I've been asked how I usually download my favorite TV episodes as soon as they come out. Here's a short tutorial of the process.
- You will need a torrent client that supports RSS feeds. I've been using uTorrent and it's been great. It's very light-weight and has a very simple and clean UI. Install uTorrent and set the basic preferences like download directory, etc...
- You will now need an RSS feed source to get you episodes from. A good source I've been using is tvRSS. Now there are two way to proceed from here. You can either get one feed for all TV shows and configure uTorrent to download your favorite shows, or you can get seperate feeds for each show. Individial feeds are easier to set up, but if you want to download a lot of shows, then it's simpler to just get one feed.
Single RSS Feed:
- Copy this location (http://tvrss.net/feed/unique/), open the Add RSS Feed dialog in uTorrent, and paste the address. Give the feed a name if you like, and make sure you choose do not automatically download items. Press OK and the feed should now show up in the left feed list. Click on it and you should see a list of available torrents to download.
- Open the RSS Downloader dialog (Ctrl+R). Press Add and give the filter a name. On the right side put the show name under "Filter:". Check the Smart ep. filter checkbox. This will prevent downloading the same episode twice because most of the time an episode is released multiple times.
- Do the last step for each TV show you'd like to download.
- Once you're done. Close the dialog and you should be good. To test if the filters are working, right click the feed name from the left feed list, and select Update Feed. You should start automatically downloading the shows you set up assuming there were episodes available in the feed (usually released in the last 2 days or so).
Multiple RSS Feeds:
- Go to tvRSS. select Shows. Select the show you'd like to get. Click on Search-based RSS Feed. This will open the RSS feed in you browser. Copy the feed location.
- In uTorrent, open the Add RSS Feed dialog. Paste the feed address. Give it a name. Select Automatically download items published in feed and check the Use smart episode filter checkbox. This will prevent downloading duplicate episodes.
- Do the previous two steps for each TV show.
- You're done. You should now automatically download the episodes in that feed.
These are just basic steps. You can make more specific feeds in tvRSS depending on what you want. You can also try using FeedMyTorrents as your RSS source, although I haven't used that one yet.
Go Torrents!!
And good luck finding any programs to download once the networks decide that they can't make money from broadcasts anymore... unless you like old Dick Van Dyke Show reruns like me! :-)
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy to pay for a VOD-like service where you can start watching the newest episodes as soon as they come out, without commercials. But so far, I haven't seen a good service with a good user experience that will allow me to do that.
ReplyDeleteBesides, currently I still watch the shows that I must see in HD on TV (too much bandwidth to download full HD). So it's not like I'm ripping the networks completely.
Let me ask you a question. When you record a show on your PVR, do you sit through and watch all the commercials? or do you just fast forward and skip them?
I fast forward through them, like I have since I started using a VCR to allow "time-shifted viewing" (of the sort that you're describing). And when I visit webpages, I generally ignore the ads that are on them. And when I drive, I rarely if ever read the billboards that are up along the way. So I'd say that I'm fairly consistent, in that sense.
ReplyDeleteI don't see any problem with people skipping ads that don't interest them. Where I do see a problem is in people who cancel their cable because they get all of their TV programs off of a "torrent" site. It's possible that, if everyone were doing that, we'd still get all of the same entertainment that we pay for now (but for free), but I find that hard to believe. The people who make TV programs - writers, casting directors, special effects whizzes, actors, directors, prop people, etc - only do so because they can make a living at it. Somebody, somewhere, needs to pay for that, or else all of those folks will end up flipping burgers or pumping gas, and we'll have no arts to entertain us. Therefore, I support paying for entertainment, rather than expecting to get it for free.
That was my point, though I clearly didn't make it very well.