Idea for Usenet -> HTTP Service

[topgun100]

Just trying to gauge general interest here. What do you think about a service which would allow you to download nzbs though your web browser via http/https?

You would simply provide NZB in one of three ways:

1) File upload
2) URL
3) Search NZBs already requested by other (anonymous) users

The NZB would be downloaded at gigabit speed and then unpacked for you to download.

Regarding the economics, I was thinking of having two plans, limited by disk space rather than bandwidth.

$5/month - 500mb Disk space
$10/month - 2GB Disk space

The disk allowances are fairly conservative because repairing and extracting large files is extremely expensive.

So what do you think? This could be really handy for many people, particularly non techies, those with throttling on NTTP/SSL and for people who can't install usenet client software.

[Waddafocky]

Are you talking about the content listed in the NZB? Because NZB's themselves don't usually exceed 5 MB.

[anon]

$5/month - 500mb Disk space
$10/month - 2GB Disk space

I don't think you can do too much with so little disk space.

[Waddafocky]

$5/month - 500mb Disk space
$10/month - 2GB Disk space

I don't think you can do too much with so little disk space.
Not only that, but for $10 a month I sign up for Astraweb - in two weeks, I've downloaded about 200 gigs of material. So where's the advantage in this? Saving CPU cycles?

[tesco]

It seems like a good idea but the 2gb limit is a drawback.
What about some sort of queue for the extraction, and a time limit (for example 1 day) to grab your file starting from when the extraction completes?

[Cabalo]

Something like a delayed seedbox, but for usenet. Could be interesting, though the size limits would have to be at least 15gb per user on the same server.

[Waddafocky]

But the difference between a seedbox for torrenting and one for usenet is that you get seedboxes to get content ASAP to have a chance at seeding back at high speeds, creating either a buffer or increasing ratio. This beats a home connection where you might be downloading only at 200 kbps and uploading at 20, so by the time you're done, everyone else is done and you just downloaded 6 GB while uploading 600 MB.

On the other hand, with Usenet you are only limited by the time your computer stays on, because the beginning and end point of Usenet is to get content, and in that aspect you only have to download. With a "usenet seedbox" you would be downloading twice, once to the seedbox then once again to your home. I'm asking, why this two-step process? Why not download straight home?

[topgun100]

This would be a service for 'normal' users who want divx rips - which very rarely exceed 1.4GB. I'm not aiming this at heavy downloaders who want +4.7GB archives as the disk I/O is too great when repairing.

One possibility would be to have temporary booster like 10gb space for 48 hours for $1 so you can get that one big file if you really need to.

Tesco, there would not be a 1 day limit. The storage space is yours and your files will persist until your subscription runs out or you overwrite them with a new NZB.

[tesco]

But the difference between a seedbox for torrenting and one for usenet is that you get seedboxes to get content ASAP to have a chance at seeding back at high speeds, creating either a buffer or increasing ratio. This beats a home connection where you might be downloading only at 200 kbps and uploading at 20, so by the time you're done, everyone else is done and you just downloaded 6 GB while uploading 600 MB.

On the other hand, with Usenet you are only limited by the time your computer stays on, because the beginning and end point of Usenet is to get content, and in that aspect you only have to download. With a "usenet seedbox" you would be downloading twice, once to the seedbox then once again to your home. I'm asking, why this two-step process? Why not download straight home?



This could be really handy for many people, particularly non techies, those with throttling on NTTP/SSL and for people who can't install usenet client software.I imagined a use for people wanting to download from work or school where they cannot install any programs, but have unrestricted access to the internet.



Tesco, there would not be a 1 day limit. The storage space is yours and your files will persist until your subscription runs out or you overwrite them with a new NZB.
So each user would get a set amount of space to fill, and an interface to delete files they no longer need so that they can download more?

[Waddafocky]

I imagined a use for people wanting to download from work or school where they cannot install any programs, but have unrestricted access to the internet.
This still makes no sense. Why not use a portable usenet reader? Unzbin and Binreader come to mind.

Addendum: Would port issues be a problem? I know they are for torrents, but if just downloading, it shouldn't matter, right? You could tunnel your login then you'd be home free...

[predateur]

I imagined a use for people wanting to download from work or school where they cannot install any programs, but have unrestricted access to the internet.
This still makes no sense. Why not use a portable usenet reader? Unzbin and Binreader come to mind.

Addendum: Would port issues be a problem? I know they are for torrents, but if just downloading, it shouldn't matter, right? You could tunnel your login then you'd be home free...

the idea is simple , using "usenet" , Unzbin , Binreader , is not easy to all and some people dont have time to all this
so you will search what you want download (just like in google) , you put it to download then you have a link to download directly to your PC , something like converting the usenet to direct download link (ddl)
i found the idea realy nice , but the mainly probleme is the space , i think at least 20gb is needed (so people can get 1080p movies) , and even with 20gb people cant get full Bluray and some PS3 games :p

[tesco]

I imagined a use for people wanting to download from work or school where they cannot install any programs, but have unrestricted access to the internet.
This still makes no sense. Why not use a portable usenet reader? Unzbin and Binreader come to mind.
There's also ISPs that throttle NNTP.

[Waddafocky]

Ahh, ok. Thanks for the non-condescending answers.

[tesco]

Ahh, ok. Thanks for the non-condescending answers.
Why did you expect me to be condescending? :wacko:

[Cabalo]

Ahh, ok. Thanks for the non-condescending answers.
Why did you expect me to be condescending? :wacko:

Maybe he could have thought you staff at a tracker. :unsure:

[Waddafocky]

Ahh, ok. Thanks for the non-condescending answers.
Why did you expect me to be condescending? :wacko:
No, I wasn't expecting it, but I really appreciated that it wasn't.

[zot]

I can't see the reason for each person having a private individual 'locker' (especially one limited to just 2 gigabytes) -- why not just allow everyone to share their downloads with everyone else on the service?

Allowing users to "share" downloads would greatly cut down on disk space, the processor/memory load from decoding, as well as providing a service to help others know what files are available.

Allowing users to watch (or fastforward/skip/browse) usenet movies from a web browser (using xvid and h.264 plugins) would be a welcome bonus.

[tesco]

I can't see the reason for each person having a private individual 'locker' (especially one limited to just 2 gigabytes) -- why not just allow everyone to share their downloads with everyone else on the service?

Allowing users to "share" downloads would greatly cut down on disk space, the processor/memory load from decoding, as well as providing a service to help others know what files are available.

Allowing users to watch (or fastforward/skip/browse) usenet movies from a web browser (using xvid and h.264 plugins) would be a welcome bonus.
I think you would run into legal problems going that route...
Leave it up to the users to decide how they use the service, don't present copyrighted content to them directly.

As for the streaming idea, I like it. But the stream would have to be compressed and rescaled quite a bit and I'm not sure if any server can do that on the fly, nevermind for multiple users at a time.

[nntpjunkie]

Correct me if I am missing something here, but Easynews already offers a clean retarded simple interface that allows you to download nzbs via http - it even allows you to generate nzbs based on articles you select and the easynews global search provides thumb previews before you download, queue downloading is available through the zip manager and you can download a complete unpacked archive set on the fly with the click of the download link...short answer neat idea and yes it's already been done

oh yeah and easynews now offers download queue sharing among users...

[zot]

Yeah, I was thinking of Easynews. They of course decode ALL files posted to usenet, not just the ones that get downloaded by their users, and they thumbnail and allow users to search for these files. It's probably a much better system when a lot of users are going to be downloading and watching the exact same movie, compared to having to decode the same file over and over again, every time someone requests it.



As for the streaming idea, I like it. But the stream would have to be compressed and rescaled quite a bit and I'm not sure if any server can do that on the fly, nevermind for multiple users at a time.
I was thinking of the way that an NZB Player works: the rars are decoded and watched while they are downloaded. Even though it is a "streaming" player, at the end the person is left with the exact same video file as if it had been downloaded using any newsreader.

Additional stream compression would not be needed, but the obvious limitation is that a person needs to have a fast connection, and download a relatively small video file.

It would also be a useful feature if an "easynews"-type service would offer a choice of several different quality versions of a video -- like KeepVid.com does for Youtube videos-- so a person on a slow connection would not be forced to spend all day long downloading a huge file. If Keepvid can do it, I don't see why Easynews can't do it.

[nntpjunkie]

As for the streaming idea, I like it. But the stream would have to be compressed and rescaled quite a bit and I'm not sure if any server can do that on the fly, nevermind for multiple users at a time.

Easynews already offers single click streaming however the video is streamed at whatever the original bitrate was that it was encoded at - so I guess to that extent you would need a faster connection to be able to watch the higher bitrate movies obviously


It would also be a useful feature if an "easynews"-type service would offer a choice of several different quality versions of a video -- like KeepVid.com does for Youtube videos-- so a person on a slow connection would not be forced to spend all day long downloading a huge file. If Keepvid can do it, I don't see why Easynews can't do it.

This would be an awesome feature although it would require extensive IOs especially if all content was indexed

[tesco]

Additional stream compression would not be needed, but the obvious limitation is that a person needs to have a fast connection, and download a relatively small video file.


Actually now that I think about it, I can already download faster than I can watch 720p video, so the idea isn't at all far off. I have a 10mbps connection, not sure if that should be considered "fast" or not (at this time).

[zot]

Actually now that I think about it, I can already download faster than I can watch 720p video, so the idea isn't at all far off. I have a 10mbps connection, not sure if that should be considered "fast" or not (at this time).

Of course the defining factor is the video compression. 720p movies with h264 can be compressed to a smaller size than typical DVD-rips w/ xvid encodes. For figuring out streaming video allowances, it probably doesn't help that movie releases are generally compressed to maintain a certain file size rather than stream rate, although I'm kind of glad that the old Scene standard, that everything had to exactly fit on a disk, is gradually being abandoned.

I know that a 1 megabit/sec connection allows you to stream a 350MB 1-hour TV show (or a typical 1-CD-size movie rip) -- but just barely!

So let's say a 10 mbs connection could comfortably stream most any movie that would fit on a (single-layer) DVD-R. (I Can't wait until 100Mbit connections become standard, then we could all stream [uncompressed] Blu-ray and torrent at the same time :) )