Download Movies for Free HOWTO
Introduction
It still surprises me the number of people that ask me "How did you get that?!" or "Wow, that's amazing - you must be so clever!" when it comes to downloading movies from the internet. So here we go; quit asking me the questions: here's how it's done.
Before you Start
Downloading pirate movies is illegal, and can land you in a lot of trouble.
This guide is only intended as a How-to, and I do not take any responsibility for the consequences of any actions you take upon reading this article.
The Theory
When you download movies from the internet, this can be done in a number of ways, such as 'streaming' content, where the content is viewed as you download it such as on BBC Two online. Or, you can download the entire movie and then watch it, such as in iTunes Podcasts. These two examples use what's called a client-server model, where one server will provide content to many internet users. The method we'll be using is different, and involves data decentralisation, in an environment called Peer-to-Peer, or P2P.
P2P is where many users have the same movie file, and each user that has the file sends you a proportion of the file. In this way, this method can frequently be a lot quicker than downloading a file from just the one place. P2P keeps a track of who's got the file at any one time, by the use of what's called a tracker. Downloading a torrent file will basically reference a few of these trackers so that your computer knows where to get the appropriate data from.
A program called a P2P Client is then used to open this torrent file and find the data it requires among the list of people that are reported to have it. We'll be using BitTorrent.
The Practice
Finding the Film You Want
To find your film, you must use a torrent search engine such as www.isohunt.com. A website like this gives you the opportunity to search various sources for the file you would like, as well as the opportunity to download a torrent file, containing all the various trackers which know where to find your file.
If many results appear to look the same, take a close look at the number of sources which have this file. This is depicted by an 'S' at the top of the column in isohunt.com's search results.
The film names also give some clue as toSunday, 23 November, 2008e means it's been dubbed in Italian, and DIVX would mean that it's been encoded using the DIVX codec.
Having downloaded the torrent, now we use BitTorrent to locate the actual file and manage the download for us.
Installing BitTorrent
Download and install BitTorrent, which can be found at http://www.bittorrent.com/download.html.
The install process is painless.
BitTorrent is (currently!) free of Spyware or Adware and will not compromise the integrity of your computer. Unless of course you decide to download some gay porn with it.
Download the Film
Click the 'Add' button at the top of BitTorrent's interface, and click 'Browse' to locate the torrent of the file you want.
The speed and the duration of the download is dependent on the number of sources available, the number of other people wanting it (known as leechers), and obviously the speed of your internet connection. Downloading a film can take anywhere between 3 hours and 1 week on a broadband DSL connection.
