Specialized Private BitTorrent Websites - TV Trackers
April 11, 08 by sharky 51,171 views
Television torrents are unquestionably the most popular genre of torrent — just take a look at the Top Ten Most Downloaded Torrents listed by mininova.org; 9 of them are TV episodes. TV torrents bring in big traffic, and remain the largest staple of new material for public BitTorrent trackers.
This notoriety has not gone unrecognized by private BitTorrent websites - all ‘general’ sites offer a robust selection of fresh TV torrents to round out their content. Private trackers are advantageous for TV releases for a variety of reasons:
— UNPARALLELED SPEED:With a private tracker, you’ll be able to download an episode of ‘Lost’ or ‘Heroes’ in less time than it takes to watch it.
— PRE-TIMES:Often a torrent is available in a matter of minutes after the original airing. Many sites offer a daily TV timetable, and members can expect these torrents to arrive on the site moments after the show ends.
— SELECTION:Private sites offer a superior selection to public trackers. Content is well-organized, and torrenters often have greater choices in formats (HDTV, x264, XviD). Full seasons are commonplace.
— NO DUPLICATE TORRENTS:When searching for specific popular TV episode on a public BT site, for example: “Heroes Season 1 Episode 19 (S01E19)”, unfortunately there’s a huge selection of results to choose from, and that makes it near impossible to pin down a good release. Private sites solve this problem quite handily - they offer just one torrent for each episode. This way you’ll be assured to get the best quality torrent each and every time, with little guesswork.
TV TORRENT SITES
Some private sites have even gone so far as to specialize only in TV torrents, and they’re damn good at it. Below is a review of the best private trackers that focus specifically on TV releases. (Sites listed at the top are presently open to new signups).
http://bitt.tv
— OPEN? - YES.Members: 13,000.Minimum Ratio: 0.5 / 1.0.# of Torrents: 7,250.Features: Bitt.tv is not a well-organized site, but we give it credit for its decent list of documentaries. TIP: Switch the theme on the left to "Dark Side" - this gives a better view of the torrent categories.
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http://tv-vault.org
— OPEN? - YES.Members: 10,000 Max.# of Torrents: ~800.Features: TV-Vault is a brand-new ‘Gazelle’ tracker that specializes in older and hard-to-find TV shows from the 60’s - 90’s. Signups are limited to 10K members, and as of today (Sept 8/08) there’s currently 6,000 slots filled.
http://thebox.bz/
— OPEN? - YES.Members: 60,000 regs + 80,000 ‘invites’.Ratio: none?.# of Torrents: 20,000.Features: British TV (and radio) torrents only! Looking for "Lost" or "Heroes"? You won’t find it at TheBox, but we give ‘em props for a great Sports section.
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http://uknova.com
— OPEN? - YES.Members: ~11,500.Ratio: 1.0 / 1.0.# of Torrents: ~515.Features: Another tracker with British TV (and radio) torrents only! Looking for "Lost" or "Heroes"? You won’t find it here, either. UKNova works on a points system - 100 points = 1:1 ratio.
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http://tvtorrents.com
— OPEN? - YES.Members: unknown.Ratio: 1.0 / 1.0.# of Torrents: unknown.Features: TVTorrents works on a credit system - users much get to a 1:1 ratio on their first torrent in order to be able to download more (this is lame). TIP: Download a popular TV show as your first torrent. Lots and lots of TV torrents here (1,000 different shows listed) and most categories have "full season" downloads. Looking for something rare? You’ll quite likely find it here!
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http://tvtorrentz.org
— OPEN? - YES.Members: 3,119 / 5,000.Ratio: varies.# of Torrents: 1,175.Features: TVTorrentz uses a different style of ratio scheme - users are given a 50GB buffer, but if you dip below it, you lose privileges. (In layman’s terms, it means you’ll need at least a 1:1 ratio for a healthy account - see ‘Rules’ below). There’s 125 different TV show categories featuring 1,200 torrents in total. Once they reach 5,000 members, it’s going ‘invite only’. Get in while you can!
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http://www.swetv.org
— OPEN? - YES.Members: unknown.Ratio: 1.0 / 1.0.# of Torrents: unknown.Features: A Swedish tracker for television torrents. Unless you can read Swedish,…
http://www.myspleen.net
— OPEN? - NO.Members: unknown.Ratio: unknown.# of Torrents: unknown.Features: MySpleen features many AdultSwim torrents, with a generous helping of animation and comedic releases.
http://tv.torrents.ro
— OPEN? - NO.Members: unknown.Ratio: 0.5 / 1.0.# of Torrents: ~5,200.Features: With an Alexa Rank of 7,900 - TV.Torrents.ro is quickly becoming one of the premier TV trackers. TVT can be compared to BitmeTV: has great content, HDTV releases and torrents larger than 10GB are freeleech. Has a huge range of TV shows, high download speeds and good pre-times.
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http://bitmetv.org
— OPEN? - NO.Members: 25,000 .Ratio: 0.65 / 1.0.# of Torrents: ~17,500.Features: BitMeTV is hands-down the best private tracker for TV shows - period. With an estimated one-third of the registered users being Power Users, expect high download rates. BitMe has TV torrents from a variety of countries, in every imaginable category, including sports, documentaries, and browsable TV show categories. Looking for something old or rare? You’ll likely find it here, as well. It’s like having a VIP-cable package, without the cable bill!
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http://www.bit-hdtv.com
— OPEN? - NO.Members: ~15,000.Ratio: varies.# of Torrents: ~6,500.Features: BIT-HDTV is one of the most difficult trackers for new users to register with. Never open to public signups, you’ll need to get in through one of their scarcely awarded invites. With a very small limit of 10,000 users (truth be told, they have 14,000) plus an additional 17,000 ‘invited’ members - invites are given to existing members under strict provisions. BIT-HDTV has a karma “bonus” system where you gain points for things like seeding and uploading torrents - users can cash them in for various bonuses on the site. Freeleech and 2x uploading is commonly offered.
Their name is somewhat of a misnomer; they offer HD/HQ movie torrents as well as TV.
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Other Notables
http://tvrss.net
Features: Great site for RSS feeds for TV releases from popular public BitTorrent sites. Don’t use RSS? No problem! Just browse the torrent categories and download from there. TVRSS is a meta-search site, and doesn’t host their own torrents - most links head straight to mininova. It’s a great site for deciding which torrent is the good one to get (when there are multiple entries on the host site, TVRSS picks the best appropriate link).
http://xtvi.com
Features: Horrible ad popups, but what did you expect from a public site? Decent content, though.
©2007-2010 • 
01 • Blaenk Denum Says: 11.04.08 at 4:15 am
I think RSS is almost a necessity of TV Show trackers. tvRSS for example is great because with RSS your client automatically downloads the shows as they are uploaded. Once you try it you’ll be sick of the thought of having to manually download each episode for each show you watch. It would’ve been better if you had shown which of the trackers you reviewed have RSS support.
02 • sharky Says: 11.04.08 at 2:26 pm
It would be assumed that in the year 2008 most sites have RSS feed support, as it’s difficult to find torrent sites that don’t have some form of RSS implementation, nowadays. As it were, I didn’t openly discuss RSS for this reason. Superior, technologically advanced sites will have it; inferior sites will not.
03 • Trackback :: p2pvine.com 13.04.08 at 11:36 am
Specialized Private BitTorrent Websites - TV Trackers…
Television torrents are unquestionably the most popular genre of torrent — just take a look at the Top Ten Most Downloaded Torrents listed by mininova.org; 9 of them are TV episodes. TV torrents bring in big traffic, and remain the largest staple of …
04 • Bill Goldberg Says: 22.09.08 at 5:49 pm
I think eztv.it should be on this list.
Mostly American shows (they have doctor who also if I remember correctly) though.
05 • Not That Smart Says: 22.11.08 at 10:08 am
An update to this article: After some downtime TV.Torrents.ro is back online, good as ever, with promises that it won’t go down again if the siteops can help it.
OPEN? - YES! As I’m writing this post TvT is open for public signups - hurry and grab a place at one of the best TV trackers out there: however, be aware that unless you have a *very* fast internet upload at home a seedbox is more or less necessary here. Users without can probably (maybe…) get by but ratio building will be a long hard road indeed.
# of Members: unknown.
Minimum Ratio: 0.5 / 1.0.- you’re expected to seed each torrent *at least* 1:1 or 24 hours. Increasing and holding rank is impossible without seeding back considerably more than 1:1 as you move up.
# of Torrents: ~8,526 active, 2181 freeleech, 9056 overall.
Features: TV.Torrents.ro is one of the premier TV trackers. TVT can be compared to BitmeTV: has great content; HDTV releases, DVD rips & iso’s and good old XviD in a huge range of TV shows, all mostly scene and internal releases. Speeds are almost almost always insanely fast for bittorrent and (like BMTV) most new uploads have 20 or so seeds before you can blink let alone seed back (hint: seedbox). Most HDTV.x264 torrents are currently freeleech. Pre-times are sometimes extremely quick, other times nowhere near a top scene tracker; however, it’s very rare that new content isn’t up at TvT within 30 minutes or so of pre.
One thing TvT has had for a long time is a clean, almost soothing, interface and this has just been improved on with a handful of new coloured style-sheets that bring a welcome new look. It’s still one of the best TV trackers around, second only to the mighty BitMeTV according to this writer. Perhaps a little easier to build ratio at, but it’s still not for the fainthearted. If you can hack it you’ll have yourself one of the fastest, most comprehensive TV trackers out there. Be quick, open signups won’t last long!
06 • William Stewart Says: 22.12.08 at 1:50 am
UK Nova is the best website for torrents, but then as a UK expat, I’m biased.
You should also try LiveStation for BBC World, and Al Jazeera.
Regards,
William
http://expat-tv-tips.blogspot.com/
07 • noSPORTS Says: 19.03.09 at 4:54 pm
you got everything right about bitmetv except the sports bit. they explicitly do NOT allow sports on the tracker, except for Pool and Snooker, Poker, and WWE. Pay Per View is not allowed, either. it has to be broadcast.
08 • pennysworth Says: 13.01.10 at 4:17 pm
I’ve rarely used RSS and never for downloads of torrents. How does it work? Which RSS feed to you recommend?
Many thanks.