Thanks schern To be honest I think I've been a bit optimistic in what I've started with.

Shall set it off downloading something and see what happens if I manage to make it through my entire 10GB without getting anything I can actually watch I'll be in touch

Ooh, I've been out if the newsgroup loop for a couple of years due to moving to a non cable area where 3MBps is the best speed I can get. I remember feverishly downloading the latest episodes of Lost and The Shield weeks before they were on UK TV.

I used to use Astraweb

Newzbin for searching for NZB files

Newsbin for downloading them

WinRAR for unpacking them

QuickPAR for mending broken files.

I would get back into it if I ever see a minimum 10 meg connection again.....

Good luck and enjoy Pasty boy!

well so far after one weekend of usenet use i'm not really sold

file 1 - downloaded - wouldn't unpack

file 2 - downloaded - wouldn't unpack

file 3 - downloaded super quick and works perfectly (shame it was a file i selected simply because it was one of the latest posted and not cos it was something i wanted to watch)

file 4 - downloaded - first half unpacked fine (although had hard coded subtitles) - 2nd half wouldn't unpack

file 5 - downloaded - wouldn't unpack

and all but file 3 have downloaded at a similar rate to my torrent connections....

so so far for my £1.24 i've got a film i didn't want and half a film i did

:S

Lol you're not trying hard enough Cliff :p

What were you trying to download first, and where did you get them from?

Also, did you use Quickpar on the downloaded files that wouldn't unpack?

I had a quick look at this on Friday afternoon and very quickly decided I'd stick with uTorrent!

Based on PastyBoy's experience, I think I made the right choice.

Based on PastyBoy's experience, I think I made the right choice.

You really shouldn't base it on someone who is just setting out on the 'experience'!

It's by far the better path to go down of the two available options.

Lol you're not trying hard enough Cliff :p

What were you trying to download first, and where did you get them from?

Also, did you use Quickpar on the downloaded files that wouldn't unpack?

Agreed entirely.

I'm not exactly putting the effort in and am dabbling in an area i have done next to no research in nor really understand!

File 1 was the movie "Looper" - Which i soon realised only came out a couple of weeks ago so was a long shot.

File 2 was "Madagascar 3" - which was only only just (or maybe not even) realeased - so another long shot.

File 3 was "Alien Dawn" - as said above i picked if from nzbmatrix as it was uploaded that day - in fairness it downloaded in about 20 minutes and works perfectly.

File 4 was "Magic Mike" - the first part (cd1) unpacked fine although did have unadvertised subtitles - cd2 had an unpacking error

File 5 was a different copy of Magic Mike - that sabnzb once again said had a CRC unpacking error

I did download QuickPAR (as recommended by Royston) in an attempt to fix the files but it baffled me more than anything else in this whole process so i gave up!

To be honest i'm beginnign to wonder if my heart is in this at all

Something is wrong.

Doesn't matter when things are "released" if they are on newsgroups they are on. (Unless they are taken down because of copyright, doesn't happen that often really)

Sabnzbd should automate all the parring/extracting anyway, mine does and its pretty rare to fail. I would be tempted to try another free trial on a different news provider.

One thing though, its really not worth trying to acquire brand new films as they will be **** poor cams/telesyncs, if you want to acquire films then wait for a DVD rip or Bluray rip.

You really shouldn't base it on someone who is just setting out on the 'experience'!

It's by far the better path to go down of the two available options.

No I fully appreciate that but looking through it on Friday it just confused me even more. For what I actually download (at present) it's seems a lot of work. Again, like PastyBoy, it's not something that I have any experience in or have really researched in depth. But then that's what this place is for

Will perhaps have another look at some point.

Its a little bewildering at first but once you get your head around all the little parts its vastly superior to torrents IF you are a regular downloader.

Mines pretty much automated these days, everything just appears on my Apple TV.

Something is wrong.

Doesn't matter when things are "released" if they are on newsgroups they are on. (Unless they are taken down because of copyright, doesn't happen that often really)

Sabnzbd should automate all the parring/extracting anyway, mine does and its pretty rare to fail. I would be tempted to try another free trial on a different news provider.

One thing though, its really not worth trying to acquire brand new films as they will be **** poor cams/telesyncs, if you want to acquire films then wait for a DVD rip or Bluray rip.

+1

Its a little bewildering at first but once you get your head around all the little parts its vastly superior to torrents IF you are a regular downloader.

Mines pretty much automated these days, everything just appears on my Apple TV.

+1 again!

Something doesn't sound quite right there Clifford.

How very dare you all blame me!

I think you'll find the internet is wrong.

and corrupt.

and against me.

and gives you cancer.

and makes your bits fall off.

If anyone is free to come over and offer live technical support they are more than welcome

If anyone is free to come over and offer live technical support they are more than welcome

Anyone???

Anyone you had in mind in particular?

No?

Oh well, you had your chance

there could potentially be £1.24 in it for you

yes that's right people

i'd be prepared to double my investment in this technology to make it work correctly

Someone with Chrome remote desktop could sort it.

I got into it pretty quickly once I stopped trying to muck about with red dog and just used nzbmatrix and sabnzbd. Everything I've downloaded has worked. I've had a couple I've had to redo but I think that was me trying to use an RSS feed to download stuff rather than just getting the nzb file. I'm at 161gb with no failures.

Its a little bewildering at first but once you get your head around all the little parts its vastly superior to torrents IF you are a regular downloader.

Mines pretty much automated these days, everything just appears on my Apple TV.

This is my next task which is where I see the main benefit of it all!

I got into it pretty quickly once I stopped trying to muck about with red dog and just used nzbmatrix and sabnzbd. Everything I've downloaded has worked. I've had a couple I've had to redo but I think that was me trying to use an RSS feed to download stuff rather than just getting the nzb file. I'm at 161gb with no failures.

Yep same here, it was only two movies that didn't show up for some reason. Everything else has been fine, I set a test with the Mrs (she streams being a skint student) and the usenet way won. Spent most of the day watching all the American pies, forgot how funny they are!

Pasty you need to learn the power of .par files to help in your issues of corrupt files!

quickpar might be useful to some

SABNzbd generally does all that for you, pretty rare I have to do anything manually.

Pasty you need to learn the power of .par files to help in your issues of corrupt files!

To be honest i think it was a super old machine issue.

I downloaded sabnzbd to my laptop and episodes of Big Bang Theory and Madagascar 3 downloaded fine.

I was running a speedtest online at speedtest.net and linked off to their 1 click tune up software.

The scan found almost 500 errors across the machine.

Upon clicking "Fix" it fixed them all, restarted, and proceed to not recognise my hard drives!

A complete format and fresh install of XP was required to get up and running again.

At least i guess i've not got a clean slate to start again from - althogu i've not yet bothered because i've gone through my 10GB allowance downloading all the failed files :(

Shall have to put my hand in my pocket and fork out another extortionate £1.24

You actually clicked on a free test to tune up your computer on the internet? I thought only old people fell for those?!

You actually clicked on a free test to tune up your computer on the internet? I thought only old people fell for those?!

lol i did wonder that - i thought speedtest.net were above borad though.

Meh - i lost a couple of hours formatting reinstalling and updating; and I lost Ice Age 4 which was the only file i managed to get to work

if you rarely use .nzb's or just want to try it out then why not use just4today, its only 2 connections but its free and works fine

Newbies to newsgroups should read slycks guide to newsgroups. It explains it all from setting up newsreaders to using quick par etc.

http://www.slyck.com/Newsgroups_Guide