How to...
How to download TV shows off of the internet.
I've recently discovered that I could download TV episodes I missed from the internet. Some of you may allready know
about it, but others may not. I've read that a lot of people allready know about it and are downloading it, but it is still
rather new and some people just don't know about it. So here you go.
What to do?
All you have to do is look up the name of the show and also type the word "bittorrent" in the search bar and you get results.
You could use Yahoo! or google or any search engine.
You might have to look through a couple of pages to find the right episode from the right season, but they are out
there.
What is a bittorrent?
Bittorrent is a system that lets peers, people, share files with each other. Simply put you get files into your compueter like
when you download files from Kazaa if you ever used it. But it doesn't work in the same way. Bittorrent divides the files, for example a TV show, into many
pieces. Then the program looks for other peers who have the pieces you still don't have and downloads it from them. At the same time as this is going on, you also
upload the pieces that you have now acquired to other peers who are requesting them. So the more peers sharing the same file, the faster you download because you are
not downloading one big file from one person. Read more about it here
Bittorrent.
This is what I usually do:
First I look up the episode guide to the show that I want. For example "The Apprentice". Then I find out that it was season
2, episode 13 that I missed. It's important that you know which episode number you missed because most of the bittorrent files
out there are named after the season and episode number. Some do have the title of the episode but not many.
Then I go to Yahoo! and type in "the apprentice season 2 bittorrent". I get a lot of results. I look through them and
find the exact episode I want. And the reason whay you have to
look through their list is because there is no standard way of naming a file. For example, S02E13, s2e13, and 2x13 are all ways of writing season 2, episode 13 and there
could be more ways of naming it then what I just listed. So you could try searching all the different ways of naming it, or just type in the name and season or just the name
of the episode and browse.
You need a client
Now all you need is a program or what they call a client that allows you to download these bittorrent files. There are many out there. The one I use is called ABC
[ Yet Another Bittorrent Client]. You can go to their download page
here.
After you've installed it on your computer, just allow it to be the default program to open bittorrent files. Go to the site where you found the episode you wanted and download it.
Save it to you computer and then open it. The bittorrent client you installed should open the file and then ask you where you want to save the actual file you are about to
download. Pick a place and you're ready to go! It should start looking for peers and downloading automatically. One thing though. I read that bittorrent has leech resistent.
This means that if you don't upload, then you won't be allowed to download as much, meaning your download time will go much slower. So that is something to consider
if you are tempted not to upload and share.
Is it legal?
Now all this is great and all, but is it legal? Read about it in my
Did you know... section!
Links
Here are some links to sites where you can download bittorrent files.
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