to import it as-is though.

[Anubys]

This thread is very helpful...I just joined tvtorrents (thank you IDSmoker!) and I have some basic questions (and boy, getting everything to work was not easy!)

1. I just downloaded a torrent (using utorrent)...is it automatically there for seeding to others or do I have to do something special (I want to be give back)?

2. my wife will kill me if the internet is slow...how do I set utorrent to cede the resources for any request from computers on the network?

3. I don't want to put a limit on giving back (others here have mentioned that they set the limit to twice what they take, I don't care about that)...how do I set it for that?

4. anyone know if PS3 will play .mkv files or do I have to transcode it to something else? my ideal situation would be to copy the file to the PS3 and just play it...

[jilter]

/standing back and waiting.....

[Steveknj]

I just started fooling around with using torrents and am using uTorrent. This brings me back to the days of Napster/Morpheus/Limewire. I had a couple of questions:

1) What makes this any more legal than the song downloading we used to do on those file sharing platforms that have been either shut down or sued?

2) The couple of shows I d/l seemed to take forever on my fast cable connection. One show took about a full day to get. Is this normal?

[Jonathan_S]

1. I just downloaded a torrent (using utorrent)...is it automatically there for seeding to others or do I have to do something special (I want to be give back)?

2. my wife will kill me if the internet is slow...how do I set utorrent to cede the resources for any request from computers on the network?

3. I don't want to put a limit on giving back (others here have mentioned that they set the limit to twice what they take, I don't care about that)...how do I set it for that?1) By default utorrent will automatically seed once the torrent is complete.

2) No specific way to do that. But I'd advise setting bandwidth limits, especially on upload. Setting upload to no more that 80% of your real upload ability seems to leave the internet feeling fairly snappy. (And oddly, can make your bittorrent download faster)
Also, you could use the scheduler to throttle way back during hours your wife is likely to be useing the network and only run full speed when she's likely asleep or out.

3) By default utorrent doesn't set any max upload ratio. It'll keep seeding until you manually stop it.


Edit: One last tip. If you choose to set up your router to port forward incoming bittorrent connections, I'd advise finding the checkbox in utorrent's menu for 'Limit local peer bandwidth' and checking it. (Otherwise it seems to think your router is a local peer and doesn't limit connects that appear to originate there. And that pretty much defeats the purpose of setting bandwidth limits)

[MikeMar]

make sure to run peer guardian 2 (if that's still the best and works) :D

I just setup bittorrents at night to run when sleeping, well on my crappy slow DSL :D

[Anubys]

make sure to run peer guardian 2 (if that's still the best and works) :D

I just setup bittorrents at night to run when sleeping, well on my crappy slow DSL :D

do you still need peer guardian for a private network?

[Anubys]

2) No specific way to do that. But I'd advise setting bandwidth limits, especially on upload. Setting upload to no more that 80% of your real upload ability seems to leave the internet feeling fairly snappy. (And oddly, can make your bittorrent download faster)
Also, you could use the scheduler to throttle way back during hours your wife is likely to be useing the network and only run full speed when she's likely asleep or out.

perfect...I'll try to do that tonight when I get home...I hope I can figure out how to do what you just said :o

[Shawn95GT]

do you still need peer guardian for a private network?
Yes...

[Steveknj]

make sure to run peer guardian 2 (if that's still the best and works) :D

I just setup bittorrents at night to run when sleeping, well on my crappy slow DSL :D

What is peer guardian?

[Anubys]

What is peer guardian?

lousy explanation because I'm an idiot...but it's a software that hides you from software that is going around the internet trying to catch people who share files...

[wouldworker]

Peer Guardian has a list of IP addresses that are known or suspected to belong to companies (HBO, NBC, etc.) or groups (the MPAA, RIAA, etc.) that want to prevent peer-to-peer trading of copyrighted content. Peer Guardian stops you from trading with people from those IP addresses so that they can't catch you. The list isn't foolproof, so there's still a chance you can get caught.

The way HBO, for example, tries to catch you is by joining in the trading themselves. When your computer sends them a chunk of one of their own shows, they log your IP address. They then tell your ISP what you're up to and your ISP sends you a letter threatening to cut off your service if you don't straighten up.

After you get the letter, you do a search and find out that if you install Peer Guardian you're unlikely to ever get another letter from your ISP. They might as well tell you about Peer Guardian in the letter.

[DevdogAZ]

I just started fooling around with using torrents and am using uTorrent. This brings me back to the days of Napster/Morpheus/Limewire. I had a couple of questions:

1) What makes this any more legal than the song downloading we used to do on those file sharing platforms that have been either shut down or sued?

2) The couple of shows I d/l seemed to take forever on my fast cable connection. One show took about a full day to get. Is this normal?
1) It's not. That's why you have to be careful what you get. The difference between the old filesharing models and torrents is that there is not one centralized server that's distributing the file. There's just a tracker that knows how to put all the pieces together, and then there are hundreds or even thousands of pieces being streamed in every direction from all over the globe. Because of this structure, it would be difficult to prove in a court that someone distributed anything using this method.

2) Because you're getting little pieces of the files from all over the globe, you're at the mercy of who has those pieces, is online, and is allowing them to be uploaded (seeded). Generally speaking, the more seeders, the faster the download. I've had 1 hour TV shows finish in less than 10 minutes, and I've had them take several hours. It just depends on how popular the file is and how many people are seeding. If you're getting popular TV shows in the first day or two after they air, there are usually plenty of seeders. After the show has been out for a while, or if you're getting something that's weeks/months/years old, it's really a crapshoot whether there's going to be anyone seeding that particular file or having the pieces you need. And if you get lucky and there is someone seeding, it could be only one person and their connection might be slow.

[MikeMar]

you might need to open up your port for the one utorrent uses

Mine goes from like 5k/sec to 50k/sec when I open the port on my router

[Anubys]

I have a problem...my PS3 sees the .mkv file, but it can't play it...it says the data is corrupted...I tried to have TVersity play it and send it to the PS3, but that didn't work, either...the file plays fine on my computer...

any ideas? I hate watching things on my computer...

also, I went to the bandwidth section of utorrent, and it says the max upload is 72...is that good? my max on my crap DSL is 124...so I assume that's low enough, right?

[Steveknj]

1) It's not. That's why you have to be careful what you get. The difference between the old filesharing models and torrents is that there is not one centralized server that's distributing the file. There's just a tracker that knows how to put all the pieces together, and then there are hundreds or even thousands of pieces being streamed in every direction from all over the globe. Because of this structure, it would be difficult to prove in a court that someone distributed anything using this method.



I'm surprised, considering that these downloads are illegal that this is discussed openly in a public forum like this. I think I'll probably stick with Hulu or the network websites if I need to watch anything, or get the DVDs from Netflix. That's for the explanation. It's not that I care so much if it's legal or not, it's just that these types of place are ripe with trojans and other malware. I've seen too many people get them from limewire and such over the years. I am just not sure it's worth it anymore when there's so many other ways to get content that is legal and safer.

[DeDondeEs]

After you get the letter, you do a search and find out that if you install Peer Guardian you're unlikely to ever get another letter from your ISP. They might as well tell you about Peer Guardian in the letter.

Do you actually know anybody who has gotten such a letter? I'm not trying to be rhetorical. I would just like to hear first hand evidence that indeed does happen.

[MikeMar]

Do you actually know anybody who has gotten such a letter? I'm not trying to be rhetorical. I would just like to hear first hand evidence that indeed does happen.

a few people on here have, it was a year or more ago

[DevdogAZ]

I'd be curious if anyone has gotten a letter for downloading TV shows. I know the RIAA was suing individuals for a while, and I know the MPAA has tried the more diplomatic route of getting the ISP to cut off service. But I've never heard anything, even anecdotally, about people being sued or even receiving C&D letters for downloading/sharing TV shows.

[SeanC]

Over the course of my downloading history I have gotten..... mmmmmm I dunno.... near 10 I think? Certainly more than 5.

I've gotten them from 4 different service providers, 2 dsl companies and 2 cable companies. One dsl company cut me off until I called in and confirmed that I was no longer sharing the file in question.

I only ever got one letter since I started using peerguarding, and that was the one time I forgot to run PG while seeding overnight.

I no longer use peerguardian, I just load the block list directly into utorrent.

Not sure if it was ever over a TV show, definitely movies and music though.

[wouldworker]

Do you actually know anybody who has gotten such a letter? I'm not trying to be rhetorical. I would just like to hear first hand evidence that indeed does happen.I received one from Comcast about three years ago. It was very threatening and I was almost scared. I got caught by HBO downloading the first episode of Lucky Louie. I installed Peer Guardian and subscribed to HBO to watch it instead of risking actually having Comcast cancel my account (my wife would have cried if that had happened).

[dswallow]

I have a problem...my PS3 sees the .mkv file, but it can't play it...it says the data is corrupted...I tried to have TVersity play it and send it to the PS3, but that didn't work, either...the file plays fine on my computer...

any ideas? I hate watching things on my computer...

also, I went to the bandwidth section of utorrent, and it says the max upload is 72...is that good? my max on my crap DSL is 124...so I assume that's low enough, right?

Try http://www.videohelp.com/tools/mkv2vob. It's not doing any sort of recompression -- it just remuxes the video and audio streams, so there's no quality loss, just packaging it into a form the PS3 can play.

(I've not really played with MKV's myself -- I just have stuck with the normal HD-source-to-modest-size-AVI/DIVX which still looks pretty decent)

[Sherminator]

I have a problem...my PS3 sees the .mkv file, but it can't play it...it says the data is corrupted...I tried to have TVersity play it and send it to the PS3, but that didn't work, either...the file plays fine on my computer...

any ideas? I hate watching things on my computer...

also, I went to the bandwidth section of utorrent, and it says the max upload is 72...is that good? my max on my crap DSL is 124...so I assume that's low enough, right?Dump TVersity and go with PS3 Media Server (http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/). OK, it's Java, but it handles all of the .MKV's that I have thrown at it, and it also allows you to set options from the PS3 itself without going to the computer the server is on.

[DeDondeEs]

I received one from Comcast about three years ago. It was very threatening and I was almost scared. I got caught by HBO downloading the first episode of Lucky Louie. I installed Peer Guardian and subscribed to HBO to watch it instead of risking actually having Comcast cancel my account (my wife would have cried if that had happened).

Wow that's crazy! Guess i'll get peer guardian ;) Also that would've sucked to get in all of that trouble over a show like "Lucky Louie". :D

[jilter]

Explain PeerGuardian to me in the simplest possible terms. Please.

[Sherminator]

Peerguardian blocks communication between the computer that it is installed on & a list of addresses of known & presumed parties involved in the detection of copyright infringement, known spyware sources, internet advertising servers, government addresses, educational institutions, and/or any address that you enter yourself.

[fred2]

I no longer use peerguardian, I just load the block list directly into utorrent.

Not sure if it was ever over a TV show, definitely movies and music though.

Where do you get the block list and appropriate format to load into utorrent. PeerGuardian does not work well (at all?) with Vista. Thanks in advance

[Sherminator]

Where do you get the block list and appropriate format to load into utorrent. PeerGuardian does not work well (at all?) with Vista. Thanks in advanceWhat version of PG2 are you using? There is RC2 out for Vista & W7.

[fred2]

What version of PG2 are you using? There is RC2 out for Vista & W7.

I believe I tried that version - there are still problems with it. It stops working and/or updating the lists.

[SeanC]

Yeah, the problems with Vista and PG is what motivated me to look for another solution. Having utorrent do the blocking has the added benefit of meaning I'll never forget to have it running while I'm using utorrent.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/535093

The block list it uses is the same one PG uses.

[ewolfr]

Do you actually know anybody who has gotten such a letter? I'm not trying to be rhetorical. I would just like to hear first hand evidence that indeed does happen.

I stupidly got caught by HBO for downloading Entourage from mininova.org a couple years ago. In fact when I went back to look at the comments on the torrent there were several others that said they had gotten nastygrams as well.

[Enrique]

I'd be curious if anyone has gotten a letter for downloading TV shows.I did torrent music but I've stop that and use now use Rhapsody. I still download "other" things and I've never got a letter from anyone to stop(knock on wood).

I think the thing the MPAA and the RIAA need to understand(And the RIAA has done good with Rapsody and Napster) is that costumers want things now at a reasonable price. For instance I missed BB11 today, the only way I can get it today is to torrent it. Or I want to watch a new movie coming out the only to watch it is to go to the theater or wait 6 months to watch it on DVD(in the life of a movie that's forever).

I like what the Daily show and the The Colbert Report are doing, they offer the shows a few hours after airing(Free with ads). All TV shows should be doing that.

And with Movies, if movie studios started to offer all movies same day as theater release I bet 99% of all movie torrent downloads would stop(Of courses there are cheap people who would never stop, but my guess is they are few).

[jilter]

Peerguardian blocks communication between the computer that it is installed on & a list of addresses of known & presumed parties involved in the detection of copyright infringement, known spyware sources, internet advertising servers, government addresses, educational institutions, and/or any address that you enter yourself.

Warning: complete dummy aboard....
Would my ISP allow me to "block" communication with them?

[DevdogAZ]

Warning: complete dummy aboard....
Would my ISP allow me to "block" communication with them?
Block communication with your ISP? If you do that, you're not getting access to the internet, since it's your ISP that provides you that access.

[Anubys]

Try http://www.videohelp.com/tools/mkv2vob. It's not doing any sort of recompression -- it just remuxes the video and audio streams, so there's no quality loss, just packaging it into a form the PS3 can play.

(I've not really played with MKV's myself -- I just have stuck with the normal HD-source-to-modest-size-AVI/DIVX which still looks pretty decent)

I came on this morning to crow about finding this on my own and that it worked! I should have known that the answer would be here already :)

I just watched the first Torchwood (Children...) in glorious HD and uncut :up:

my only problem now is that I have downloaded 4.5 GB and only uploaded 6.5 MB...at the rate I am seeding, I will lose my credit in another week or so...the files I have are available for seeding, I'm just barely uploading a 1 KB/s (I set the bandwidth for automatic, which increased it to 2 KB/s)...

[Anubys]

Yeah, the problems with Vista and PG is what motivated me to look for another solution. Having utorrent do the blocking has the added benefit of meaning I'll never forget to have it running while I'm using utorrent.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/535093

The block list it uses is the same one PG uses.

I had no idea utorrent did that...that's a much better solution than installing PG2...now that I have PG2, I'll do both!

[Steveknj]

I did torrent music but I've stop that and use now use Rhapsody. I still download "other" things and I've never got a letter from anyone to stop(knock on wood).

I think the thing the MPAA and the RIAA need to understand(And the RIAA has done good with Rapsody and Napster) is that costumers want things now at a reasonable price. For instance I missed BB11 today, the only way I can get it today is to torrent it. Or I want to watch a new movie coming out the only to watch it is to go to the theater or wait 6 months to watch it on DVD(in the life of a movie that's forever).

I like what the Daily show and the The Colbert Report are doing, they offer the shows a few hours after airing(Free with ads). All TV shows should be doing that.

And with Movies, if movie studios started to offer all movies same day as theater release I bet 99% of all movie torrent downloads would stop(Of courses there are cheap people who would never stop, but my guess is they are few).

I agree with your point about TV shows should be available a few hours later rather than the next day, and I'd say, why not use cable/satillite On Demand for that. Much better picture as well. As for the movies, that will not happen. Having movies available via other means than the theater will be the death knell to the theater industry (which many movie studios have a piece of). So that makes NO sense really. Now HDNet shows a few movies prior to theater opening on a one night basis (but I believe they own the production company for those movies), and then they go to theaters. That's a much better model. But still, all of this really doesn't justify getting your shows on torrent because you WANT it. Just because I want that Farrari, doesn't mean I'm going to go steal it. Believe me, I used to be the biggest proponent of d/l stuff off Napster for free years ago, but that was back when there were really no other options than buy the CD. But these days, there are places I can get stuff like this, TV or even movies cheap or free. I can wait a day if I have to to stream it off Hulu, or rent the DVD when the movie comes out from Netflix. It's just not worth the nastygrams that it seems a lot of you are getting.

And torrents, like Napster, limewire, etc. are ripe with trojans and othe rmalware. Invariable my customers who have malware have gotten it from illegally downloaded music/video.

[Enrique]

But still, all of this really doesn't justify getting your shows on torrent because you WANT it. Just because I want that Farrari, doesn't mean I'm going to go steal it.I understand that argument, but that still doesn't let the Movie and TV studios off the hook. My guess is when the next generation(My generation) start to come of age(30,40,50) and take over for the current CEOs that it will happen.

It's kinda sad when one Generation holds back another because they just don't get its technology.

It's very frustrating when you want to pay for something and the rights holders just don't offer it to you in a convenient way.

And I don't think the answer is to bad or that will never happen(Because it has to if the studios don't want to go the way of the newspaper).

[Anubys]

I understand that argument, but that still doesn't let the Movie and TV studios off the hook. My guess is when the next generation(My generation) start to come of age(30,40,50) and take over for the current CEOs that it will happen.

It's kinda sad when one Generation holds back another because they just don't get its technology.

It's very frustrating when you want to pay for something and the rights holders just don't offer it to you in a convenient way.

And I don't think the answer is to bad or that will never happen(Because it has to if the studios don't want to go the way of the newspaper).

my argument is a little different...I'm still pissed that I have to buy the same songs over and over again because they keep improving the format...LP becomes CD...itunes for 99cents? buy it again for 1.29 without DRM...

DVD? how about the same thing on blu ray?

it's crap...Torchwood is on BBCA for free but only in SD...it's being broadcast in HD for free but my provider doesn't carry the HD channel...if I want to watch it in HD, I have to pay for it by buying the blu ray? why the frak is that?

[Steveknj]

my argument is a little different...I'm still pissed that I have to buy the same songs over and over again because they keep improving the format...LP becomes CD...itunes for 99cents? buy it again for 1.29 without DRM...

DVD? how about the same thing on blu ray?

it's crap...Torchwood is on BBCA for free but only in SD...it's being broadcast in HD for free but my provider doesn't carry the HD channel...if I want to watch it in HD, I have to pay for it by buying the blu ray? why the frak is that?

Of course the argument is, switch providers and you can have it in HD. You go to a supermarket and they don't have Blue Bunny Ice Cream and you LIKE Blue Bunny Ice Cream, what do you do? If it's that important you get BB Ice Cream you got to a market that carries it. You can't have it all. And hey, if you have The Police on LP, for $99 you can buy a turntable that hooks up to your PC and burn the LP to MP3. No need to buy the song again. There are work arounds to everything. This all comes back to NEED vs. WANT. Just because you WANT something, doesn't mean that you can get it. But if enough people WANT it that way, it will happen. Ten years ago, you had ONE option, now you have many. And it improves constantly.

[Steveknj]

I understand that argument, but that still doesn't let the Movie and TV studios off the hook. My guess is when the next generation(My generation) start to come of age(30,40,50) and take over for the current CEOs that it will happen.

It's kinda sad when one Generation holds back another because they just don't get its technology.

It's very frustrating when you want to pay for something and the rights holders just don't offer it to you in a convenient way.

And I don't think the answer is to bad or that will never happen(Because it has to if the studios don't want to go the way of the newspaper).

Except your definition of convenient is not always a way to make a profit. So, would you say, pay $5 to watch Big Brother the same day? Why SHOULD they give it to you right away? How does that help their bottom line? Until online streaming is as profitable as broadcast, you won't see it. As for the movie studios, until their becomes a point where they can sell you a movie at theatrical release that would be more profitable than showing it in the theater, it won't happen.

[Anubys]

Of course the argument is, switch providers and you can have it in HD. ...

sure...I can do that...and the makers of Torchwood would not get one extra dime of profit...and I would get to watch it in HD...

so by getting the torrent, I am switching providers...and have not stolen anything that is not given away for free...I simply took the more convenient way of getting what I want...

[DevdogAZ]

I came on this morning to crow about finding this on my own and that it worked! I should have known that the answer would be here already :)

I just watched the first Torchwood (Children...) in glorious HD and uncut :up:

my only problem now is that I have downloaded 4.5 GB and only uploaded 6.5 MB...at the rate I am seeding, I will lose my credit in another week or so...the files I have are available for seeding, I'm just barely uploading a 1 KB/s (I set the bandwidth for automatic, which increased it to 2 KB/s)...
When you speak of credits, I assume you're talking about TVTorrents.com. From what I understand, as long as you're connected and making the files available for seeding, you're getting credits. It's not your fault that there's nobody out there that wants the file at the moment. Check your account balance and I'll bet you're not as far in the hole as you think.

[Anubys]

When you speak of credits, I assume you're talking about TVTorrents.com. From what I understand, as long as you're connected and making the files available for seeding, you're getting credits. It's not your fault that there's nobody out there that wants the file at the moment. Check your account balance and I'll bet you're not as far in the hole as you think.

you're correct on both counts...I was talking about TVTorrents...and my credit is 8.17 (started with a gift of 10 G) and I have downloaded 4.5 GB; so I would have thought I should be at 5.5...

question: do I need to stay logged on to the site while utorrent is downloading? the FAQ doesn't say...

[DevdogAZ]

you're correct on both counts...I was talking about TVTorrents...and my credit is 8.17 (started with a gift of 10 G) and I have downloaded 4.5 GB; so I would have thought I should be at 5.5...

question: do I need to stay logged on to the site while utorrent is downloading? the FAQ doesn't say...
No. Once you've downloaded the tracker from their site, it takes care of making sure you get credit. You'll find that the site will log you out after a relatively short period of inactivity and it would be a major pain to have to keep logging in just to maintain you ability to earn credits.

[IDSmoker]

my only problem now is that I have downloaded 4.5 GB and only uploaded 6.5 MB...at the rate I am seeding, I will lose my credit in another week or so...the files I have are available for seeding, I'm just barely uploading a 1 KB/s (I set the bandwidth for automatic, which increased it to 2 KB/s)...
If you are having trouble maintaining a positive balance (I had the same problem in the beginning), you can download a show from other sources and upload/seed it using the TVTorrents tracker. You can find the details on doing this in their FAQ (http://www.tvtorrents.com//loggedin/faq_answer.do?id=8).



Has anyone ever heard, and have proof, of a person being convicted in a court of law (as opposed to just being extorted by a corporation) for having downloaded, via P2P network, a television show that had previously been broadcast over the public airwaves? I don't think this has ever happened. I don't think it ever will happen.

The MPAA, RIAA, and their ilk have to be very careful about creating precedents that involve Fair Use (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use) since those precedents could be used to let people do whatever they want with the entertainment they've already paid for once before, without requiring them to pay for it multiple times.

[Anubys]

If you are having trouble maintaining a positive balance (I had the same problem in the beginning), you can download a show from other sources and upload/seed it using the TVTorrents tracker. You can find the details on doing this in their FAQ (http://www.tvtorrents.com//loggedin/faq_answer.do?id=8).

that was a product of me being an idiot...I didn't understand "seeding", I thought someone has to actually get the files from me in order to get the credit...now I understand that it's just making it available!

[jschuur]

that was a product of me being an idiot...I didn't understand "seeding", I thought someone has to actually get the files from me in order to get the credit...now I understand that it's just making it available!
Seeding does mean making it available, that is true, but in order to get credit if you're using a tracker that has ratios, you do need to actually have people download content for you. To get a positive ratio, people have to download from you as much as you've downloaded from the cloud.

Not all torrent sites use the ratio system though.

[cheesesteak]

Yeah, the problems with Vista and PG is what motivated me to look for another solution. Having utorrent do the blocking has the added benefit of meaning I'll never forget to have it running while I'm using utorrent.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/535093

The block list it uses is the same one PG uses.
How do you verified that this worked? I downloaded and installed this, clicked on the desktop icon, watched it do stuff and nothing's different that I can see, not that I was expecting any big difference. I was hoping that one of utorrent's option setting would indicate that it's doing PeerGuardian's job. What should I check to see that utorrent is doing the blocking?

[SeanC]

I don't know I guess I take it on faith that when uTorrent says that it's using the ip filter I have to believe it.

I've been using it for almost a year and have not gotten any nasty grams since I switched to this method, tough to prove a negative though.

[Mispelld]

What should I check to see that utorrent is doing the blocking?I have seen many IPs shown as "banned" in uTorrent's logger tab. You might want to check there. Of course, if no banned IPs are listed for a particular torrent it doesn't necessarily mean that it's not working. ;)

I've downloaded tons of stuff over the past years via torrent and have never received a nasty gram from either of my service providers - Road Runner and now, Verizon FIOS. Have never used PG. I've probably just been lucky.

[cheesesteak]

I don't know I guess I take it on faith that when uTorrent says that it's using the ip filter I have to believe it.
Where does it say that it's using the ip filter? I flipped a switch from false to true per the instructions. I guess I expected to see some notice to the effect of "Now using the ip filter located at c:\blah\blah\blah"

[markz]

Where does it say that it's using the ip filter? I flipped a switch from false to true per the instructions. I guess I expected to see some notice to the effect of "Now using the ip filter located at c:\blah\blah\blah"

After flipping the switch, close and reopen, then look at the logger tab.

http://markz68.googlepages.com/IPFilter.JPG

[Anubys]

something strange is happening...I have 10 files that I am seeding using utorrent to tvtorrents...all were green from the time I downloaded them (latest was 10 days ago)...the last 2 days, the two files for Kings (ep1-2 and ep3) are both red and tvtorrrents says I'm only seeding 8 files...

I've tried to force a start on the two Kings files...they remained red and not available...I did not touch the computer since they were active...a reboot left the same situation...

any idea why this would be?

[DreadPirateRob]

Do you actually know anybody who has gotten such a letter? I'm not trying to be rhetorical. I would just like to hear first hand evidence that indeed does happen.

Thread bump, because I just got one of those letters. Well, actually an email, from TWC. It received a complaint from the MPAA about my "distribution" of copyrighted content. In looking at the submitted complaint from the MPAA, specifically the timestamp, it appears that what dinged me was the "sharing" that Vuze does of files that I had already downloaded a few weeks ago.

The email was a cease & desist type from TWC, attaching the complaint (not a legal complaint, i.e. pleading, but just a listing that had my name, address, IP address, date, timestamp, and file at issue) with a link to some "helpful" info from the MPAA about supporting copyrights, etc.

So, it appears that I need to use PeerGuardian or somesuch - is that still the way to go? I only DL TV shows, and in this case, they were shows that I had just lost on a HDD that went bad. Maybe I should switch from Vuze to a different client, like uTorrent? Advice?

[robojerk]

The thing with Peerguardian and ipfilter.dat is that they only block known IP addresses of the MPAA. Some of those known IP addresses are still live so they do protect you, but not as good as you would think. I've used Peerguardian before and found it more annoying than it helped.

If you're really anal about it the best route is using a proxy or something. The only problem is that it will definitely slow down your downloads.

TOR (https://www.torproject.org/) is probably the easiest to setup and it's free. If you don't know what it is but find the name familiar it's what Iranians used not long ago during the protests and riots that were going on and their government was actively block communication with the outside world. There are guides on the internet on how to set it up.

I've been experimenting myself for the past few months on securing my actions when using bittorent. However most of what I do only makes sure my ISP has no clue what I'm doing, and does little to prevent MPAA from joining a swarm and finding my IP.

I always make sure the ipfilter.dat is updated
I have Enforce Encryption enabled.
I blacklisted all the popular trackers from my hosts file so I can no longer communicate with them and instead I'm relying on DHT (http://lifehacker.com/5411311/bittorrents-future-dht-pex-and-magnet-links-explained) and only use magnet links.
I useYahoo Pipes (http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/search?q=piratebay&x=0&y=0) for RSS feeds instead of actual sites.

[jpcapili]

how about downloading the .avi files directly and not through torrent applications? Would my ISP be able to detect it and is it somewhat okay to do since I dont share anything?

[DreadPirateRob]

Where would you DL the .avi files directly from though?

[DreadPirateRob]

The thing with Peerguardian and ipfilter.dat is that they only block known IP addresses of the MPAA. Some of those known IP addresses are still live so they do protect you, but not as good as you would think. I've used Peerguardian before and found it more annoying than it helped.

If you're really anal about it the best route is using a proxy or something. The only problem is that it will definitely slow down your downloads.

TOR (https://www.torproject.org/) is probably the easiest to setup and it's free. If you don't know what it is but find the name familiar it's what Iranians used not long ago during the protests and riots that were going on and their government was actively block communication with the outside world. There are guides on the internet on how to set it up.

I've been experimenting myself for the past few months on securing my actions when using bittorent. However most of what I do only makes sure my ISP has no clue what I'm doing, and does little to prevent MPAA from joining a swarm and finding my IP.

I always make sure the ipfilter.dat is updated
I have Enforce Encryption enabled.
I blacklisted all the popular trackers from my hosts file so I can no longer communicate with them and instead I'm relying on DHT (http://lifehacker.com/5411311/bittorrents-future-dht-pex-and-magnet-links-explained) and only use magnet links.
I useYahoo Pipes (http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/search?q=piratebay&x=0&y=0) for RSS feeds instead of actual sites.

What torrent client do you use?

Do you use private sites, or the public ones? I didn't know the difference until recently - I just used whatever came up on my Vuze searches, with the best typically being KickAss Torrents.

[Fleegle]

Thread bump, because I just got one of those letters. Well, actually an email, from TWC. It received a complaint from the MPAA about my "distribution" of copyrighted content. In looking at the submitted complaint from the MPAA, specifically the timestamp, it appears that what dinged me was the "sharing" that Vuze does of files that I had already downloaded a few weeks ago.

The email was a cease & desist type from TWC, attaching the complaint (not a legal complaint, i.e. pleading, but just a listing that had my name, address, IP address, date, timestamp, and file at issue) with a link to some "helpful" info from the MPAA about supporting copyrights, etc.

So, it appears that I need to use PeerGuardian or somesuch - is that still the way to go? I only DL TV shows, and in this case, they were shows that I had just lost on a HDD that went bad. Maybe I should switch from Vuze to a different client, like uTorrent? Advice?

I use a proxy service. btguard.com. $7/month or $20 for 3 months. The swarm will only see btguard's IP address, (Outside the US), and yours will never show.

If you REALLY want security, lease a Seedbox.

[robojerk]

I use µtorrent.

Deluge (http://deluge-torrent.org/) is also pretty good. There is also some new program called Tixati (http://www.tixati.com/) that is getting decent reviews, but I haven't touched it yet.

[robojerk]

Just switching clients wont change your exposure in the swarm (https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/BitTorrent_vocabulary#Swarm). I don't use a proxy, but have been lucky enough to not get on anyone's radar. If you do use a proxy, read how to configure your client and firewall correctly.

Here's some links you should look at.
Protect Your Privacy When Downloading (http://lifehacker.com/372633/protect-your-privacy-when-downloading) (Lifehacker is an awesome site)
Anonymize BitTorrent Transfers with BTGuard (http://torrentfreak.com/btguard-anonymous-bittorrent-080309/)
Make BitTorrent Transfers Anonymous With BTGuard (http://torrentfreak.com/make-bittorrent-transfers-anonymous-with-btguard-100419/)
Bittorrent over Tor isn't a good idea (https://blog.torproject.org/blog/bittorrent-over-tor-isnt-good-idea) (This refutes my earlier recommendation about TOR)

[Fleegle]

Tea, TOR has some well know exploits that lets your IP address become visible. I haven't had any warnings from my ISP since I switched to using BTGuard.

[ewolfr]

Peerguardian is useless. If you can see the list of IPs being blocked so can anyone else that downloads the program as well which would include the MPAA, RIAA, etc. But there are a few ways to hide yourself. 1) Use a VPN service. 2) Usenet 3) Rent a seedbox.

[Fleegle]

Peerguardian is useless. If you can see the list of IPs being blocked so can anyone else that downloads the program as well which would include the MPAA, RIAA, etc. But there are a few ways to hide yourself. 1) Use a VPN service. 2) Usenet 3) Rent a seedbox.

4) use a proxy. ;)

[ewolfr]

But you have to trust the people running the proxy. Doing a Google search for "public proxys" and then picking one at random just wouldn't work for me. If someone insists on using torrents I think a VPN or seedbox is really the only way to go.

[orangeboy]

My 2 cents: Forget torrents. I imagine the original files torrented come from the encoding groups (Dimension/Momentum/CTU/etc) on usenet. Usenet is download only, so you don't participate in any re-distribution of the content. I've been lucky and had ISPs that partnered with dedicated news services like SuperNews or Giganews, so completion, retention and speed may be influencing my opinion. :D

[jilter]

Is there a place you like I could learn about Usenet for torrents.
I do not understand how this works at all.
Thanks,
Jill

[robojerk]

Google Usenet Vs Bittorrent (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Usenet+vs+bittorrent)

A Beginner's guide to Bittorrent (http://lifehacker.com/285489/a-beginners-guide-to-bittorrent)
Bittorent's Future: DHT, PEX, and Magnet Links Explained (http://lifehacker.com/5411311/bittorrents-future-dht-pex-and-magnet-links-explained)
Setting up RSS feeds in µTorrent for EZTV (http://www.ezrss.it/faq/)
Bittorrent Tools & Tricks (http://lifehacker.com/350405/top-10-bittorrent-tools-and-tricks) (extra info, might not be useful to you)

BitTorrent vs. Usenet (http://www.slyck.com/story1376_BitTorrent_vs_Usenet)
File-sharing showdown: Usenet vs. Bittorrent (http://www.internetspotter.com/2008/03/04/file-sharing-showdown-usenet-vs-bittorrent/)

How To Use Usenet, A Beginners Guide (http://torrentfreak.com/how-to-use-usenet-a-beginners-guide/)
How To: Download with Newsgroups (http://paulstamatiou.com/how-to-download-with-newsgroups)
How To: Kick Your Torrent Addiction With Usenet (http://gizmodo.com/5343260/how-to-kick-your-torrent-addiction-with-usenet)

10 Reasons Why You Need a Seedbox (http://filesharefreak.com/2008/05/01/10-reasons-why-you-need-a-seedbox/)

A Bittorrent Seedbox vs Usenet: 10 Reasons Why a Seedbox is a Waste of Money (http://www.usenetshack.com/bittorrent-seedbox-vs-usenet-10-reasons-why-seedbox-waste-money/)

[ewolfr]

My 2 cents: Forget torrents.

For some things I just can't. Wit an expat in the house I need to grab Coronation Street, Eastenders, etc. Those are shows I have very rarely if ever seen on usenet. So to get those I need to use torrents.

[jilter]

Thank you, I realized I misphrased my question.
I appreciate the links very much.

Jill

[orangeboy]

For some things I just can't. Wit an expat in the house I need to grab Coronation Street, Eastenders, etc. Those are shows I have very rarely if ever seen on usenet. So to get those I need to use torrents.

Found both those titles in alt.binaries.british.drama and alt.binaries.teevee, respectively. :)

[JETarpon]

If you are going to be downloading stuff from USENET infrequently, and your ISP doesn't have a good server, instead of subscribing to a per month provider, you might want to look at a block provider like blocknews.net

[Fleegle]

But you have to trust the people running the proxy. Doing a Google search for "public proxys" and then picking one at random just wouldn't work for me. If someone insists on using torrents I think a VPN or seedbox is really the only way to go.

As I said before, btguard is trustworthy and fast. Server's in Canada, so no DMCA crap, and they don't keep any logs.

[bruab]

As I said before, btguard is trustworthy and fast. Server's in Canada, so no DMCA crap, and they don't keep any logs.

BTguard requires you to turn off all incoming connections, which isn't great for torrenting. It also uses a non-changeable reserved port number (<1024) so it won't work with tvtorrents.com.

I use a VPN service, which doesn't have those restrictions, and costs about the same.

[Fleegle]

BTguard requires you to turn off all incoming connections, which isn't great for torrenting. It also uses a non-changeable reserved port number (<1024) so it won't work with tvtorrents.com.

I use a VPN service, which doesn't have those restrictions, and costs about the same.

I use it with tvtorrents just fine, and I've been able to seed normally as well. I used their pre-configured version of uTorrent. I'm at work right now, so I can't check their site or how my uTorrent is configured, but I'll check when I get home tonight.

[ewolfr]

Found both those titles in alt.binaries.british.drama and alt.binaries.teevee, respectively. :)

Let's put it this way. There are still other shows that I can only get at thebox.bz or uknova.com that will never show up on usenet. Nice to see that those are on there. But I've already got an RSS feed setup to my seedbox and they are autodownloaded for me each day.

[innocentfreak]

Let's put it this way. There are still other shows that I can only get at thebox.bz or uknova.com that will never show up on usenet. Nice to see that those are on there. But I've already got an RSS feed setup to my seedbox and they are autodownloaded for me each day.

I would be curious what shows those are.

[ewolfr]

I would be curious what shows those are.

Graham Norton (sometimes on usenet, sometimes not), gameshows (All Star family fortunes, the cube), BBC documentaries as we usually prefer Attenbourogh's narration over whatever Discovery will choose, Jools Hollands weekly Friday show. Those are just a few there are several others. Like I said before, while some stuff may show on usenet there is lots more that I can only get via torrent. And with the seedbox for 10euros a month I only tie up my internet connection at night while grabbing it all via FTP.

[innocentfreak]

I was more curious than anything in case there was a show i was missing I should check out.

[bruab]

I use it with tvtorrents just fine, and I've been able to seed normally as well. I used their pre-configured version of uTorrent. I'm at work right now, so I can't check their site or how my uTorrent is configured, but I'll check when I get home tonight.

That would be interesting. I sent them a question about it via their website but got no response. This was about 4-5 months ago.

I do like my setup now, I run uTorrent in a Windows VM over a VPN. I control it remotely using the web interface, or by dropping torrent files into a special watched Dropbox folder. I can launch a torrent from literally anywhere using my iPhone and Goodreader to save the torrentfile to Dropbox.