What are my options today for alternatives to cable and satellite TV content?

[deckeda]

Ah --- RSS feeds. Let me see if understand the basic premise here.

1) People with access to the shows record them/TiVo them etc. , prepare a .torrent file and announce it on vtv and/or eztv (still not clear on what those are, I just started learning tonight.)

2) tvrss.net allows for searching of torrents

3) Some apps such as TVShows (development seems stagnant) or Miro [was: Democracy?] offer varying levels of integrated searching, downloading, playing, organization so that a user doesn't have to manually do it all.

4) Popcorn Hour seems to also put some of that into a hardware solution.

[RAMd®d]

Just a thought.

[deckeda]

I also like magazines, going out to movies, shopping, visiting friends, chatting on Internet forums and a lot more. But like books, none of those can be watched on TV.

[mhale62]

A viable alternative (albeit not free) to torrent d/ls of shows is a premium account on a usenet server. The best offer an SSL connection which is not an option on torrent trackers AFAIK.

I use http://www.powerusenet.com/ as my server; http://www.tvnzb.com/ is the site for TV episodes and http://www.newzleech.com/posts/ is pretty much the goto site for 720p & 1080p movies - be advised that usenet is unfiltered and you will run into raunchy content. You've been warned O_O

I used TVShows until I switched to usenet; there are a few apps underway that will automate d/ls from usenet in the same way.

NZB files are the analog to .torrents in that they are double-clickable files that initiate the multi-segment d/ls in which all content on usenet appears.

http://www.slyck.com/ng.php is the best place to start if you're interested in the most efficient, cost effective way of acquiring content.

FWIW, there's also RapidShare Premium downloading but I quickly soured on them because they don't make it obvious that there's a 25 GB per 5 days cap even though they advertised unlimited d/ls.

RS maintains the servers with the most content. My MO is to locate the desired file on RS then see if I can track it down on usenet.

Disclaimer: I've no connection w/any of the services or sites I've mentioned other than as a happy client.

Feel free to contact me for more info and links.

HTH,
m