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Downloading stuff before it's aired in the UK
- Thread starter tek-monkey
- Start date
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Considering the output of the BBC that I watch, I think it is not. Pretty sure the only time I see BBC programs is when they are repeated on Dave, and that isn't too often as I only ever seem to watch TV on Thursdays.Withnail said:
joshua
Well-Known Forumite
Interesting review on cnet
http://download.cnet.com/Veetle-TV/3000-12512_4-75153877.html
and techcrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/06/tv-shack-piracy/
seems as soon as the man cracks down, they move just out of reach, how long they can keep eluding well heaven only knows
http://download.cnet.com/Veetle-TV/3000-12512_4-75153877.html
and techcrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/06/tv-shack-piracy/
seems as soon as the man cracks down, they move just out of reach, how long they can keep eluding well heaven only knows
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Unless the feds control the use of the internet they will never stop piracy, all they can do is make high profile busts and hope it scares people into stopping. Shame really, as giving a legal alternative would actually give them an income.
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Anyone interested in a cheap deal on a usegroup server see this link: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/7-a-month-unlimited-downloads-newsdemon/895937/
Miss Red
Well-Known Forumite
Hi Tek-monkey.
I would love to be able to watch usa programs or even some movies (dont mind if they old ones lol).
Im in total agreement with you regarding mainstream tv. Theres never anything on thats any good and as for the bbc.....i pay £145 a year just to watch ONE program, the Tudors and they even took that off last week! I dont listen to radio stations either, i prefer internet radio (no waffling on)
So all in all im being ripped off by the bbc. I did write and ask them how would they like it if i sent a monthy newletter to them and forced them to pay for it, whether or not they wanted it........i havent recieved a reply lol.
Is there any chance you could pm me how i do this safely.
As i said i would be interested in any usa tv progs or movies even if they have been aired before.
Thanks
I would love to be able to watch usa programs or even some movies (dont mind if they old ones lol).
Im in total agreement with you regarding mainstream tv. Theres never anything on thats any good and as for the bbc.....i pay £145 a year just to watch ONE program, the Tudors and they even took that off last week! I dont listen to radio stations either, i prefer internet radio (no waffling on)
So all in all im being ripped off by the bbc. I did write and ask them how would they like it if i sent a monthy newletter to them and forced them to pay for it, whether or not they wanted it........i havent recieved a reply lol.
Is there any chance you could pm me how i do this safely.
As i said i would be interested in any usa tv progs or movies even if they have been aired before.
Thanks
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
No probs. I'm on my phone at the min so a pain to do long messages, but will send one later when home. Unless admin doesn't mind me posting it here for all of course, wouldn't be anything illegal merely explaining how to set up your PC and where to look, to ensure minimum chance of getting into trouble.
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
I was just thinking I'd written similar before, then realised it was this thread! I blame it on being early...
I'll update this thread later, but essentially for £4.44 a month (using the link 2 posts above) you will have secure access to anything you ever need. It can be done for free but without the security and with less available 'stuff'.
I'll update this thread later, but essentially for £4.44 a month (using the link 2 posts above) you will have secure access to anything you ever need. It can be done for free but without the security and with less available 'stuff'.
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
OK, will try to keep this brief but informative! There are 3 things you need:
1. A provider to get the stuff from
2. A way to find the specific stuff you want
3. Software to download the stuff
Providers
There are loads of providers, and most do a similar job. The main things to look for are security, retention and download limits. For security I'd say always look for someone that offers an SSL connection, as this means people can't track what you download. Retention is the amount of time they keep 'stuff' for, the big boys are now offering over 900 days. This means you have 900 days from when someone puts the stuff online to grab it, unlike torrents where things depend on their popularity. The download limit is obvious, some only let you get so many GBs a month but charge less for it. Depends on how much you plan on grabbing.
To be honest I'd look at using a free one though to test it all out, or some providers offer free trials. If you get your broadband through Virgin then they have a completely free server, but its not encrypted and they remove pirated stuff within a few weeks.
Search sites
There are loads of these, some free and some paid for. Everybody has their favourites, I personally tend to stick to nzbmatrix, but I'm sure others will offer their own. You use these sites to find something you want, and then download the relevant nzb file. This is just like a torrent, it tells your software where to look for the files you want.
Software
This is where it all ties together, the software looks at the nzb file to see what is needed, then uses your provider to get it. Therefore this is the bit that requires setting up properly to make it all work. I'll use SABNZB as my example, as its what I use myself. For anything I miss out, or don't cover very well, they have a quick setup guide.
Download the software from their home page, then run it. It will install and ask you a few options, which will depend on how you wish to use it. For most people I'd say yes to associating with nzb files, yes to the desktop icon and no to the start when windows does. The reason for this is that you'll probably only want to be downloading when you're not doing anything else, as it can max out your connection. You'll then need to choose language, theme (I use plush), if you want to be able to access it from other computers (more secure not to, but way more useful if you can. This can let you setup downloads from your phone etc. which I'll cover another time).
Now you need to setup the server, which is the provider you went with in step 1. You will need the server, port number and login details if required - virgin doesn't seem to need one but most do. For an example virgins settings are:
server: news.virginmedia.com
port: 119
There is a 'test server' button at the bottom which will tell you if it works. If it does then you're pretty much done. The SABNZB software will restart IIRC, but once its back on you need to go to the config menu at the top and go to folders. This sets up where stuff goes as you download, I always make a main folder called 'Downloads' wherever I plan on dumping the stuff, then make a 'Complete' and 'Incomplete' folder within it. Set the temporary download folder to Incomplete, and the completed folder to Completed.
That 'should' be it! To test it download an nzb file from somewhere and it should go straight to SABNZB. I'm off out now but will update this later with a few more search sites and anything I've missed. Hope this is of help to some.
1. A provider to get the stuff from
2. A way to find the specific stuff you want
3. Software to download the stuff
Providers
There are loads of providers, and most do a similar job. The main things to look for are security, retention and download limits. For security I'd say always look for someone that offers an SSL connection, as this means people can't track what you download. Retention is the amount of time they keep 'stuff' for, the big boys are now offering over 900 days. This means you have 900 days from when someone puts the stuff online to grab it, unlike torrents where things depend on their popularity. The download limit is obvious, some only let you get so many GBs a month but charge less for it. Depends on how much you plan on grabbing.
To be honest I'd look at using a free one though to test it all out, or some providers offer free trials. If you get your broadband through Virgin then they have a completely free server, but its not encrypted and they remove pirated stuff within a few weeks.
Search sites
There are loads of these, some free and some paid for. Everybody has their favourites, I personally tend to stick to nzbmatrix, but I'm sure others will offer their own. You use these sites to find something you want, and then download the relevant nzb file. This is just like a torrent, it tells your software where to look for the files you want.
Software
This is where it all ties together, the software looks at the nzb file to see what is needed, then uses your provider to get it. Therefore this is the bit that requires setting up properly to make it all work. I'll use SABNZB as my example, as its what I use myself. For anything I miss out, or don't cover very well, they have a quick setup guide.
Download the software from their home page, then run it. It will install and ask you a few options, which will depend on how you wish to use it. For most people I'd say yes to associating with nzb files, yes to the desktop icon and no to the start when windows does. The reason for this is that you'll probably only want to be downloading when you're not doing anything else, as it can max out your connection. You'll then need to choose language, theme (I use plush), if you want to be able to access it from other computers (more secure not to, but way more useful if you can. This can let you setup downloads from your phone etc. which I'll cover another time).
Now you need to setup the server, which is the provider you went with in step 1. You will need the server, port number and login details if required - virgin doesn't seem to need one but most do. For an example virgins settings are:
server: news.virginmedia.com
port: 119
There is a 'test server' button at the bottom which will tell you if it works. If it does then you're pretty much done. The SABNZB software will restart IIRC, but once its back on you need to go to the config menu at the top and go to folders. This sets up where stuff goes as you download, I always make a main folder called 'Downloads' wherever I plan on dumping the stuff, then make a 'Complete' and 'Incomplete' folder within it. Set the temporary download folder to Incomplete, and the completed folder to Completed.
That 'should' be it! To test it download an nzb file from somewhere and it should go straight to SABNZB. I'm off out now but will update this later with a few more search sites and anything I've missed. Hope this is of help to some.
My Name is URL
Well-Known Forumite
How would I find a "provider" especially one of the free / free trial ones you mentioned? Google search? For What? If you don't want to post then a PM would be appreciated 
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
Most of the big guys do a trial, try astraweb or giganews to see what's about, or Google free Usenet provider. Will get more info when home, don't forget your ISP may provide one.
For the record, I have no problem with such information being posted. You are talking about legitimate services, which advertise their services in the same way and in the same places that any legitimate business would, and which have legitimate uses.
If one were to use this information for illegal gain, that is none of my nor The Forum's business. Were it any other way, I would have to delete all of the threads recommending mobile phones and computers to people, just in case said devices were used in inappropriate or illegal ways!
So as long as you are just giving helpful advice on what software does, and how to set it up (providing it is all legal), I don't see the problem.
Obviously, this means no links to NZB or Torrent files, or anything else which might occupy a legal grey area.
Thanks.
If one were to use this information for illegal gain, that is none of my nor The Forum's business. Were it any other way, I would have to delete all of the threads recommending mobile phones and computers to people, just in case said devices were used in inappropriate or illegal ways!
So as long as you are just giving helpful advice on what software does, and how to set it up (providing it is all legal), I don't see the problem.
Obviously, this means no links to NZB or Torrent files, or anything else which might occupy a legal grey area.
Thanks.
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
No probs, I'm well aware of the implications of all this so will keeping well within the legal boundaries. As Admin says these services are completely legit, in fact newsdemon actually offer free accounts for educational staff.
I can't see any free trials offhand, which is strange as everyone used to do it! Giganews do one that you can cancel within the first 14 days for free but thats not quite the same. In this case I'd suggest looking at your ISPs free offerings first (as said earlier I use Virgin as my primary server), and maybe buy a block of data for the things they don't have. Newsdemon do 50Gb for £6ish, or 200Gb for £14ish. If you are just having a look go for a small block til you know you'll use it, I expect you will though.
At this point you should be able to download, if not feel free to ask a question. Please keep them on this thread rather than in PMs, as it may help others. Please also do not ask for links to actual items if they are copyrighted, as I will not provide them, but feel free to ask where you could find somewhere that may help you locate them. If you're not sure then by all means PM, but I'd rather keep everything on this thread if at all possible.
So, you can download stuff, but its no better than torrents really is it? Well yes it is, they run at full speed all the time and the files are always available if within the retention limit (around 910 days at present and always growing). Things also get reposted, there are lots of old files still being put online, so the date of actual release isn't too relevant. So what else can this software do? If set up correctly you can control it through your phone for a start (or indeed anywhere with a net connection), you can set it to read RSS feeds should you have a site that provides them (nzbmatrix does), meaning you can bookmark a file and it just downloads at home even without external access to your PC. You can also run addons that search for you, grabbing the latest files you specify as and when they are released. I'll go into this in my next post as I have to dash again.
Just had a thought on the SABNZB setup, if anyone can't get it working but is able to open the port for external access I am happy to try and fix it for them. Post here to ask and we'll go to PMs for the details. I can only really offer this Mon - Wed though as I'm busy the rest of the week.
I can't see any free trials offhand, which is strange as everyone used to do it! Giganews do one that you can cancel within the first 14 days for free but thats not quite the same. In this case I'd suggest looking at your ISPs free offerings first (as said earlier I use Virgin as my primary server), and maybe buy a block of data for the things they don't have. Newsdemon do 50Gb for £6ish, or 200Gb for £14ish. If you are just having a look go for a small block til you know you'll use it, I expect you will though.
At this point you should be able to download, if not feel free to ask a question. Please keep them on this thread rather than in PMs, as it may help others. Please also do not ask for links to actual items if they are copyrighted, as I will not provide them, but feel free to ask where you could find somewhere that may help you locate them. If you're not sure then by all means PM, but I'd rather keep everything on this thread if at all possible.
So, you can download stuff, but its no better than torrents really is it? Well yes it is, they run at full speed all the time and the files are always available if within the retention limit (around 910 days at present and always growing). Things also get reposted, there are lots of old files still being put online, so the date of actual release isn't too relevant. So what else can this software do? If set up correctly you can control it through your phone for a start (or indeed anywhere with a net connection), you can set it to read RSS feeds should you have a site that provides them (nzbmatrix does), meaning you can bookmark a file and it just downloads at home even without external access to your PC. You can also run addons that search for you, grabbing the latest files you specify as and when they are released. I'll go into this in my next post as I have to dash again.
Just had a thought on the SABNZB setup, if anyone can't get it working but is able to open the port for external access I am happy to try and fix it for them. Post here to ask and we'll go to PMs for the details. I can only really offer this Mon - Wed though as I'm busy the rest of the week.
...thanks to tek-monkey's incredibly in-depth and helpful guide, which I'm sure many will make use of as time goes by.tek-monkey said:
+10 points for driving home the point of a discussion forum.tek-monkey said:
For anyone reading; how many times have you used Google to find the answer to a problem? Well, those questions would go unanswered if everything was kept in private and everyone kept information to themselves! If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find it, maybe you can ask... The Forum.
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
No probs, hope I've helped someone
There are many more things you can do, but I need to reinstall them myself first before I can offer advice as its been a while! The most useful 2 I can remember are:
Sickbeard lets you choose a TV series, and IIRC HD or SD copies, and it goes off and finds all the episodes for you. You can either just let it grab new ones, or ask for entire past series. It buggers off and finds them, then integrates with SABNZB to start the downloads. No interaction whatsoever from yourself, when new stuff appears on usenet it appears in your completed folder.
CouchPotato is the same but for movies, tell it a film you want and it tries to work out what it is (not sure how, maybe IMDB? Been a while). You then tell it what type of copy, from cam to ful DVDRip, and as it appears online it starts the download. I had something sat in here for 3 months that I'd forgotten about and then suddenly its waiting for me to watch when I got home from work, again fully integrates with SABNZB for the downloads.
With these 2 apps you are suddenly a lot less reliant on search websites, and also on remembering when something comes out. They rock, or rather they did til the Great Server Failure of 2010 Mk II.....
There are many more things you can do, but I need to reinstall them myself first before I can offer advice as its been a while! The most useful 2 I can remember are:
Sickbeard lets you choose a TV series, and IIRC HD or SD copies, and it goes off and finds all the episodes for you. You can either just let it grab new ones, or ask for entire past series. It buggers off and finds them, then integrates with SABNZB to start the downloads. No interaction whatsoever from yourself, when new stuff appears on usenet it appears in your completed folder.
CouchPotato is the same but for movies, tell it a film you want and it tries to work out what it is (not sure how, maybe IMDB? Been a while). You then tell it what type of copy, from cam to ful DVDRip, and as it appears online it starts the download. I had something sat in here for 3 months that I'd forgotten about and then suddenly its waiting for me to watch when I got home from work, again fully integrates with SABNZB for the downloads.
With these 2 apps you are suddenly a lot less reliant on search websites, and also on remembering when something comes out. They rock, or rather they did til the Great Server Failure of 2010 Mk II.....
age'd parent
50,000th poster!
Ive had http://nzbmatrix.com/index.php on my comp for a while now but never used it much as the retention is only 20 day's,
but I noticed that it's only £7 subscription for 10 YEARS!
Having said that, I tried a download just to see how fast it was and finished in 20 min complete and decoded ready to watch,
this is on a virgin 10 Mb connection,
this page gives details http://nzbmatrix.com/subscription.php
and this answers most questions http://nzbmatrix.com/faq.php including the download limits
I'm seriously thinking of subscribing to the vip account.
but I noticed that it's only £7 subscription for 10 YEARS!
Having said that, I tried a download just to see how fast it was and finished in 20 min complete and decoded ready to watch,
this is on a virgin 10 Mb connection,
this page gives details http://nzbmatrix.com/subscription.php
and this answers most questions http://nzbmatrix.com/faq.php including the download limits
I'm seriously thinking of subscribing to the vip account.