so this is a question for all you people who download tv shows and movies off the internet

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how do you watch the damn things? do you sit at your desk and watch them on your computer monitor? do you watch them on your laptop? or do you all have video cards connected to your tvs?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:01 (twenty years ago)

i convert em to dvd

― zappi (joni), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:11 (twenty years ago)

Laptop, but I'm close enough to the screen so that I don't notice any difference while I'm watching.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:11 (twenty years ago)

I watch them on my laptop with my nice headphones plugged in, thanks for reminding me that I have a couple of episodes of the l word stacked up.

― teeny (teeny), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:12 (twenty years ago)

15.4" widescreen display, btw.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:14 (twenty years ago)

aw yeah

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:14 (twenty years ago)

do you keep the laptop on your lap? do you sit at your desk?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:15 (twenty years ago)

i can't really deal with it myself, even though i have watched stuff on dvd on my laptop on a couple of train trips. i'm too used to having at least 6 feet between my face and the screen!

and not having a laptop in my lap!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:15 (twenty years ago)

We pull them off the usenet as SVCDs...either as an image that has been encoded as an SVCD, or as MPEGs, which are easily encoded to SVCD. It's the only way to go...DIVIX and AVIs suck. SVCDs are easily playable on our DVD player, and it's only on rare occasions that I have had to watch anything on the computer. Personally I know very little about how to do it...I just ask my husband or brother in law to find what I want, and they magic it for me. TiVO has removed a lot of our needs though. We only download if we can't get an episode anymore, or if a great show has already started a new season in the UK...like what happened with the new season of Battlestar Galactica.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:19 (twenty years ago)

what's the resolution/movement on SVCDs like? comparable to dvd?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:20 (twenty years ago)

how do you watch the damn things?

desktop/dvd-r/divx. i know ppl bitch about avi/divx but it works for me.

― jody von oy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:24 (twenty years ago)

so wait, you burn them to dvd? or you watch them off your desktop?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

i guess i just can't get over the whole watching movies on your computer thing. it's my hangup i guess.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

no, i can't watch anything on a computer screen either - convert to dvd & watch on tv.

― zappi (joni), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:39 (twenty years ago)

what's the resolution/movement on SVCDs like? comparable to dvd?
The resolution is good but it's not perfect. It'll be a little muddy, but when you pull downloads you have to be prepared for the tradeoff...but the tradeoff now isn't as huge as it used to be a couple of years ago even, the technology is way better.sometimes it depends on the dvd player as to the movement. We just got a new Harmon Kardon & it's more sensitive (I know there's a geek term for it but my husband's outside & not feeding me info to make me sound smart so I'm winging it right now), and it will pixelate occasionally. won't always let you fast-forward...but our cheap $50 Apex player loved SVCDs and played them perfectly. It's as close to DVD quality as you'll get, and you're not forced to watch them on your computer, which is the best part.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:41 (twenty years ago)

so wait, you burn them to dvd? or you watch them off your desktop?

both! they're large files, so eventually i have to move them off the hard drive. but right now my only dvd player is on this computer (which isn't even mine... long story).

― jody von oy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 2 April 2005 02:50 (twenty years ago)

What I want to know is who in the heck goes through the trouble of uploading the shows to the internet.
Really. I wonder about this.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:00 (twenty years ago)

i just watch them in little windows on my laptop. in quicktime. i pretty much only download like documentaries. im on episode 13 of "the world at war"

― phil-two (phil-two), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:02 (twenty years ago)

Call me a luddite, but I have never seen the point of downloading a poor quality movie file which inevitably takes forever (and thus isnt technically free, I mean yr pay for yr internet etc), when it only costs me say $20 for a DVD and 30-60 for a whole box set of the real thing, plus extras and commentaries.

If its something totaly not available, I can understand that but otherwise?

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:06 (twenty years ago)

the internets is cheap in america. flat monthly rate.

― phil-two (phil-two), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:16 (twenty years ago)

Yeah I was gonna say, I pay less than $20/mo for DSL (I share it with roommates).

And I prefer having files to DVDs. I mean, I don't have a tv, just the laptop. And you can fit more tv show eps on a DVD-R than come on a DVD...

I still seem to prefer movies on the big screen when I watch them at all, but certainly a laptop is better than a tv. Maybe not a HDTV. Everything looks bad on a tv.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:35 (twenty years ago)

I burn everything to DVD or I hook up my PB to my audio and video jacks. It's simple!

― Airtube (nordicskilla), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:38 (twenty years ago)

Toast Titanium doesn't seem to like burning AVIs to DVD, but if someone can tell me why...

― Airtube (nordicskilla), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:39 (twenty years ago)

Also to everyone who says DLing takes a long time - I have just downloaded two eps each of Deadwood and The Office and it took less than an hour and a a half!

― Airtube (nordicskilla), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:40 (twenty years ago)

Yeah but what speed is your dsl? I can only afford 256k - and although its flat rate its still $40 a month. 1.5mb dsl is still close to the $80-$100 mark in most isps here, tho that is starting to change.

I guess also, I'm still very wary of copyright and using bit torrent, I know people personally - single users just torrenting a film or two - whos ISPs got leant on by film people and threatend to have their links cancelled. So like, no way. I need my internet too much.

I realise I'm in a minority being that paranoid but hey.

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

And yeah, like slocki- watching movies on a laptop? Yuck. TV pls (dont have a dvd burner so that aint an option eitehr!)

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 2 April 2005 05:47 (twenty years ago)

My TV screen is smaller than my computer screen, so this is not an issue. My inability to figure out how to get picture (not just sound) from the BitTorrent files I download is, however, an issue.

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 2 April 2005 06:00 (twenty years ago)

Check the codec, you might need to download the new DivX or 3ivx codec.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Saturday, 2 April 2005 06:09 (twenty years ago)

okay trayce, I bitterly part with $60 pcm for cable modem, but I love that shit!

― Airtube (nordicskilla), Saturday, 2 April 2005 06:09 (twenty years ago)

just so's we get the conversion right('coz i was curious), AUS$100 is currently worth US$77, which means the U.S. dollar really HAS dropped in value over the last 5 years.

oh yeah, and i just watch them on my monitor. i have a 19" borrowed from the roommate. great for when i got both seasons of "Spaced"

― kingfish van pickles (Kingfish), Saturday, 2 April 2005 06:12 (twenty years ago)

My laptop has an S-video out port, so I can connect it directly to the TV. However, a lot of the time I'm lazy and I won't bother to hook up the TV. My laptop screen is pretty good (Dell, 15.4", XVGA screen). But I also don't d/l movies and stuff too often.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Saturday, 2 April 2005 06:35 (twenty years ago)

I've been living without a TV for two years now (not by choice), so the laptop is the only way to go for me. Took a bit of getting used to, but HDTV-based files look just fine on the computer monitor. Films are okay, too. I just set the laptop up on a coffee table, put the feet up, and away we go.

Jaymc, are you a Mac user? Try VLC (is that available for PC?). It works pretty well (and as a bonus it does a nice job of circumventing region-code restrictions).

― Guymauve (Guymauve), Saturday, 2 April 2005 12:21 (twenty years ago)

shit. i just downloaded the entire first season of babylon-5, but there's no sound!!

― phil-two (phil-two), Sunday, 3 April 2005 03:40 (twenty years ago)

VLC is great! It runs on Linux, OS X and Windows.

― absolutego (ex machina), Sunday, 3 April 2005 03:41 (twenty years ago)

six months pass...

OK, I have a question. If I buy a DVD player that supports DivX playback (I was thinking of getting this) and burn TV episodes I get from bittorrents onto a CD-RW, will I be able to play all or just some of them? If the latter, how can I tell from looking at the .avi or .mpeg file whether or not it's encoded in the right way? Is XviD something different to DivX or just a variety of it? I am confused.

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 30 October 2005 16:24 (twenty years ago)

how can I tell from looking at the .avi or .mpeg file whether or not it's encoded in the right way?

There's a cute little freeware thingy called GSpot which can tell you which codecs are used by which files.

Is XviD something different to DivX or just a variety of it?

Er, I think xvid is the open source version of divx, or something.

― JimD (JimD), Sunday, 30 October 2005 17:26 (twenty years ago)

They will play fine. I have two xvid/divx players a LiteOn and a Philips 642 and it plays every release. It was only around 60 bucks at Target.

― svend (svend), Sunday, 30 October 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

I have a modded xbox which allows the playing of divx and it plays about 97% of the avi's i have, when it doesn't play them right i get a black screen with audio. Xvid and Divx files both work fine and i have no idea what it is wrong with the few that don't work.

― jeffrey (johnson), Sunday, 30 October 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

Can I connect a noraml DVD player to my laptop, so that I can watch films on it. It hasn't got a DVD drive and the DVD drives on computer tend to suffer from jiggery-pokery from what I've seen.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 31 October 2005 08:39 (twenty years ago)

Thanks for the help, Jim, Sven and Jeffrey.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 October 2005 09:01 (twenty years ago)

So where do you guys download films/programs from? I want in!

― nathalie, a bum like you (stevie nixed), Monday, 31 October 2005 09:02 (twenty years ago)

We've got two computers, both with TV out, a PC and an Apple iBook. The PC is in another room, and would need a long cable to connect with the TV, but thankfully you can buy a cable for an iBook (£15) which allows you to connect to the TV. We can watch SVCD, DivX, xVid, DVDs or virtually any other format you could throw at us if we wish through the laptop. DivX or Xvid are the much better options as the file sizes are smaller for the same quality (or often better).

We have 2mbps DSL which allows for very fast downloads, and only costs £25 a month with a 50 gigabyte monthly limit.

As for getting the stuff, Bittorrent is your friend. Search for "The Pirate Bay" on google as a good place to start.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 31 October 2005 10:17 (twenty years ago)

I think perhaps my question was silly.

Have you moved, Alba?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 31 October 2005 10:29 (twenty years ago)

Moved? Why do you ask?

I don't think your question was silly. I once wanted to use my mac screen to play my Playstation with, but gave up on the idea.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 October 2005 11:11 (twenty years ago)

I have moved, yes. West.

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 October 2005 11:12 (twenty years ago)

I ask because you were in some kind of weird limbo not so long ago. As I have been in some kind of weird limbo as well, I forgot to keep abreast of your developments. Also, there is something about moving into a new place that makes one mad keen for new gadgets.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 31 October 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

A televisiopn programme I would like to download is Elusive Peace.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 31 October 2005 11:46 (twenty years ago)

I think you are right, about the gadgets thing!

I can send you Elusive Peace on disc. Let's go offboard!

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 October 2005 12:21 (twenty years ago)

Really? My word!

No one's ever asked me to go offboard before...

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Monday, 31 October 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

has anyone here modded a playstation to play back divx?

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 31 October 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

Yeah check out Qcast.

http://www.broadq.com/qcast2.htm

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Monday, 31 October 2005 20:07 (twenty years ago)

nathalie, try w w w . m i n i n o v a . o r g

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 31 October 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

Why do we googleproof these things?

― Alba (Alba), Monday, 31 October 2005 21:12 (twenty years ago)

to stop people who are googling for them spamming ILE

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Monday, 31 October 2005 23:43 (twenty years ago)

also, get the Daemon tools to mount a DVD image/iso. comes in handy.

― kingfish orange creamsicle (kingfish 2.0), Monday, 31 October 2005 23:50 (twenty years ago)

xtvi is proving good for major American shows

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Monday, 31 October 2005 23:53 (twenty years ago)

philips 642 dvd player. it will play anything you throw at it -- multi-region, dvd-r, dvd+r, mp3s, plus windows media, avi, mpeg video - straight off a CDR without having to burn a DVD or VCD...it's the shit and it's like $40 at Best Buy. i was previously downloading all sorts of formats and burning them to dvd, but not anymore! download & burn!!

― heywood jablomi (heywood), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 00:02 (twenty years ago)

I picked up Philips DVP 5100 in the UK for about £60, which can play the same list of things. Absolutely anything I've got, anyway, including all downloads burnt onto CD or DVD. Its got Progressive Scan, lots of bits and whatever the high quality output is that gives it a great picture, which it does. JSL.

― Humpy Neighbour (Total Magnus), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 00:26 (twenty years ago)

I just bought that Philips player yesterday! I find watching xVid things on it really weird though. A VCD file I had was blocky but otherwise OK, but the episode of Lost I had wasn't blocky, but it was all looks so much less smoother than watching it on my computer, like the frame rate was wrong or something. I'm going to experiment with plugging it into the YPbPr sockets rather than SCART, though I'm not sure if my TV can accept progressive scan so I don't know if this will help.

Also, I switched the region code on it to 0 using the instructions I found online, but when I played a US DVD I'm sure there was an imperceptible flicker cause within two minutes I had an awful headache. Hmm... again this is probably some problem with my TV and NTSC/PAL conversion, though I played a Region 2 NTSC disc (yeah, I don't know why such a thing exists) through my PS2 a while ago and I had no problem then. Maybe I was going to get a headache anyway.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 1 November 2005 08:38 (twenty years ago)

I played some other xvid discs and they were fine. Bloody Lost.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

must be a codec thing - the first four episodes of Lost s2 i got worked in Windows Media but the 5th one didn't - they all worked in VLC though. these weren't xvid though but i expect it's the same level of temperamentalism.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Wednesday, 9 November 2005 14:57 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

MY 400GB HD IS TOTALLY FULL AND I NEED BUY ANOTHER ONE.
IF YOU WANT MY 400GB FREAKYFLICKS HD PLEASE EMAIL ME.
THANK YOU. freakyflicks at gmail.com
Include masterpieces of Aki Kaurismaki, Alain Resnais, Albertina Carri,
Alejandro Agresti, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Alejandro Jodorosky,
Alejandro Lozano, Alexander Payne, Alexander Sukorov, Alfonso Arau,
Alfonso Cuaron, Alfonso Rosas Priego, Amos Gitai, Andrei Tarkovsky,
Andres Wood, Andrzej Zulawski, Atom Egoyan, Bahman Ghobadi, Benito Zambrano,
Benjamín Christensen, Bernardo Bertolucci, Billie August, Bo Arne Vibenius,
Brian De Palma, Carlos Saura, Carlos Sorin, Charles Dance, Chema de la Pena,
Claude Chabrol, Clint Eastwood, Cyril Collard, Daniel Barone, Daniel Burman,
Dany Boyle, Dario Argento, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Derek Jarman,
Emir Kusturica, Erick Zonca, Ethan & Joel Coen, Fabian Bielinsky,
Fernando E. Solanas, Fernando Eimbcke, Forest Whitaker, Francoise Truffaut,
Garth Jennings, Gaspar Noe, Godfrey Reggio, Gore Verbinski, Greg Araki,
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Hal Hartley, Hans Weingartner, Hared Hess, Harmony Korine, Hector Babenco,
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Jan Svankmajer, Jane Campion, Jean Cocteau, Jean Luc Godart, Jean-Jacques Annaud,
Jerzy Skolimowski, Jim Jarmush, Joao Pedro Rodrigues, John Carpenter,
John Walters, Jorg Buttgereit, Juan Pablo Rebella y Pablo Stoll, Julio Medem,
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Betsy Chasse y Mark Vicente, Win Wenders, Wong Kar Wai, Woody Allen, Xu Jinglei,
Zhang Yimou... and more.

MY 400GB HD IS TOTALLY FULL AND I NEED BUY ANOTHER ONE.
IF YOU WANT MY 400GB FREAKYFLICKS HD PLEASE EMAIL ME.
THANK YOU. freakyflicks at gmail.com

― [jailhouse tattoo] (nordicskilla), Thursday, 15 December 2005 21:37 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Does anyone have experience with burning srt files using Toast? It doesn't seem to be able to read them!

― Serge Protecteur (nordicskilla), Saturday, 28 January 2006 07:29 (twenty years ago)

nope. i use Daemon tools to mount the image, then watch 'em that way

― kingfish kuribo's shoe (kingfish 2.0), Saturday, 28 January 2006 07:36 (twenty years ago)

grrrr

― Serge Protecteur (nordicskilla), Saturday, 28 January 2006 07:46 (twenty years ago)

another satisfied daemon tools user here!

― stockholm cindy (winter version) (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 28 January 2006 07:49 (twenty years ago)

Nothing for Macs?

― Serge Protecteur (nordicskilla), Saturday, 28 January 2006 07:57 (twenty years ago)

Nothing what for Macs? To burn the downloads or what?

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Saturday, 28 January 2006 08:02 (twenty years ago)

what is an srt file?

― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 28 January 2006 08:16 (twenty years ago)

I think something to do with subtitling. not sure though.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Saturday, 28 January 2006 11:12 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

how the hell do you download tv shows anyway? what's the site? I mainly want to find stuff that hasn't been released on DVD (like The State)

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 04:47 (eighteen years ago)

try w w w . m i n i n o v a . o r g
-- Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 31 October 2005 21:08 (2 years ago) Link

― bnw, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 05:21 (eighteen years ago)

www.tvtorrents.com - but they may have closed registration

― milo z, Wednesday, 21 November 2007 05:33 (eighteen years ago)

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