timwhit
Hairy Aussie
No, but I only download from private trackers. I don't know if this really provides all that much protection.
question Junking traditional TV for streaming only
- Thread starter BingBangBop
- Start date
No, but I only download from private trackers. I don't know if this really provides all that much protection.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I use Btguard. I still don't download movies or popular music on my connection, either.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I just logged into my Comcast account and it looks like I used 573GB in September, 448GB in November, and 578GB in December. 250GB doesn't really cut it for me, hopefully, I can fly under the radar a while longer.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It doesn't. The piracy tracking services have memberships on them, too. A lot of the people who have gotten hit for downloading Daredorm.com and Hustler stuff were on Private trackers, too.
ddrueding
Fixture
Got BTGuard, but I've encountered some issues.
1. Using their encryption, speed sucks. I'm managing 8kB/s instead of 2MB/s. Are you confident that the proxy is sufficient?
2. No incoming connections, so any service that is ratio based (TVTorrents, for example) won't work.
What is your experience?
BingBangBop
Storage is cool
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
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I was actually considering this, so this question is very good timing.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There's a speed reduction. I get probably 250kB/sec, which is fast enough. I don't use btguard for everything, just the stuff where I think it matters. Everything I've read says their encryption is good enough and they definitely aren't logging anything, which is what I want it for.
Ratios? Don't notice. Don't care, either. I'm so far ahead on all the services I use that it's not an issue.
BingBangBop
Storage is cool
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I'm not sure I want to drop my speed from 1.5MB/s - 2MB/s down to 250KB/s. That is far more of a show stopper than their monthly fee
ddrueding
Fixture
Look on the bright side; it will take that much longer to reach any cap by your ISP 
I've decided to run a pair of torrent machines, a "high risk" that runs through BTGuard and a "low risk" that doesn't. Not exactly sure what criteria to use, but recent releases of anything are certainly high risk.
I've decided to run a pair of torrent machines, a "high risk" that runs through BTGuard and a "low risk" that doesn't. Not exactly sure what criteria to use, but recent releases of anything are certainly high risk.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I run btguard on one notebook that doesn't do a whole lot besides that. Most of the stuff I'm downloading is, frankly, not going to get me in trouble.
I will say that you should probably do an "advanced install" of their client, because the software they include otherwise is utorrent 2.0, not 2.2.
I will say that you should probably do an "advanced install" of their client, because the software they include otherwise is utorrent 2.0, not 2.2.
BingBangBop
Storage is cool
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2009
- Messages
- 667
I wonder how much data I'll end up Streaming vs. Torrenting. I don't yet have a good feel for how much data/hr of HD streaming or even how many hours I watch TV. Eventually I'll figure out the appropriable patterns but that will take time.
Since I can use of all my data torrenting withing a few days. It is probably better to wait till the end of the month to do it, so that the cap doesn't limit the streaming. It would be annoying to torrent the entire amount in the first few days of the month and then be frustrated the rest of the month.
The good part is that if this process doesn't work out for me, at least I haven't committed myself for multi-year contracts like the other choices. With the streaming option, I can always change my mind and choose differently. That is one of the major reasons I choose this experimental route.
Since I can use of all my data torrenting withing a few days. It is probably better to wait till the end of the month to do it, so that the cap doesn't limit the streaming. It would be annoying to torrent the entire amount in the first few days of the month and then be frustrated the rest of the month.
The good part is that if this process doesn't work out for me, at least I haven't committed myself for multi-year contracts like the other choices. With the streaming option, I can always change my mind and choose differently. That is one of the major reasons I choose this experimental route.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm perfectly willing to rip DVDs and I have a seriously huge library of local content (~7500GB). I've been doing this stuff seriously for years now, so I have a very good starting point for not really having to download anything if I don't want to.
I do not ever torrent feature films. I only torrent TV shows for things that are obscure, won't be on DVD (most recently, the last 25 years of Nova documentaries), or that I HAVE to see right now (e.g. Walking Dead). These files tend to be insignificant in terms of my overall downloading; maybe 5GB for a season of a TV show at DVD quality, maybe 400MB for a single episode of an hourlong show.
Music: My taste runs to classical music, which I suspect to be a very low risk for downloading. A lot of what I'm downloading at this point are vinyl rips for things that have never been on CD to begin with. Were I downloading popular music, that would be the sort of thing I'd do on the btguard machine.
Streaming: I certainly can, but when ever possible, I'd prefer a local file or a DVD. I believe an average movie from Netflix is around 2GB.
I do not ever torrent feature films. I only torrent TV shows for things that are obscure, won't be on DVD (most recently, the last 25 years of Nova documentaries), or that I HAVE to see right now (e.g. Walking Dead). These files tend to be insignificant in terms of my overall downloading; maybe 5GB for a season of a TV show at DVD quality, maybe 400MB for a single episode of an hourlong show.
Music: My taste runs to classical music, which I suspect to be a very low risk for downloading. A lot of what I'm downloading at this point are vinyl rips for things that have never been on CD to begin with. Were I downloading popular music, that would be the sort of thing I'd do on the btguard machine.
Streaming: I certainly can, but when ever possible, I'd prefer a local file or a DVD. I believe an average movie from Netflix is around 2GB.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Has anyone ever used a Seedbox? Any recommended providers?
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Well, I decided that there is simply too much heat on BitTorrent these days. So, I decided that I would pay for a Usenet provider (UsenetServer) as I never hear any bad news about that. It's $10/month, and seems to be able to max out my connection easily (1.5 MB/s). So far the availability of content seems much better than the various torrent sites, which for me were all private trackers.
Does anyone else go this route?
Does anyone else go this route?
Stereodude
Not really a
I use usenet on occasion, I don't get my TV programming from it though.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I think there are good arguments to be made for using USENET, but I've found that it's easier to get obscure things through torrents, at least with a couple of the private trackers I'm using.
It's kind of amusing me right now that the two largest adult-material torrent sites ceased operations a couple weeks ago, that there's suddenly a massive increase in interest for building huge data stores for that stuff on the three remaining quasi-public porn trackers.
It's kind of amusing me right now that the two largest adult-material torrent sites ceased operations a couple weeks ago, that there's suddenly a massive increase in interest for building huge data stores for that stuff on the three remaining quasi-public porn trackers.
ddrueding
Fixture
Any guesses on when the scene will start releasing actual 1080p content? 720 is fine, but everyone has the bandwidth these days...
Stereodude
Not really a
It would be better if they upped the bitrate. x264 1280x720 (if properly encoded) has enough resolution to properly capture the detail in broadcast TV. IMHO, going to 1080p would largely pointless.
ddrueding
Fixture
Agreed. Bitrate is what we really need. If they just gave up on the concept of fitting episodes onto arbitrary media sizes, and allowed it to be variable at some quality, everything would be better.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Except those in regional areas where ISPs don't give a sh*t about providing infrastructure, or simple overprice their plans including lower than before download limits. (Some low-cost plans here in Oz only include 10GB-50GB download limits on DSL services, only ehen you're willing to spend over $50 per month (not including bundling your other services to get that low price) to get more than 50GB with a decent ISP).
Most of the content I view on the TV direct (Mainly ABC iView, and SBS*), is only 480p content. It's only when I hit YouTube that I can easily get 1080p content. Why is it all 480p here, its because general Internet access here is expensive, and most households only spend $30-40 per month on a connection, limiting their monthly bandwidth to a meager 10-50GB (depending on the ISP).
*, My TV also has access to Plus7, but the number of shows available on it is crap, compared to SBS and ABC iView.
One of the lesser things announced by apple underneath all the ipad stuff was about everything labeled 720p HD in the itunes store also has a 1080p version you can redownload now for no cost assuming you already purchased the 720p version. Both 720p and 1080p will be available for almost all content from now on. I didn't see much difference in big bang theory like the screenshots floating around, I was going to try breaking bad out this week. I thought their 720p was quite passable on a 110" screen but just a little soft. Nothing streaming has made me say wow yet like some blurays do.
My friend torrented game of thrones and said it looked really good so I waited for the bluray to be available and got that. I had it in hand a day or two before the apple announcement and was actually a little annoyed, that would have been the perfect trial.
My friend torrented game of thrones and said it looked really good so I waited for the bluray to be available and got that. I had it in hand a day or two before the apple announcement and was actually a little annoyed, that would have been the perfect trial.