Explain torrents to me in the simplest possible terms.

[YCantAngieRead]

I know we've had one of these before, but I'm seriously not smart. :o

I just downloaded DivX. What do I do now?

Be seriously simple. And gentle with me. :D

[MickeS]

1. Download and install Azureus (bittorrent client): http://azureus.sourceforge.net/download.php

2. Start finding torrents. I use almost exclusively http://www.mininova.org . For TV: http://www.mininova.org/today/#tvshows

3. Click on little arrow to the left of show title in the list. Pick one that seems to have lots of "seeders" (number of avaliable sources).

4. This will prompt you to open file with Azureus. Do so - do not save the file (that file, that ends in .torrent, is not the actual media file, it's just an info file so the client knows where to get the show from).

5. When Azureus now starts it will prompt you to save the media file somewhere. Do that.

6. The download will start. When done, watch. :)

/Mike

[JETarpon]

7. After you are done downloading, leave Azureus running so that you can act as a seeder to other poor shlubs who are also trying to download it.

[Lee L]

So, is Azureus better than the Bittorrent branded client?

[Vroomfondel]

An alternative to Azareus (and less resource-hogging) is uTorrent (http://utorrent.com)

All the other information is the same as already given.

[Jebberwocky!]

An alternative to Azareus (and less resource-hogging) is uTorrent (http://utorrent.com)

All the other information is the same as already given.

I use uTorrent with much success.

Either one works and the instructions are spot on.

[DevdogAZ]

So what's the matter Angie, you want us to explain it to you like you're three? ;)

I use Azureus as the client, and get all my TV shows from www.tvrss.net. It actually links to mininova most of the time, but it's a much more organized index.

[jking]

Another vote for uTorrent. But don't let the clients confuse you. You might like one client's interface better, or it might seem like one works for you better than another, but at the end of the day, the process is still the same.

1. Install client of choice
2. Find torrents online
3. Download torrent (which should open your client of choice)
4. Pick folder on your computer to save the media file to
5. Wait

The real fun comes in when you don't have the right codec to play said media file. But hopefully that won't happen.

[jsmeeker]

don't forget that you may need to do port forwarding on the router/firewall to ensure maximum performance.

If you want to find out what codecs a video uses (on a PC), I usggest GSpot. The most common ones are DivX and XVid for the video. You may also run into AC3 for audio. Just get all of those and you'll be set for most anything.

[montag]

OK once you save the torrent on your PC, what do you play them with? WMP?

[jsmeeker]

OK once you save the torrent on your PC, what do you play them with? WMP?


Sure. usually, the file you download is an AVI file. With the right codecs installed, WMP will play them. Or, you can use a different player, like VLC.

[MikeMar]

I do all the above steps and then run it through videora tivo converter and then watch them on tivo :)

[DevdogAZ]

OK once you save the torrent on your PC, what do you play them with? WMP?
I use WMP. I've downloaded a couple of other players, but always end up back to using WMP. Just make sure you download the right codecs. The one I've found that pretty much includes everything you need is ffdshow (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm).

[jsmeeker]

I do all the above steps and then run it through videora tivo converter and then watch them on tivo :)


I usually burn it to a CD then pop it in my DVD player that is capable of playing DivX videos.

:)

[Jebberwocky!]

Also watching them through your XBox360 is a possibility if you can convert them to a windows media format (Video Converter)

[DevdogAZ]

I do all the above steps and then run it through videora tivo converter and then watch them on tivo :)
+1

You'll find that the stuff you download, convert with Videora, and transfer to your TiVo looks WAAAAAY better than anything you record off cable/satellite with your TiVo.

[jsmeeker]

+1

You'll find that the stuff you download, convert with Videora, and transfer to your TiVo looks WAAAAAY better than anything you record off cable/satellite with your TiVo.


I bet if you recorded it with a Series 3 TiVo off an HD channel (OTA or Cable), it would look pretty damn good. Certainly, not worse than something that's already been through additional conversions.

[milo99]

+1

You'll find that the stuff you download, convert with Videora, and transfer to your TiVo looks WAAAAAY better than anything you record off cable/satellite with your TiVo.
hold up, whats this?? and how do you load it onto your tivo? I have a dtivo hdvr2. possible w/o hacking it?

[milo99]

I usually burn it to a CD then pop it in my DVD player that is capable of playing DivX videos.

:)

do you need to do anything to the AVI file after you d/l it? Cuz i tried burning them onto a CD and popping them into my DVD player, but notta. And i'm pretty sure mine plays divx.. could be wrong though.. dont most DVD players play divx these days?

[jsmeeker]

do you need to do anything to the AVI file after you d/l it? Cuz i tried burning them onto a CD and popping them into my DVD player, but notta. And i'm pretty sure mine plays divx.. could be wrong though.. dont most DVD players play divx these days?


Nope. I don't do anything else other than burn a data CD using Finder.

And I would say that playing DivX *isn't* super common. Double check your player. There is probably a DivX logo on the case if it DOES play them. If not, I bet it doesn't.

[jking]

I have found a modded xbox (the original) on my network to be the easiest solution for me.

[jking]

Nope. I don't do anything else other than burn a data CD using Finder.

And I would say that playing DivX *isn't* super common. Double check your player. There is probably a DivX logo on the case if it DOES play them. If not, I bet it doesn't.

Also, I find most of the videos I get to actually be Xvid format. This shouldn't matter, since Xvid and Divx are close cousins, but on some players it could be an issue even if they claim to play Divx.

[DevdogAZ]

I bet if you recorded it with a Series 3 TiVo off an HD channel (OTA or Cable), it would look pretty damn good. Certainly, not worse than something that's already been through additional conversions.
I should have clarified that I don't have HD, so my statement was only meant to include any SD signal that you could record via cable or satellite. Most of the torrents you download ARE the HD feed, which is why the quality is so much better than SD, even after a conversion or two.

[kdelande]

hold up, whats this?? and how do you load it onto your tivo? I have a dtivo hdvr2. possible w/o hacking it?
Nope, but if you hack you can use TiVoServer and it will stream Divx/Xvid files right into the TiVo via MRV that you can enable by hacking.

See The Zipper in the Underground.

KD

[sushikitten]

don't forget that you may need to do port forwarding on the router/firewall to ensure maximum performance.

If you want to find out what codecs a video uses (on a PC), I usggest GSpot. The most common ones are DivX and XVid for the video. You may also run into AC3 for audio. Just get all of those and you'll be set for most anything.

Angie, don't let this scare you. I have no idea what he's talking about (meaning I don't think I did it) and everything still works. :p

That said, I really like uTorrent.

[AstroDad]

I use TVTorrents.com for TV Shows. I haven't found anything more complete or more organized.

[JETarpon]

And I would say that playing DivX *isn't* super common. Double check your player. There is probably a DivX logo on the case if it DOES play them. If not, I bet it doesn't.

You can enter your DVD player model number here to find out its features.

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

[milo99]

You can enter your DVD player model number here to find out its features.

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers
eh, isn't looking very likely for mine. it's a sony 5 disck changer, and the latest doesn't have it, so i doubt mine does. damn

[MickeS]

I do all the above steps and then run it through videora tivo converter and then watch them on tivo :)

I do that to, but to include those instructions would've been much more difficult. Baby steps... :)

[DevdogAZ]

eh, isn't looking very likely for mine. it's a sony 5 disck changer, and the latest doesn't have it, so i doubt mine does. damn
I have an older Sony 5-disc changer and it won't even play burned discs at all, let along DivX or XviD.

[milo99]

I have an older Sony 5-disc changer and it won't even play burned discs at all, let along DivX or XviD.
mines about a year old and does play burned DVDs CDs, mp3 etc. - that was a requirement when i bought it :D ...didn't think about xvid/divx at the time cuz, well, never did anything w/ torrents.

[montag]

I have a hacked Xbox, Xbox 360, and an Insignia DVD player/burner, which would be the easiest solution for playback?

[montag]

Ok, the Insignia DVD recorder plays DivX. Just dowload the bittorrent and burn them onto a CD-R with Nero or Windows and it will play?

Are the bittorrent files for tv show in DivX format or do you have to do some type of conversion?

[JETarpon]

They are usually DivX or XviD

[jking]

I have a hacked Xbox, Xbox 360, and an Insignia DVD player/burner, which would be the easiest solution for playback?

I have Xbox Media Center installed on my hacked Xbox. I share a folder on my PC, have my Xbox on the network, and can stream the videos from my PC, through the network, to my Xbox and on my TV. Another option if you have a big enough hard drive in your Xbox would be to ftp the videos to your Xbox as needed, then delete them when you finish watching.

I had a DVD player that supported Divx/Xvid for a while, but for me the Xbox was better simply because playback/pause/stop/resume controls were much more slick with the Xbox.

[Dignan]

I have a hacked Xbox, Xbox 360, and an Insignia DVD player/burner, which would be the easiest solution for playback?

I've started using Transcode 360 with Media Center to stream Divx files from the Xbox 360. It works really well, looks great too. I had been using an Oppo DVD player and burning things to DVD RW disks, but streaming is just easier.

Edit: Echo, I realize the post above said the same thing, with a few variables.

[Redux]

I do all the above steps and then run it through videora tivo converter and then watch them on tivo :)You can watch them via tivoserver with no conversion needed. A little bit of work first (hacking) but the end result is you get a very flexible system, you can flow all kinds of video through your tivo and have a consistent playback experience and control process that is immediately understood by all members of your household who are used to the tivo.

[Jebberwocky!]

I've started using Transcode 360 with Media Center to stream Divx files from the Xbox 360. It works really well, looks great too. I had been using an Oppo DVD player and burning things to DVD RW disks, but streaming is just easier.

Edit: Echo, I realize the post above said the same thing, with a few variables.

I tried that but had no success on the 360 - worked with Windows Media Player of the PC but would not work on 360 - any hints?

I have a WME PC, wired Network and most of the files I want to play are .avi files.

[Dignan]

I tried that but had no success on the 360 - worked with Windows Media Player of the PC but would not work on 360 - any hints?

I have a WME PC, wired Network and most of the files I want to play are .avi files.

I'm not doing anything special that I am aware of. You have Transcode 360 running on your Windows XP Media Center enabled PC, find the files in your video section from the Media Center display from the Xbox 360 (not the generic Video section). Once you find the file you want to stream you hit Info on your remote, then More, move down to Transcode.

[Jebberwocky!]

I'm not doing anything special that I am aware of. You have Transcode 360 running on your Windows XP Media Center enabled PC, find the files in your video section from the Media Center display from the Xbox 360 (not the generic Video section). Once you find the file you want to stream you hit Info on your remote, then More, move down to Transcode.


Well that's news to me - I just tried to play the movie - Thanks!!

[Dignan]

Well that's news to me - I just tried to play the movie - Thanks!!

Yeah, that last part is kind of crucial. :)

[David Platt]

Do you think the average three-year old is really going to be able to follow this thread? ;)

[David Platt]

I have found a modded xbox (the original) on my network to be the easiest solution for me.

Gotta say, I've been a big proponent of tivoserver, which a lot of people have recommended, in the past. I picked up a modded xbox a couple of weeks ago, though, and I am just blown away with its media capabilities. Definitely the best way to go.

[montag]

1. Download and install Azureus (bittorrent client): http://azureus.sourceforge.net/download.php

What exactly should be downloaded from that page? Jar, Jar Torrent, or Source? What version?

[BK89]

uTorrent is another option (as opposed to Azureus).

http://www.utorrent.com/index.php

Just got to the Download section and download the standalone propgram.

[MickeS]

What exactly should be downloaded from that page? Jar, Jar Torrent, or Source? What version?

Latest Azureus release for Windows. http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/azureus/Azureus_2.5.0.0_Win32.setup.exe?download

/Mike

[montag]

Ok, I have Azureus open and went to tvRSS and found the episode that I want. I clicked on the episode title and it ask me what to open it with and I selected Azureus and picked the appropriate destination. Now in my Azureus application it appears to be downloading but is is slooooooow. Like only 2% after 10 minutes. Is this normal?

[MickeS]

Ok, I have Azureus open and went to tvRSS and found the episode that I want. I clicked on the episode title and it ask me what to open it with and I selected Azureus and picked the appropriate destination. Now in my Azureus application it appears to be downloading but is is slooooooow. Like only 2% after 10 minutes. Is this normal?

Yes, the speed depends on number of seeds and peers, and the speed can often vary greatly. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow. Normally it takes a couple of hours for a show to download for me.

[montag]

Cool, thanks.

I just received a pop-up message saying saying something like UPnP disconnected or something like that. It still seems to be downloading so I don't know what that meant.

[jsmeeker]

ensuring you have the port forwarding on the router setup correctly can impact performance. Also not that the rate at which you allow UPLOAD back into the stream has a significant impact on the rate at which you download.

Remember, too, that these files are very large. It WILL take time. Another thing to remember is that you may not want to give a ton of bandwidth to the bittorrent client if you still want to use your Internet connection working OK for other tasks. Like surfing the net. There is alot of tweaking you can do, limiting upload and download, etc. to achieve the balance you desire.

[Kablemodem]

Port forwarding is very important if you are using a router and you don't get all green lights (lower right corner in Azureus). You will have a NAT problem and your downloads will be painfully slow.

[MickeS]

Cool, thanks.

I just received a pop-up message saying saying something like UPnP disconnected or something like that. It still seems to be downloading so I don't know what that meant.
http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/UPnP
/Mike

[MickeS]

ensuring you have the port forwarding on the router setup correctly can impact performance. Also not that the rate at which you allow UPLOAD back into the stream has a significant impact on the rate at which you download.

Remember, too, that these files are very large. It WILL take time. Another thing to remember is that you may not want to give a ton of bandwidth to the bittorrent client if you still want to use your Internet connection working OK for other tasks. Like surfing the net. There is alot of tweaking you can do, limiting upload and download, etc. to achieve the balance you desire.

Easiest way to do it: right-click on the speed indicators in the bottom right of the Azureus window (up and down arrows), and select the max upload and DL speed there.

[YCantAngieRead]

I'm pretty sure you guys have gone WAY past simplest possible terms. :D

I'm going to try and set this up tomorrow.

[montag]

Thanks to all! This torrent stuff is great. I got yesterday's survivor, burned it to a CD-R and just watched it on my tv with the Insignia DVD player. The quality was surprisingly really good. And no commercials? This is great. What else can I download?

Also, anyone streaming to their Xbox 360? I have mine networked can view pics and play music off my PC but the 360 won't recognize any video files. How can I get this to work?

[Dignan]

Thanks to all! This torrent stuff is great. I got yesterday's survivor, burned it to a CD-R and just watched it on my tv with the Insignia DVD player. The quality was surprisingly really good. And no commercials? This is great. What else can I download?

Also, anyone streaming to their Xbox 360? I have mine networked can view pics and play music off my PC but the 360 won't recognize any video files. How can I get this to work?

Are you running Windows Media XP? If so can the 360 at least find them or it just won't play? You need Transcode 360 to stream Divx files, otherwise you can only watch wmv files with Xbox 360.

See my post above about how to watch. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4589233&&#post4589233

[montag]

Nope, on have XP Home. Well my laptop is XPMC but the files are stored on a XP Home PC. They are all networked but I don't know if it would work.

I thought there was a recent dashboard update that allowed video streaming on the 360 even without Media Center.

[Dignan]

The update allowed you to watch WMV files without Windows Media Center XP computers but NOT Divx. Transcode 360 is a program that works with WMC only at this point. So until someone comes out with a program to stream divx with plain old windows media connection you are out of luck (you can do it but it's pretty complicated).

Edit: You could use your networked laptop. You would need to share your files from your Home PC and then add the laptop Windows Media Center so it can find and allowed to connect to your 360 (similar to Home PC setup). When you connect to Windows Media Center on your 360 you will be able to transcode the files if you use Transcode 360 on your laptop...

It might be a better idea to just buy some RW disks and play through your DVD player. ;)

[Kablemodem]

I'm pretty sure you guys have gone WAY past simplest possible terms. :D

I'm going to try and set this up tomorrow.
Setting it up and using it is very easy. Making it work perfectly can be a little tricky depending on how your computer is set up.

[Lee L]

Montag,

I have been playing with watching Torrents on my 360. Like you I have XP Home and WMP11.

BAsically, you have to transcode the files before you can watch them, ther eis no current way to do it on the fly.

At first, I found this program, River Past Video Cleaner (http://www.riverpast.com/en/prod/videocleaner/index.php) which costs 29.95. (I could not find any free stuff googling that did not appear to be spyware riddled) Once you install it you can set file to transcode in a number of ways so doing a conversion from the xvid torrents to WMV is easy. However, it does cost $29.95 and it is slow. It took about 3 times longer than real time to transcode some sitcoms for me. You can queue it up and have it run overnight though.

Then, the next day, Joystiq posted a free transcoder and a batch file that allows you do it. Hoffer posted it in the Xbox 360 thread. http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/07/how-to-transcode-and-stream-videos-on-xbox-360/ . Not pre packaged or anything but it works and is much faster than the RiverPast program, doing it in less than real time on my machine, which is a 4 year old P4 2.0 ghz. I did a file both ways and it appears that the quality is pretty similar. I ahve not done a ton of comarison and the particular torrents I used were only DVD quality maybe, but it is worth a try because of its free-ness.

[DaveBogart]

I'm pretty sure you guys have gone WAY past simplest possible terms. :D

I'm going to try and set this up tomorrow.
Angie, have you had any success with this? I found Mike's insturctions easy enough to understand and actually managed to get a show (The OC) downloaded. But when I tried to watch it all I got was sound. I wonder if maybe that's got something to do with these mysterious CODEC things.

[jsmeeker]

Angie, have you had any success with this? I found Mike's insturctions easy enough to understand and actually managed to get a show (The OC) downloaded. But when I tried to watch it all I got was sound. I wonder if maybe that's got something to do with these mysterious CODEC things.

it probably has everything to do with the codec thing. Get Xvid and DivX.

[Dignan]

Yeah, do a search for K-Lite codec, it has everything you could ever need.

[DaveBogart]

Ah yes. Installed codecs and am now enjoying episode 4 of season 4 of The OC. Thanks for the help, and thanks, Angie, for starting the thread.

[Vito the TiVo]

I might be smeeking, but its wise to anonymize in azuereus or use something like Peerguardian so nobody gets in trouble. But the plus side, you dont get sued for tvshows, they just pressure your isp to shut you down.

[YCantAngieRead]

I might be smeeking, but its wise to anonymize in azuereus or use something like Peerguardian so nobody gets in trouble. But the plus side, you dont get sued for tvshows, they just pressure your isp to shut you down.
How do you do that?


I'm downloading a show right now-I'll let you know if I have an issue, which I'm guessing I will. :o

[YCantAngieRead]

Okay, I'm stuck.

It downloaded. Or at least, it shows that it did.

But I can't figure out how to play it. Any player I use shows nothing in the folder I saved to.

[jking]

Okay, I'm stuck.

It downloaded. Or at least, it shows that it did.

But I can't figure out how to play it. Any player I use shows nothing in the folder I saved to.

Another way to go about it would be to open up Windows Explorer (My Computer), navigate to the folder and double-click the file. If it's a legit media file, whatever your default media player is should open and at least try to play it.

[YCantAngieRead]

That's not going to work either-I tried it.

Here's what I see in that file:

[JETarpon]

Ah. that file has been "rar"ed, which is an archive format that splits the file up into many parts. Useful when posting to usenet, not so useful for torrents, but occasionally you'll find one that has been split. You need an unrar program.

http://www.pewtersoftware.com/winunrar.html

[Fool Me Twice]

Is there no good free unrar program out there for Windows?

[YCantAngieRead]

Ah. that file has been "rar"ed, which is an archive format that splits the file up into many parts. Useful when posting to usenet, not so useful for torrents, but occasionally you'll find one that has been split. You need an unrar program.

http://www.pewtersoftware.com/winunrar.html
Damn it.

Didn't work. Gave me an error message.

[JETarpon]

Woops. Sorry about that. I use linux so didn't pay close attention to whether it was free or not.

Here's a free one, but it's command line. http://www.rarlab.com/rar/unrarw32.exe

[YCantAngieRead]

Actually, it did work. Now I just need to try and open it.

[YCantAngieRead]

Worked!

From here on out, is there a way to tell if a file has been split up like that?

[JETarpon]

If you are using azureus, when you tell it to open the URL or torrent file, the 'open' window should show you what files are contained in the torrent. If it's just one, it hasn't been split.

When a torrent contains many files, with azureus (and possibly other clients) you can select which files to download if you don't want all of them. With a file that has been rar-ed you want all of them, but if you were downloading a torrent that, say, contained a full season of episodes of a show, you could select which episodes you wanted and it would only download those parts of the torrent. This can be very handy.

[dtle]

To convert the files to burn them to DVD so any DVD players can play them, use VSO ConvertXtoDVD. It can convert almost all types of files (including HD) and burn them. It does take awhile for the whole process.

You can buy the program, or you can....errr.....let's just say you can use BT for more than just TV shows.

[jking]

Also, I know mininova does this, when you initially click on a torrent file, the download page that it takes you to has a tab called "detailed information" that will usually tell you what files you're going to be getting.

I use a program called IZArc (http://www.izarc.org) for rar's. It's an all-in-one archive utility kind of like WinZIP. It's not perfect, but works most of the time for me, and it's free.

[montag]

Montag,

I have been playing with watching Torrents on my 360. Like you I have XP Home and WMP11.

BAsically, you have to transcode the files before you can watch them, ther eis no current way to do it on the fly.

At first, I found this program, River Past Video Cleaner (http://www.riverpast.com/en/prod/videocleaner/index.php) which costs 29.95. (I could not find any free stuff googling that did not appear to be spyware riddled) Once you install it you can set file to transcode in a number of ways so doing a conversion from the xvid torrents to WMV is easy. However, it does cost $29.95 and it is slow. It took about 3 times longer than real time to transcode some sitcoms for me. You can queue it up and have it run overnight though.

Then, the next day, Joystiq posted a free transcoder and a batch file that allows you do it. Hoffer posted it in the Xbox 360 thread. http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/07/how-to-transcode-and-stream-videos-on-xbox-360/ . Not pre packaged or anything but it works and is much faster than the RiverPast program, doing it in less than real time on my machine, which is a 4 year old P4 2.0 ghz. I did a file both ways and it appears that the quality is pretty similar. I ahve not done a ton of comarison and the particular torrents I used were only DVD quality maybe, but it is worth a try because of its free-ness.
Lee thanks for the info and great Joystiq link! I'll set this up today.

[markz]

Another vote for uTorrent. But don't let the clients confuse you. You might like one client's interface better, or it might seem like one works for you better than another, but at the end of the day, the process is still the same.

1. Install client of choice
2. Find torrents online
3. Download torrent (which should open your client of choice)
4. Pick folder on your computer to save the media file to
5. Wait

The real fun comes in when you don't have the right codec to play said media file. But hopefully that won't happen.

Another vote for uTorrent.

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

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Mega_Codec_Pack.htm

Or you can buy a DIVX-certified DVD player for under $75. (oops, I see I smeeked the smeeker!)

Then copy (no encoding, transcoding, converting, etc) the AVI file to a CDRW (yes, it should fit on a CD) and play it on your TV with the DIVX player.

[markz]

Gotta say, I've been a big proponent of tivoserver, which a lot of people have recommended, in the past. I picked up a modded xbox a couple of weeks ago, though, and I am just blown away with its media capabilities. Definitely the best way to go.

What would one look for in a modded XBOX to watch downloaded shows on TV? I have never owned any game system (since the Atari 2600).

[bicker]

Download the K-lite Mega Codec Pack. It will have everything you need to watch downloaded shows.Everything? My experience is that with a lot of this stuff I don't get Closed Captions. It often is different on different computers.... I'm thinking maybe it has to do with which codecs are being used. Is there a way to see which are being used in each computer, and make changes so that the "right" one is being used?

[markz]

Everything? My experience is that with a lot of this stuff I don't get Closed Captions. It often is different on different computers.... I'm thinking maybe it has to do with which codecs are being used. Is there a way to see which are being used in each computer, and make changes so that the "right" one is being used?

I am not familiar with close captioning so I won't be of much help.

I think the GSpot program that jsmeeker suggested will let you see what codecs you need. The program is installed by the mega codec pack I linked to. The link also shows you what all is installed by it.

There are also non-"mega" packs available at that site if you don't need all the capabilities.

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm

I haven't messed with any of the tools that pack installs. I just installed it on someone's recommendation (I think on TCF) and haven't had any problem playing anything since. It was a simple way to play almost any AV file.

[DevdogAZ]

Everything? My experience is that with a lot of this stuff I don't get Closed Captions. It often is different on different computers.... I'm thinking maybe it has to do with which codecs are being used. Is there a way to see which are being used in each computer, and make changes so that the "right" one is being used?
I wasn't aware that the CC data was encoded in the bit torrent files. I assumed that it wasn't because it's never worked when I've transferred shows to my TiVo for viewing there, but I suppose it's possible that the CC data is there and that that if you watch it on your computer and have the right program to decode and display them, it could work.

[YCantAngieRead]

So, can someone now explain peerguardian to me? I've downloaded it, I am just not sure what to do now.

[David Platt]

What would one look for in a modded XBOX to watch downloaded shows on TV? I have never owned any game system (since the Atari 2600).

The main mod that you would want is called Xbox Media Center-- it's basically an OS that replaces the standard Microsoft one. With it, you can access any media files from your computer. It's played any file type I've tried to throw at it-- I even have a couple of live concerts downloaded as a single long MP3 with a cue sheet in the same folder to split it up into individual songs, and the Xbox properly split it up on its own and played the individual songs.

[montag]

Is downloading torrents dangerous in terms of computer virus (viruses, viri, virii, etc...)? My PC has been opening apps and just generally operating much more sluggishly since downloading a Survivor episode from tvrss.

As a matter of fact, AVG 7.5 detected and quarantined a virus yesterday. I think I've only every had one other virus is all of my years using any PC. Also, Windows Defender identified and deleted spyware. In the year or so using Defender, it has never identified spyware on my PC. Coincidence?

[markz]

Is downloading torrents dangerous in terms of computer virus (viruses, viri, virii, etc...)? My PC has been opening apps and just generally operating much more sluggishly since downloading a Survivor episode from tvrss.

As a matter of fact, AVG 7.5 detected and quarantined a virus yesterday. I think I've only every had one other virus is all of my years using any PC. Also, Windows Defender identified and deleted spyware. In the year or so using Defender, it has never identified spyware on my PC. Coincidence?

Depends what you are downloading. As someone alluded to earlier in this thread, TV shows aren't the only thing you can download from torrents. If you are downloading programs, you could get a virus or spyware.

If you are strictly downloading AVI files (tv shows & movies) I don't think you can get a virus from them. Same goes for MP3's.

[MickeS]

Is downloading torrents dangerous in terms of computer virus (viruses, viri, virii, etc...)? My PC has been opening apps and just generally operating much more sluggishly since downloading a Survivor episode from tvrss.

As a matter of fact, AVG 7.5 detected and quarantined a virus yesterday. I think I've only every had one other virus is all of my years using any PC. Also, Windows Defender identified and deleted spyware. In the year or so using Defender, it has never identified spyware on my PC. Coincidence?

I've never had any problems with virus or spyware related to torrents.

[Redux]

Gotta say, I've been a big proponent of tivoserver, which a lot of people have recommended, in the past. I picked up a modded xbox a couple of weeks ago, though, and I am just blown away with its media capabilities. Definitely the best way to go.Where are some good places to learn about this? Don't care about games, at all, but would like to look into the xbox for the media capabilities you describe. My initial searches are turning up massive amounts of info on game-oriented mods.

[SeanC]

So, can someone now explain peerguardian to me? I've downloaded it, I am just not sure what to do now.

PG is a specialized firewall that is constantly updated with the IP addresses that are known as scanners. What PG is attempting to do is block the people who you don't want to know you are downloading/uploading stuff from getting your IP address.

When you run it the first time it asks you what you want to block/filter, right?

I only put a checkmark in the P2P. One of the other ones is adware I think and something else.

There's also a box in the options for something like:

Always allow HTTP on port 80, or something like that. I have a checkmark in that as well because PG could block you from getting to some websites if you leave it empty.

Other than that just keep it updated.

Over the years I've gotten hit with 5-7 warning emails from my ISP that the RIAA/MPAA had sent to them regarding activity on my IP address.

Since I started using PG? None.

[YCantAngieRead]

Ah. My problem was that I downloaded a "lite" version.

[markz]

Where are some good places to learn about this? Don't care about games, at all, but would like to look into the xbox for the media capabilities you describe. My initial searches are turning up massive amounts of info on game-oriented mods.

+1 I am in the exact same boat. I don't care a bit about the games, but am interested in the AV aspect. Please share your knowledge with us Mr Platt (or anyone else)!

[jking]

+1 I am in the exact same boat. I don't care a bit about the games, but am interested in the AV aspect. Please share your knowledge with us Mr Platt (or anyone else)!

A good place to find out more is xbox-scene.com. Gaming mods and AV mods are the same thing. Once you mod the Xbox, you have the capability to use it for both.

[David Platt]

+1 I am in the exact same boat. I don't care a bit about the games, but am interested in the AV aspect. Please share your knowledge with us Mr Platt (or anyone else)!

Sorry I can't really help you out much-- I took the easy way out. ;)

I bought the Xbox on craigslist, then found somebody else on craigslist who would hack it for $60. Hopefully somebody else can post some good info!

[cmontyburns]

So, can someone now explain peerguardian to me? I've downloaded it, I am just not sure what to do now.

It's worth pointing out that unless you plan to become a serial user of BitTorrent and/or doing high volume in copyrighted content, you're not likely to find PG of much value. Your needle is just too small and the haystack just too big. Especially worth thinking about since PG has itself been accused in the past of not being entirely innocuous software ("phoning home" and other questionable behaviors).

Incidentally, this is a very Windows-centric thread (which is fine, since the OP is a Windows user). For any Mac users out there who are BT-curious, though, here's a digest of what you'll need.

BT client: Try Transmission (http://transmission.m0k.org/) (free; I'd recommend trying the current Beta release 0.7), XTorrent (http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/) (free while in Beta), or Bits on Wheels (http://www.bitsonwheels.com/) (free).
Video player: Try VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/).
If you get a RAR file: Stuffit Expander (http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/download.html) (free; your Mac may already have it)

Enjoy.

[YCantAngieRead]

Okay, I have a new question. Things download, but it's very slow and I get the yellow/orange face all the time (in Azureus.) How do I go about troubleshooting that?

[TBDigital]

How are you connecting to the internet? What is your network setup (router, firewall, os)? What kind of speeds do you see from online speed tests?

[JETarpon]

What does it say at the bottom center of your Azureus window about NAT. Does it say "NAT OK"?

[YCantAngieRead]

What does it say at the bottom center of your Azureus window about NAT. Does it say "NAT OK"?

This is what I see.

[YCantAngieRead]

How are you connecting to the internet? What is your network setup (router, firewall, os)? What kind of speeds do you see from online speed tests?
Oh. Also. I have a Westell router, Windows XP.

[YCantAngieRead]

What does it say at the bottom center of your Azureus window about NAT. Does it say "NAT OK"?
It now says firewalled.

[Redux]

You may have NAT disabled. Somewhere in your router setup (on mine it's /Setup/Advance Routing/) you should have a choice of enabled/disabled.

It's also good to verify port 6881 is open.

Keep in mind that even when all this is done, speed will greatly depend on how many seeders there are and/or with peers that have segments of the file you need. And the speed and quality of those sources.

[dswallow]

Angie, in Azureus, go to the menu item "Tools / Options" than click on the "Connection" item on the left. In the right-hand pane are two items... "Incoming TCP listen port" and "UDP listen port". First thing, set them to a port other than the standard Bittorrent default. Something in the high ranges. I use "49152" for both.

Now from another computer on the internet, such as having a friend/someone you know do this from their internet connection, open a command prompt window and try connecting to that port using telnet... the command "telnet a.b.c.d 49152" where "a.b.c.d" is your public IP address (you can find that at www.whatismyip.com) and "49152" is the port you specify in Azureus.

If they connect to it the command prompt window will clear and the cursor will blink like it's waiting. If it doesn't connect, you'll get some sort of error message. If the window clears, then Azureus should be connecting fine to anyone. If you get an error, then you have to figure out what else you need to configure properly on your system. Most likely it will either be a Windows Firewall (or other software firewall) item to configure, or something in your cable/DSL modem/router. If you provide the specific make/model of your modem or router we can help you with specific info for it. But generally speaking, there'll be a place you can configure "port forwarding" where traffic on a port (specifically TCP/IP and UDP port 49152 or whatever you chose as above) is forwarded from the public IP address to the IP address you've assigned to the computer running Azureus. Similarly in the Windows Firewall or other software firewall you need to permit unrestricted incoming traffic on that port, too.

The reason to use a non-standard port is that some ISPs actually just try to block or restrict flow on commonly used peer-to-peer ports.

Another thing that Azureus can do is encrypt traffic so that ISPs using fancier routing equipment that actually looks at the data to decide to throttle some kinds of traffic won't be able to identify P2P traffic... on the same Tools / Options page, go to "Connection / Transport Encryption" and check the first 3 of the 4 checkboxes. That'll force Azureus to use encrypted conenctions when it can, but will still fall back to unencrypted ones. That can help bypass restrictive ISPs.

[tirofiban]

I use bit torrent to dl my favorite UK shows. But, I don't know what program I'm using and I never installed it.

That's because I use Ubuntu as my operating system. It's totally free and comes preloaded with bit torrent and lot's of other great software. Since day 1, I just click on a torrent link and my computer does the rest. When I installed Ubuntu, I used a program called Automatix to install every codec there is.

My dusty old P4 Dell desktop was dug up from the basement and thanks to Ubuntu, I get to watch my favorite UK shows on a timely basis. If you have an older spare computer lying around, consider making it your dedicated torrent computer with Ubuntu. It's really easy.

I also have a portable DIVX DVD player and regular DIVX DVD player. They play most, but not all of my torrents.

[markz]

I use bit torrent to dl my favorite UK shows. But, I don't know what program I'm using and I never installed it.

That's because I use Ubuntu as my operating system. It's totally free and comes preloaded with bit torrent and lot's of other great software. Since day 1, I just click on a torrent link and my computer does the rest. When I installed Ubuntu, I used a program called Automatix to install every codec there is.

My dusty old P4 Dell desktop was dug up from the basement and thanks to Ubuntu, I get to watch my favorite UK shows on a timely basis. If you have an older spare computer lying around, consider making it your dedicated torrent computer with Ubuntu. It's really easy.

I also have a portable DIVX DVD player and regular DIVX DVD player. They play most, but not all of my torrents.

Is Ubuntu installed on your hard drive, or are you running it from a live CD? Where did you get it?

[Graymalkin]

If I've installed Azureus into OS X and don't want it anymore, how do I get rid of it? Is it leaving my iMac open to the Internet?

[jsmeeker]

If I've installed Azureus into OS X and don't want it anymore, how do I get rid of it? Is it leaving my iMac open to the Internet?

If it's not running and doesn't have a torrent going, no.

Just get rid of it like pretty much every other OS X app. Put it in the trash.

[Redux]

If I've installed Azureus into OS X and don't want it anymore, how do I get rid of it? Is it leaving my iMac open to the Internet?If you were really concerned about it, you could run something like CleanApp, then set your router back to factory settings (having written down any changes you have made for other purposes so you can re-make them).

[YCantAngieRead]

You may have NAT disabled. Somewhere in your router setup (on mine it's /Setup/Advance Routing/) you should have a choice of enabled/disabled.

It's also good to verify port 6881 is open.

Keep in mind that even when all this is done, speed will greatly depend on how many seeders there are and/or with peers that have segments of the file you need. And the speed and quality of those sources.
Okay, take a step back here for a second.

I have NO idea how to get to router setup. Help?

[dswallow]

Okay, take a step back here for a second.

I have NO idea how to get to router setup. Help?
Open the manual to your router and read the instructions. Did you ever set it up? Or did you think it was a plug-in-and-go device requiring no configuration? ;)

[cherry ghost]

Okay, take a step back here for a second.

I have NO idea how to get to router setup. Help?

Find your router and then click on Auzereus

http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm

[jsmeeker]

Okay, take a step back here for a second.

I have NO idea how to get to router setup. Help?


you *probably* just open a browser to http://192.168.1.1

You probably have a passsword. Maybe a user name, too. Could still be a default

[JETarpon]

Once you get into your router, if you can find a place to turn on UPnP, you can turn on that, and then turn on UPnP in Azureus (I think it's under plugins) and it will automatically configure your router for the required ports.

[YCantAngieRead]

Open the manual to your router and read the instructions. Did you ever set it up? Or did you think it was a plug-in-and-go device requiring no configuration? ;)
Pretty much. Plus it didn't come with a manual. :o

ETA: I didn't worry too much about securing it and all, because we are literally surrounded by really, REALLY old people here at our house.

[jking]

I think we have all learned from this thread (and the other one) that there's no such thing as a "simple" explanation when it comes to torrents. :D

[YCantAngieRead]

Find your router and then click on Auzereus

http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm
Wow. This is a VERY helpful website.

[YCantAngieRead]

I think once I get this port thing down, I'm probably going to have to set up a new thread about routers. I'm sort of embarrassed I didn't know all this. :o

[jking]

I think once I get this port thing down, I'm probably going to have to set up a new thread about routers. I'm sort of embarrassed I didn't know all this. :o

Absolutely no need to be embarrassed. Who the heck has time for all of this? You buy a router, it's plug and play... why take the time to learn about it until you need to? No one here was born with the knowledge. We all had to learn at some point. :)

[JETarpon]

I think once I get this port thing down, I'm probably going to have to set up a new thread about routers. I'm sort of embarrassed I didn't know all this. :o

We'll be looking for that in 2008. ;)

[YCantAngieRead]

you *probably* just open a browser to http://192.168.1.1

You probably have a passsword. Maybe a user name, too. Could still be a default
Okay, I'm stuck here. I tried admin/admin, and it didn't work. Help?

[MickeS]

Okay, I'm stuck here. I tried admin/admin, and it didn't work. Help?
admin/<blank>
or admin/password
seem to normally work.

[dswallow]

Sometimes a blank username and "admin" for the password.

Though this will be in the manual. :)

Here's a list of default router passwords by model: http://www.phenoelit.de/dpl/dpl.html

[YCantAngieRead]

I found the password, but now I'm completely stumped. I think I'm just going to have to go with what I have.

[dswallow]

I found the password, but now I'm completely stumped. I think I'm just going to have to go with what I have.
We've gone this far; you are hereby notified that you must continue even if it goes painfully slowly for everyone. We will solve this. :)

Screen captures would help.

Or you could let one of us connect to you directly via Windows XP's Remote Assistance feature and do it for you while you watch.

[YCantAngieRead]

We've gone this far; you are hereby notified that you must continue even if it goes painfully slowly for everyone. We will solve this. :)

Screen captures would help.

Or you could let one of us connect to you directly via Windows XP's Remote Assistance feature and do it for you while you watch.
Ha. That'd be fun. Maybe I'll have to try that at some point.

Let me get some screen shots.

[YCantAngieRead]

This is what I get when I go to http://192.168.1.1...

I'm including two photos-one of what I see when I open it, and one of the options on the pull down menu. Please let me know if you need to see something else.

[josh4040]

Thanks for the thread angie! Just this afternoon a coworker was telling me to use bit torrent and I said nah I cant figure that sh*t out. I get home log on to the faithful tivo forum and there it is! No I can get all the stuff I want. Thanks tc

[YCantAngieRead]

Thanks for the thread angie! Just this afternoon a coworker was telling me to use bit torrent and I said nah I cant figure that sh*t out. I get home log on to the faithful tivo forum and there it is! No I can get all the stuff I want. Thanks tc
Me too, just slowly. :) It's not something I'll use a lot-we have two TiVos, so we're okay on that front. But occasionally things get missed-this evening I missed Criminal Intent because I forgot to check the TiVo, for example. :o

[dswallow]

It'll be helpful to have the model number and full part number of your modem so I can make sure to use the right manual, but using one that seems to match up with your screen captures, I found this: http://www.westell.com/content/sales/vlg_userguide.pdf

This is described on page 59/60:

First, go to Configuration / Services. If the UPNP checkbox isn't checked already, check it and then save your configuration and reboot the router when prompted and try Azureus (there's a corresponding UPNP option in Azureus you also need to enable... we talked about it here earlier); if nothing changes, follow the rest of these instructions to manually port forward the proper ports.


Specifically look on page 127 at port forwarding.

1) You'll go to Configuration / Services then click on the "Define custom services" button.
2) Select "Port forwarding ranges of ports" and press "next"
3) Enter a descriptive name like "Bittorrent" in the "service name" field; enter the port number you've configured in Azureus in both fields of the "Global Port Range" items as well as the "Base Host Port" field; check TCP/IP; press "next"
4) Press the "add" button and repeat these steps but selecting "UDP" instead of TCP/IP (in other words, we're creating two otherwise identical entries, one for TCP/IP ports and one for UDP ports. You can give each a unique name (like "Bittorrent UDP" and "Bittorent TCP/IP" if you prefer.
5) After adding both, press "close" to accept the changes you made.


The following is described beginning on page 66:

Now on the Configuration / Services page you need to select each of the 2 services you added click on the "enable" button; a window will pop up asking "Host service?" where you should click on OK. Then you'll get another window where you select your computer from the drop-down box labeled "host device" (or enter the private IP address of it in the IP Address box -- if your PC is configured for DHCP you should select from the Host Device drop-down); then click Done. Repeat this for the second Bittorrent service you added.

That should do it. Let us know how it goes and if you have any troubles following this, just ask. Again, the specific model as you choose on this page will help us: http://www.westell.com/pages/support/dropdown.jsp

[cheesesteak]

Downloading by way of torrents was a time consuming and painful experience until I found out about port forwarding (on this forum) and spent a couple of hours monkeying around with settings on Azureus and my router. Once I got it right, my download speed increased dramatically.

[YCantAngieRead]

It'll be helpful to have the model number and full part number of your modem so I can make sure to use the right manual, but using one that seems to match up with your screen captures, I found this: http://www.westell.com/content/sales/vlg_userguide.pdf

This is described on page 59/60:

First, go to Configuration / Services. If the UPNP checkbox isn't checked already, check it and then save your configuration and reboot the router when prompted and try Azureus (there's a corresponding UPNP option in Azureus you also need to enable... we talked about it here earlier); if nothing changes, follow the rest of these instructions to manually port forward the proper ports.


Specifically look on page 127 at port forwarding.

1) You'll go to Configuration / Services then click on the "Define custom services" button.
2) Select "Port forwarding ranges of ports" and press "next"
3) Enter a descriptive name like "Bittorrent" in the "service name" field; enter the port number you've configured in Azureus in both fields of the "Global Port Range" items as well as the "Base Host Port" field; check TCP/IP; press "next"
4) Press the "add" button and repeat these steps but selecting "UDP" instead of TCP/IP (in other words, we're creating two otherwise identical entries, one for TCP/IP ports and one for UDP ports. You can give each a unique name (like "Bittorrent UDP" and "Bittorent TCP/IP" if you prefer.
5) After adding both, press "close" to accept the changes you made.


The following is described beginning on page 66:

Now on the Configuration / Services page you need to select each of the 2 services you added click on the "enable" button; a window will pop up asking "Host service?" where you should click on OK. Then you'll get another window where you select your computer from the drop-down box labeled "host device" (or enter the private IP address of it in the IP Address box -- if your PC is configured for DHCP you should select from the Host Device drop-down); then click Done. Repeat this for the second Bittorrent service you added.

That should do it. Let us know how it goes and if you have any troubles following this, just ask. Again, the specific model as you choose on this page will help us: http://www.westell.com/pages/support/dropdown.jsp

Okay, I've finished all this, and this is what I've gotten with Azureus:

[YCantAngieRead]

Nevermind, I figured out the issue.

ETA: I think I have everything figured out. NAT appears fine, but I don't think it's downloading any speedier. Go figure. :)


Wait a second, though. Should I start a new thread on what a person should do when getting a router? I mean, the stuff I should have done anyway?

[YCantAngieRead]

Oh, and... :)

Can I save the files to CDR and replay by transferring back to the computer, should I find something I want to save? I don't have a DVDR with this computer.

[DevdogAZ]

One tip for you Angie. You can set your share ratio and have it stop automatically after that. I have mine set for 2.0, which means that after I've uploaded twice as much data as I received for that particular torrent, I stop sharing. I figure that's more than fair, since I'm giving twice as much as I'm receiving, and it doesn't keep me connected and sharing forever. Looking at your screenshot, it appears you've shared many of your files 4+ times, one of them nearly 8 times. You are free to do that, but I don't think there's any reason to.

[DevdogAZ]

Oh, and... :)

Can I save the files to CDR and replay by transferring back to the computer, should I find something I want to save? I don't have a DVDR with this computer.
Yes, the files are (usually) simply .avi files and can be saved very easily on a CD-R. Keep in mind that most hour-long shows are about 700 MB so you wouldn't be able to fit more than one show per disc, but it can definitely be done.

[dswallow]

Yes, the files are (usually) simply .avi files and can be saved very easily on a CD-R. Keep in mind that most hour-long shows are about 700 MB so you wouldn't be able to fit more than one show per disc, but it can definitely be done.
Actually, most hour long shows (with commercials removed) are 350MB and you can fit two of them on one CDR.

[markz]

Yes, the files are (usually) simply .avi files and can be saved very easily on a CD-R. Keep in mind that most hour-long shows are about 700 MB so you wouldn't be able to fit more than one show per disc, but it can definitely be done.

And if you have a DIVX-certified DVD player (less than $75) you can watch those AVI's right on your TV.

Instead of CDR's, I burn them to CDRW's. Then I can watch them, erase, them, and use them again and again!

[wdave]

What do I need to play most of the TV show files on Mac OS X?
Can I straight burn them to CD and my late model DVD player will probably be able to play them?

[wdave]

What do I need to play most of the TV show files on Mac OS X?
Can I straight burn them to CD and my late model DVD player will probably be able to play them?
Well neither of those worked. I downloaded the pilot episode of Heroes, which is in some type of avi format. Neither Quicktime, nor my 1 year old DVD player knows how to play it. Any pointers on either front?

[dswallow]

What do I need to play most of the TV show files on Mac OS X?
Can I straight burn them to CD and my late model DVD player will probably be able to play them?
You need to install the DivX codec from www.divx.com. Amongst the download options is a free player/codec. Then you can just use Windows Media Player. If you want to play it on your DVD player, you need one that's DivX comaptible or you need to convert it to a standard DVD using some software (and having the DivX codec installed on your computer).

[cmontyburns]

Well neither of those worked. I downloaded the pilot episode of Heroes, which is in some type of avi format. Neither Quicktime, nor my 1 year old DVD player knows how to play it. Any pointers on either front?

I posted some Mac pointers earlier in this thread, here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4598163&&#post4598163). Should tell you what you need on the Mac side. See Doug's post, above, for the DVD player side.

You need to install the DivX codec from www.divx.com. Amongst the download options is a free player/codec. Then you can just use Windows Media Player.

WMP on Mac OS X is a fairly poor app (plus, MS has discontinued it), so I'd recommend either of the apps I linked to in my post referenced above over it (no codec install needed). As an aside, the DivX player was fairly unstable in its early OS X releases (no idea how the current release performs), so it may not yield the best experience either.

[wdave]

I posted some Mac pointers earlier in this thread, here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4598163&&#post4598163). Should tell you what you need on the Mac side. See Doug's post, above, for the DVD player side.
Thanks! Somehow I missed your earlier post. The VLC player seems to work great on Mac OS X, even with the HR HDTV files with AC3 sound.

Now to tackle the DVD player route. Can anyone suggest a player, assuming I'm willing to go that route to get this working on my big TV? Also, any chance the PS3 can play these files off a burned DVD and output in HD? I haven't bought one yet, but it's on my tobuy list.

My ultimate goal is to be able to play the HR HDTV files in HD on my big set.

[markz]

Thanks! Somehow I missed your earlier post. The VLC player seems to work great on Mac OS X, even with the HR HDTV files with AC3 sound.

Now to tackle the DVD player route. Can anyone suggest a player, assuming I'm willing to go that route to get this working on my big TV? Also, any chance the PS3 can play these files off a burned DVD and output in HD? I haven't bought one yet, but it's on my tobuy list.

My ultimate goal is to be able to play the HR HDTV files in HD on my big set.

Any Divx-certified player should play most AVI files. Mine is in my signature. I think I paid about $55 delivered from Amazon IIRC.

ETA: Oops. Won't play AVI's in HD. I don't know if there is an HD DIVX-certified player yet. Probably.

[wdave]

Thanks, markz. So that's my next question...

What DVD players will play the HR HDTV divx files in HD and AC3 to its component video and digital audio outputs?

Anyone know if the Oppo player (http://www.oppodigital.com/opdv971h.html) will? Any other cheaper options that will? And what about the PS3?

(I'm still researching, but thought I'd ask here if anyone knows some of these answers)

[dswallow]

What DVD players will play the HR HDTV divx files in HD and AC3 to its component video and digital audio outputs?
http://www.divx.com/products/hw/browse.php?c=7

[wdave]

Thanks, Doug. I missed that link on divx's website. I need to slow down and pay more attention as I surf and read. That's twice now I've missed important content due to my carelessness.

Wow, some of those players will play the divx file directly off a networked PC (or Mac!). No burning to DVD required.

Something tells me we're on the cusp of lots of differnet consumer electronics that have this capability, with these DVD players, gaming consoles, and Apple's upcoming iTV only the beginning.

[dswallow]

Wow, some of those players will play the divx file directly off a networked PC (or Mac!). No burning to DVD required.
According to http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/AVLP2_SW.php#SW the LinkPlayer2 can even play TiVo content from *.ty files on the PC.

[dswallow]

I picked up the LinkPlayer2 at CompUSA today to see just how well it works in practice.

[wdave]

Great. Please report back. I see it's available from www.macmall.com for $201. I may do it if your report is favorable.

[wdave]

The LinkPlayer2 has been out for about 2 years now, with lots of software updates keeping it fairly current (straight to the player over the net via a menu choice!). My research today has also turned up a new device, the Ziova CS505 (http://www.ziova.com/cs505.php), which also looks interesting, but I can't find a price anywhere.

[dswallow]

I can't find a price anywhere.
http://www.mpcclub.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=10417

[wdave]

While I await Doug's review of the Linkplayer2...

Can I hook up a Mac Mini via DVI to my HDTV (using the TV as a monitor), and watch my HD torrents that way? Any aspect ratio issues? Any dangers to the TV or Mac with such a connection? Using the Mac Mini would seem a convenient short term solution. If watching HD torrents becomes habit, only then would I need to invest in a LinkPlayer2 or similar box.

[cmontyburns]

Can I hook up a Mac Mini via DVI to my HDTV (using the TV as a monitor), and watch my HD torrents that way? Any aspect ratio issues? Any dangers to the TV or Mac with such a connection? Using the Mac Mini would seem a convenient short term solution. If watching HD torrents becomes habit, only then would I need to invest in a LinkPlayer2 or similar box.

Yes you can, although it may take a bit of tweaking depending on what connections your TV offers and a few other variables. Macworld (http://www.macworld.com) has covered this quite a bit; head there and search for "Mac mini HDTV" and you should find several articles. Here's one (http://www.macworld.com/2006/07/secrets/macminihdtv/index.php) that should be useful.

[dswallow]

While I await Doug's review of the Linkplayer2...
It was gonna be a piss poor review including a next-day return to CompUSA until I found third party server software that was far, far better. It's now earned a reprieve through the weekend to see whether or not I like it. More later.

[wdave]

Update on using the Mac Mini for viewing HD torrents on my big screen HDTV...

It's awesome! I gotta give it to Apple. The Mac Mini is itself already a media center PC out of the box. All I had to do was add the divx codec for Quicktime and I was all set. I hooked it up to my HDTV via the DVI output to my TVs HDMI input. For now I'm feeding the audio via USB to the USB audio input on my AV Receiver. I think I need a special cable for the digital audio output jack on the Mac Mini. That will then give me Dolby Digital.

The Mac booted right into 720p intelligently. The Monitors setting also showed a specific entry for 1080i, so it seemed to know what my TV was capable of and gave me the right options. It also came up in overscan mode, so it also seemed to know it was a TV intended for video output rather than a computer monitor.

I pressed the Menu button on the remote that comes with the Mac Mini, and Front Row (http://www.apple.com/macmini/frontrow.html) came right up. I used the remote to navigate to Movies, and chose one of my HD torrent files, and it just worked. The HD torrent video was quite impressive. There's occasional compression artifacts noticeable from the higher divx compression used for these torrent files, but it still looks great, and certainly better than DVD quality. Front Row is also network aware and provides a menu choice for all the movie trailers on Apple's website, which played great also.

The only tricky part was calibrating the monitor/computer for color, contrast, etc. I went through Apple's ColorSync calibration process and wasn't completely satisfied with the results -- as a photographer, I'm picky! I got out my monitor calibration hardware and did a calibration with the TV as the monitor, and created a new ColorSync profile for my TV on the Mac Mini. Ahh, much better, even better than a Video Essentials calibration, I think, since it's hardware calibrated perfect.

This has turned into more of a Mac Mini review, but based on this experience, I think Apple will have a hit on their hands with their upcoming iTV product.

[Markman07]

One tip for you Angie. You can set your share ratio and have it stop automatically after that. I have mine set for 2.0, which means that after I've uploaded twice as much data as I received for that particular torrent, I stop sharing..

I have looked all over in Azureus for this option and I for the life of me can't find it. I swear I have seen it before.

[DevdogAZ]

I have looked all over in Azureus for this option and I for the life of me can't find it. I swear I have seen it before.
I had to look for it too. :)

Tools, Options, Queue, Seeding, Ignore Rules

In the box next to "Ignore torrents that have a share ratio of ____ :1" I put 2.0, but you could put anything you want there. It works well, just stops seeding and puts it back in the queue once the ratio is reached.

[kbohip]

I use uTorrent and like it a lot. I've tried Azereus and just didn't like it as much. I play back my Divx avi's on a Toshiba DVD player that plays Divx files. I love being able to just burn a data dvd and pop it in the player.

I also put shows on my Creative Zen Vision W. They turn out great on it and I can then watch my shows whenever and wherever I want :up:. It even has a tv output so I can use it like a tiny DVD player. I like it a lot more than the video Ipods because of the much greater amount of codecs it supports, plus the screen is much better.

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=210&subcategory=211&product=15752

[YCantAngieRead]

Okay, I broke something. :o

I uninstalled some stuff yesterday, and now when I open anything I downloaded, I get sound, but now picture.

One of the things I uninstalled was DivX. Is that the problem?

[dswallow]

Okay, I broke something. :o

I uninstalled some stuff yesterday, and now when I open anything I downloaded, I get sound, but now picture.

One of the things I uninstalled was DivX. Is that the problem?
Yes. DivX is the primary video codec that you'll find used amongst downloadable videos/movies. You need it.

[YCantAngieRead]

Yes. DivX is the primary video codec that you'll find used amongst downloadable videos/movies. You need it.
I learned that. :D

Not sure what I was thinking when I deleted it.

[YCantAngieRead]

Hey guys.

I wanted to give an extra thanks to everyone who helped me figure this out. We've been without cable since Thursday and I'm not expecting it back any time soon, thanks to an inch of ice that we got Thursday night.

I am SO glad you stuck with me. I can now download Studio 60 and Ugly Betty. :)

[sptnut]

Well I've tried to follow the instructions without much luck so far. Most of the time when I lookup a show on on www.tvrss.net or www.mininova.org, the show is listed but once i click on it says torrent doesn't exist. Why would it be listed if it doesnt exist.

Second problem, when I find a link, I get an error message when it tries to start download (see screenshot attachment). What am I missing?

[DevdogAZ]

If you're getting a "Torrent doesn't exist" message on mininova, it's either been taken down or moved. This happens regularly as the torrents get older and don't have anyone up/downloading them anymore. If it's a recent show, you shouldn't have any problems. If it's older than a few weeks, YMMV.

As for the error you're getting, it looks like you saved the file and then tried to open it. You shouldn't do that. When you click on the link in the browser, it will bring up the dialogue box to Open, Save, Cancel. Choose Open, and then it will automatically open Azureus and start downloading.

[sptnut]

As for the error you're getting, it looks like you saved the file and then tried to open it. You shouldn't do that. When you click on the link in the browser, it will bring up the dialogue box to Open, Save, Cancel. Choose Open, and then it will automatically open Azureus and start downloading.

This isn't the problem, I am selecting Open. I still get the error message.

[YCantAngieRead]

Is there any place where older torrents are more common?

[DevdogAZ]

Is there any place where older torrents are more common?
The nature of torrents is that it takes a large population of people to be both down/uploading them at the same time. As a show gets further from its original air date, it's less and less likely that there's a large population of people out there looking to acquire it. Therefore, I doubt there's some site or community where older torrents are more popular, simply because the older the show is, the less likely it is that there are people looking for it. you also run into the problem that even if there are people looking for it, there aren't a lot of people who have it already that are still uploading it. This is why you'll occasionally get a torrent that stalls out at a level somewhere under 100%. It's because all the people sharing the file have that same 75% (or whatever amount) and nobody has the pieces needed for everyone to complete it.

[DevdogAZ]

This isn't the problem, I am selecting Open. I still get the error message.
What is that "Open Torrents" dialog box that's under the error message? I've never seen that. Perhaps it has something to do with that.

Have you had them work before and this is something that's just started happening?

[sptnut]

What is that "Open Torrents" dialog box that's under the error message? I've never seen that. Perhaps it has something to do with that.

Have you had them work before and this is something that's just started happening?

I don't know what it is, it just automatically opened up. I've never used torrents before, just something i thought i would try when i saw this thread. Not having much luck so far.

[dswallow]

Well I've tried to follow the instructions without much luck so far. Most of the time when I lookup a show on on www.tvrss.net or www.mininova.org, the show is listed but once i click on it says torrent doesn't exist. Why would it be listed if it doesnt exist.

Second problem, when I find a link, I get an error message when it tries to start download (see screenshot attachment). What am I missing?
That's very odd behavior. Did anything strange happen when you went through the installation of Azureus?

From within Azureus, go to Tools / Options, then click on Interface. At the bottom of the window is a button labeled "Reset" that will reset Windows Explorer file associations; press that and see if then that helps.

If you still experience trouble, save the *.torrent file onto your hard drive and then try to open it directly from within Azureus using the File / Open / Torrent File... option.

If the program is listed on mininova.org, there's always a torrent file; there might be no seeders with the content being shared, but there's always a torrent file. So there's something odd in your configuration we need to track down.

Do you have anything meant to "protect" you such as internet security or download manager programs installed that might interfere with normal download links in Internet Explorer?

[dswallow]

Is there any place where older torrents are more common?
For TV Shows, you'll find a huge archive of older stuff, especially full season collections, at www.tvtorrents.com; but you will need to do a little extra work to activate an account there; you can't download anything with a new account. You'll have to find an identical file somewhere else, download it, then start sharing it via tvtorrents.com, then you can start downloading. They make you go through a few hoops to prevent leechers from leeching. It's easy enough to do, just using a current show; you can download it via mininova or isohunt, etc., then start sharing it via tvtorrents. You'll just need to look at file sizes and full names initially to find something that's in both places.

[Mabes]

For TV Shows, you'll find a huge archive of older stuff, especially full season collections, at www.tvtorrents.com; but you will need to do a little extra work to activate an account there; you can't download anything with a new account. You'll have to find an identical file somewhere else, download it, then start sharing it via tvtorrents.com, then you can start downloading. They make you go through a few hoops to prevent leechers from leeching. It's easy enough to do, just using a current show; you can download it via mininova or isohunt, etc., then start sharing it via tvtorrents. You'll just need to look at file sizes and full names initially to find something that's in both places.


That's a good tip. I know those other sites but I'll have to investigate this one, maybe do a little eavesdropping on the board. Maybe that way I can find a good quality version of a certain first season. I have one now but it's not very good.

I don't understand the last sentence, though. Why do you need to find the file in both places if you are going to get it from, say, iso and upload to tvtorrents?

edit - I get it now, you actually want it to be the same, that way you are helping others. I was thinking you had to contribute something new.

[dswallow]

edit - I get it now, you actually want it to be the same, that way you are helping others. I was thinking you had to contribute something new.
You got it; they want you to help seed an existing torrent; their tracker is private, but many of the files -- especially current episodes -- exist elsewhere via other trackers/torrents, too.

[catcard]

OK so if I do NOT have a router, I can follow these steps:

1. Install client of choice
2. Find torrents online
3. Download torrent (which should open your client of choice)
4. Pick folder on your computer to save the media file to
5. Download / install codecs

I don't need to do anything about a port if I don't have a router?

[dswallow]

OK so if I do NOT have a router, I can follow these steps:

1. Install client of choice
2. Find torrents online
3. Download torrent (which should open your client of choice)
4. Pick folder on your computer to save the media file to
5. Download / install codecs

I don't need to do anything about a port if I don't have a router?
As long as you have nothing blocking the port such as a software firewall, you should be OK.

[catcard]

Cool! Thanks!
I will try to set this up tonite!

[Mabes]

Well it's not working for me. It's been running all night and nobody has uploaded anything. Now there is a message "Announce too fast. Just wait and this will resolve itself." Hasn't resolved itself all night. It's probably some NAT thing. Don't understand it because I am able to upload on other sites.

[David Platt]

For TV Shows, you'll find a huge archive of older stuff, especially full season collections, at www.tvtorrents.com; but you will need to do a little extra work to activate an account there; you can't download anything with a new account. You'll have to find an identical file somewhere else, download it, then start sharing it via tvtorrents.com, then you can start downloading. They make you go through a few hoops to prevent leechers from leeching. It's easy enough to do, just using a current show; you can download it via mininova or isohunt, etc., then start sharing it via tvtorrents. You'll just need to look at file sizes and full names initially to find something that's in both places.

Just wanted to say thanks for the concise explanation, Doug. I'd heard of tvtorrents before, but never bothered looking into it too much since it sounded too complicated to get into for me, even though I get stuff from other torrent sites all the time. With your explanation, though, I'm already up and going on it. I can't believe the sheer amount of stuff they have available there!

[dcheesi]

Some ISPs filter incoming requests, so even if you have everything set up correctly, uploads still won't work. :(

[Figaro]

Does anyone here use Charter for their ISP? If yes, do you have any problem getting torrents? I tried using Azureus last night, and even though I got all my nat and firewall things to check out ok I had almost zero luck downloading. After about 2 minutes of downloads my normally peppy 3 meg cable modem slows to a crawl and needs to be rebooted. I did what the directions suggest by limiting my max number of uploads and my number of downloads but that didn't help. In 12 hours it only got about 45% of an 87 meg file. That's just downright pathetic.

[cheesesteak]

I've been evaluating the uTorrent client since last night. I may switch to it from Azureus. I like Azureus but uTorrent seems simpler and less of a resource hog.

[catcard]

Thanks for all the good info on doing this. I installed uTorrent and downloaded some shows from mininova. The downloads went fine and I am able to watch the shows with no problem. However, I have some questions:

How long does my computer stay connected for seeding? After my shows finished downloading, my DSL modem is still showing activity - what is going on? Will this stop or do I have to do something to end the connection? Is there "torrent etiquette" that requires that I stay connected for a specific amount of time after I download something? I don't have a router so I have a direct DSL connection.

[Idearat]

How long does my computer stay connected for seeding? After my shows finished downloading, my DSL modem is still showing activity - what is going on? Will this stop or do I have to do something to end the connection? Is there "torrent etiquette" that requires that I stay connected for a specific amount of time after I download something? I don't have a router so I have a direct DSL connection.

Etiquette dictates that you'd seen until your upload / download ratio is 1. More than likely the time it takes to download is much, much less than it will take you to upload the same amount, so while you are able to watch the program you've downloaded you'll need to leave your client running and continue seeding quite a while longer.
With one torrent site I use in the UK I often get download speeds of 300KB/s+, while my upload speed is 15KB/s. It takes a long time for those to balance out.

It's not possible for everyone downloading to exceed a ratio of 1.0, but since there are many people who stop seeding as soon as they've downloaded it's necessary for others to share for a longer time. If this wasn't the case bittorrent wouldn't work.

[DevdogAZ]

As discussed earlier in the thread, I have Azureus set to seed until the ratio reaches 2. This means I've shared twice as much as I've downloaded. I think it's a fair way to go, and when I download a show, I usually come back the next morning and the downloading and seeding are done so it didn't hurt me to keep it running that extra time.

I'm not sure if uTorrent allows you to set the ratio, but you definitely have to do something to actively stop the seeding if the client doesn't have a setting.

[Jonathan_S]

Etiquette dictates that you'd seen until your upload / download ratio is 1. More than likely the time it takes to download is much, much less than it will take you to upload the same amount, so while you are able to watch the program you've downloaded you'll need to leave your client running and continue seeding quite a while longer.I wish that was the case. Whenever I use bit torrent it seems that after I've gotten a reasonable bit of the file to share my upload is about 3.5x faster than my download even though my actual connection's download is 2.5x faster that the upload..

Azurius usually manages to keep the upload pegged to the max upload speed limit I set (normally 80% of theoretical max. If set higher the upload speed gets choppy and the average speed slows down) while download rarely comes close to that level, much less the much higher download speed limit (again 80% of theoretical max)

I think I've got Azurius programmed to stop seeding at a 4.00 share ratio (unless there are less than 4 seeders, in which case it continues to seed). I've seen that rule stop it seeding the moment its hit 100% downloaded.

[Idearat]

I wish that was the case. Whenever I use bit torrent it seems that after I've gotten a reasonable bit of the file to share my upload is about 3.5x faster than my download even though my actual connection's download is 2.5x faster that the upload..

Azurius usually manages to keep the upload pegged to the max upload speed limit I set (normally 80% of theoretical max. If set higher the upload speed gets choppy and the average speed slows down) while download rarely comes close to that level, much less the much higher download speed limit (again 80% of theoretical max)


I'm no expert on settings, but I use Azureus on my Mac Mini and I've never had a torrent finish with a share ratio above 1 ( which it would have to be if your upload were faster than your download ). There might be something wonky with your setup
I don't throttle mine at all in either direction, so my surfing is hindered quite a bit if there is an active torrent. The Mac is my media machine, so I leave it running and generally start a torrent when I'm leaving for work or going to bed, letting it take all the bandwidth it wants.

[DevdogAZ]

Yeah, even when I have my upload set to unlimited, the download is almost always faster by far. My share ratio is usually less than .50 when it finishes downloading.

[wmm_16]

I didn't read the entire thread, but have any of you turned on port forwarding? I had the same symptoms as you guys. After setting up port forwarding they went really fast. It's kind of a pain with Tivo's and all, but it was worth it.

[Figaro]

I didn't read the entire thread, but have any of you turned on port forwarding? I had the same symptoms as you guys. After setting up port forwarding they went really fast. It's kind of a pain with Tivo's and all, but it was worth it.
Torrent newb here so if this is a dumb question just tell me. Why would port forwarding interfere with TiVos?

[Jonathan_S]

Yeah, even when I have my upload set to unlimited, the download is almost always faster by far. My share ratio is usually less than .50 when it finishes downloading.
For whatever reason, most torrents I download rarely get above 65 KB/s (about 0.5 Mbit/s) download. (I've seen higher, but usually only as an aggregate when downloading multiple things at once.)

But my upload is max is set in Azurius at 200 KB/s and once it gets going the upload just sits locked at that limit line. (Got to love the FIOS).
[Download max is set at 600 KB/s].

[goblue97]

does anyone know the site that provides feedback for torrents? For instance, "don't download this file or that file" or "this is a good copy".

[Idearat]

does anyone know the site that provides feedback for torrents? For instance, "don't download this file or that file" or "this is a good copy".

Most sites do as part of the torrent posting page.

For example this page has a tab labled "comments"
http://www.mininova.org/com/449509

This one has the good comment:

7.On Oct 27 2006 @ 01:12 L8Hatter wrote:
Aye. Don't bother downloading this as it cuts off before the end.

[wmm_16]

Torrent newb here so if this is a dumb question just tell me. Why would port forwarding interfere with TiVos?

Just that I had to go in and assign IP's for all of my computers and Tivos. One computer is a laptop and I travel all of the time, had to re-configure it all of the time. I guess the Tivo's aren't the worst part of it all.

[goblue97]

does anyone know the site that provides feedback for torrents? For instance, "don't download this file or that file" or "this is a good copy".
I found the one I was thinking of. It's vcdquality dot com

[Mabes]

Does anyone have a problem with your internet connection being lost, and if so, has anyone fixed it? Sometimes it happens after a few mintues, sometimes after a few hours, sometimes not at all.

I've used Peer Guardian, which some have said helps, but it doesn't seem to matter in my case.

[goblue97]

Does anyone have a problem with your internet connection being lost, and if so, has anyone fixed it? Sometimes it happens after a few mintues, sometimes after a few hours, sometimes not at all.

I've used Peer Guardian, which some have said helps, but it doesn't seem to matter in my case.
I've been having this issue ALOT lately. All I do is power off the router and then power it back on. That seems to correct things. I also have to make sure my ports are forwarded properly after that because IP addresses get reallocated sometimes. It's a pain but I figure it's the price you gotta pay.

[The Flush]

Are the torrent of most TV shows in high definition or standard def? I don't have an HDTV and would rather download a smaller file, if it makes any difference.

[Lee L]

There are a mix of files out there depending on the capture and conversion methods, some say HDTV, but most are closer to DVD quality.

[Mabes]

I find that the HDs are about halfway between DVD and true HD. But for less than 1 GB for a TV show, that's pretty good.

[dswallow]

Are the torrent of most TV shows in high definition or standard def? I don't have an HDTV and would rather download a smaller file, if it makes any difference.
They are mostly created from the digital HD broadcast but they're generally reduced in resolution to about 624x352.

There are high resolution versions of many shows out there, and they're becoming more commonplace, which usually are about 960x544.

Even the lower resolution versions are usually much better than the SD broadcast.

[Idearat]

They are mostly created from the digital HD broadcast but they're generally reduced in resolution to about 624x352.

There are high resolution versions of many shows out there, and they're becoming more commonplace, which usually are about 960x544.

Even the lower resolution versions are usually much better than the SD broadcast.

For comparison, non-HD DirecTiVos are 480x480. Many of the Torrents I download are as good, if not better than what I watch on my DirecTiVo.

[jsmeeker]

I've always been very pleased with the quality of the video I download, then watch on my TV using a DVD player that is capable of playing DivX video inside AVI files.

[markz]

I've always been very pleased with the quality of the video I download, then watch on my TV using a DVD player that is capable of playing DivX video inside AVI files.

That's the way I do it and am very pleased with it as well.

[Regina]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
My HR10-250 froze up and I didn't get "My Name is Earl" Thursday night...but I just downloaded it...except now, after 4 hours of figuring out how to download and what program to use, I'm too tired to watch it! :p
I guess I'll watch it later !
YOU GUYS ROCK! :up: :up: :up:

[Fl_Gulfer]

I been trying to get copies of Torchwood and a few seasons of Star Trek Voyager and all the d/l won't start It says I have to seed first, I have a great deal of music to share but I can't see how to set up shares with torrent.

[MasterOfPuppets]

I'm having problems...here's a cut and paste of something I posted elsewhere, to see if anybody here has any advice...

I've been using uTorrent without any problems for about 6 months now, but over the past 3 days or so, I've had nothing but trouble.
When I start it up it will not log in to DHT. I've followed the other threads (deleted both dht.dat files and the settings file, patched TCPIP.SYS, tried older recommended betas, done the depthstrike thing)...sometimes it will eventually log into DHT, but even if it does it is only until I shut the program, and usually even if it does log in, my download speeds will absolutely crawl, if they do anything at all.
I have not changed anything at all recently. I have UPnP enabled on my router, my firewall settings are corrent (like I said, I've been using uTorrent without problems for several months). I use NOD32 and PG2.
For example, it will show Seeds 0(726) and Peers 0(14407)...why am I not connecting? It is a public torrent...my completed torrents are also not seeding despite plenty of peers.
It also seems as though I am having the same problems with Azureus, although it will not consistently give me DHT problems, it also will not download correctly.
At this very moment I'm at DHT:40 nodes and still no activity.
Any suggestions? What gives?

[sync]

I been trying to get copies of Torchwood and a few seasons of Star Trek Voyager and all the d/l won't start It says I have to seed first, I have a great deal of music to share but I can't see how to set up shares with torrent.
Where are you downloading the torrents from?

[dswallow]

I been trying to get copies of Torchwood and a few seasons of Star Trek Voyager and all the d/l won't start It says I have to seed first, I have a great deal of music to share but I can't see how to set up shares with torrent.
If you're downloading from tvtorrents.com trackers then you have to find a torrent elsewhere of the same content they also have; download it elsewhere, then download the torrent from tvtorrents.com so that it begins sharing that content. You'll need to compare file sizes and file names closely, but it's not hard to find, especially among the major network series episodes. Once you get going with one, you're set. They do this just to ensure you are configured properly and thus will be sharing content in the future as you download.

[sync]

If you're downloading from tvtorrents.com trackers then you have to find a torrent elsewhere of the same content they also have; download it elsewhere, then download the torrent from tvtorrents.com so that it begins sharing that content. You'll need to compare file sizes and file names closely, but it's not hard to find, especially among the major network series episodes. Once you get going with one, you're set. They do this just to ensure you are configured properly and thus will be sharing content in the future as you download.
I signed up for tvtorrents a while ago. It seems that most, if not all, of their torrents were originally released elsewhere. So I don't see the point of going through all the hassle of getting download credits when you can get the same torrents from Mininova, Demonoid, etc.

[dswallow]

I signed up for tvtorrents a while ago. It seems that most, if not all, of their torrents were originally released elsewhere. So I don't see the point of going through all the hassle of getting download credits when you can get the same torrents from Mininova, Demonoid, etc.
Things are kept alive far longer on tvtorrents.com; current releases are usually available from many places, but try to find a 5-year-old season of something not a top-10 hit. :)

[MasterOfPuppets]

I've been to tvtorrents before, but I'm not a big fan...
IMO the only trackers you really need are Mininova, IsoHunt and Demonoid...they're all essentially the same, Demonoid will tend to get things slightly faster, and it's private...
There's also one other tracker I use, but I don't think I'm allowed to discuss it's niche here (no, not pron)...
If anyone has any advice about my question on the previous page, I'd be greatly appreciative...

EDIT: In case anyone was scoring at home...
One of the mods at the uTorrent forum helped me out last night.
Turns out the fix was that...for reason still unknown to me...I needed to enable Protocol Encryption.
6+ months without it, but for some reason, apparently now I need it.

On a side note...I also bumped up my maximum ports, under IP Filter Settings way up...am I making myself more vulnerable to something there? It seems to add a decent increase to my browsing speed. Sorry for my ignorance on this.

Thanks for the advice.

[The Flush]

I downloaded a torrent of Friday Night Lights that was in Ipod mp4 format instead of the avi that I normally get. When I try to play it in quicktime, I can get any error saying it is not a movie file. Nero says it is either corrupt or not compatible. What do I need to do to play this file?

Normally I would use Tivoserver to transcode on the fly to my DTivo.

[The Flush]

Nevermind. My problem was operator error.

[raiders]

btw if you want to avoid burning of avi files to DVD to watch them on a TV there have been additional announcements of wireless devices that stream media from PCs to a HD TV. I'm sure CES will have announcements of more such devices available this year

for example Bittorrent and Netgear announced one this week
http://netgear.com/About/PressReleases/en-US/2007/20070107.aspx

[sync]

btw if you want to avoid burning of avis to DVD there have been additional announcements of wireless devices that stream media from PCs to a HD TV

for example Bittorrent and Netgear announced one this week
http://netgear.com/About/PressReleases/en-US/2007/20070107.aspx
I would love one of those if the price was right.

[murdoc158]

For those of you running Azureus I'd recommend reading this (http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Good_settings) . Follow this guide and you will get much better download and upload speeds with the seeders that are available.

[dtivouser]

Has anyone been able to find "Engineering an Empire" on a torrent site? tvtorrents doesn't have it...

[dswallow]

Has anyone been able to find "Engineering an Empire" on a torrent site? tvtorrents doesn't have it...
http://www.isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=engineering+an+empire

[YCantAngieRead]

So, what are the chances I'm going to get pinched for doing this? Our cable company recently dumped ABC over a contract dispute, so now I'm forced to download anything from ABC that I want to watch.

[MasterOfPuppets]

Use PeerGuardian 2. The chances of getting "pinched" are slim.
And what sort of complete idiot decides to dump ABC?

[YCantAngieRead]

Use PeerGuardian 2. The chances of getting "pinched" are slim.
And what sort of complete idiot decides to dump ABC?
It's a contract dispute between Mediacom, which is our cable company, and Sinclair Broadcasting, the company that owns the ABC station. It's not going to get resolved any time soon, I don't think.

Our cable company is giving out free antennas, but that doesn't do much for me with the TiVo. :o

And it really wouldn't bother me much except that I watch Ugly Betty.

[dswallow]

It's a contract dispute between Mediacom, which is our cable company, and Sinclair Broadcasting, the company that owns the ABC station. It's not going to get resolved any time soon, I don't think.

Our cable company is giving out free antennas, but that doesn't do much for me with the TiVo. :o

And it really wouldn't bother me much except that I watch Ugly Betty.
Well if you're really paranoid about it, you can watch on abc.com. Personally, I wouldn't be worried.

[Jebberwocky!]

Well if you're really paranoid about it, you can watch on abc.com. Personally, I wouldn't be worried.

Why should you be worried about what happens in Illinois :)

[sync]

Use PeerGuardian 2.
I installed this yesterday but I can't update their lists. Apparently the IP address for my Internet provider is on their block list. :(

[MasterOfPuppets]

I installed this yesterday but I can't update their lists. Apparently the IP address for my Internet provider is on their block list. :(
You could go in and allow your ISP IP address (List Manager -> Add)
I also only have the P2P List on "Block", everything else seems to make surfing a pain.

[sync]

You could go in and allow your ISP IP address (List Manager -> Add)
I also only have the P2P List on "Block", everything else seems to make surfing a pain.
My understanding is that the update web site is blocking me from accessing their site.

[sync]

I started downloading some shows that I can't get. I had my laptop hooked up to a 27" crt tv. The video looked fine but using Windows was difficult on a low resolution tv. I used that as an excuse to get a 37" lcd hdtv.

Windows looks great on the new tv but now I find I have a new problem. I can either watch videos at their original resolution, which looks good, but only uses 1/3 of the screen or I can zoom then to fullscreen and watch blurry video.

[markz]

I started downloading some shows that I can't get. I had my laptop hooked up to a 27" crt tv. The video looked fine but using Windows was difficult on a low resolution tv. I used that as an excuse to get a 37" lcd hdtv.

Windows looks great on the new tv but now I find I have a new problem. I can either watch videos at their original resolution, which looks good, but only uses 1/3 of the screen or I can zoom then to fullscreen and watch blurry video.

1. Get yourself a cheap DIVX-certified DVD player (around $60 or so)
2. Burn the AVI file you downloaded to a CDRW (burn as a data file. No conversion needed)
3. Watch the show in their original resolution which. Looks great!
4. Reformat the CDRW when you are done to reuse for the next show. You can fit about 2 hours worth of show on one CDRW (yes, CDRW. DVD not necessary for the AVI file)

[sync]

1. Get yourself a cheap DIVX-certified DVD player (around $60 or so)
2. Burn the AVI file you downloaded to a CDRW (burn as a data file. No conversion needed)
3. Watch the show in their original resolution which. Looks great!
4. Reformat the CDRW when you are done to reuse for the next show. You can fit about 2 hours worth of show on one CDRW (yes, CDRW. DVD not necessary for the AVI file)
What would be that advantage of that? I can watch shows already from my laptop.

[Jebberwocky!]

What would be that advantage of that? I can watch shows already from my laptop.


maybe some folks would perfer to watch their big screen TV rather than the small screen LT?

[dswallow]

What would be that advantage of that? I can watch shows already from my laptop.
Convenience; being able to watch shows on your main living room/home theater/big-screen display/sound system.

Actually real convenience would be just getting something like the LinkPlayer2 (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=340292). Screw the CD. And it supports HD.

[MasterOfPuppets]

I generally use Videora Tivo Converter to convert all of my files to the Tivo-friendly mpeg and transfer them to my Tivo to watch on the TV.
Other than the few times that I just don't feel like extracting from an iso or a bin/cue.

[cheerdude]

MOP - Ditto Except for the fact that it is now going to a 4:3 TV instead of the 16:9 (S2 vs. S3), works and looks fine.

[Idearat]

If I had to convert everything I downloaded before watching I'd go bonkers. I went the Mac Mini route and love it. It does all that the "new" AppleTV will do ( with hacked FrontRow on it ) but will play DiVx, xVid or any of those formats as well as DVDs.

Since it's my media machine it also does all the bittorrent duties, downloading while I'm at work or sleeping and not tying up my "normal" PC. With external drives attached it's the home server for video, music, photos and such.

The $600-$700 price isn't cheap, but a wide screen LCD TV isn't either. You can't spend all your money on the TV and not consider content. I have a lowly 27" floor model LCD that together with the Mini cost me less that many of the bigger bucks TVs out there.

[YCantAngieRead]

Well if you're really paranoid about it, you can watch on abc.com. Personally, I wouldn't be worried.
I forgot about that. Still, I probably download one or two things a month that are from ABC that I can't get, so I still wonder.

[MasterOfPuppets]

MOP - Ditto Except for the fact that it is now going to a 4:3 TV instead of the 16:9 (S2 vs. S3), works and looks fine.

I convert mine to 4:3 as well...don't own a HDTV yet...and yes, everything looks and sounds good.

[Mabes]

Convenience; being able to watch shows on your main living room/home theater/big-screen display/sound system.

Actually real convenience would be just getting something like the LinkPlayer2 (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=340292). Screw the CD. And it supports HD.

I've got one. Works great. Terrible for playing music if you want to create playlists, but very good picture.

[markz]

What would be that advantage of that? I can watch shows already from my laptop.

maybe some folks would perfer to watch their big screen TV rather than the small screen LT?

Convenience; being able to watch shows on your main living room/home theater/big-screen display/sound system.

Actually real convenience would be just getting something like the LinkPlayer2 (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=340292). Screw the CD. And it supports HD.

Exactly what they said...

I can watch the show on my 42" widescreen in the correct aspect ratio, through my sound system, with other people watching too. It used to suck when the wife & I had to sit in fron of the laptop to watch something we downloaded.

It's cheap, it's easy, and it's good quality.

[bsnelson]

Our cable company is giving out free antennas, but that doesn't do much for me with the TiVo. :oActually, as I recall, you have a standalone TiVo, so you could re-run GS to tell it you have both cable and antenna as sources.

Brad

[YCantAngieRead]

Actually, as I recall, you have a standalone TiVo, so you could re-run GS to tell it you have both cable and antenna as sources.

Brad
Well, the other issue is that we live so far out in the middle of nowhere signals don't generally reach us in any shape. So even if I set it up, it'd look like crap.

[YCantAngieRead]

Okay, new problem.

I want to uninstall Peerguardian, but can't figure out how the heck to do it. Help?

[sync]

Okay, new problem.

I want to uninstall Peerguardian, but can't figure out how the heck to do it. Help?

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs

[YCantAngieRead]

Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs

Doesn't work. It tells you to quit PG, but you can't.

I've been reading up on this on various websites and it appears to be a common problem.

[dswallow]

Doesn't work. It tells you to quit PG, but you can't.

I've been reading up on this on various websites and it appears to be a common problem.
As in it thinks it's running so it won't let you uninstall?

If it runs as a service, stop the service by going into Computer Management / Services. Otherwise, open Task Manager, look at the processes screen and kill the process that's PeerGuardian (you'll have to look for program names that match).

[YCantAngieRead]

As in it thinks it's running so it won't let you uninstall?

If it runs as a service, stop the service by going into Computer Management / Services. Otherwise, open Task Manager, look at the processes screen and kill the process that's PeerGuardian (you'll have to look for program names that match).
Ah yes. Why didn't I think of that. I'll give that a try.

ETA: That worked! Thanks. Still don't know why I didn't think of it. :o

[ufo4sale]

I tried downloading a torrent and got the following error message.
Connection to tracker refused: You have no credits start seeding and wait for update. Also I'm download this from tv torrents.com if that makes a difference.

[Idearat]

I tried downloading a torrent and got the following error message.
Connection to tracker refused: You have no credits start seeding and wait for update. Also I'm download this from tv torrents.com if that makes a difference.

TV Torrents requires a membership, there are also FAQs on the site to tell you how it works.

[ufo4sale]

I'm just look at that now. Thanks.

[ufo4sale]

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?