Hi, I'm new here

i'm starting to get into the whole torrent scene, and i'm trying to sort out how
the various trackers and whatnot work. from what i gather, a scene group (such
as xor or lol) will capture an episode, then this will get posted on a tracker
(such as here?), and then this will get picked up by the torrent search sites,
such as isohunt?

so, if i was looking to get on a torrent of an episode as soon as the torrent
was up, would this be the place to look (for, say, lost), or is there a point
further up on the chain closer to the xor or lol groups where i can look to find
a torrent immediately?

firstly the scene (ie: lol, xor, etc) hate p2p (ie: torrents) so you will
never see torrents made by them.

this website is dedicated to supplying the public with tv shows, we try to
provide to everyone shows as close as possible to them being released on the
scene, and we also provide a lot of bandwidth (by the help of volunteers) to
make sure those shows seed well.

all shows we create are listed on mininova and bt-chat which are both torrent
listing (search) sites. sometimes our torrents get spread to other sites, but we
do not personaly post them there though.

imo this is the best place to get tv show torrents, they are usually faster than
most private trackers too

your theory about how the system, or rather the chain, works is a little off..
there are a few more steps between the original cappers and when it hits eztv...
its a little hard to explain the details..

but to answer your basic question... yes.. this site is more reliable and faster
than places such as isohunt, or other torrent sites like it that dont specialize
in just tv shows.. eztv is one step higher in the chain than they are basically..

so yes... look here first for all your favorite tv shows..

if you really need a description of how the chain of command works from top to
bottom, feel free to ask... but it will probably be a bunch of technical jargon
you wont understand..

i understand the fact that there needs to be a chain. rippers release to...which
release to eztv which has thousands of users. the fact is that as one of the
only ftps in my college network, i have many users myself....almost a thousand
different ips per day, which is an insane amount for this college, plus external
users from around the globe. i understand that i can get the episode bvefore it
is listed on eztv if i were to be a 5 megabit uploader. unforunately, serving
the ftp is the most i can do as my university has limited torrent activity
allowed. i always felt that serving 2.4 terabytes of tv to my school is almost
as good as being a 5 mbit seeder, because all of my users no longer torrent but
rely on me. if it were possible in some way to allow me to get shows faster
through the seeder program, and prove that a 1000 people are taking stuff from
me, would i be allowed?

i don't really understand why the cappers do what they do and apparently hate
the whole p2p/torrent activity that distribute's their wares that give them '
credit '.

if they hate it so much and don't intend the releases to be made public, why
do it ? is there some kind of underground scoresheet that lists how many '
nukes ' each group has got ?


not that i'm complaining but the whole thing seems mutual beneficial for the
cappers yet serves no real purpose......

yeah, if you use sucky trackers.

spyro1: p2p doesn't earn groups credit. topsites/presites earn groups credit.
and yes, there is an underground scoresheet (if that's what you want to call it).

they (the groups themselves/cappers) do not release the shows to the public
scene, it goes through the normal chain until someone eventually leaks it. the
scene frowns upon this, though, and tries to eliminate the ones who leak to p2p
as much as possible.

so why do people cap the show in the first place if it is not meant to be shared? and how does it get
spread in order to leak if they dislike p2p? it all made sense before but now i am lost!

also, how does eztv make money to run (or do you do it all for free? if so then that is very nice of you but
what is in it for you?)

okay it goes like this...

1. somebody caps the show and encodes it..
2. they put it on a private ftp. . which the scene calls "topsites"..
3. it gets spread around a few various other topsites...

at this point the files are still very private and exclusive... only shared
between people that have access to these topsites.. this is where they wish they
could keep them, and not share with anyone else... this is "the scene".

4. then somebody leaks the file... either onto a less private ftp's, or irc, or
usenet (newsgroups)..

5. the file then usually makes it onto private bit torrent sites...
6. from there its quick to make it to the public torrent sites..

7. at the bottom of the food chain would be the crappy old p2p networks like
kazaa, emule, etc... avoid this level at all costs!..


eztv doesnt talk about their sources/process... but they break the mold in that
they basically skip step 5, and quite probably step 4....
we can assume that they have some kind of inside source, that they use to bring
us releases quicker, and with better reliability.. we should all be thankful for
this fact...

thank you eztv !!

thanks for that - but surely, if you're a capper then you have cable/satellite
tv whatever that gives you access to the programs that you wish to record. and
if the cappers only intend to distribute the programs amongst themselves and
other groups who have access to all the programs anyway.....it just all seems
a bit pointless, if they don't intend the programs to get a wider
distribution. it seems a lot of effort to capture something that is by and
large freely broadcast on television. i can understand film or music more
since these aren't freely availiable to all and i suppose there is more kudos
attached to getting an early release.

i can't really think of a good comparison but does anyone know what i mean ?
i'm not complaining and am ultimately grateful since it means i can watch
programs that either aren't broadcast in my country or watch them months
before they are broadcast.


by the way, i was only joking about the ' scoresheet ' between the
cappers/groups but its kind of funny that there is one. ( who's on top ? )

thanks !

basically the scene groups** are in it for the ego. they want to be the
greatest group in their chosen field. they want to be better than the other
scene groups, and get their releases out first to the scene. it's a competition
to them, they really couldn't care who gets their releases as long as the other
scene groups get them (to prove how fast they are).

but - when the content leaks out of the scene bubble and into the p2p/usenet
scene, that brings attention from an unwanted source - the mpaa and the like.
that's why the scene wants things to stay inside the bubble. plus it scores
them more elite points if nobody else can get hold of this or that release.

as to your other question, where does eztv make money, as novaking pointed out
earlier everything is voluntary. there is no money changing hands anywhere, the
only thing eztv gets out of it is the karma points earned with the hundreds of
thousands who download. oh, and quite a bit of fun, there are some good people
to hang out with in the upper ranks. 🙂



** ok, i'm being unfair and generalising here. there are some groups who work
hard on their releases and seem to be above the egotistical crap. those groups
often aren't so worried about the content leaking either.

ahhh - now i understand - its just about being first within the scene - the
program itself then, is almost irrelevant.

ok thanks !

i would like to state for the record, i am not one of these "good people to hang
out with".

don't listen to what abennett says about that!