19th
Stealing Movies
If I had to rent all the movies I’ve watched, I would have spent tons of money by now. TONS. Besides, renting sucks. You never know if they have it, you run from store to store trying to find the movie, and then you have to return it. I stopped renting a long time ago. You just can’t do it all the time. That’s why there are Torrents. Torrents can also be used for getting music, but only if you are desperate. First you will need a torrent host program (I use uTorrent and I am very pleased with it, so I will just say uTorrent). This is a program that will open Torrents and allow them to work/download on your computer. Others include: BitTorrent (A lot of people use this one), Azureus (I didn’t like it), BitComet, KTorrent, and Dulge.
Link for uTorrent: http://www.utorrent.com/download.php
With Torrents, there are two kinds of users. There are seeders and leeches. Seeders have the file you want and are ‘seeding’ from their torrent host program. A leech is most likely you, someone who wants it/is currently downloading it. As long as there are seeders, you can get it. Torrents, sometimes, do die. If they are not supported, then they can die out. You do not have to seed though. I never seed. You automatically start seeding after you finish downloading the file. To stop seeding, you just delete it from the program (not your computer).
Now you actually go looking for the torrents. The best torrent site I know of is BTjunkie (best) and isoHunt (2nd best). If you don’t find it in either site, you probably won’t. I usually go to
It has links for both BTjunkie and isoHunt and you can order what sites you prefer in the right hand window (although, I don’t suggest searching past those two) Now, let’s say you want to watch Enter the Ninja. Click BTjunkie then search in the bar put, ‘Enter the Ninja’ The first one looks like the best, but be shore to check things like what language it’s in, comments on it, and the size of the file. You really don’t want to be a 3000 MB file on your computer if there is a one that is 700 - 1000 MB that is just a good. If you are getting a foreign film (‘WTF READING?!’), it is a good idea to check if they include english subtitles with it. Subtitles coming with a torrent will probably sync better than ones that you download for the film from a subtitle site (although, I sometimes have to do this, and it can work. It just takes some doing). After you download the torrent, it should open automatically in uTorrent. Then you just sit back and let it download. You are going to want to leave your computer on as much as possible so it can actually download it. Also, make shore you configure your uTorrent to send the file where you want it to send it.
I know that sounds complicated, but once you get into it, you know what to look for, where to get it, and what to avoid. You will always run up against poor video quality, fakes, or effed up subtitles. But 90% of the time, you get what you want. Also, all torrents come in .avi form. You will need a media player that will play this file type. VLC player is the best. It plays everything and is free. Best media player around.
VLC Media Player: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html
There are legitimate reasons to download movies. How many copies do you think that Blockbluster has of Bergman flicks? Tarkovsky? There are amazing movies you just won’t find hanging around in rental stores. Also, you can download something and watch it when it’s convenient for you. One must be careful though. Whole movies can take up a lot of space (normally it’s around 700 MB, but 1 or 2 gigs is not completely unusual). So you need to watch how many you have and delete them when you are done watching them. I dunno how possible this is at colleges. You will need to check with how your college monitors internet usage. Almost done. All Torrent download pages include a file list of everything that is in the torrent. When it is opened with uTorrent, you can uncheck anything you don’t want. And that is how you get dem movies.
Subtitles: Getting subtitles to work is real weird at first, but it’s not too difficult. First you have to get the subtitles for your film. These can be aquired through a number of sites.
http://www.opensubtitles.com/en
Google helps a lot. After you get said subtitles, it will most likely be an .srt file. You need to take this file and put it in the same folder that the video file is in. Then you need to rename the .srt file to the same as the movie. It will look like this:
<Name of video>.avi <Name of video>.srt
Ex: Bladerunner.avi Bladerunner.srt
Then you right click the video screen in VLC and go to subtitle track and you should only have one option.
