Increased Stealing Efficiency

[MetalMilitia]

Do you download TV shows every week? Then you may find this useful.

My guess is a lot of people here use uTorrent, but only few have bothered to look into its RSS features.
For those not in the know, RSS is basically just a method of syndicating various types of content (news, media etc.).

Clever people on the internet have realised that manually downloading TV shows each week is far too much effort and invented services such as TVRSS. These allow you to create an RSS feed of your favourite shows which can be used to automatically download a torrent as soon as it becomes available. It sounds more complicated that it actually is.

Basically all you need to do is go here: http://tvrss.net/search/

Create a new search for a show. Don't worry about the other search fields for the time being.
Once you have a list of some show you can refine your search until it is only returning a single version of each episode.

Here is a search I did for The Office:
http://tvrss.net/search/?distributio...p=&mode=simple

Once you're happy with your results you need to click the "Search based RSS feed" link. This should take you to a familiar looking RSS page containing all your results.

Now open uTorrent and click the RSS button on the control bar (). Copy the address of the feed you created and add it to the feeds list in uTorrent. You can add a title to the feed using the following format: title|url.

If you check the releases tab you should see the contents of your RSS feed.
At this stage we need to set up a filter so uTorrent knows which episodes we want to download. Here is my CSI filter:



What should happen now is when a new torrent which matches the criteria of this filter is added to the releases tab (from the rss feeds we've set up) it will automatically begin downloading.

Here are a few feeds you might like to add:
SouthPark|http://tvrss.net/search/index.php?di...p=0TV&mode=rss
CSI|http://tvrss.net/search/index.php?di...p=LOL&mode=rss
Simpsons|http://tvrss.net/search/index.php?di...p=XOR&mode=rss
Lost|http://tvrss.net/search/index.php?di...p=CTU&mode=rss
TheOffice|http://tvrss.net/search/index.php?di...p=XOR&mode=rss

Add any more you think are worthwhile to this thread.

For Azures look here: http://rodrigo.typepad.com/english/2...our_compu.html

[liquidstatik]

Thanks for sharing :D

[Zomboid]

Dude. Family guy, simpsons, american dad, csi? You really like your shitty shows, don't you?

[liquidstatik]

lost is far worse than the rest ;<

[darkvare]

i just get my dvd from respectable piracy sellers

[Esuohlim]

I watch my television on TV, thanks though

[GADZOOKS]

I don't have cable. I watch on hulu.com

[liquidstatik]

Originally Posted by GADZOOKS

I don't have cable.

ditto, i use surfthechannel

[Sethomas]

I do have cable (satellite, technically, and it's stolen apropos the thread) and what I use is the chat thread in general blabber.

[MetalMilitia]

CSI is pretty good, Family guy is still watchable, American Dad is decent but yes, Lost really sucks. My girlfriend set up that one.

To be honest I probably wouldn't bother searching for most of my feeds manually, particularly stuff like Family Guy, but when they download automatically it's just like how you'll sit through films on TV but never consider actually renting or buying the DVD... if that makes any sense.

But if anyone has any recommendations for current TV shows which are good I'd be happy to check them out.

[Sethomas]

Hey Metal:

We "Yanks" across the "Pond" have this thing that those of us above the poverty line judge each other by how frequently we insist that British humor (oops, I mean "humour") is the pinnacle of human evolution.

Do you guys have a comparable "grass is always greener" fixation on the US media? That would explain your Family Guy and South Park inclusions, I guess is what i mean.

Seriously, though, when I was in a London hostel in 2002 most of the other kids were Englishers from other parts of the country who were staying for more than just a few days and had developed routines. The way they all filed in at like 17:00 to watch The Simpsons in perfect silence reminded me of the "Two Minutes Hate" both in its antithesis and its parallel.

[MetalMilitia]

In a word - no, but at the same time I don't consider American comedy to be any worse either. A lot of English people do go on about how American shows are too obvious and obnoxious but they've obviously not seen really good US comedy like Arrested Development or The Office. They're also ignoring the complete shit which is on UK TV (My Family, My Hero, basically anything on ITV). If you've seen the second series of Extras a lot of our comedy is pretty much exactly like the terrible show they make in that.

In some respects US TV is superior; we certainly don't have anything which could hold a candle to The Sopranos or CSI in the same genre. Our best attempt at a gritty crime drama is probably... A Touch of Frost or something.

We also don't have the kind of epic film-like shows such as Batttlestar Galactica, Heroes, Lost etc. When we do have similar things they don't last longer than a single series (12 episodes or so) and have much lower budgets/production values.

...But I digress.

The main reason I have so many US shows in my download list is because the UK shows I watch - I watch on TV.

[Krythor]

For a number of reasons, many of the best American shows, particularly sketch shows, don't actually make it here.

Generally I think American writers approach comedy in a different way, and there's a greater appreciation of how comedy is constructed than here. For some reason, when I try to introduce things like, say, Mr. Show to people, there's generally a reaction against building the comedy around a premise that doesn't pay off straight away. It seems to me that most British people have a very narrow enjoyment for one-liners that can be laughed at in or out of context, and character based sketches; not through any fault of their own, but just because that's how British TV has raised them. When the most popular British sketch show for years is Little Britain, and is the example by which all other shows are measured, you know you're in trouble. The possibility of even having a sketch where the punch line isn't a catch phrase is a completely foreign concept here.

There are other factors to consider too, such as references and parodies that can't be understood, and that could explain why animated shows are so much more popular than the live action ones; Family Guy can throw so many references in and lump them in with visual humour so that it can be enjoyed by a British audience on at least some level, as opposed to an episode of Mystery Science Theater where 45 minutes could go by with the audience not understanding a single joke.

Of course, that's all an exaggeration to some extent, but it's not far from the truth. It may stem from our seriously out dated pride at supposedly having a better sense of humour than the Americans. Ignorance is bliss and all that.

[Krythor]

I'd also like to add that I can't think of any high quality live action American comedies that have enjoyed much success here, if any at all. Arrested Development was a minor success that continues to slowly grow in popularity, and Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office have garnered some attention mostly off the success of Seinfeld and the original UK Office respectably. The only huge hits I can think of, outside of the awful studio audience sitcoms like Friends, Will & Grace, etc, are The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, South Park, Beavis & Butthead and the like.

[MetalMilitia]

Originally Posted by Krythor

For a number of reasons, many of the best American shows, particularly sketch shows, don't actually make it here.

Generally I think American writers approach comedy in a different way, and there's a greater appreciation of how comedy is constructed than here. For some reason, when I try to introduce things like, say, Mr. Show to people, there's generally a reaction against building the comedy around a premise that doesn't pay off straight away. It seems to me that most British people have a very narrow enjoyment for one-liners that can be laughed at in or out of context, and character based sketches; not through any fault of their own, but just because that's how British TV has raised them. When the most popular British sketch show for years is Little Britain, and is the example by which all other shows are measured, you know you're in trouble. The possibility of even having a sketch where the punch line isn't a catch phrase is a completely foreign concept here.

I think you're right about sketch comedy, it is very "catchphrase" driven. We do have some really good character driven comedy though. Peep Show springs to mind, as many of the funniest parts come from almost knowing what the characters are thinking even before they say anything. For example, the prospect of Mark visiting a relationship councillor is funny even before a single line has been delivered.

Satire is something we do really well too. Notably Brass Eye and Monkey Dust.

[Krythor]

Yeah I agree that there's plenty of good British comedy, and there's plenty of bad American comedy. But the problem is with the audience.

Peep Show is fantastic, and I don't mean to say that there's anything wrong with character based comedy, just that it completely drowns out other forms of comedy here. Any comedy that remotely feels as though it's been laboured over and worked hard on here is an audience repellent. If it doesn't seem effortless, it's avoided, and a lack of effort is often mistaken for that supposed effortless.

If it takes more than one sentence to explain why something is funny, 90% of people I know will not like it.

[Sethomas]

Your homework for today is to read:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2006/5/4wiencek.html

From the way you describe British comedy as insiders, and from what I know as an American, I would posit that these prompts would be realistic grounds for a script such that:

#1 would be a scene in a British comedy sitcom.
#7 would be a scene in a high-budget HBO-type production like "The Sopranos"
#8 would be a scene from a premise set up by reality television, potentially dramatic or comedic.
#12 would be a scene from a prime-time sitcom ("Kramer, where did you GET this box of scorched human hair? What, were they giving away free samples of scorched human hair at the deli?" At the end of the episode it would be revealed embarrassingly that the scorched human hair belonged to George.)
#13: You could tell me that this was a plot element already used in LOST or Heroes and I would have no ground to question your sincerity.

HONORABLE MENTION: I think a large number of classic European arthouse films include scenes described by #11.

[Ant10708]

Sethomas scares me.

Thanks for the RSS feed knowledge, Metal.

[Geggy]

I spend most of my time in various forums asking people why they watch shitty tv shows, because its my buisness, thats why.

[Sethomas]

geggy you little bitch youre such a hypocrite you know why?? because if the government wants to kill people and start wars for stupid reasons and blow up world trade centers thats THEIR OWN BUSINESS.

[Geggy]

Hey careful now, I'm gonna have to start bugging your cable line to make sure you don't watch tv shows that i dont like.

[sloth]

Originally Posted by MetalMilitia

I think you're right about sketch comedy, it is very "catchphrase" driven. We do have some really good character driven comedy though. Peep Show springs to mind, as many of the funniest parts come from almost knowing what the characters are thinking even before they say anything. For example, the prospect of Mark visiting a relationship councillor is funny even before a single line has been delivered.

Satire is something we do really well too. Notably Brass Eye and Monkey Dust.

yeah, and how fucking good is The Thick Of It? Or The Day Today? Or anything else Armando Iannucci has got as close as even wiping his arse on? Mind you, if it's deadpan satire you're after, The Onion TV is way ahead of the pack. I mean Chris Morris meandered into absurdist comedy pretty regularly, but The Onion is relentless!