Okay, I need help on downloading...

[Rick C.]

I know someone here once explained to me how torrents and downloading shows or movies works, but I'm dumb as a brick.  I need a step-by-step tutorial as well as good website places to go grab tv shows and old movies.  Help! 
(i should say that I've downloaded utorrent, but don't know what to do with it)

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

http://eztv.it/

Is a good site for tv shows, when you click the download link on whatever show you want it will download a tiny torrent to your desktop or wherever your browser downloads files too.

So for example you will then have this file called An.Idiot.Abroad.s02e01.

You then right click on that file and select open with Utorrent.  At that stage the file should begin downloading in Utorrent and you should see a progress bar, once it's at 100% you can watch the show.

I'm at work so sorry this isn't a more comprehensive guide.

 

[Kin]

I don't know that there are any sites that are great for old movies and I don't necessarily advocate downloading anything extra-legally but piratebay.org is pretty good for just about anything.

Just about any torrent file will have two numbers. Seeders(the people uploading) and leechers(the people downloading). For the fastest possible downloads you want to find the torrent with the most seeders.

I'm not much on the specific technical stuff, sorry.

 

[Damian]

http://thepiratebay.se/

 

[Rick C.]

That's awesome guys.  We're mostly looking for TV shows - like Dexter and Trueblood.  We're part way through both, but want to catch up on last few seasons of each...

Are they easy to burn to a DVD?

Thanks!

 

[Deebo]

Torrents are slow and you leave yourself open to fines, its remote, but a chance nonetheless

I've switched exclusively to filehosts like rapidshare and a download manager called jdownloader.

There are sites like http://www.downarchive.com/ that post links to all kinds of stuff on various filehosting sites.

 

[Deebo]

I don't know that there are any sites that are great for old movies and I don't necessarily advocate downloading anything extra-legally but piratebay.org is pretty good for just about anything.

Just about any torrent file will have two numbers. Seeders(the people uploading) and leechers(the people downloading). For the fastest possible downloads you want to find the torrent with the most seeders.

I'm not much on the specific technical stuff, sorry.

Leechers are also seeding while they download so a healthy torrent will have a good number of both.

 

[Kin]

That's awesome guys.  We're mostly looking for TV shows - like Dexter and Trueblood.  We're part way through both, but want to catch up on last few seasons of each...

Are they easy to burn to a DVD?

Thanks!

As data files? Super easy. In terms of something you can pop into a DVD player and watch like a regular DVD it's relatively easy with the right software. I've always used the Windows DVD Maker that's bundled on my laptop and while it does take a relatively long time it's fairly straightforward.

The thing to keep in mind though is that if you're downloading whole seasons of shows you're usually talking about some pretty heavy bandwith usage(Usually between 4-6 gigs for the kinds of shows you're talking about) so it's something to keep an eye on.

 

[Deebo]

That's awesome guys.  We're mostly looking for TV shows - like Dexter and Trueblood.  We're part way through both, but want to catch up on last few seasons of each...

Are they easy to burn to a DVD?

Thanks!

as an alternative there are units like the Western digital TV live which you can hook up to your TV.

You plug a hard disk into the unit and it will play the files right off the HD, it saves lots of time and you dont need to keep lots of DVDs.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=44_567&item_id=032263

 

[bustaheims]

Torrents are slow and you leave yourself open to fines, its remote, but a chance nonetheless

I've switched exclusively to filehosts like rapidshare and a download manager called jdownloader.

There are sites like http://www.downarchive.com/ that post links to all kinds of stuff on various filehosting sites.

I have to disagree. Firstly, filehosting sites leave you just as open to fines as torrents do - they're equally illegal. Secondly, I've used both, and the download speed I generally get from torrents has been at least twice as good (and usually much better) than the speed I've received from filehosting sites.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

Personally I don't use DVD's but if you have a USB jump drive you can drag the files onto that.

Some of the more modern TV's have USB slots that you can play the files right off the stick.  Alternatively if you have a games system such as Xbox 360 or PS3, you can plug the jump drive into that and just play the files that way.

Otherwise Nik's suggestion is a good one, another good program is ConvertXtoDVD that can be 'acquired'.

I do not endorse doing any of the above of course, simply stating the ways in which one might be able to do the above should they be willing to take the risks involved.

 

[bustaheims]

If you have a PS3 or an XBox 360 (or a variety of other products), you can skip the jump drive and stream directly from your computer to your system over your home wireless network.

 

[TheMightyOdin]

That's awesome guys.  We're mostly looking for TV shows - like Dexter and Trueblood.  We're part way through both, but want to catch up on last few seasons of each...

Are they easy to burn to a DVD?

Thanks!

as an alternative there are units like the Western digital TV live which you can hook up to your TV.

You plug a hard disk into the unit and it will play the files right off the HD, it saves lots of time and you dont need to keep lots of DVDs.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=44_567&item_id=032263

This is the route I take. There are two USB ports on my WD media player. One is hooked up to a 2TB hard drive and the other I use with the thumb drives.

 

[Deebo]

Torrents are slow and you leave yourself open to fines, its remote, but a chance nonetheless

I've switched exclusively to filehosts like rapidshare and a download manager called jdownloader.

There are sites like http://www.downarchive.com/ that post links to all kinds of stuff on various filehosting sites.

I have to disagree. Firstly, filehosting sites leave you just as open to fines as torrents do - they're equally illegal. Secondly, I've used both, and the download speed I generally get from torrents has been at least twice as good (and usually much better) than the speed I've received from filehosting sites.

I've had the exact opposite experience.

It's the seeding that gets you in trouble with torrents, you are only downloading with fileshosts, not uploading.

And speed, I typically get upwards of 3MB/sec with filehosts and the absolute best I've ever gotten with a torrent is a hair over 1.0 and that was very rare.

I do have a premium account with the couple that I use though, so that might be where the speed difference comes.

I download shows like 5 minutes after they are done airing in like 3-4 minutes, with torrents I found I needed to wait much longer.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

If you have a PS3 or an XBox 360 (or a variety of other products), you can skip the jump drive and stream directly from your computer to your system over your home wireless network.

Does that eat into the bandwidth though, no?

 

[bustaheims]

If you have a PS3 or an XBox 360 (or a variety of other products), you can skip the jump drive and stream directly from your computer to your system over your home wireless network.

Does that eat into the bandwidth though, no?

No. You're not going through the internet, it's all on the internal network.

 

[Deebo]

That's awesome guys.  We're mostly looking for TV shows - like Dexter and Trueblood.  We're part way through both, but want to catch up on last few seasons of each...

Are they easy to burn to a DVD?

Thanks!

as an alternative there are units like the Western digital TV live which you can hook up to your TV.

You plug a hard disk into the unit and it will play the files right off the HD, it saves lots of time and you dont need to keep lots of DVDs.

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=44_567&item_id=032263

This is the route I take. There are two USB ports on my WD media player. One is hooked up to a 2TB hard drive and the other I use with the thumb drives.

There's also this one that has a HD built in:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=44_567&item_id=034738

 

[bustaheims]

I've had the exact opposite experience.

It's the seeding that gets you in trouble with torrents, you are only downloading with fileshosts, not uploading.

And speed, I typically get upwards of 3MB/sec with filehosts and the absolute best I've ever gotten with a torrent is a hair over 1.0 and that was very rare.

I do have a premium account with the couple that I use though, so that might be where the speed difference comes.

I download shows like 5 minutes after they are done airing in like 3-4 minutes, with torrents I found I needed to wait much longer.

Well, yeah, if you're willing to pay for the premium accounts, you'll get better speeds, but, good torrent sites get you the same stuff without a huge time difference for free. It generally takes me 15-20 minutes to download hour long TV shows.

As for the seeding, just turn it off. As long as you're not using a site that tracks ratios (and, why would you?), it doesn't impact your download speed/ability at all.

 

[Kin]

As for the seeding, just turn it off. As long as you're not using a site that tracks ratios (and, why would you?), it doesn't impact your download speed/ability at all.

Well, it depends on what you're looking for. Yeah, for the Creed albums and episodes of 2 Broke Girls that you love the sites that ignore ratios work but if you're looking for obscure stuff you may have to put up with uploading.

 

[bustaheims]

Well, it depends on what you're looking for. Yeah, for the Creed albums and episodes of 2 Broke Girls that you love the sites that ignore ratios work but if you're looking for obscure stuff you may have to put up with uploading.

I don't agree. I've found some fairly random and obscure stuff on sites like the now deceased btjunkie.org or on sites like ISOHunt.