Fast download?

[cartisdm]

Forgive me if I sound naive but I don't use iTunes really so I have a question. I just purchased two episodes of Lost season 2 because I've been trying to watch them all in order (I've been using netflix but there's a stupid "short wait" for like the past week and then I went to Blockbuster and guess what....the two discs I needed were checked out lol). anywho, so bought two episodes in the iTunes store and they downloaded in like 20 minutes and I thought to myself, ok....the quality prolly sucks. No, it was really really good. I watched them on my 37'' lcd screen in my living room (it's hooked up to a media pc) and I honestly couldn't tell I was watching a downloaded movie.

How come iTunes can deliver a movie with great quality so quickly yet if I "steal" 8-[ a movie (or anything really) off something like Azureus it takes flippin' forever?

[Kingsley]

If using torrents, you're depending on the upload speeds of seeders and leechers, so the download can be very slow or very fast.

[cartisdm]

If using torrents, you're depending on the upload speeds of seeders and leechers, so the download can be very slow or very fast.

But even then you'd think you'd get a higher range wouldn't you? I don't really download stuff all too often but I don't think I've ever gotten speeds above 40kB/s

[aashay]

It all depends on the number and nature of seeders. Find a torrent with a few hundred (even thousand) seeds and see if you still get 40kbps

[aimran]

You didn't tell us the file size :)

[cartisdm]

You didn't tell us the file size :)

Right now I'm trying to get two episodes of Lost season 2:) so it's like 700MB. Even if I'm just grabbing some songs or a cd (btw I don't know the forums rules about discussing downloaded content so....yea...don't yell at me...) and it's like 70MB I don't recall it being much faster then again I don't download that often so I could be wrong.

[aimran]

Oh 20 minutes for 700mb is pretty normal then... for direct download :)

I myself get 200kbps for torrents (on a good day) so an album takes 10minutes sometimes...

I guess your 40kpbs is pretty rare.

[intense.ego]

direct downloads are usually faster than torrents, especially if it is something rare with not many seeder or if your upload is not high. however, the fastest speeds are always achieved on torrents. with my 24mbits connection I have gotten downloads of 2MB+, but the fastest from direct dowloand was 1800KB from Stage6 (though it no longer exists).

[cartisdm]

New proposal then:

Is there a way to access video content online similar to the iTunes store? Honestly I don't really know the legal rights but I imagine using Azureus to download DVD rips of episodes of Lost prolly isn't 100% legal. Not that I really care but it'd make me feel safer about not getting my ISP's attention when they check out the bandwidth I'm using for downloads then start asking questions (happened to my friend back home so I'm just being careful)

[intense.ego]

I don't think talking about illegally downloading media complies with the rules of Ubuntu Forums.

[aimran]

Either way, direct download or torrents, get your ISP's attention. So there's no use using Azureus to download your iTunes as both method does increase your download balance. That gets the ISP attention anyways.

[ice60]

you must be stealing your movies from the wrong place. i never use p2p to get TV and movies, it uses loads of bandwidth and you have to wait for it to download!! i stream everything i watch and the quality is mostly OK. i watched all of Lost that way. the next episode is out later today and will be on the internet tomorrow 8)

i've got about 100 TV and movie streaming sites bookmarked :guitar:

Edit: before i streamed Lost i downloaded using Frostwire, i got about 5 episodes that way and they were all good quality. try frostwire.

[intense.ego]

Since everybody seems to be talking about it, I will too. P2P such is limewire or frostwire is only good when downloading a couple of songs. If you are trying to download a whole album bittorrent is better because it is better quality and has all the tracks (whereas in limewire some may not be available). Bittorrent is very good for tv shows and movies, but if you are not getting good speeds, I am sure you could find some links for the episodes on megaupload by searching thru google.

[aimran]

Try to keep the topic legal or they would have to close this thread.

[intense.ego]

there is no explicit mention of illegal downloading of files. its not like i am giving examples

[futureproof]

@OP if you are using torrents to download you should make sure you client is configured properly, I see you're using windows so I recommend uTorrent for all your needs.

Make sure your ports are open, make sure you have plenty of slots per torrent, you should also download and run

http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=downloads

when modifying the system file, choose C and set the number of half open connections to 5000. When it's done you get a windows warning telling you to insert the CD to restore the system file, you dont want to do that, keep the modified file and close the warning dialog. You should see drastic improvements in your torrenting (on well seeded ones of course).

[sunexplodes]

Also something to consider is that a lot of major ISPs (Rogers and Sympatico here in Canada, I'm pretty sure I read about Comcast doing this in the US, maybe others too) throttle bittorrent download speeds and take measures to limit it vastly due to the strain it supposedly puts on their network.

I had to move from an independant company whom I often got 300-500 k/s with in torrents to Rogers, where I'm lucky to get 60k/s. BUT with rogers if I download from a website or a repo, I get WAY faster speeds than I did before. Like the consistant 800k/s I've been getting with the Arch repos.

[futureproof]

A little googling will show you a few methods to avoid ISP throttling, fortunately here in japan they don't do anything like that.

[3rdalbum]

iTunes downloads are only standard definition - 480 lines. So either your TV isn't high definition, or the TV station you usually watch Lost on is only broadcasting in SD.

[Kingsley]

A little googling will show you a few methods to avoid ISP throttling, fortunately here in japan they don't do anything like that.
I just use Deluge. It goes right past my university's firewall. :)

[futureproof]

I was talking about ISP traffic shaping, does Deluge use protocol encryption?