Where do TV torrents show up first? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 1 week ago by JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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I'm wondering why it sometimes takes so long to find releases of shows that just aired. I feel like I used to get them really quick for popular shows, but it's been a while since I've had a show I try to get right away.

I have a number of sources I use, both private (IPT and TL) and public, but they all seem to get new shows around the same time. Recently I've been trying to get Jeopardy Masters, but it doesn't seem to show up until some time after midnight, and all the releases seem to show up around the same time.

Am I missing a key way to get releases earlier?

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[-] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 week ago

"Scene" releases are always the fastest. They do not directly travel by torrent, although they are commonly uploaded to various trackers. You can watch one of the PreDB sites to see when one gets released (finding the content itself is up to you). Their native format is split RAR, but most trackers will have them unRAR'd.

Private trackers tend to prefer P2P release groups. Common ones are NTb, FLUX, and especially on one tracker, Kitsune. These are always slower than scene, but advocates will say the quality is higher.

Side note: it looks like recent episodes of that show were released by EDITH in 720p around 5am EDT. I don't see any 1080p releases for this season. So either it's only available in 720 or it's not a very popular show.

[-] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Thanks, this is exactly what I was wondering about. And yeah, the Edith ones coming out at 5am Eastern is exactly what I've been seeing.

I know jeopardy masters isn't super popular but the consistency of the release timing and how late it was had me wondering how it worked.

The funny thing is that regular (syndicated) episodes of jeopardy (not the Masters primetime special) often start showing up on YouTube up to 8 hours before airing in the US and Canada.

[-] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

There's a race within "the scene". The first group to release the content (meeting all of the technical requirements, lest they get "nuked" or "propered") gets credits, while everyone else gets nothing. The Wikipedia page on "Warez scene" is a good place to start if you want more technical details.

That said, scene groups don't release everything. Some shows just aren't popular enough, or are unavailable to the various release groups. That's where I think this show is. While scene releases don't usually say their source, they do state the type, e.g. WEB (aka Web-DL). I suspect that the episodes get released on AMZN/DSNP/HULU/whatever at 5am ET, and that's when a member of EDITH grabs it in 720p to release around 5:10. They might go back later to release the 1080p version, but it looks like in previous seasons they kept getting sniped.

TL;DR: I bet the streaming content becomes available right before the scene release, which is why it's so consistent.

[-] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Yup, I just found an article that says it releases next day on Hulu (and other streaming sites).

I guess a more popular show might get enough attention to record it as it airs to get it released first, but with a less popular show the scene is just going to wait for the streaming version. (And maybe more popular shows aren't on network TV and release on streaming platforms immediately anyway.)

Thanks for the discussion and info.

[-] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

It might just be that all the releases are already showing up at the earliest possible time?

[-] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That sounds right, there is a delay from the time a live show airs to the time/day it shows up on one of the big official streaming websites. It's not instant.

Maybe if someone is posting a lower quality live capture that could end up being a bit faster? But if someone were already doing that with that show you would've seen it most likely. And that still means having to wait until the show ends before anything else happens.

The other option is IPTV sources (not torrents) where you could maybe just watch a live stream. I don't use that so can't offer any advice but it's probably discussed in the wiki and FMHY pages (and earlier Lemmy posts).

[-] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 3 points 1 week ago

Each release group will have their own preferred venue for initial upload, but it should propagate across the scene within an hour or two.

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