Super-fast TV downloads

As you know – there are plenty of way to acquire content on the Internet. Some of these methods are new, some of them have been around since the dawn of the Internet. Currently the most popular way to download your TV shows, music or movies is via the torrent system. Specialist torrent sites like UK Nova cater to specific audiences and there’s the added benefit of shared bandwidth. Newbies, on the other hand, tend to get themselves into all-sorts of strife by downloading via those well known trojan highways – Limewire and eDonkey.

But with the right software and the right websites, there is a far simpler, far quicker way of downloading your TV shows – Usenet. Okay – bit of background here. Usenet has been around longer than the World-Wide Web. It started life as a text based discussion system, but over the years evolved into a way of distributing digital content. Files are uploaded in segments within posts on Usenet and with the right kind of software you can download those files and convert them back from ASCII to binary formats.

There have traditionally been several problems with the system, which I’ll explain first – and how they’ve recently been overcome. Firstly – you need access to the binary newsgroups where all the good stuff is uploaded to on Usenet. For the vast majority of people this means that they’ll have to pay extra (usually about $10 a month) for access to a decent newsfeed, although some forward-thinking ISPs (like my own, Internode) are kind enough to carry a full feed themselves.

The second problem is that files don’t propagate fully around all the different newsgroup newsfeeds. So for instance, a TV show uploaded by a user in the USA may be missing an important segment by the time it gets to Europe, which makes reassembling the file impossible. The third problem is that even assuming every segment of a file is present on your newsfeed’s newsgroup, it’s a serious pain downloading each segment manually. And finally the fourth problem is that Usenet is a WYSIWYG kind of a deal – you only get access to those files people have chosen to upload, which is a kind of obvious flaw with pretty much any download service.

So that’s the bad news. The good news is that most of the above problems have been sorted. In fact I’ve personally almost completely abandoned torrent downloads now – I get 95% of the media I want via my Internode newsfeed. So let’s address the above problems and how they’ve been fixed.

The Problems
Firstly there’s the access issue. If your ISP does not carry the binary newsgroups within its newsfeed then you’re going to have to spring for a subscription. There’s only one company you should consider for this – Giganews. These guys carry all the newsgroups you’ll need (and more), they retain all newsgroup data for 240 days from posting and you can get 25Gb a month for $12USD or unlimited for $25USD.

Okay – the second issue is that of missing segments. This has been tackled in two ways. Firstly, it’s very rare for a newsfeed from someone like Giganews not to carry everything you need – they claim 99% completion and my experience bares this out. Secondly, there are PAR files. These are files which you download alongside the file you want and which contain recovery information inside them which enables you rebuild any missing segments. It sounds difficult, but it’s all taken care of by the software – all you have to do is point it at the first PAR file and it takes care of the rest.

The third issue is the problem of downloading all those different file segments manually. This has been overcome by the development of something called an NZB file. An NZB is like a file catalog – it lists all the segments that make up a file. With the right newsreader software you can open a single NZB file and get your entire download in one chunk with no further intervention from yourself.

Which brings us to the fourth and final problem – finding the files in the first place. This has been overcome by NZB and Usenet indexing websites. Just like the popular torrent websites (piratebay.org, mininova.com etc), you can visit indexing sites and search the content you want. Okay? With me so far? Let’s get down to the practicalities.

The NZB Web Sites
There are some excellent free NZB sites out there. Some of the better ones include:

• NNTP Search
• MegaNZB
• NZB Monster
• NZB Matrix – they offer a limited free service and a good paid-for one
• NZB Site
• Newzleach
• Binsearch – one of the best free news sites, I feel

The site I personally use is Newzbin. However this site is invitation only and out of invites. If you get on Google you will find various folks who’ll give you an invitation – that’s how I got my membership. To get the most out of Newzbin you’ll also want to spring for a subscription which is 15GBP for a year – I think it’s worth every penny. Newzbin’s key strength is its army of editors  - end users like you and me – who turn the raw Usenet feeds into NZB files that we can all download.

The News Feed
As I mentioned – your best bet for a usable news feed is Giganews. They’ve been around for ages, they won’t rip you off and the service is the best I’ve used. You may be lucky and find that your ISP offers a news feed, so check before you sign up with someone else. However – be aware that not all feeds are the same – most ISPs will not carry the binary newsgroups which contain all the fun stuff.

The Software
Okay – Windows users – you’ll need Newsbin Pro first. This is the News Client which will download all the different segments of a file for you. You will also need a good PAR program, to rebuild broken files. My personal favourite, when I was a Windows user, was QuickPar. Finally you’ll need a dearchving program and since the vast majority of Usenet uploads are in .RAR format, PeaZip is probably your best bet.

Mac users – as with most things – your life is a lot easier. The newsreader you’ll need is Unison – you can double-click on an NZB file and Unison will take care of everything for you and just download the file. In fact Unison’s so cool, you can even preview MP3 files straight off the server, which is a great way of saving your bandwidth for music you actually like. To check the files and fill in any gaps or fix checksum errors, you need MacPar Deluxe. MacPar can extract files itself, but if not it hands over automatically to something like Stuffit Deluxe as soon as it’s finished checking your downloaded files. Alternatively – if you’re technically competent (ie: a geek) – check SabnzB which does all the above in one application and which you can access from any browser.

Linux users, you’ll need to get Pan – download via synaptic or the link on the left. You’ll need Unrar – again synaptic or direct download and Par. Alternatively, check out Hellanzb, which is in a very sophisticated all-in-one tool, which enables you to track, download and extract things like TV shows totally automatically.

The Process
Right – you’ve got your newsgroup account, you’ve installed the software and you’ve had a good look around the NZB websites mentioned above. So how does it work. Well, you’ve done the hard bit – the software can do the leg work now. Firstly, download the NZB for the TV show/application/busty porno you want to watch – save it to your PC, just as you would a .torrent file. Now you can either just double-click on it, in which case the default application will start – or you can start your newsreader software and open the NZB file manually.

Depending on the speed of your ADSL line, you should be able to max out the connection. I run 10 connection to Internode’s newsfeed concurrently and easily get up in the 7Mb/s range. That means that I can download a 700Mb movie in about 10 minutes – just long enough to get down to the bottle shop and buy some booze before sitting down to watch it. Once the file’s down, double click on the .par2 file. This will start your Par software, which checks the download is good and repairs it if it isn’t. Finally, you can dearchive it. Some or all of the above will be automatic, depending on your operating system/sofware.

Enjoy
And that’s all there is to it. Obviously you’re not going to find everything you want on the newsgroups – particularly more esoteric stuff like obscure UK TV shows – but it’s surprising what is on there. I found recent uploads of things like Match of the Day for instance, which I didn’t think would be there. And certainly all the popular shows will be there – things like Top Gear, Spooks, Corrie, Eastenders, Merlin, Robin Hood, Dr Who, Harry Hill, Foyles War, The Brief …