How tTo: Bittorent + TVTAD = Free Tivo for your PC

Bittorent + TVTAD = Free Tivo for your PC

A product I have been using for sometime now just came out with a new version and is easier to use than ever. This program (TVTAD) basically downloads whichever TV shows you want it to once they are released online. Once you set this boy up you don’t have to do a thing. Each week when your show is released online (usually an hour or two after air time) it will start downloading immediately.

Before you start using TVTAD you should have a bittorent client installed on your PC. For this tutorial I will be using BitComet (since it is the best for downloading multiple files). Download BitComet here at kipp.ginocide.com and install it. To get the optimal results these are the settings I recommend (you don’t have to use these settings, but they are the optimal choices):

1. First go to options then preferences. From here you can access all the BitComet preferences.

2. In the “Connection” section change your global max upload rate to no more than 20 kb/s. If this number is too high it will cause your download rate to decrease, but on the other hand, don’t make it below 10kb/s.

3. Next move to the “Task” section, under download, change your default download path to wherever you want. I send all my downloaded files to the desktop. Also check “do not prompt when add new task” and lave all others checked but “delete 0 byte files when task is removed”. Underneath “when download is finished:” change the “Auto-stop task when share ratio reaches:” to 100%. Underneath “Upload” set the “Maximum upload rate per task to somewhere around 10-15 kb/s.

4. Move to the “Appearance” section. Check the following options: “auto-resume tasks on BitComet startup”, “Minimize to try on BitComet startup”, underneath “When BitComet is running” check “minimize to system tray”, and “avoid system entering suspend….” All others should be unchecked.

Now that BitComet is up and running optimally, install TVTAD. Download it here from kipp.ginocide.com Once running go to the settings tab and enter the following settings:

1. In the Application tab check the following: “automatically load TVTAD with windows”, “Place TVTAD in tray when initialized”, “Don’t announce RSS checks in status.”, “Automatically prune (delete) torrents which aren’t on the release list anymore”. Also set the directory for your torrents to “C:\Program Files\TVTAD\torrents” by clicking the top “…” button. Set the incoming directory to whichever directory you picked for BitComet to send downloaded files to. Click the “Save” button to save these settings.

2. Also under the settings tab, click the “Feeds” tab. Click the “add” button and enter this URL http://tvrss.net/sources/eztv_m/ to get your shows from the EZTV group (which is who I recommend) or you can download from the VTV group by entering this URL: http://tvrss.net/sources/vtv/ VTV files may not download as fast, but they tend to get a greater range of shows. Be sure to click save when you are done entering your feed URL.

3. Next, click the “Client” tab. Make sure the “Shell execute method" is selected and then click the “automatically detect method” button at the bottom. Click OK to dismiss the dialog box info, then click save at the bottom to save your settings.

4. Now comes the fun part. Go to the “Favorites” tab and we can begin entering the shows you want TVTAD to download. You can either enter the name of the show manually or click the drop-down menu to pick from the list. Click the format you wish the show to be in (generally HDTV for most shows or PDTV for others) and then click OK. That show will then be downloaded when it is released.

That’s it. Enjoy your free Tivo replacement. Email me at KippJon@gmail.com if you have any questions.