Cancelled Astraweb - Now what?

[the mighty]

I've been using Astraweb for a few years now, and haven't had that many problems with it. It has been fast, reliable, and the take downs haven't affected me that much. A hand full of shows I watch are removed, and it can be difficult to get the latest movies unless I download them straight away, but I would say 80% of what I get is still up on Astraweb.

My yearly subscription has just run out, and I'm curious about other providers. Is there a provider that isn't suffering from takedowns as badly as the others are, or am I best renewing my Astraweb subscription?

[Gish]

Your best bet is to find some nice Private torrent sites to call home. All providers are suffering from take down requests. I cancelled Astra web because I was tied of getting so many incomplete's.

[PastTense]

The world has changed from a situation where you can get everything you want from one source to a situation where you need to use multiple sources. For good advice you need to tell us what types of materials you are downloading and how much. As one option you might get a 1 TB block account from Astraweb instead of your yearly subscription.

Have you read this thread on Usenet providers?
http://filesharingtalk.com/threads/451524-Who-Is-the-best-Usenet-Provider

[St0ry]

So you didn't really cancel your account, it expired.

[Skiz]

I've been using Astraweb for a few years now, and haven't had that many problems with it. It has been fast, reliable, and the take downs haven't affected me that much. A hand full of shows I watch are removed, and it can be difficult to get the latest movies unless I download them straight away, but I would say 80% of what I get is still up on Astraweb.

My yearly subscription has just run out, and I'm curious about other providers. Is there a provider that isn't suffering from takedowns as badly as the others are, or am I best renewing my Astraweb subscription?

I've recently stopped attempting to use Usenet for a different reason, but you can try my new (and now favorite) method - http://filesharingtalk.com/threads/452701-The-new-way-I-m-downloading-stuffs

I would never say your best bet is torrents tho. :no:


So you didn't really cancel your account, it expired.

Letting something intentionally expire due to disappointing results and cancelling a subscription due to disappointing results are pretty darn close in my opinion.

[Beck38]

I smell the hint of the usual chasing after the usual crud of tv/slime out there from the OP.

I'd mention just what but let me say, things that are in the same realm as 'Mr. Ed', 'Gilligans's Island' and similar ilk from years ago, it's simply 'updated' and 'repackaged' ilk (and in HD). There is about 2-3 'series' on television as a whole that are worth watching, and probably all three are spread out over the year due to the fact that the 'fall season' of new shows has gone into oblivion, and shows 'new seasons' can start just about anywhere on the calendar.

And all of them are available in much better quality/definition on Bluray within a few months of original airing. Unless one thinks that some kind of mass extinction event is going to occur and you'll miss out on those episodes (and one would hope that it'll be way, way down on the things to be thinking about at that point!) then simply wait. Unless of course your capacity to do so has gone in the same direction as, say, your ability to keep your mind on a particular single subject.

Here's the bottom line facts:

26 years of usenet, multi-terabytes of posting, I can search back to 'day 1' of current providers on-line storage (still about Aug08), and 100% is still there (even on Astra!)... but no, well, crap. If what you are chasing after is something you won't even remember say, five years from now, it's crap. Why are you wasting your time on it now? Of all the stuff that folks have pointed to (to me) as having been 'targeted' for 'takedowns' are.... crap. 99% of that currently being posted with encrypted filenames and rar passwords are.... crap. The 'Gilligan's Island' of our time.

[pootystomp]

Usenet works great for me, I never have issues with takedowns. The biggest issue (like beck said), is that encrypted posts are bullshit. There are certain binaries that are 100% scrambled and you have to grab the Nfo to see what it is. Thank god for fst and other indexers that do the work for us.

[justlooking]

Maybe a combination of a European server which takes down less and later and a mini seedbox for the occasional torrent from a private or public tracker. Those are as little as $15 for the year.

[piercerseth]

Agree with justlooking & Skiz. Lotta ways to skin a cat--cover your bases. Remember the EU providers have take downs as well. As far as 0day tv goes, in the current climate the onus is on you to grab the shows as they pre. The automated setups make that damn near trivial to do. If you can't wait and want Beck-like quality that's out there too, but the posts will be obfuscated & passworded.

[the mighty]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will stick with Astraweb, and use XBMC streams for whatever is taken down.

I can currently get Astraweb for $8 a month if I sign up for a year. So that will be $96 for the year. Otherwise it is $15 if I pay monthly. Would you consider this a good deal, or am I better off with something cheaper? Frugal, for example, is $5 a month or $50 for the whole year. A lot cheaper, but I have no idea if the connection is comparable. Retention is also only 300 days.

[justlooking]

Astraweb is a good deal and I don't think there are as many takedowns as there used to be. 3 or 4 months ago it was looking grim. If there's something you can't get from Usenet that's on specialty torrent trackers, then you should look into torrents too. Usenet simply doesn't have enough sports or rare movies or non US TV shows among other things.

[Vestibule]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will stick with Astraweb, and use XBMC streams for whatever is taken down.

I can currently get Astraweb for $8 a month if I sign up for a year. So that will be $96 for the year.

This is the plan I am on... I rarely if ever have any problems with them and I have been with them for 2 years... any issues were on my end, ie. not having the latest updates.

XMBC is also nice to have although I wish i could stream it to my apple tv 3... (currently looking into that)
If anyone is interested for XMBC wizard set up... check out this link for Mac users http://www.xbmchub.com/blog/2013/06/03/how-to-install-xbmc-for-mac-and-configure-it-with-the-xbmc-hub-wizard-addon/ it works for PC as well. gets 1channel running for you...

[nntpjunkie]

Pay your money and take your pick, bottom line for Usenet today is that you will need to bolster your primary Usenet provider with another backup Usenet server from the Europe. There are providers that have different content on their servers when compared to plants in the US, and you can almost always fill in the gaps for anything your missing. You can even get all the "crap" @Beck38 was talking about earlier, although I am generally not a fan of that "crap" either. Astraweb wouldn't be my fist choice because they seem to pull more content faster than other providers. My primary provider is newshosting, the EU filler you will have to find for yourself...

@Vestibule - I've got XBMC running on my AppleTV2 and it is sweet....would love to know if you find anything on the AppleTV3, having 1080p would be excellent :-)

[Vestibule]

@Vestibule - I've got XBMC running on my AppleTV2 and it is sweet....would love to know if you find anything on the AppleTV3, having 1080p would be excellent :-)

I can HDMI out but that makes my laptop useless... I have everything wired when I need to but I prefer streaming via Beamer... I'm afraid I'm waiting like everyone else for the long promised ATV3 jailbreak.

[mjmacky]

There is about 2-3 'series' on television as a whole that are worth watching, and probably all three are spread out over the year due to the fact that the 'fall season' of new shows has gone into oblivion, and shows 'new seasons' can start just about anywhere on the calendar.

I bet your recommendation list sucks for its deficiencies at the very least.

[Beck38]

Getting way off the original topic, but....


Most series television over the past several years has been
afflicted by the 'Twin Peaks' desease, where the story 'arc'
hasn't been fully fleshed out and the writer/producers seem
to be simply 'winging it' from episode to episode, either
straight from the beginning or after a couple of seasons
(at best) of following the original idea before grinding
into silly plot twists and the like (see: LOST), although
the original idea kernel didn't really make much sense.

Or a lot of others. Even the vaunted 'Stargate' eventually
ran out of fresh ideas (or fresh writers), and the handwriting
is already on the wall in huge letters for such as
"Revolution' (and probably for 'Under the Dome') and
'cratered' such ratings powerhouses as 'Heroes' and 'Fringe',
or the blip on the screen of such as 'Alcatraz'.

Not to pick on sci-fi, I never understood the longevity
of 'Friends' (stupid plots followed by even more stupid
plots) although 'Seinfeld' of the same era was always
fresh and cleaver. Here it is over a decade later and
anyone who watched series tv of that era instantly knows
what you're talking about if you mention, say, 'Soup Nazi'.
Any such cultural landmarks from 'Friends'? No.
Mosly a collection of actors whose careers are spiraling
down into drug addition and worse, followed by the
writers and producers.

I could also mention the '24' clone series 'The Following'
(where torturing people always yields accurate information)
and others, but it hurts my brain. It's the 'cotton candy'
of series tv, sweet but eventually rots your brain.

There are a couple other 'cable' series that after a couple
of seasons still hold some promise ('The Walking Dead',
although the utter stupidity of the main characters has to
usually be attributed to their 'southern' upbringing or
the writers failures en masse) and some others that may or
may not 'reappear' on the schedule after a season or two.

Who knows.

[messy]

Getting way off the original topic, but....


Most series television over the past several years has been
afflicted by the 'Twin Peaks' desease, where the story 'arc'
hasn't been fully fleshed out and the writer/producers seem
to be simply 'winging it' from episode to episode, either
straight from the beginning or after a couple of seasons
(at best) of following the original idea before grinding
into silly plot twists and the like (see: LOST), although
the original idea kernel didn't really make much sense.

Or a lot of others. Even the vaunted 'Stargate' eventually
ran out of fresh ideas (or fresh writers), and the handwriting
is already on the wall in huge letters for such as
"Revolution' (and probably for 'Under the Dome') and
'cratered' such ratings powerhouses as 'Heroes' and 'Fringe',
or the blip on the screen of such as 'Alcatraz'.

Not to pick on sci-fi, I never understood the longevity
of 'Friends' (stupid plots followed by even more stupid
plots) although 'Seinfeld' of the same era was always
fresh and cleaver. Here it is over a decade later and
anyone who watched series tv of that era instantly knows
what you're talking about if you mention, say, 'Soup Nazi'.
Any such cultural landmarks from 'Friends'? No.
Mosly a collection of actors whose careers are spiraling
down into drug addition and worse, followed by the
writers and producers.

I could also mention the '24' clone series 'The Following'
(where torturing people always yields accurate information)
and others, but it hurts my brain. It's the 'cotton candy'
of series tv, sweet but eventually rots your brain.

There are a couple other 'cable' series that after a couple
of seasons still hold some promise ('The Walking Dead',
although the utter stupidity of the main characters has to
usually be attributed to their 'southern' upbringing or
the writers failures en masse) and some others that may or
may not 'reappear' on the schedule after a season or two.

Who knows.

Completely agree with everything you said. I find tv shows dishonest. They're more like a product that wants to suck you in so you'll watch the next episode, and the next, etc.

[mjmacky]

Getting way off the original topic, but....

I had a feeling you'd discuss it in the context of terrible shows. The reason for that is because you have formerly spent an inadvertent amount of time on what the masses seem to enjoy consuming.

Let's just simplify and narrow the focus to some current series, you could speculate and analyze some of the following:
Archer, Children's Hospital, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Downton Abbey, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Louie, Luther, Maron, Treme, The Venture Bros. I have conveniently excluded anime (I am anxious for the return of Ippo myself).