|
Downloading your favorite tv show from the 'net
FEATURE
So, for whatever reason, your TiVo has failed to record a "must-see" TV show. (Is there really such a thing in the post-"Friends" era?). It would be nice if you could just go download it off the Internet, wouldn't it?
If you're like me, you have probably tried going through the effort of navigating the maze of disorganized and low-quality content available on peer-to-peer services like KaZaA, eDonkey, etc., having to contend with insanely slow download times, and then finally giving up. Those services might be passable for music, but they are just plain ridiculous for large video files.
You scratch your head a bit and wonder why the big TV studios don't WANT you to be able to download missed shows. How do they expect you to keep up with complicated plot lines like "Alias" if you miss the episode where it's revealed that not only is Vaughn's wife a Covenant double-agent, but the daughter of one, too.
There is an answer to the dilemma, and it isn't in some ancient Rambaldi manuscript. It is a new generation of peer-to-peer services called "BitTorrent." You can find explanations of BitTorrent from a technical perspective, but I know you're really not interested in HOW it works--you just want to USE it! So, here goes ...
Getting the BT file you want
First you need to locate a BitTorrent file for the content you're interested in downloading. The BitTorrent file is not the content itself, it is simply a "tag" that will allow you to acquire what you're looking for. These files are extremely small (just a few Kb) because they don't actually contain anything but a unique content identifier and a set of checksums for different "chunks" of the actual content that you will download later.
BitTorrent files are usually denoted with a file extension of ".BT", and they are available in many different forums. I find the best catalog of TV shows (usually updated only 15 or 20 minutes after a major program has been broadcast) is at Suprnova.org. The site has all types of BitTorrent content available for direct download off the website, but it's the wonderfully well-organized and updated TV show collection that keeps me coming back.
Choosing a BitTorrent client
Once you have a BT file, you then need to download a BitTorrent client that will allow you to use your BitTorrent file to acquire the actual content. There are many to choose from, but I prefer Azureus over the others. I prefer it because it is an Open Source implementation written in Java, and therefore I trust that it is not loading my machine up with spyware or something worse. It is available at azureus.sourceforge.net.
Because Azureus is Java-based and is not packaged with a JRE, you will need to install the 1.4 JRE if you don't already have it. This is, of course, available as a free download at Java.com.
Setting up your client (Azureus, in this case)
Installing and configuring Azureus can be a bit on the tricky side if you have a complicated network configuration. The reason for the complication is that Azureus requires you to have ports 6881 through 6889 open for both TCP and UDP traffic to the Internet.
For me, this required messing with the port-forwarding settings in my Linksys firewall/router, adding new rules to the Black-ICE Defender firewall that I run locally, and also enabling the Internet Connection Firewall in my WinXP Advanced Network Settings so that I could specifically open up those ports. (Opening them in WinXP firewall requires you to add 16 different settings, i.e., each of the 8 ports for TCP and UDP.)
Luckily, the Azureus installer has a screen that allows you to repeatedly test whether or not port 6881 is working properly before you go to the trouble of actually trying to use the service "for real."
Downloading your content
Once you have the Azureus client installed and launched you simply open the BitTorrent file that you have downloaded locally through Azureus's drop-down menus. At that point, the Azureus client will connect with other people serving up the same content and begin a simultaneous download from many different peers at once.
To ensure the availability of content on the BitTorrent network, your download speed is limited to a ratio of what you're already uploading. So, you actually start sharing the same file back out to the Internet before you are even done downloading it. Weird, huh?
Bottom line is, it works. I can routinely achieve download rates of 150Kb/s on my cable modem. A typical hour-long television program (even in HD) is usually no more than 400 MB or so. That makes it a pretty quick download.
Watching your content
After the download is complete you will have a local AVI file for the program you want to watch. If you just try to view it with the native Windows Media Player, you will get an error message and only hear audio--you will see no video whatsoever. The reason for this is that Windows Media Player does not support the codec format that these files are typically made available in. (AVI is just a container format, it doesn't specify a particular compression or encoding technique.)
The good news for you is that it is easy to install the correct codec that will plug in to your existing media player. A free version is available from the DivX tab at DivX.com.
After following these steps, you should be all set to enjoy your missed program.
Happy Downloading!
this article is just for legal downloads, we take no responsibilites if some one used this article to download illegal content
|
