Torrent users

[Schlitz001]

Dumb Question: Are torrents illegal?

 

Isn't it kinda like limewire?

I received a letter from my cable/internet provider citing a specific torrent that I downloaded. The letter went on to explain how they have a 3 strikes and you're out policy. In other words if I get caught twice more illegally downloading torrents something bad will happen. What exactly that is wasn't made entirely clear.

 

I spend $150 a month for cable and internet, plus I have an extensive DVD collection much of which was purchased after first viewing the program from a torrent download. I don't in anyway advocate downloading torrents. I feel like the creators of these fine programs deserve compensation, but I still think that a large amount of the fan base for many TV shows is created when people like myself download the shows.

 

I think the best way to remedy this is for networks to put shows up for download on their own websites complete with brief commercials. And not just streaming videos, but quality downloads.

[bullox]

and the audio quality is sometimes better when downloading the CD than when burning a CD.

Tell me how it is possible to make a CD sound better when downloaded in a lossy format such as MP3 vs how a studio masters audio specific to the 44.1Khz format of a CD?

 

If it were really possible, I'd guess a lot of producers would be out of a job since their sound can be improved by cutting out a lot of the frequencies they worked hard to create.

 

Not only that, but we're talking digital copying here, bit to bit. There is no loss of audio quality when you copy a CD, unless you intentionally encode it to a lower bitrate. (That is what you download on the web, lower bitrates of CD quality audio)

[nate82]

Tell me how it is possible to make a CD sound better when downloaded in a lossy format such as MP3 vs how a studio masters audio specific to the 44.1Khz format of a CD?

 

If it were really possible, I'd guess a lot of producers would be out of a job since their sound can be improved by cutting out a lot of the frequencies they worked hard to create.

 

Not only that, but we're talking digital copying here, bit to bit. There is no loss of audio quality when you copy a CD, unless you intentionally encode it to a lower bitrate. (That is what you download on the web, lower bitrates of CD quality audio)

Depends on the program you use to burn the CD. If you don't have good software the quality of the CD is sometimes less when you burn it to your PC. Plus it is a lot faster to click on a link and download than it is to get all your CD's together put them in the CD Burner and then burn all the CD's onto your computer.

 

The quality of the audio can be exactly the same as the studio quality for older songs. I don't feel like going out and buying an old Metallica CD when I have the cassette or album when I can just download it off the internet. Plus the quality for these older songs won't be as good if you transfer it from a cassette to your PC or from a record.

 

I'm sorry when I say CD I mean album. That is what I'm talking about when I say CD. I don't have all of the music I own in CD format.

[Menace II Sobriety]

I downloaded a few shows and most play fine but a few need to to through my windows media player. It has an error message that states that I have a codec error and need to download mpeg xvid 4. Does anyone know of a safe website to download this from? Thanks in advance.

[endaround]

I downloaded a few shows and most play fine but a few need to to through my windows media player. It has an error message that states that I have a codec error and need to download mpeg xvid 4. Does anyone know of a safe website to download this from? Thanks in advance.

They haven't had a recent release but CCCP tends to do everything

http://www.cccp-project.net/

You can also switch over to VLC if you want:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

 

[Schlitz001]

VLC plays just about everything and it's safe to download. Occasionally a media file claims that it needs an additional program to play, and at that point I consider it spam.

[giffted1]

Yeah, VLC can handle just about anything you throw at it. If you do want to stick with Windows Media Player you might be able to get by with the divx codec.

[berniebrewer4life]

VLC is the best player i have found. I love it. It also allows to have an "always on top" option, so i can view my movies in the corner of my screen while doing other things(mostly stuff like this.