This is a guide for people who don't know how to check the quality of a movie before downloading it and how to download it from torrents. I was not able to find any posts like this on reddit when I was a beginner, so now I have made it. This is a practical, real-life guide, therefore everything might not sound "theoretically" correct.
Types of HD (720p) and Full HD (1080p) movies available:
Let's assume we are downloading a 2-hour movie. Searching on torrent sites, we will find:
Good quality HD (1280×720p): 2-3 GB (commonly found)
Better quality HD: 4-5 GB (common)
Best quality HD: above 5GB (less common)
Good quality FHD (1920 x 1080): 4-5 GB (common)
Better quality: 6-10 GB (common)
Best quality: above 12 GB (less common)
Some Important terms:
Seeders: This term refers to users who have the complete file and are sharing it. For high-speed downloading, the number of seeders should be greater, but I have downloaded movies with seeders as low as 2 or 3, but fewer seeders means less speed and reliability.
Leechers: Leechers are the ones who are downloading the files like you. Torrent sites have a count of seeders and leechers, but usually they are incorrect. You should check it out for yourself by starting the download.
VPN: Use it or not? It depends on which country you live in. Better to find it out yourself.
Different Media formats:
Bluray disc/remux > Webdl > Bluray encode > Webrip > BD-Rip > BR-Rip > HD-RIP > DVDrip > HDTC > HDTS > HD/HQ-CAM: With the exception of the last three, all of these indicate high quality. On torrent sites, the most downloaded torrent file of any given movie is always going to be one of the best available. So, go with the flow. You don't have much choice.
HD/HQ-CAM: Someone smuggled an HD video camera into the actual movie theatre and secretly taped what was being shown. These movies have visual distortion and audience noises in the audio.
HDTS: Filmed in an empty cinema with the help of a professional camera, TS (Telesync) makes use of an external source of audio such as an audio jack. Even after making use of an external audio source, it cannot ensure audio is of good quality.
HDTC (PreDVD): There is a TC (telecine) machine that does the work of copying the film digitally from the reels. The sound and picture quality are very good. These three formats are used before the Blu-ray disc of a movie is released or it is launched on any streaming service, i.e., the movie is currently in theatres.
Some common codec standards:
Codec: A codec is simply the software that compresses your video so it can be stored and played back.
H.264/AVC: An excellent compression codec.
H.265/HEVC (high efficiency video coding): It's a newer and more advanced version of H.264.
You will find any one of these two codecs in most of the movies and both are good.
Bitrate: Most newbies have a misconception that the quality of a movie depends on whether it's 720p, 1080p, or 4K, but a good quality movie has a high bitrate. The higher the bitrate, the larger the file size. If you have a 1080p movie with 3000 kbps and a 720p movie with a 4000 kbps bitrate, then 720p at 4000 kbps will come out as better. Bitrate is the reason YIYF and some other uploaders are able to encode a 720p movie in less than 1GB and a 1080p movie in less than 2GB. They keep the bitrate as low as 1000 kbps, so the quality is not very good.
A good quality HD movie will have at least a bitrate of 2500 kbps. A better quality HD movie will have a bitrate in the range of 3500-5000 kbps etc. A better quality FHD will have a bitrate in the range of 7000 kbps etc. There is no fixed rule, just what I have observed while downloading movies.
Audio formats:
AAC: Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format. AAC is commonly used for stereo sound i.e. 2-channel audio (left and right from headphones)
Dolby Digital/AC3: The most common multi-channel format is Dolby Digital/AC3. It handles at most six channels (5.1). It's widely used in streaming services. The 6 channel 5.1 format means that it uses 5 speakers and one subwoofer to play audio. If you watch movies in a home theatre and have a couple of speakers, then it's good for you. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense if you use headphones for watching movies on a laptop, but still, this is popular and most probably the one you will find.
DTS: Kind of similar to AC3.
TrueHD: TrueHD is Dolby’s successor to AC3. This codec is lossless and supports eight channels.
DTS-HD MA: DTS's successor. It is lossless and supports eight channels.
Helpful hints for downloading TV shows and movies:
Best torrent sites: 1337x (it's proxy sites have more features), RARBG, The Pirate Bay, YIFY/YTS
Best PC clients: qBittorrent, Deluge, Transmission
Best apps for Android: flud>>Utorrent
Assume I want to download Daredevil season 1 episode 3 (s01e03). Since it dates back to 2015, I will rarely find seeders for an active single episode, so instead of looking for every single episode, I will find the complete season 1, which will have a chance of more seeders, then I will download it or a single episode by checking inside the torrent file from the application I am using for downloading if I have any time/data issues. You can easily check the list of files a torrent contains even before starting downloading it at the 1337x site.
Some TV shows are uploaded on the web in high quality, so try to download them from there instead of the torrent. In torrent, you don't know when you will run out of seeders, resulting in slow speed and a waste of time and data. If possible, prefer web to torrent for speed and reliability.
The size and quality of the movie can be better appreciated by watching it on TV, or at least on a laptop. If you like binge watching on smaller screens like mobile phones, then the difference in quality/resolution between 2GB and 5GB videos becomes even less noticeable. In the end, download according to your time, data and device preference.
Bonus tip: If you are downloading a torrent file and your internet goes off or your system shuts down, then don't panic. You don't have to start all over again. It will become active from the same point once your system is connected to the internet again. So, you can pause it and resume it later to make long-time downloads in case you have a daily data limit. It's fine even if you remove it from the app or client you are using to download torrents without deleting its data, but you should have saved its magnet link or torrent file in that case. Just don't move or delete that downloading file from its root directory. You should always bookmark the magnet link or download the torrent file of such experimental torrents. Using the same magnet link or torrent file, you will start from the same point you left off.
Edit: Thanks for suggesting edits u/Ibcap
Dear German Newbies, don't forget your VPN!
webtor.io and you don't need a vpn. The website does the torrenting and you download directly from it.
Interesting.
Tried it with a 5gb movie and it wouldn't stop buffering every 15 seconds or so. It also took about 3 minutes for it to start showing anything at all. Streaming with sequential downloading on the other hand worked flawlessly
Yeah, I think it's ideal for downloading, but not great for streaming. What's great is you can download a single file in a torrent too.
how do you use it ahaha..
Just copy the magnet link for the torrent and paste it into the website. The website will load a page where you can watch/stream the torrent or just download it. The website does all the torrenting on their servers, and you download or watch. Your ip is never exposed to the peers/seeds.
This! Wish I could upvote more than once... Be smart, I made that mistake with Xmen Origins - cost me 500 euro at the time and believe me, Germany is a country of lawyers and you will not get out of this one. Caught me seeding only 6kb but that was all it took. If I understand it correctly btw for anyone interested, Germany considers IP address as a proof of identity so the owner of the internet is going to receive the fine. Not sure if things have changed since so correct me if I'm wrong.
Not anymore it changed few years ago, not the burden of proving it was you is on the copyright trolls.
I'll look into it out of curiosity, thanks for the update 👍
can you recommend one?
Mullvad.
I second mullvad for the privacy
Windscribe has a really nice interface, and it's as little as 3 dollars a month.
I'm still rocking PIA and have not had any issues.
Literally ran by a company known for distributing malware... I would rather surfshark - atleast my data will just be sold to google not emotet
Nordvpn. It's not the cheapest one, but it works very reliable and you can use it for streaming. But when you buy it, use one of these Promo links from streamers, will save you >50%
Isn't Nord unreliable in matters of keeping your data safe? I remember reading something about it a while ago
Well, they have a strict no log policy and their vpn isn't leaking soooo, but if you have other information, I would like to hear it
thank you from a newby
Dear newbies, if you’ve got data limits or you’re watching on your phone, use YTS/YIFY. If not, you’ll regret it, because watching even 4K YTS/YIFY content has such a low bitrate you might as well get a decent 1080p version.
Even on phones yify doesn't look good trust me , if anyone isn't limited by data or phone storage i recommend always to go for a higher bitrate it's totally worth it , I've been watching movies and series from online streamers and download from yify too but once i tasted the higher bitrate i never went back . I'm watching on a Samsung s20+ it has great screen enough to notice the difference
I'm on smartphone support upto to 4k on lag at all But i seen in 1080p Bluray which have a size like 4gb - 5gb it look so good audio and details and sound.
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Yep! I could only download YIFY on terrible Australian internet, but now that we have semi-decent internet, watching larger video files has been the dream
Any film my parents ask for I grab a YTS/YIFY version, for me, something much higher quality. Usually the same file size but with an added 0 on the end.
I think this is meant to be 1080p. Also keep in mind these resolutions will not map onto encode resolutions exactly most of the time due to encodes cropping black bars.
I wouldnt completely agree with the assessments of quality here, but thats subjective and based on hardware. People should be deciding for themselves what quality their eyes and hardware need, some people consider over 4gb to be overkill while others wouldnt watch a 1080p movie under 12gb.
A lot of this makes no sense or is too complicated to ever rank in this way. A good bluray encode will usually be better than a webdl, but sometimes a webdl can even beat a bluray disc/remux. A webrip will usually be worse than a webdl, despite you putting them on the same tier, however sometimes webrip can be better (when witcher was first released the 1080p ntb webrip beat the webdl because it was sourced from 4k, a 4k webdl didnt exist at the time). Encodes from blurays and webrips vary too much in quality to ever rank in this way regardless.
rarbg is slightly typo'd. I wouldnt use any modern site pretending to be KAT, its dead. TPB is just shit now. If youre smart its usable, but i wouldnt send noobs there and even past it being infested with viruses its just not a great site compared to rarbg/rutracker/1337x. Yify is just awful quality, youre better off with low res high bitrate if you need small videos.
I really appreciate that you took the time to point out errors and mistakes. I will correct them, but regarding the heirarchy of Blu-ray and web rip, I have posted this keeping in mind the current trends and what you will find on torrent sites most of the time. Since this was meant for newbies, I don't want them to hunt down a specific format on torrent. They will learn by experience. Regarding sites, I put YIYF because it's quite popular and if anyone has strict data constraints, then it's the way to go. I will be removing KAT.
I would not put webdl and webrip on the same level regardless, 95% of the time at minimum webdl is better than webrip and bluray encodes are probably better most of the time as well. Bluray encodes vs webdl is more complicated since it really depends on the encoder.
Also about yify they were caught a while ago selling user info to a legal firm, so they should probably be avoided for that even if not for their quality https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-site-1337x-bans-yts-user-data-200820/
OK, comment the way I should rank it.
Ranking webrip and bluray encodes is super hard because they depend entirely on the encoder. If I were to guess on average, I'd say
Bluray disc/remux > webdl > bluray encode > webrip
But even giving a ranking feels misleading to me because it will be wrong so often, I wouldnt put a ranking that only holds true 60% of the time or whatever, since a bluray encode beating a webdl will happen pretty commonly. Theres even some instances (GOTS for example) where the HDTV rip beats the bluray remux.
Let’s not forget RARBG relabels WebDLs as WebRips for some reason, further adding confusion
RARBG is shit now. Constant fake honey pot first run movies.
This is better than my own guide I had written years ago for my friends and I myself.
Someone has written under comments here for books to torrent.But what about series? I know American series are easy to torrent too like this. But I find series from Asian are really hard to find esp. old ones. Where are best sources to find these? Thank you.
I watch most asian series on dramacool or kissasian. A lot of newer Chinese series are also fully on youtube. But that’s probably not what you were talking about
I'll take everything that does work for new series or old, or both. So I'll check them out later, it might be still useful.
Thanks. ♥️
This is helpful, thank you.
I would add that there are sub-reddits that run open signups/applications to private trackers. I won't link it since I am unsure if that is allowed. Private trackers>public trackers (most of the time). They normally have better stuff as well as being a little bit safer than trolling around the seedy part of the internet without a condom on.
Absolutely.
Since getting on IPtorrents and BeyondHD I've not looked back at public trackers.
New stuff there's nothing wrong with public trackers. But when it comes down to older stuff or niche stuff I've either not found it on a public tracker or have and it has no seeders. Never had that issue with private trackers.
2 out of 4 wrong site names
I correctad it.
YIFY shut down in 2015.
https://torrentfreak.com/yify-yts-shuts-down-the-end-of-a-piracy-icon-151030/
YTS which used the wave to their brand name gives away user data to anyone who requests it so if i were you i would remove them from that list. Just 2 examples :
https://torrentfreak.com/more-yts-users-settle-piracy-claims-after-legal-pressure/
https://torrentfreak.com/more-yts-users-settle-piracy-claims-after-legal-pressure/
How can you recommend them ?
Rarbg lol
what ?
Isn’t the name rargb not rarbg
Its RARBG. Rargb is a scam site.
I find that for newbies one of the best torrent clients is Transmission
It’s made to be as simple/lightweight, so even someone with practically no experience can use it easily
Saving this, thank you
Anything I should know about it?
It’s mostly intuitive, so I don’t really have much else to say of it
Thanks, I will add it.
Good guide. But The Pirate Bay is discouraged on this sub. That's my only comment.
Do you have any resources on why? I’m relatively new and curious
I'll just quote this subreddit's megathread, since it's my goto for finding new sources of content.
I suppose this is specifically for software and games but not movies, probably because it's a lot harder to sneak malware into a movie torrent. My bad.
Thanks for the info. I’ll look to the megathread if I have questions in the future
Because certain mods don't like it.
So they keep pushing the idea of malware (even though randomized testing has shown, no malware) and then other people repeat the claims, so as not to piss off the mods.
The reality is, there's certain opinions that are popular here, because they're popular, they got pushed a lot in the early days of this subreddit, and now they're the 'establishment view', so sites you can use anonymously are bad, and ones that require you to log in and which track+log your activities (so-called 'private' sites) are 'good', mainly because of gate-keepering.
It's basically a whole load of fact-free clique-y BS.
TPB is just out of date and hasn't really been updated GUI wise in forever. Sites like 1337x make searching a ton easier so of course its going to get recommended for noobs and not noobs.
and ones that require you to log in and which track+log your activities (so-called 'private' sites) are 'good', mainly because of gate-keepering.
I mean you can 100% use "private" trackers anonymously. Private trackers are inherently better that using public trackers by the nature of them having quality standards (well the good ones anyway)
Maye you're just not understanding the point I'm making.
I can fire up a random browser, go to a random wifi portal, and use a public site, and DHT to download. then I can do the same later with a different wifi connection. the ONLY thing linking me between the two would be the browser, and my client ID which would be both common. So without getting hold of my computer, those two downloads are effectively two different people from a pool of 'the whole world'.
By contrast, a 'private' site, needs you to log into an account. That's instantly linking all your downloads together on their site. now, as a peer on that tracker, you're now one of 100,000 (let's say it's a really BIG site). And while it can be easy to narrow you down that way, why bother because unlike an open tracker or DHT, this tracker is deliberately noting AND SAVING a copy of all your activity, (you know, for your 'ratio') as well as storing lots of information about your connection, client, brownser etc. (for their 'anti-cheat' systems). and those logs cover your entire history with them.
You want to know what the big problem is when it comes to prosecuting a bittorrent case in court? It's tying your claimed activity to your IP address (it's why most copyright trolls don't target bittorrent any more, because one IP address is not reliable. If you have just one instance, one IP and timestamp, then thats meaningless, might as well throw a dart at a list, and pick what you hit. however, if you have a half dozen IP addresses, and timestamps, and they ALL come back to the one account, especially if they're different IPs, you've just proven the reliability of your system, and shown you've tracked that account. Then there's the added info, unless you really thought abotu things, your username, or password, or email address might give a hint to your identity. Worse, you bought a VPN or seedbox, and so now there's a financial transaction linking you, AND showing intent of willfullness (and a financial transaction is considered proof of identity in most courts because it's something you protect to yourself.
You getting the poitn now? These 'private' sites make gathering evidence and proving a case SO damned easy, compared to public sites.
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The basics are the same. Try to look for HDR content with the highest bitrate you can get. Files above 10GB at least will be worth looking for if you've got no alternative. But if you can get a 1080p file with a higher bitrate than a 2160p file, you should grab the former in most cases.
This might help https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/hvcozj/4k_hdr_movies_a_pirates_guide/ https://www.reddit.com/r/torrents/comments/amtioc/4k_movies/
r/Stremio is a good place to check.
is that a streaming service?
I always see a mention of the bitrate and want to look for higher bitrate 1080p movies on my projector, but on rarbg and 1337x, I can never find the bitrate…. Where are you guys finding torrent files where you can search for a minimum threshold bitrate or find torrent files with higher bitrates given a couple options
For Rarbg, the bitrate is located in the mediainfo tab on the left hand side of the torrent page, you need to click on it to see the info. There will be multiple bitrates: one for the video track and one for each of the audio tracks. Here is an example of it.
I checked it and I guess I never really scrolled to look at those details, but thanks!!
For other fellow noobs, if you use debian Linux, or Linux based didtros in a vm etc, I wrote setup scripts for a lot of popular software (mullvad vpn, docker, sonarr and radarr, nzb, etc)
Github repos:
https://github.com/LordZeuss/raspi-docker
https://github.com/LordZeuss/arr-installer
Rarbg scene is all you need.
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Laughs in 4K Bluray RAW Dolby Vision Dolby Atmos IMAX
Which uploader on 1337x should i look for?
ignore the uploader, look for the group (at the end of the release it will be -GROUPNAME)
Any suggestions of good groups to look out for ?
QxR has always been good to me.
most of the good ones are found on private trackers and harder to find on public places, for most stuff just get a remux if you have the storage for it
QxR or NTB are good. EVO is okay if you can't find the others but they're only about a notch or two above YIFY sometimes.
Thanks for a guide.
you are a lifesaver, thank you <3
For Android , 1DMP works best for me
how does bitrate play into all of this?
Resolution is the amount of square pixels on the screen. Bitrate is how much of those pixels are filled in with meaningful detail. High bitrates result in sharper images, and in some cases, better color (HDR/Dolby Vision).
If you have a low bitrate in 4K, there are technically more “pixels”, but they’re blended between each other, so high bitrate 1080p content will far outperform tiny 4K files. Low bitrate content is extremely noticeable with color banding.
Is that why some streams are really blocky? Especially night scenes.
Yep! Fast moving scenes and night scenes are hit the hardest by bitrate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Rp-uo6HmI This explains the fast-moving scenes one, there is an explanation for night scenes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9j89L8eQQk), although I believe the reasoning behind this is slightly different (HDR will make night scenes a lot better if you have HDR)
funny enough hbo had some of the worst compression i ever saw. The the battle of winter-fell especially lol (game of thrones).
Get yourself the 2k or 4k files and watch them on your tv. You won't be disappointed.
Also once you finish downloading please seed the torrent and don't stop it.. You got low bandwith, low storage space etc then please seed at least minimum 2:1 ratio
The p2p community fundamental is sharing
Add AV1, opus, hdr,hdr10+, dolby vision,
Type of 2160p movie size
Webrip , bluray rip
I mean, rarbg x265 rips tend to be 1080 and a lower file size. IONx10 rips are pretty decent
Rarbg files are big in size like 4-5 gb in movies if you don't have data limit then go for rarbg
Rarbg offers all sizes.
In movies it can but in tv shows file size is big
No. The IONx265 rips are small, and good quality. For example, The Boys episodes are around 500mb, and are quality webrips