#  >  > Computers Can Be Fun >  >  > Computer News >  >  Beginner's Guide To Torrents

## Satonic

There is a lot of information on torrents here already but its spread between various threads and can be confusing for someone that is new to torrents.

I was asked by a couple of people to show them the basics so I thought I'd make a quick how to thread that may be of use. I am in no way an expert and this is the very first basic steps but this is how I do it and it works ok for me.

First you will need to download a program to deal with the torrent. 

Download - µTorrent - a (very) tiny BitTorrent client



Once that has downloaded, install and open the program. It should look something like this



Now I would suggest not to play around with the settings too much to begin with. Mine actually worked better before I started messing with things so I changed all the settings back to standard. One thing you will want to change however is the directory or folder that it saves your files to.



Your now ready to add a torrent file. There are lots of places to search for the torrent you want but a good site to start with is KickAss Torrents http://www.kat.ph 
In the top right hand corner you can enter the TV show, movie or file your looking for. 



I want to download the new episode of 'Dexter'. So after entering your search term you will now see a screen that looks like this. 



Now there is lots of information to take in when choosing which file to download. You will want to look for the number of seeders (That's the number of people sharing the file), the number of leachers (That's the people trying to download the file), the file format (.avi .mkv .mp4 etc) and you can take a look through the comments to get an idea of video/audio quality.

Once you have chosen which file you want, click to download.



Once the torrent file has download click to open it. The first time you do this your computer may not recognise what program to open the file with so just select uTorrent and it should remember that for next time.

You will now see the torrent load up inside uTorrrent. Again you will have a choice of where to download the file to. Click OK to start downloading.



Now it's important to understand that the torrent file you download from KickAss torrents or whatever site you use does not contain the actual video file. The video files are not stored on the internet but stored and shared between people's computers. The files are broken down into many small pieces and shared (You don't have to worry about this as uTorrent does it all for you). The torrent file just tells uTorrent where to look for the video file. 

Here you can see the download speed, the upload speed (you automatically share what ever pieces of the video file you have so far whilst downloading) along will all the file information. The speed you download at will depend on the popularity of the file, the number of seeders, your internet connection, what way the wind is blowing etc etc



Once the file is finished you will continue to share the file until it is deleted / removed from uTorrent.



Find the folder you specified the file to download to and enjoy. You just became a _torrentor_  :Smile: 



Cheers

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## Cujo

Thanks, I'd green you but I've got to spread the love.
Just what I've been looking for.
Still can't get anything to work though.
Must be something wrong with my computer.

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## Exige

Fairly complex way of doing it.
I'm just a 2 clicker and it's all sorted!  :Smile:

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## Satonic

^ Once you have got it all set up torrents are really quick & easy (and free  :Smile:  ).

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## gusG

Cheers mate, I might even get around to trying this out.
Green sent.

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## Neo

On this screen..



it's worth using the function to move completed downloads to another folder.. 2 good reasons 

1. if you want to watch a movie from your download folder the data is not disrupted or delayed by active downloads, this is more apparent when using a separate hard-drive as all data must flow through one cable.. 

2. it will stop your movie/app/music folder filling up with incomplete files, the only files that you will have in there are complete movie and audio files. 

I partitioned 50gb of my hard drive and in the first checkbox I send all current downloads there (named E/stream) the complete folders are then moved onto the main partition automatically. It's a neat function.

green sent btw..  :Wink:

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## Satonic

^ That's a very good point Neo, thanks.

I normally transfer my files to a thumb drive as my TV has a USB port for playback of .avi files but I often move incomplete files by mistake.

Cheers

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## gusG

Actually just downloaded it (again), and downloaded the same file as you, Original hey?
Came through in about 8 mins, wind must be blowing the right way.
Thanks.

BTW who is Dexter?
I am about to find out.

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## Satonic

^ Start at season 1... You won't regret it but make sure you have some free time. Dexter is quite addictive  :Smile:

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## gusG

^ Just started. My Wife loves this sort of thing.

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## Neo

skip season 2.. watch the rest  :Very Happy:

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## blue

Great  opening post guide there 

Anyone run any good  utorrent apps ?
I just have the  uMap    , can zoom  ,or hover with the mouse for details.
 As I love seeing the  very approx  location ,  of where people are sharing to /from .

I might be mad but I think , say a book delivered from many people across the globe has more power than one from some big company

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## Satonic

> As I love seeing the very approx location , of where people are sharing to /from .


I find that interesting too  :Smile:

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## slackula

It's probably worth mentioning canyouseeme.org for any newbies to torrenting to check if it's working. Some Thai ISPs (and the 'free' routers they give) block the ports that torrents clients use by default and so a bit of a work-around is needed to get things flowing.

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## gusG

> skip season 2.. watch the rest


Are you sure I'm 40% through it?

Season 1 downloaded real quick, but season 2 is going a lot slower.
Time of day I guess, although the wind has died down as well.

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## JimmyBoy

Satonic

Thanks for the Beginner's Guide To Torrents , its really helped a torrent newbie like my self . 


 :tumbs:  :tumbs:  :tumbs:  :tumbs:

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## JimmyBoy

> It's probably worth mentioning canyouseeme.org for any newbies to torrenting to check if it's working. Some Thai ISPs (and the 'free' routers they give) block the ports that torrents clients use by default and so a bit of a work-around is needed to get things flowing.


Thanks for the info , ive just tried out canyouseeme.org and get these two results 








When not using a proxy , I can still download torrents , so I'm not too sure what these results actually mean . 

I'm using a 3G dongle with a 3G wireless router

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## Satonic



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## slackula

> When not using a proxy , I can still download torrents , so I'm not too sure what these results actually mean .


I'm no expert but port #80 is the port that would need to be open to the web if you were running a web server from your computer, presumably you aren't so it doesn't matter if canyouseeme.org can see port 80 on your machine.

If your torrent software is working then leave it well alone!  :Smile: 

I had to do some fiddling to get everything working from my wired to wireless connection to make it work throughout the house and the canyouseeme.org site was helpful which is why I brought it up.

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## Cujo

Not to be a party pooper, but beeing a torrent noob I'm curious.
Isn't this illegal copyright infringement and don't people get tracked and traced and locked up for this type of thing?

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## JimmyBoy

> Originally Posted by JimmyBoy
> 
> When not using a proxy , I can still download torrents , so I'm not too sure what these results actually mean .
> 
> 
> I'm no expert but port #80 is the port that would need to be open to the web if you were running a web server from your computer, presumably you aren't so it doesn't matter if canyouseeme.org can see port 80 on your machine.
> 
> If your torrent software is working then leave it well alone! 
> 
> I had to do some fiddling to get everything working from my wired to wireless connection to make it work throughout the house and the canyouseeme.org site was helpful which is why I brought it up.



If its not broke - don't fix it 

sound advice  :Smile:

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## JimmyBoy

Just a quick newbie question 

why am I only connected to 35 seeders if there's 237 shown ?

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## mellow

> Not to be a party pooper, but beeing a torrent noob I'm curious.
> Isn't this illegal copyright infringement and don't people get tracked and traced and locked up for this type of thing?


 Download and use Peerblock. Comes with instructions. I do not block HTTP because I found I could not access some web sites. Not my idea, I learned about it from the multimedia forum here. I believe it was from Harry Barracuda.

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## worgeordie

I have tried many times to get torrents sorted on my computer but allways mess my
computer up, so i found , which is better for me as i just want to watch the movies,series,whatever, and not store them, 
Try the following, Projectfreetv, cokeandpopcorn,iwatchonline, just google them,they
link you to sites that have the files,Putlocker,Sockshare,Gorillavid  are the best out of many links, and stream the movies series to your tv, I have a small Nettop with HDMI and I connect it directly to LED tv, works great,but you need a decent internet connection.  I only want to watch stuff once so dont need to store any files. watch what I want when I want, its free, who needs True !! 

regards Worgeordie

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## slackula

> Isn't this illegal copyright infringement and don't people get tracked and traced and locked up for this type of thing?


Plenty of free (as in free from copyright and free as in free beer) stuff on the torrents.

A torrent software client is like any tool: use it legally and you are fine, use it to break a law and you may get a knock on the door.

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## misskit

^  :Scared: 

You mean someone is going to knock on my door for downloading Curb Your Enthusiasm?

Coincidentally, I've just learned how to use torrents this week. Some good stuff out there.

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## Daft Old Cat

^ Especially for downloading Curb Your Enthusiasm  :Smile:

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## misskit

Someone help me, please.

I can download the torrents and watch them on my big screen that's connected to my PC via HDMI cable. It's great.

Put a movie on a pin drive. Now I want to use that in my other tv but when I plug in,  tv says file not supported. Tried the same with my external hard drive with same results. Doody.

The file shows up as AVI on my PC but MP4 when I store it. Why and what can I do to keep the AVI file?

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## Satonic

> The file shows up as AVI on my PC but MP4 when I store it.


Can you explain that a little more misskit? I mean your finding the video file in the folder its saved to and just copying straight onto a pin drive right?

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## misskit

I didn't copy it direct from downloads or from utorrent. It was filed in video library. That's where I copied it from.

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## Satonic

Is your video library linked somehow to itunes? Maybe that's why it has been converted. 

I don't know why it would change from .avi to .mp4 otherwise sorry. 

I right click on the file in utorrent when it's finished and select open containing folder. Right click on the file then either cut or copy it straight onto the usb stick. I then plug that usb stick into the side of my TV. My TV will only play .avi files and sometimes it won't even play .avi files due to the video screen size/format.

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## misskit

^ I'll try it that way. Thanks!

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## misskit

Update. I tried to copy straight from utorrent to the stick but utorrent won't let me transfer the AVI file. Must buy their converter to do that. Tried from my uploads file with same results.

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## Mid

> I tried to copy straight from utorrent


Literally ?

Find the downloaded file and copy from there not off the uTorrent program page .

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## Satonic

^^ When you tried to move it did you stop the file uploading in uTorrent? If the torrent is still active it won't let you move it.

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## misskit

^^ I did but I didn't work.

^ The file had completely loaded. It was seeding, though.

Do you two take the file completely off utorrent and move it elsewhere when finished loading?

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## Satonic

> ^^ I did but I didn't work.
> 
> ^ The file had completely loaded. It was seeding, though.
> 
> Do you two take the file completely off utorrent and move it elsewhere when finished loading?


If it was seeding stop that. Highlight the file then right click - stop.

I personally don't move my torrents elsewhere. I let them seed to around a 1:1 ration then delete.

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## misskit

The movie I removed from the utorrent page after I had placed it in the video library completely disappeared.  :Sad: 

My bad luck?

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## Satonic

In uTorrent you have 2 options. You can remove the torrent - this will just disconnect the video file from being linked to uTorrent. Or the other option is remove torrent and delete file and data which removes everything. Be careful which one you choose  :Smile: 

If you have just deleted it have you checked your recycle bin to see if it's in there? You can just right click / restore if it is.

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## slackula

> I personally don't move my torrents elsewhere. I let them seed to around a 1:1 ration then delete.


You should let them run up to at least 1:2 before stopping them unless your internet package has a limited bandwidth.




> You mean someone is going to knock on my door for downloading Curb Your Enthusiasm?


If you bring your comp back to the USA you can get nailed for having stuff on it.




> The file shows up as AVI on my PC but MP4 when I store it. Why and what can I do to keep the AVI file?


.mp4 is a wrapper, you need to find some software to extract the .avi out of the file.

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## Satonic

> You should let them run up to at least 1:2 before stopping them unless your internet package has a limited bandwidth.


Why? I give back as much as I take. I would run out of disk space if I left everything seeding 1:2. My upload speed sucks as it is and some files take ages just to get to 1:1.

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## Satonic

> .mp4 is a wrapper, you need to find some software to extract the .avi out of the file.


I could be wrong but I don't think that is correct. You can convert .avi to mp4 and vice versa but mp4 being a wrapper and extracting?

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## misskit

re: post 39.  That was the problem. I deleted data also.

^Any suggestions on the software?

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## Satonic

I use 'anvsoft any video converter' to convert all my video files. I always look for the .avi torrent but if only .mp4, .mkv .flv etc is available I'll download and then convert. Converting takes a while though. I converted a 90 minute football match from .mkv to .avi and it took about 40 minutes.

Any Video Converter Ultimate 4.5.3 (cracked dll-davlat) [ChingLi (download torrent) - TPB

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## slackula

> Why? I give back as much as I take.


The point is to give back a bit more than you take, but it's up to you.




> You can convert .avi to mp4 and vice versa but mp4 being a wrapper and extracting?


"wrapper" was the wrong word, I should have said container.

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## Satonic

> "wrapper" was the wrong word, I should have said container.


In that sense then both .avi and .mp4 are containers. They both contain the video codec and the audio format. Avi and mp4 are completely different containers, .mp4 being newer and can support more things. ie menus.

So you couldn't extract one from the other. It would have to be converted. You extract from extensions like .zip .rar .7z .iso etc.




> The point is to give back a bit more than you take, but it's up to you.


When I use public trackers I can normally seed 3 or 4 times what I have taken in a couple of days and I'll generally let these run for at least a week. Sometimes reaching 10 x what I have taken. It's the private trackers I struggle reaching even 1:1 on.

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## gusG

> Originally Posted by quimbian corholla
> 
> You should let them run up to at least 1:2 before stopping them unless your internet package has a limited bandwidth.
> 
> 
> Why? I give back as much as I take. I would run out of disk space if I left everything seeding 1:2. My upload speed sucks as it is and some files take ages just to get to 1:1.


Where can I see this ratio on uTorrent please?

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## Satonic

> Where can I see this ratio on uTorrent please?

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## gusG

Thanks for that, couldn't see it before. :Smile:

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## Bogon

Bogon tip #301

If you hover the mouse over the top of the utorrent page where it says "size/status/health etc etc you right click and a drop down menu appears where you can tick 'Ratio' and it will be added to the menu.

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## gusG

^ Cheers Bogon, that makes it easier to see.
 :tumbs:

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## misskit

> I use 'anvsoft any video converter' to convert all my video files. I always look for the .avi torrent but if only .mp4, .mkv .flv etc is available I'll download and then convert. Converting takes a while though. I converted a 90 minute football match from .mkv to .avi and it took about 40 minutes.
> 
> Any Video Converter Ultimate 4.5.3 (cracked dll-davlat) [ChingLi (download torrent) - TPB


Doh. I'll make sure to download .avi torrents next time!

I converted an mp4 file to avi, put it on a memory stick and plugged it in to the TV. It worked, though the quality of the picture had gone down so much I'm not interested in using that method.

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## Satonic

^ With the converter I use I have to specify the frame rate / bitrate / resolution etc I want to convert it as. It's a pain but you can keep the quality high.

But yes, much easier just to start with the .avi file  :Smile:

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## misskit

I've downloaded Kurasawa's Seven Samuri and need the English subtitles.

Does anyone use subtitles? How do I make them appear?

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## slackula

> Does anyone use subtitles? How do I make them appear?


Download the version with English subtitles  :Smile: 



Glad I could help, no need to thank me.

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## misskit

^ Smart arse.  :Smile: 

The subtitles are in a separate folder. I don't know how to make them work.

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## Necron99

> ^ Smart arse. 
> 
> The subtitles are in a separate folder. I don't know how to make them work.



It depends on your media player Kit.
For example using VLC under the video (counterintuitive but correct) menu there is an option to turn subs on or off, when turning on it will ask for the location of the subs folder, though if in the folder with the movie it usually finds them itself. the video in the cap has no subs thus it's not displaying the default folder. If I had them elsewhere I can choose open file and browse to the location.
If you are using some sort of media box for your tv then usually the remote has similar abilities, but you should check the box help file to see where they need to be located, on my lacie it is in a subfolder of the movie folder.




in this cap the women also asked how to use subs..... :Smile:

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## slackula

> The subtitles are in a separate folder. I don't know how to make them work.


What are you using to watch the film? C&P the subtitle file into the same folder as the movie and your software might pick it up, I think that is how VLC handles it.




> Smart arse.


 :Very Happy: 

Edit: Necron99 gets a futile tiny internet fist shake. 2 minutes dammit!  :Smile:

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## Bogon

To make the subs work, you have to put them in the same folder and the file names have to exactly match until you get to the "." bit at the end.

Example - Rocky.avi (film file) and Rocky.srt (subtitle file).

Put both of these files in the same folder and start the film. The subs will automatically come up.

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## misskit

Thanks, I'll give it a go tomorrow.

What happened to those women who asked about subs? They look like the vampires trapped them and roughed them up.

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## Necron99

> Thanks, I'll give it a go tomorrow.
> 
> What happened to those women who asked about subs? They look like the vampires trapped them and roughed them up.



Probably best not to ask about them.
It didn't end well.....

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## spliff

Can anyone spare a demonoid invite???   :Smile:

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## Necron99

I thought demonoid died.

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## spliff

Did it...what's the equivalent replacement?

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## Satonic

> Did it...what's the equivalent replacement?


Download music, movies, games, software! The Pirate Bay - The galaxy's most resilient BitTorrent site

kat.ph

EZTV - TV Torrents Online

Or sign up to some of the private sites.

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## Necron99

kat.ph seems ok. like TPB in its hey day but with less spam.

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## spliff

555...I guess I meant what's the equivalent replacement PRIVATE torrent site? I always liked Demonoid for the quality of it's app torrents and the remarks from members.

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## misskit

What to do with downloaded movie files that won't transfer to an external drive?

I've a couple of movies that, when I try, a window pops up saying they are too large. There is plenty of room on the external drive for them. _Plenty._ Any remedies?

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## gusG

^ Maybe put them on a larger external drive.

Are you trying to put them on a 4 GB memory stick?

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## misskit

I'm not trying to put them on a memory stick. I want to put them on a 500 GB external drive with more than 450 GB free. The two movie files I want to transfer are less than 8 GB. No problem with all the others. Doesn't make sense to me.

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## Necron99

4 gb is an older (current?) windows file size limitation iirc. It may be the setup of the drive.
try splitting the file into 2.

or I could be talking shit.

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## misskit

Hmmm. I'll look into the size limitation. 

I hope you're talkin' shit, Necron.  :Smile:  Really don't want to split my movies in two!

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## Satonic

> Hmmm. I'll look into the size limitation. 
> 
> I hope you're talkin' shit, Necron.  Really don't want to split my movies in two!


You wouldn't need to split the movie. You can compress the file down into parts, then extract again into one piece after it's been moved.

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## misskit

Ok. That makes sense. As long as I play it back through a computer, which is no problem.

My television not hooked up to a PC will never make sense of it. For sure.

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## misskit

Just to let you know, I phoned my computer man this morning and told him of my problem transferring large movie (8G) files to the external drive. He had be bring in the drive, which he reformatted it in about one minute, then sent me on my way without charge. 

Now it works like a charm. Hurray for easy fixes.

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## Dillinger

I was just gonna tell you to format the drive.

You can do it yourself by right clicking on it in my computer

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## blue

I thought about doing  that - changing the allocated file size from about 4 to 8 gb
by right clicking the   external drive  , but would that not wipe off any data already on there at the same time  ?

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## misskit

^ Yes! My computer man told me to take everything off the external drive I wanted to keep before I brought it in for him to reformat. It was a clean slate when I plugged it back in.

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## Satonic

Re-format / Turn it off and back on / A hammer.

One of the above will fix most problems  :Smile:

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## Mid

I'm now seeing torrents of 20gig as one file iso's ..............

wtf does anybody actually have the bandwidth to deal with these mega files ?

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## Necron99

Yup.
Provided there were enough seeds.

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## slackula

> wtf does anybody actually have the bandwidth to deal with these mega files ?


That's the whole point of torrents, you aren't going to download a 20GB file in one go. Your torrent app grabs bits and pieces of the file from anybody who is sharing it and then returns the favour to the next person. As it works the torrent client puts all the bits together to produce the completed download

That's why it is important to leave a completed download seeding for as long as you can, at least until a ratio of 2 but higher is preferable.

I have my torrent client upload speed set limited to 50 KB/s, but I leave it running 24/7 so over time the ratios get quite high. At the moment the highest is a film with 996 MB downloaded (complete) and 54 GB uploaded. 

I probably should get around to watching it one of these days, it seems to be quite popular!  :Smile:

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## Mid

How about this one ?

*1322.26 GB*

http://kat.ph/imdb-top-250-movies-t6846358.html

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## slackula

> How about this one ?  1322.26 GB


It's 250 films in various formats! Some will come down fast and others won't.

Take a glance down the page at related torrents, they are all in the triple digits for seeders but you link has zero seeders. 

The comments section of your link has the answer, some guy just wanted to upload the biggest torrent.

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## tuferguson

> Great  opening post guide there 
> 
> Anyone run any good  utorrent apps ?
> I just have the  uMap    , can zoom  ,or hover with the mouse for details.
>  As I love seeing the  very approx  location ,  of where people are sharing to /from .
> 
> I might be mad but I think , say a book delivered from many people across the globe has more power than one from some big company


ive never noticed the apps before!  :Shocked1:

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