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  1. I'm considering trying out usenet, but I'm not sure if it's worth the price tag.

    My reasoning is this: I'm beginning to crave DVD-quality videos (instead of watching on YouTube), and lossless versions (flac / shn) of my favorite bootlegs.

    I've tried to use U2Torrents.com, which is a fantastic site, but there's only one problem: I live on a university campus, and university firewalls block torrents very effectively (unless someone here knows how to bypass this, please let me know! Does port forwarding work?)

    So, for two examples, if I specifically want X-Mas at the Point Depot (1989-12-26) or And Now a Word From Our Sponsors DVD (1992-08-16), would I be able to find it with a basic usenet search or would it be a real pain in the arse?

    Thanks!
  2. I don't manage Usenet

    Sorry but I neither know a way to bypass the Campus firewalls, I know they are really effective...
    I think you should pay this bit for Usenet, I know people who use it and they can download a DVD (4 GB) in one hour, while us in U2Torrent are at least 20 hours.. Usenet is great!!
  3. Originally posted by u2met86I'm considering trying out usenet, but I'm not sure if it's worth the price tag.

    My reasoning is this: I'm beginning to crave DVD-quality videos (instead of watching on YouTube), and lossless versions (flac / shn) of my favorite bootlegs.

    I've tried to use U2Torrents.com, which is a fantastic site, but there's only one problem: I live on a university campus, and university firewalls block torrents very effectively (unless someone here knows how to bypass this, please let me know! Does port forwarding work?)

    So, for two examples, if I specifically want X-Mas at the Point Depot (1989-12-26) or And Now a Word From Our Sponsors DVD (1992-08-16), would I be able to find it with a basic usenet search or would it be a real pain in the arse?

    Thanks!


    I had the same problems with torrents here on Campus, but I found one program that works. You should try the program 'BitTorrent' That's the only one who works here on the JWU Camus.

    Coen

  4. I might just give it a shot...

    I'm running Mac OS X, and I originally downloaded Transmissions b/c of rave reviews (and b/c official BitTorrent client reviews were so-so).

    As of now, I've applied no download limit speed, 20 KB upload limit, and it IS technically working, but it's like watching paint dry:
    -I've had to manually change my port & firewall whenever I lose my seeder.
    -I can see 2 seeders for X-Mas at the Point Depot and 27 seeders for Angel of Rotterdam but usually I get 0 or 1 connections!!!
    -Max I have ever downloaded is 10 KB / sec (despite no limit), but I stayed at uploading my max 20 KB / sec for a while(???).
    -Avg download speed (total between 2 downloading torrents) is 5-6 KB / sec.
    -Angel of Rotterdam has 27 leechers and 3 seeders and it will still take several days(???)
    -I don't like the thought of leaving my laptop on 24 / 7 and plugged in all the time... big waste of energy and it heats up quickly (iBook G4). If I had a desktop where I could shut off the screen, I wouldn't mind too much.

    It's just psychologically frustrating b/c I feel it SHOULD be running much faster / smoother.

    Basically, if I can find the same selection of DVD / flac / shn bootlegs on Usenet but download at a faster rate (even an hour or a couple hours) I'd be willing to pay MUCH MUCH money for it at this point.
    -I'm looking for, pretty much the basics
    DVD: ZooTV DC, ZooTV Adelaide, JT Syracuse, JT Los Angeles, PopMart (Johannesburg, Sarajevo, Madrid??...)
    CD: The U2Start-famous boots from Lovetown Dublins & Rotterdams, JT, ZooTV, PopMart (Sarajevo, Leeds, Tel Aviv), Elevation & Vertigo

    And I'm sort of relying on Internet sources b/c I don't have any lossless / tradeworthy ones to start with.
  5. I'm using usenet for 3 years now and it's great, I don't want to use anything else.

    It depends on your usenet provider what you can download and what not because every usenet provider has a retention. I use Giganews which has a 100 days retention, which means everything uploaded in the last 100 days is available for me to download.

    I can download a DVD of 4,8 GB in 28 minutes now, I also often upload (U2) stuff to usenet. Check out the usenet subforum on U2start for some great posts.
  6. Usenet is very nice. Quick and hardly infected files. There are a lot of U2 bootlegs on it. Mostly after being on U2 torrents. I'd like to do sharing on usenet, but the problem is that I like to share with people that I know a bit. That's why I like Remies topic about usenet. But not many people give a reaction on it. And they don't know what they are missing.
  7. Originally posted by JackoUsenet is very nice. Quick and hardly infected files. There are a lot of U2 bootlegs on it. Mostly after being on U2 torrents. I'd like to do sharing on usenet, but the problem is that I like to share with people that I know a bit. That's why I like Remies topic about usenet. But not many people give a reaction on it. And they don't know what they are missing.


    That will change in the future, check u2binaries.com, it's mine
  8. Originally posted by u2met86I'm considering trying out usenet, but I'm not sure if it's worth the price tag.

    My reasoning is this: I'm beginning to crave DVD-quality videos (instead of watching on YouTube), and lossless versions (flac / shn) of my favorite bootlegs.

    I've tried to use U2Torrents.com, which is a fantastic site, but there's only one problem: I live on a university campus, and university firewalls block torrents very effectively (unless someone here knows how to bypass this, please let me know! Does port forwarding work?)

    So, for two examples, if I specifically want X-Mas at the Point Depot (1989-12-26) or And Now a Word From Our Sponsors DVD (1992-08-16), would I be able to find it with a basic usenet search or would it be a real pain in the arse?

    Thanks!


    what are the advantages of "lossless" recordings anyway???
  9. Originally posted by colbourne25[..]

    what are the advantages of "lossless" recordings anyway???


    Well, I'm not a fan of it either but you can do with it whatever you want. Make a MP3 file of it in whatever bitrate you like, burn it on a CD. And all without losing quality. It's quite obvious that when you make a MP3 of 3 MB out of a losless file of 100 MB some quality goes away

    But that's mostly for audiophiles only, I must say I can't hear the difference.
  10. Originally posted by Remy[..]

    Well, I'm not a fan of it either but you can do with it whatever you want. Make a MP3 file of it in whatever bitrate you like, burn it on a CD. And all without losing quality. It's quite obvious that when you make a MP3 of 3 MB out of a losless file of 100 MB some quality goes away

    But that's mostly for audiophiles only, I must say I can't hear the difference.


    yeh... i've downloaded a couple of torrents and i've converted them to MP3...

    to me there is no difference what-so-ever...
  11. Just go back to old-school snail mail trading. It's great fun and it'll get you shows you'll never see online.
  12. Originally posted by colbourne25[..]what are the advantages of "lossless" recordings anyway???


    Usually, when listening to them on my computer speakers I can't tell the difference either. Here are some of the important differences for me.

    1) If a video recording I downloaded is "lossy" (.avi or .mpg, 500 MB - 700 MB ) I can't burn it to a DVD and watch it on my TV. Maybe a VCD, but here the quality is noticeably worse than a lossless DVD (4 GB +).

    2) If I want rare stuff that I can't download at U2start (say the complete Hansa Ton recordings, just for the sake of an example), I will need to trade. Traders who have that stuff (USUALLY, not always) are very stingy: you MUST trade 1-to-1 (no gifts), it MUST be lossless, even down to specific brands of CD or DVD.

    3) Lossless can always be converted to lossy to save space, but once a file is lossy it cannot regain the quality it lost. (say that three times fast )

    4) Let's say I burn an MP3 bootleg to CD. If I give it to my friend and they re-rip as MP3, it becomes a second generation MP3. That's 1/10 of the U2start file, and 1/10 of 1/10 of the original. THIS is where noticeable, serious deterioration occurs. And so on. (This was a problem with the original Napster. Often you could not tell what generation song you had downloaded).

    5) Computer speakers are usually not enough to tell the difference, but one day when you get a chance, try the following: Take an album (I used Pop), rip the OFFICIAL CD into your computer into your favorite format (either mp3, aac, wma or whatever). Then burn it as a CD again. Take both CDs into the car and turn the volume up to a decent level (not deafening but high enough to hear subtleties in the music. Pick a track that starts off IMMEDIATELY with a punch, no fade-in (I used Mofo, other songs may work like Do You Feel Loved, Vertigo, Bullet the Blue Sky, LIKE A SONG.., Sunday Bloody Sunday, Out of Control, etc.) You want to notice the difference right away.
    FIRST, put in the BURNED CD and play the track for around 20-30 seconds.
    SECOND, put in the ORIGINAL CD and play the same track for around 20-30 seconds. Leave the volume where it is, unchanged.

    When I did it, I noticed a HUGE difference in the volume level alone. The original was noticeably louder. I nearly jumped out of my seat. And there's nothing special about my car system, it's pretty average.

    Other differences (maybe not 1st generation but 2nd generation, etc.) include the vocals and the cymbals sounding very warbly, as if they were recorded underwater. You begin to hear "digital artifacts" (exaggerated example, like in the beginning of the Matrix, when he takes the red pill, that metallic-colored goo crawls into Neo's mouth and he screams.)