School me on news groups

Lately I have wanted to download some stuff and I cant find it … with demonoid going down I dont have the time to validate and look so hard.

So, where do I start with news groups. How much should I expect it to cost? Is the risk of getting in trouble greatly reduced over torrents?

I seem to remember my ex g/fs dad using them and movies would download in 100’s of files instead of a single avi or mp4.

Soooo… where do I start?

Nzbmatrix for finding files. Astraweb as the provider (they aren’t taking down files the way some others are). Should cost 10-15/month.

If you’re on a mac, unison client. Configure the client to connect to your provider then open the nzb file with the client.

I’m on windows

http://sabnzbd.org seems to be a windows user favorite but I don’t know. Jays or boxxa will chime in.

Are they safer than torrents from a piracy standpoint? What about a quality files perspective?

Nzbmatrix.org or nzbs.org for searching
binsearch.info gets a honorable mention for search for single songs.
Sabnzbd for a client (regardless of OS)

For automation
Sickbeard (TV)
Couchpotato (Movies)

As far as the provider goes, go here and click the referring link for either usenetserver.com, newshosting.com or astraweb.

I use usenetserver.com (works great), I know JayS uses newshosting.com (i did previously worked great), and quite a few folks I know use and like astraweb. All of them are good providers, go with the cheapest in my recommendation.

---------- Post added at 11:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 PM ----------

Quality is limitless, anything from full BDRips (30-50gig file sets) to DVD quality. I myself tend to stick to 1080P movies and HD quality TV. In general newsgroups are much safer, all traffic is done over SSL, it is not peer to peer and there are upload sharing ratios (which is where you get into serious shit on BT trackers)

The one issue is the nzb indexing sites (nzbmatrix, nzbs.org, etc) can get shut down but only one I know of too date was shutdown was newzbin and it ended up coming back. Hell the software that most of them run is open sores (newznab) so you can in theory run your own site.

So these have nothing to do with actual news?

No, once upon a time they where primarily a form of a discussion board, similar to BBS’s

They can be downloaded in SSL mode which is fully encrypted. So yes it is safer.

Everything evane said, except for his typo about upload ratios. Just to be clear, you never upload with newsgroups (unless you’re one of the groups putting out the ripped content).

I still haven’t done any automation on movies. I’ve got a couple saved searches I run every few days and just grab anything that looks interesting.

These sites look absolutely awful as far as web design. I understand the whole BBS retro concept but come on.

I think WillyBean might have been referring to viruses? Perhaps. In which case SSL ain’t going to do shit. Use common sense, get a decent A/V, scan files beforehand.

The good thing about using indexing sites like nzbmatrix is there are so many users anything that has a legit virus gets commented on and removed.

Still, anytime I download something that requires I run a crack I run the crack in Sandboxie just to be safe.

Oh, and it’s http://nzbmatrix.com/ not nzbmatrix.org.

Headphones for music… its good but not great

Oops thanks for the catching the grammar typo… yea no uploading required at all.

We have a couple different newsgroups threads on here. Found this deal and had to pass it along.

http://www.newsgroupdirect.com/blog/2013/05/14/today-is-terabyte-tuesday-2/

The most exciting day in Usenet is back! It’s Terabyte Tuesday and that means we’re offering 1.1 TB of usenet access for just $38.

Terabyte Tuesday is our famous one-day usenet sale where we offer 1.1 Terabyte usenet accounts for $38 ($100 is the normal rate)! Our 1 TB block account includes a 10% header allowance, bringing the total to 1.1 TB. The sale runs from 12 AM EST on May 14 until 12 AM EST on May 15. Our 1 Terabyte usenet block has access to our world-class retention (currently over 1,730 days), speed, completion, VPN access, and our industry-leading customer service. NewsgroupDirect blocks never expire, so you can buy as many blocks as you want and never worry about losing them.

I am very ignorant on this subject. I have a few questions. There are a few music formats that I am interested in, SACD multichannel (5.1), BluRay Audio, and DVD-A. All in lossless if possible. I briefly searched and it seems that SACD is heavily protected, but it may be saved as DSD. Are these formats available?

Some specific titles (if anyone feels like searching):
SACD - http://www.amazon.com/Sea-Change-Beck/dp/B00007KMP1/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1
BluRay Audio - http://www.amazon.com/Raven-Refused-Steven-Wilson-Blu-ray/dp/B00AQB2AR4/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368647045&sr=8-1&keywords=steven+wilson+blu+ray
DVD-A - http://www.amazon.com/Porcupine-Tree-Deadwing/dp/B0007ZEBI0/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_dvd?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1368647120&sr=1-1&keywords=porcupine+tree+dead+wing+dvd+audio

As you can see the prices are out of control for the rare (dead) formats.

I would assume that the file size for the SACD and DVD-A albums to be around 3 to 4 gig if lossless.

Next question, what would be a cheap way for a dedicated computer to use for acquisition and playback? I would want discrete 6 channel out so all the DA conversion is done by the comp.