Files Network: Temmuz 2010

Pirates Break StarCraft 2 Protection To Enable Offline Skirmish Mode

As we mentioned in a previous post, StarCraft 2 : Wings of Liberty is one of the most anticipated PC games of this year. According to various reviews floating around the net and from my own experience after playing the game for several hours, it looks like Blizzard had delivered yet another great Real Time Strategy (RTS) title. No matter how great the game was, it did not escape the eyes of pirates – SC2 was leaked on scene topsites and various file sharing sites on the street date itself (the game did ship with anti piracy measures including online activation and authentication over Battle.Net). Single player campaign was working on most cracked versions of the game but offline skirmish mode was broken in all of the early releases. Now, several days later, one of the oldest groups in the gaming scene have stepped up to release a SC2 version that has the single player component including skirmish fully working.

So far, many different leaked versions of SC2 have made their way onto file sharing networks across the world. Initially, a CloneDVD leaked on a well known pirate tracker – this was an untouched image of the original game and did not include any modified files. CloneDVD was probably the source for cracked releases that appeared next –first of which pre’d by group LIBERTY and then another by RELOADED. LIBERTY’s version did not actually circumvent the copy protection in the game. It appeared to use a built in function in the Starcraft 2 patching framework to launch the game, bypassing the authentication screen. This however lead to some issues and in some cases broke the game. RELOADED’s release on the other hand was better. It had the SP campaign working but still, skirmish play was broken. A method to unlock & enable skirmish mode on RELOADED release was posted on a leading warez forum but this included renaming game files and modifying registry entries.

Pirates however did not have to worry about skirmish issues for long – yesterday Razor1911 pre’d yet another version of SC2 which according to the group had skirmish fully working. Quoted below are PROPER notes from NFO:

StarCraft.II.Wings.of.Liberty-RELOADED left single-player 'skirmish' mode completely uncracked and had some wholly uncalled-for patching to the original game files (much like the web 'crack' having been around for some time) thereby modifying in-game menus. We felt this game deserves a proper release, so here's ours which:

enables you to play all single-player missions including AI ('skirmish') ones

does NOT alter ANY of the original game files

will (most likely) work for future game updates

lets you use your legally bought game key at any time

contains a nifty 'keytro' (keygen/cracktro mix) for your enjoyment.

The release seemingly works but some people are apparently having problems with the keytro. Due to the method it uses for patching game data, lots of anti virus software are detecting it as a virus (false positive if you got the file from a reliable source). If it keeps crashing you may have to run it in a sandboxed environment such as by using Sandboxie software. Some folks also seem to get the error message “Offline Play Authorization Required – To enable offline play connect to Battle.net …..” when trying to launch a game after patching.

On a side note, no crack out there will allow you to play online multiplayer over Battle.net. It requires an original StarCraft 2 key and you’ll have to buy the game to get one. Speaking of buying, this game is well worth the money – there’s tons of stuff to do in the purchased version (achievements, unlockables, multiplayer features) and if you are an RTS fan, we recommend buying the game over pirating it any day.

P.S. - You may download the StarCraft 2 cracktro from Razor1911 Demo Division homepage located at http://www.razor1911.com/demo
Note: This does not include any cracked/modified StarCraft 2 executable files (and it’s not the keytro). It’s just an animation which introduces the release which in scene language is called a cracktro.

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100 Free Invites To The Horror Charnel (THC) Private Torrent Tracker

Some good news for fans of Horror, sleaze and cult movies. We are giving away 100 free invites to one of the best specialized horror trackers on the net – The Horror Charnel (THC). This is our 3rd invite giveaway for THC and if you missed out on the first two, here’s yet another chance to get in. First of all we apologize for not being able to do this sooner – it was arranged months ago but got delayed mainly due to laziness from our part :P Anyways if you still don’t know what THC is, it’s a great source for downloading horror themed films. From slasher movies, grind house, zombie movies to flicks about clowns, puppets and mutants, THC tracks a large database of content you won’t usually find on general trackers or even on most dedicated movie trackers out there.

THC has been around for several years and it a veteran tracker run by an experienced crew. With over 6000 active members and ~3000 torrents, the site is one of the most stable in the BitTorrent scene. True, the it does not have a huge user base but The Horror Charnel is a community oriented tracker - almost all the existing members are pretty active here. In addition THC has interesting features such as ‘Free movie of the week’, ‘theme of the month’, etc all of which further promote leeching.

Running on a heavily modified TBSource tracker script, THC’s visual theme is highly related to the nature of content it tracks. From category icons to navigation menus to the names of site features (‘reanimated’ torrents), everything on this site is related to the horror genre (in a good way). It’s torrent index is incredibly detailed with each entry having category details, a tagline, a poster of the movie and a plot summary (which appears when you hover your mouse on a torrent title). The screenshot below captures part of THC’s main index:

I haven’t seen this mentioned a lot but THC is one of the few torrent sites to have a mobile version of their web interface. Look for the ‘Log Into THC Mobile’ link on the login page.

Coming back to the invite giveaway, we have a limited number of invites at our disposal (100 to be precise). These will be given away to the first 100 valid requests we receive. All you have to do is to send us an E-mail with the following format:

Subject of the E-mail should be ‘THC 03’. We use an automated software to filter the mails so don’t get this wrong.
In the body of the mail, please include
1. Link to the profile page on a private tracker of your choice– for example http://trackername.org/user.php?id=2447424
2. A current (should not be more than 1-2 days old) screenshot of the same profile page you linked to above. Screenshot should be un-cropped and un-edited.
Send your email to invites[dot]filenetworks[at]gmail[dot]com

If your E-mail has any of the required information missing, it’s likely to get ignored (here’s why). Note that it may take up to 3-4 days for us to send you back an invite code. Good Luck!

Special thanks to Azazel, Omen2002 and rest of THC staff for the support given.

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HD-Dump - DDL Forum For HD, BRRip, MicroHD Movies, TV Series, Sports & Documentaries

Over the last couple of months, we’ve featured quite a few Direct Download Link (DDL) forums specializing in HD content in this blog (HDMania, x264-BB, HD-UNIT3D to name a few) . HD-Dump is a brand new entrant to this particular niche and so far the site has done pretty well. It indexes all sorts of HD (and some non HD) content ranging from 720p, 1080p movies, BRRip, MicroHD and untouched TrueHD movies, TV shows to documentaries, anime and even sports. This includes scene releases as well as user uploads not usually found on the usual places such as scene torrent trackers, etc. HD-Dump is a clean forum with no advertisements, zero password protected files and no masked or encrypted download links. For those wanting to get in, registrations are currently open.

It’s been a few months since HD-Dump launched – there hasn’t been much hype about it in the community but the forum has slowly been gaining momentum. It currently has 1700+ members and 1200+ threads – not too bad for a niche forum just starting up. The site seems to be run by an experienced staff panel who’ve had previous experience with moderating other DDL forums. According to one of the site’s administrators, HD-Dump was created to serve as a forum dedicated to user friendliness and cleanliness:

Sick of password trouble, RARs inside RARs, and wasting time searching for a single movie among duplicate threads?
Here's what you'll find at HD-Dump: none of those common download annoyances for end-users.
1. No passwords whatsoever allowed in any files.
2. All files must be single extraction.
3. Each movie has only 1 thread. You want to post your links? Post it in the existing thread.
Having a one-thread per movie rule makes a forum much easier to browse and much easier on the eyes. When looking for a specific movie, you shouldn't have to go through a dozen threads to find what you're looking for.

As mentioned earlier, HD-Dump tracks a lot of HD content including 720p, 1080p movies as well as untouched, TrueHD Blu Ray movies. In addition, the site indexes some non HD content such as BRRip and MicroHD movies as well as HDTV shows. A screenshot capturing some of the available content categories can be seen below:

HD-Dump seems to be very well maintained and moderated, so movie threads are kept updated, and dead links are removed almost immediately upon being reported. The forum is ad-free and very clean. There is little limitation to what mirror links can be posted (as long as the links are direct), although there is zero tolerance for spamming and posting infected content. You won't find too many Rapidshare links at HD-Dump right now, but Hotfile, Megaupload, Netload and even Fileserve seem to be pretty popular here.

Registrations for HD-Cump are currently open – if you are interested, you may create an account without the need for an invite code.

Site Name: HD-Dump (http://hd-dump.org)

Signup URL: http://hd-dump.org/register.php?do=addmember

Special thanks to Roy for the heads up.

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CCFBits Open Registration Day – Huge HD Torrent Tracker

Several months ago, there was a time when CCFBits was always open to the public. This however is no longer the case – the site has long since gone invite only and its doors remain shut for the most part. If you still haven’t become a member of this tracker, good news is that today is the open registration day at CCFBits. In case you were wondering, CCFBits is a huge private BitTorrent tracker indexing thousands of high definition (HD) releases. It’s a torrent site in the same league as HDChina, CHDBits, etc and is without a doubt one of the most famous trackers based in China. Good download speeds, internal encoder groups, tons of torrents including movies, TV shows, documentaries and lossless music, decent leecher activity on indexed torrents – CCFBits pretty much has all the qualities you’d look for in a good HD tracker.

Open registration day at CCFBits was announced sometime back but so far it has gone unnoticed in most BitTorrent news and invite forums. The site’s current maximum user limit is set to 20000 and at time of this post there were 19100 registered members, leaving around 900 free slots. Note that this user base is pretty strong for a specialized tracker – there aren’t many private HD sites around with 20k members. The indexed torrent count is equally high - with over 17500 active torrents (last time we reviewed this site back in July 2009, it only had 700) being tracked by CCFBits’s private tracker, it’s a site that can rival the likes of HDChina and TorrentGui in terms of content.

Speaking of content, this site tracks Chinese/English movies, documentaries and TV shows - bulk of the releases are English, released by renowned scene/p2p groups such as ESiR, CtrlHD, EuReKA and CTU. In addition, they do have their own internal encoder groups such as Pa@Ph, OurSky, YYets, XTM, StTVG and YDY. It’s worth mentioning that CCFBits is home to some huge HD torrent packs – for example there is a movie pack that exceeds 500GB in size. Download speeds on CCFBits is generally very good and there are a lot of freeleech torrents around making it easy to maintain a good ratio.

While it has excellent content, CCFBits does not have the best interface around. Primary interface language is Chinese (with English labels for main functions) and every torrent has it’s name spelt both in Chinese and English. Note that presence of a Chinese name does not mean the torrent is actually Chinese – most of the time it’s English. Chinese characters makes the layout somewhat cluttered (at least for those us who don’t know jack whack about Chinese) but its a negligible issue. If you want you can translate the site into English with the help of Google Chrome browser.

How to translate CCFBits to English with Google Chrome

Download the latest version of Google Chrome browser from here.
Visit CCFBits signup page through this link: http://ccfbits.org/signup.php.
Once the page is done loading, Google Chrome will automatically display several translation options (the message will be displayed just beneath the address bar – you can’t miss it).
Choose the auto detected settings (should be Chinese Simplified Hans to English) and hit translate. If you get the message ‘Translation failed due to server error’ keep re-trying.
Once translation of the first page is done, you can configure Google Chrome so that it automatically translates all TTG pages without prompting you. Select the ‘Options’ button (in the translation help popup) and select ‘Always translate Chinese Simplified Hans to English’ from the drop down menu.

As said earlier signups will be open for a limited time only – it can either remain open throughout the day or it might close before that if the site hits its max capacity. Get in while you can – this is a decent HD tracker.

Site Name: CCFBits (http://ccfbits.org)

Signup URL: http://ccfbits.org/signup.php

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StarCraft 2 Wings Of Liberty – Fix Install Issues, Load Savegames, Black Screen & More

One of the most anticipated games of the year, Starcraft 2 - Wings of Liberty, has finally been released to the masses. This latest installment of Blizzard’s award winning Starcraft franchise comes after 12 long years since its predecessor. No doubt a well developed game, Starcraft 2, like all other PC games to be released so far, is not perfect – judging by the mails we have received , there seem to be at least some people who are having trouble getting the game to run. As usual, here’s our routine troubleshooting article for Starcraft 2 – we hope to address common issues players around the globe seem to be having with this immensely popular title. Note that this article is a work in progress – more fixes will be added as they are discovered and note that some of the mentioned solutions may not work for all hardware configurations.

Cannot install StarCraft 2 or can’t load the game

Some folks have run into various issues when trying to get the game to launch. It some times won’t install, the installer will exit with an error or may hang during the installation process. Even if you do get the game to install, sometimes you will have trouble trying to launch it. The game will simply do nothing after the main exe is clicked. Here’s a workaround you can try to solve similar issues:

Create a new folder in your hard disk drive.
Go to computer->Organize->Folder and search options->View and make sure ‘Show hidden files and folders’ is selected.
Copy all files from the Starcraft 2 DVD (either from mounted image or physical drive in tray. If you are using Daemon Tools and can’t see all files, try opening the image with WinRAR) in to the folder you just created.
Run the SC2 installer from the copy in hard disk drive.

Note that on certain hardware configurations, the installer will take a long time to complete.

Save issues – Cannot load savegames

The games save system does not appear to be working for some. From what I have seen, this issue is common on various pirated copies of SC2 that are floating around in file sharing networks. There is however a workaround for the saved games loading issues.

Navigate to your Documents directory and locate the Starcraft 2 subdirectory.
Navigate to the save directory.
Here you will see a list of saved games files. Double click on any of these files and the game should launch and start loading the particular save you clicked on (SC2 save files which have .SC2Save extension are associated with the game executable).

Unable to create a Battle.net account

I’m not sure if this is fixed yet but Blizzard’s online registration pages for Battle.net seemed to experience issues a while ago. The last step in reg process appeared to be broken and apparently some people have got random errors when trying to submit. If you encounter such issues, the problem is really at Blizzard’s end and you’ll have to wait for a fix. However, you can try to bypass the issue by filling all fields in the last page, including fields that are not marked mandatory and submitting the form again.

No single player campaign or skirmish mode, black screen errors, etc

Again, these problems are commonly seen in the leaked, pirated version of the game that’s floating around. The release by group LIBERTY does not actually circumvent the copy protection built into the game. It appears to use a built in function in the Starcraft 2 patching framework to launch the game, bypassing the authentication screen. This is not a great approach and may be a cause for unstable behavior.

If you are a pirate playing the leaked build (single player), you still need to have a very stable connection to Battle.net servers. If you don’t have internet connectivity, if your internet connection is unstable or if you have blocked access to battle.net by any means, the game might crash or black screen issues will materialize.

Note: this article is a work in progress. More fixes will be added as they are discovered.

Note: Please do not post links to torrents or cracks here

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SoundArea – Huge DDL Forum For Music Albums, Singles & Music Videos

I have been a member of SoundArea for several months but only really got the chance to check out the site yesterday. I signed up long ago as per a tip sent in by one of our readers but for some reason missed out on trying out the site after signup was complete. Since then, I’ve been getting weekly E-mails from them and these usually read something like “300 new albums were uploaded to SoundArea today”. Now 300 albums is quite a lot to be uploaded in a single day - after getting several of these, I finally decided to check what the fuss was about. For those who are confused – SoundArea is not a BitTorrent tracker – it’s a direct download link (DDL) forum. It indexes download links to full music albums, single tracks, radio shows and even music videos. The site is huge, both in terms of user base as well as content – if you download music online, this is a destination you’d not want to miss.

SoundArea is not some newbie forum that launched yesterday - it’s been online for nearly 4 years, since 2006. During these four years, SA has managed to amass a huge user base exceeding 230000 members. Needless to say, activity is pretty high on this forum with over 413000 threads currently online. For a site to attract this many number of users, it has to have something special. SA indeed looks attractive to those who seek to download music, especially as the site indexes several hundred new music album releases every day.

Both scene and non scene content (this includes user uploads added in response to the requests sections on site) is indexed on SoundArea. You can find music related to almost any genre here – in fact the main forum has ~40 sub sections, one each for a different music genre such as Rock, Pop, House, Trance, Techno, DnB, Metal, Punk, Ska and many more. In addition to music albums & single tracks, SA indexes a lot of radio shows and music videos as well. Screenshot showing part of the ‘Genres’ section on main forum can be seen below:

Something I noticed while browsing the forum was that they heavily advertise their VIP program (you need to donate to become a VIP) – for example, there is a special page on SA which lists all new music releases uploaded in a particular day. Full access to this feature is only available to VIP members. Non –VIP members can of course download latest albums – but they’ll have to discover them by browsing the main index.

As it is customary with DDL forums, SoundArea does not host any of the music files itself. These are uploaded to one click hosting sites such as HotFile and only the verified download links are shared in the forums. These are pretty reliable and I did not come across any broken links so far.

SoundAre has always been a forum that’s friendly to new users – it’s currently open for registration and anyone can create an account. In addition to open signups, SA maintains a good social presence with their official Twitter and Facebook pages.

Site Name: SoundArea (http://forum.soundarea.org)

Registration URL: http://forum.soundarea.org/index.php?app=core&module=global§ion=register

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List Of BitTorrent Invite & News Forums Open For Registration

Ever since it’s inception back in 2001, BitTorrent has attracted millions of users who utilize it daily for transferring large files online. Public BitTorrent sites and private torrent trackers have nowadays become so popular that almost everyone including novice PC users seem to use them. However, it wasn’t only torrent sites that benefited from the file sharing boom – BitTorrent news and invite forums also grew alongside trackers. These sites serve as a gateway into most closed private torrent communities by helping their members obtain invites. Most such forums cover BitTorrent news, invite requests, giveaways, seedbox discussions, tracker recruitment, tracker reviews and even guides and tutorials related to various mediums of file sharing. This post summarizes information about 12 such forums that are currently open for registration.

Not all sites listed below have direct open signups – some are open via IRC interviews, some via online invite applications and some even via E-mail requests. For sites that were featured previously on FILEnetworks Blog, we have included a link to the full review so that interested readers may get more info before signing up.

FileSharingTalk (FST)

Site Name: FileSharingTalk (http://filesharingtalk.com)
Signup URL: http://filesharingtalk.com/register.php
Statistics: 101500+ members and 375000+ threads
Description: Of all BitTorrent forums out there, FST probably has the largest community. Discussions on this site are not limited to BitTorrent and covers a wider scope including DDL forums and other mediums of file sharing. Invites, drama, flaming – you can find everything here.
Full Review: N/A

TrackeReactor

Site Name: TrackeReactor (http://trackereactor.com)
Signup URL: http://trackereactor.com/register.php (invite applications)
Statistics: 10000+ members and 41600+ threads
Description: One of the oldest invite forums around, TR recently merged with Tracker-Invites.us and the merger should bring in some much needed activity into the site.
Full Review: [Click Here]

Torrent-Invite

Site Name: Torrent Invite (http://torrentinvite.com)
Signup URL: http://torrentinvite.com/forum/register.php
Statistics: 36000+ threads and ~7800+ members
Description: An underrated but decent BitTorrent forum with an active user base exceeding 4000. Covers tracker news, open signups, seedbox tips and the usual threads you’d find on any other similar forum. TI has some great tracker reviews which go beyond the usual ‘tracker name + few screenshots’ model.
Full Review: N/A

InviteThe.Net

Site Name: InviteThe.Net (http://www.invitethe.net/forum)
Invite Request Address: invitethe[dot]net[at]gmail[dot]com
Statistics: ~850 members and 6000+ threads
Description: A new and growing BitTorrent discussion forum which has done pretty well so far. Signups are not directly open but you can send a mail to the address specified above and request for one.
Full Review: [Click Here]

VoiceThe.Net (VTN)

Site Name: VoiceThe.Net (http://www.voicethe.net)
Invites IRC Channel: irc://irc.etiv.in/VTN-Interview
Statistics: ~600 members and ~7500 threads
Description: VoiceThe.Net is a new BitTorrent news and invites forum that’s part of the ETiV network. A fully fledged BT news site in its own right, VTN also acts as the gateway into their big brother, ETiV (see full review for more information)
Full Review: [Click Here]

The Pirate Society

Site Name: The Pirate Society (http://www.thepiratesociety.org)
Signup URL: http://www.thepiratesociety.org/register.php
Statistics: 9200+ members and 50000+ threads
Description: A decent BitTorrent forum but has been having a bit of a rough time lately with internal conflicts. Direct signups are closed but new members are able to sign up by going through IRC interview (channel details on register.php page linked to above).
Full Review: [Click Here]

TTInvite

Site Name: TTInvite (http://ttinvite.com)
Signup URL: http://ttinvite.com/register.php
Statistics: ~2300 threads and ~250 members
Description: Another new BitTorrent invite forum. Covers everything from tracker invites to seedbox discussions. Could use some new blood as it’s not the most active forum out there.
Full Review: N/A

NeonScene

Site Name: NeonScene (http://neonscene.net)
Signup URL: http://neonscene.net/register.php
Statistics: 175 members and 3400 threads
Description: Was a fairly active BT community back in the days when it launched. The activity however has gradually gone down over time – anyways the site is not dead and is open for signup.
Full Review: N/A

FeelTheFlow

Site Name: FeelTheFlow (http://www.ratioproof.us)
Signup URL: http://www.ratioproof.us/index.php?action=register
Statistics: ~1000 threads and ~1100 members.
Description: A relatively new BT forum that has a nice looking design. Unfortunately, not much activity yet.
Full Review: N/A

Forum.Torrents.Ro

Site Name: Forum.Torrents.Ro (http://forum.torrents.ro)
Signup URL: http://forum.torrents.ro/register.php
Statistics: 14000+ threads and 64000+ members
Description: A Romanian torrent forum with a huge user base. Most of the threads are in Romanian language and English speaking users will have to use a translator to figure this out.
Full Review: N/A

BTSkins

Site Name: BitTorrent Skins (http://btskins.net)
Signup URL: http://btskins.net/index.php?app=core&module=global§ion=register
Statistics: ~150 members (at last check)
Description: BTSkins is not really a tracker invites forum – it’s target audience is developers, designers and other enthusiasts who are interested in building torrent sites. You can discuss and download templates, hacks & mods for all major tracker codebases here. Read full review for more information.
Full Review: [Click Here]

We have tried to include as many sites as possible in this update but not all open signup forums were included (for example, we did not list some sites that were almost dead). If your favorite file sharing news forum is not listed above, please leave a comment to this post or send us an E-mail (filenetworks[at]gmail[dot]com) so that we may be able to list it in the next update (it should be open for signup either directly or indirectly).

P2P Elite – Pre Database & Ranking System For Non Scene, P2P Release Groups

Several years ago when file sharing networks were not so popular, most of the leaked content on the internet (and on streets) were released by groups in the warez scene. However, as BitTorrent and other P2P mediums attracted the masses, another set of release groups outside the scene were born – these are commonly referred to as P2P groups or Non Scene encoder groups. Unlike the scene who loathed P2P, these new groups embraced file sharing sites – some of them even started to release exclusively on torrent trackers and DDL forums. The service we are featuring today, P2P Elite, revolves around such non scene release groups. It’s a multi role site which will act as a pre database, group ranking system, NFO & screenshot repository, etc related to releases by non scene groups whose roots lie in P2P networks. It’s an ambitious new project that’s currently in testing phase – the idea is definitely interesting.

A very detailed description of P2P Elite was sent in to us by it’s developer, KoOlWaReZ. Since his description pretty much says everything about the service including the concept behind it and how it functions, we are directly quoting parts of his email below:

[BEGIN QUOTE]

I'm a web developer and I'm putting together a site. I've been coding it for a week now and trying to open the doors and get more users to come and check it out. Help me find bugs etc.

The idea behind it is: Giving the P2P a 'Pre' Database, like Scene w/steriods. Not only does it have a full feature database, which release groups can post the title, pictures, nfo, samples of the releases but soon it will feature a voting/ranking system which is being put in to rank release groups. Video, Audio, Compatibility. Voting continues until something better gets released, then the scores get tallied up; for a winner. Example, a CAM gets released by a group. That groups gets points for being first. Then every other group will release theirs... members of the site chooses which is best by ranking video, audio, compatibility. Then when a TS gets announced "pre" then the voting automatically stops and the winning CAM gets a green check and the release group gets points (respect points) comments can be left for releases also.

Now with the profile system, release groups get a profile like myspace. Members of the site also get profiles and it has added features like being able to use myspace layouts, post youtube videos on there profile and post them into the system for ranking and comments, PM other users or groups, release group list with ranking, you can have open debates with the community, chatroom built in and soon to be built into the release groups profile pages, built in instant messenger to chat in real time between each other, file sharing, picture sharing with private pictures option.. so much more and more coming.

What kind of benefit release groups can get from your my site?
They get a home. They get a profile, they get a central place to interact with the public. They get to have fun with a lil competition with the ranking and being first.. They get (soon) there own sub domain they can edit through there profile http://groupname.p2pelite.com, they get there own chatroom, just click a hotlink in there profile... its a win win.. when enough release groups signup and start pre'in there releases in teh database to thousands watching and waiting.. and by the way I have SMS messenging already coded in so users can get texts to there cell phones when something new hits in the database that they been waiting for.. then eventually your releases wont be knowned til you do take part in the new system. Also RSS and email notifications.

Current release groups who have helped and bug tested are (members):
Rx, 420Demons (*THC*), PrisM, iMAGiNE, KiNGDOM, FLAWL3SS, MAGNET, n0ir, [NoFS], Blackjesus...
and its only been a week. (going to be featured in nfo files as a contact point)

[END QUOTE]

First thing that comes to mind when talking about a service such as P2P Elite is security. A central location that tracks all P2P release details? Downloading movies online isn’t legal in most countries and uploading them is usually an even more serious offence. What steps have been taken by P2P Elite to ensure the security and secrecy of participating groups? We directed these questions at KoOlWaReZ, the site’s developer – his response is quoted below:

During the current testing phase, writing the script and bug testing its being hosted on a canada server with logs completely turned off on server side and on the profile script the site runs on. Most groups can use a public proxy like www.coverproxy.com if they feel there security is compromised until it gets moved on a NL or Russian server after testing and script completion. Most release groups use a VPN service to mask there IP anyway. I actually let a group borrow a VPN line during this testing phase as a appreciation for helping. Group members are joining my site for a home base, a contact point, anonymity? Not sure what you mean by that, but if it refers to security that is already the most important part in this developing community. Everything I code, all the decisions I make will be 100% about the security of my friends and fellow members of my site. I do know and talk to many of these release groups everyday, so obviously to have this many release groups at my site already they must some what trust me.

As we said earlier, P2P elite is an interesting project. If it kicks off, this could become a really cool service for both P2P release groups as well as their fans. The site and some of its services such as the pre database are currently live in beta testing phase. You can check them out using the links below:

P2P Elite Homepage URL: http://www.p2pelite.com

Pre Database URL : http://pre.p2pelite.com (Beta – Login as guest)

Thanks to KoOlWaReZ for the heads up.

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10 Great Resources For Scene Releases, Pre Times, NFOs and BitTorrent

An Update On Blackcats–Games Giveaway 03, Open Signups & More

Blackcats-Games (or BCG), is without a doubt one of the most talked about torrent sites in the BitTorrent community. It’s probably the most popular specialized games tracker on the planet, with more than 12500 games torrent in its index. Additionally, BCG is set to celebrate its 7th birthday this August making it one of the oldest private trackers in existence. Blackcats is a private tracker and it hasn’t had an open signup in more than two years – the only way into the site has been through member referrals (an alternative to invites). Speaking of referrals, some of you might remember we conducted two BCG giveaways several weeks ago, during which more than 1000 referrals were given away to our readers. Still, it was not sufficient to meet the heavy demand - we had earlier promised a 3rd BCG giveaway which we never got around to doing (yet). This post is an update on what’s happening with BCG giveaway no. 03 and it also sheds some light on various rumors going on in BT forums of a possible BCG open signup in near future.

When we conducted referral giveaways earlier, one of the major issues we faced was the referral code expiration. Potential new members had to use a referral within 6 hours after generating or the code would expire – this was sometimes not feasible with the E-mail based model we used to distribute referrals coupled with time zone differences, etc. However, BCG’s coders were working on a fix to extend this time limit to 24 hours and we decided to postpone the giveaway until this was done. Good news is that the time limit has now changed. However, we are still not able to do the giveaway as BCG is currently changing their login page structure. The previous login page has temporarily been taken down and right now there is no way for possible new members to input their referral codes. The following update should clarify this further:

The fake page has gone, and with it the only way to use your referrals, so I have taken the liberty of removing everyones referrals until a new way can be coded, hopefully in the next few days.
We will probably be opening up the site as well for the 1st time in 2 years or so, but again I am not sure when that will be.
In other news altinertia is back coding with us again, as he has been away, he has seen what is working and what is not working, so i believe he has a few ideas to change things around a bit. I do not have any idea what these are, or when they will get coded, and I know for a fact, some will hate whatever he does, and others will love it (we just cant please everyone, and quite a lot of members hated SP when we put it on, and some still do. and I may even hate a few things) but I am putting my trust in him to make this site even better than it already is.
So expect to see some changes over the coming days/weeks/months on here, and I am guessing (but it is just a guess) that they will include the achievement table in one way or another, so thats a bit of a heads up that if you want the benefit of whatever is going to get done, start looking at your table.

So here’s the deal - Now that the referral expiry limit has been set to 24 hours, we are able to proceed with giveaway no. 03 as soon as BCG’s new referral input mechanism goes live. As for the open signups, we will post a new article and let you know the signup URL as soon as this happens (or if it happens). Real time updates will be given on our Facebook and Twitter feeds as usual. You can keep in touch by following us on Twitter, becoming a fan of us on Facebook or by subscribing to our RSS feed.

In the meantime, potential new BCG members can educate themselves of tracker rules, how BCG’s seed points system works, lists of allowed clients, etc by reading the official Blackcats Games wiki.

[Click Here] to visit Blackcats Games Wiki (login not required)

Again, sincere thanks goes to BCG owner stoi for the continuous help he’s provided so far with referrals, site updates and other information.

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Updated R5, R1 Release Dates For August, September & October 2010

Here’s the latest entry in our series of posts relating to latest R5 (DVD for region 5) and R1 (DVD for region 1) movie releases. Knowing the R5/R1 release date of a movie in advance can be pretty useful if you download movies online - it gives a hint as to when a leaked copy of the said movie will hit file sharing networks worldwide. We have listed tentative R1/R5 release dates for more than 50 movies below – list of R5 entries is filtered and does not include movies that are already leaked online (in DVDSCR, DVDRIP or BRRip quality). List of R1 however does include some movies that are already available on BitTorrent sites, DDL forums and FTP sites. Note that release dates change often – they get postponed and pushed around for reasons best known by movie publishers (hence the need for regular updates such as this).

R5 Release Dates (July – October 2010)

July

Knight And Day - July 29
Icarus – July
Exit Through the Gift Shop - July

August

Furry Vengeance August 12
Predators - August 19
Salt - August 26
Centurion - August 26

September

Grown Ups - September 2
The Expendables - September 9
Robin Hood - September 14
The Karate Kid - September 16
Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming - September 16
Please Give - September 23
Machete - September 23
Cemetery Junction - September 30
Four Lions - September 30
Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back
Prince Of Persia – September
An Invisible Sign of My Own – September

October

Rust - October 7
Resident Evil: Afterlife - October 7
The killer inside me - October 7
30 Days of Night: Dark Days - October 14
Takers - October 22
The Other Guys - October 28
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - October 28
Jonah Hex – October
Nightmare on Elm Street – October
Get Him to the Greek – October
Toy Story 3 – October
You Again – October
Iron Man 2 – October

R1 Release Dates (August – October 2010)

August

After Life - August 3
Diary of a Wimpy Kid - August 3
Kick Ass - August 3
To Save A Life - August 3
Open House - August 3
The Ghost Writer - August 3
Date Night - August 10
Death At A Funeral - August 10
Letters to God - August 10
Multiple Sarcasms - August 10
Triage - August 10
The Good Heart - August 10
My Name is Khan - August 10
The Joneses - August 10
Furry Vengence - August 17
The Last Song - August 17
Cash - August 17
Burning Bright - August 17
Cemetery Junction - August 17
Skellig: The Owl Man - August 17
Survival of the Dead - August 24
Group Sex - August 24
The Back-Up Plan - August 24
Abandoned - August 24
2:22 - August 24
The Square - August 24
Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? - August 31
Harry Brown - August 31
Babies - August 31

September

MacGruber - September 7
Holy Rollers - September 7
Solitary Man - September 7
Prince Of Persia - September 14
Letters To Juliet - September 14
Ondine - September 14
Just Wright - September 14
Paper Man - September 14
Boogie Woogie - September 14
Robin Hood - September 21
Sex In The City 2 - September 21
Stomp The Yard 2: Homecoming - September 21
Iron Man 2 - September 28
Frozen - September 28
The Killer Inside Me - September 28
Superman/Batman: Apocalypse - September 28

October

Get Him To The Greek - October 5
The Karate Kid - October 5
Secret Of Kells - October 5
30 Days of Night: Dark Days - October 5
How To Train Your Dragon - October 12
Oceans - October 19
Mirrors 2 - October 19
You Don't Know Jack - October 26

If you are wondering where we get R5/R1 release date details from, no we don’t gather this information ourselves. Instead, we use several well known online sources that have proved to be reliable in the past to get the updated info. For example, the source for this article was the release date threads on PeerAccess (which seemed to be the most up to date at time of this post). PeerAccess is a DDL forum and you can see a detailed review of the site along with screenshots here.

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R5 Movie DVD & Blu Ray Release Dates For June, July & August 2010 – Updated

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Learn How To Build A BitTorrent Tracker From BTDev Forum

File sharing has grown so popular that it’s no longer all about BitTorrent trackers and invite forums. Some of you might remember BTSkins.Net, a forum we recently featured on this blog. BTSkins was not another invite forum – it was rather a central location of information sharing for BitTorrent tracker developers. Today’s post is about a similar site; BTDev.net. BTDev is a forum that teaches you how to build BitTorrent trackers. It’s target audience are torrent tracker SysOps, coders, programmers, designers and pretty much anyone else who is interested in building a BitTorrent site. From source codes of popular tracker scripts to basic coding tutorials, this forum has a lot of resources for those who are interested in the inner workings of a BitTorrent tracker.

Launched sometime in May 2010, BTDev currently has ~250 active members. Considering that most of them are somehow involved in a torrent tracker project (design, development, etc) it’s a pretty good number for a niche forum such as this. Of course, you don’t have to be tracker staff to join BTDev – registrations are open and anyone can join, even mere enthusiasts or folks who are just getting started with tracker codebases.

As mentioned earlier, BTDev has a lot of resources for torrent site designers and developers. Mods, tutorials, themes, sample projects and lots of other stuff relating to almost all tracker codebases including TBDev, Gazelle, Xbtt, Xbtit, TorrentStrike, PHPMyBitTorrent & TorrentTrader can be downloaded from this forum.

Apart from codebases, a separate section of the forum is dedicated towards various other services (IRC, mail servers, etc attached to a BitTorrent tracker. Then there is another sub forum for coding basics - this can be useful for novice programmers. Resources in this section are not only related to tracker development but also for programming in general.

Registrations for BTDev are currently open. If you are interested in building torrent trackers, how they work or if you are already involved in a tracker project, you might find this forum pretty useful.

Site Name: BTdev (http://btdev.net)

Signup URL: http://btdev.net/index.php?action=register

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KickAssTorrents 2.0 Launched – New Look, New Features

When it comes to public torrent indexers, there are only a handful sites that can rival KickAssTorrents. KAT, which rose to popularity after the shut down of Mininova, has constantly been improving their operations not only by adding hundreds of new torrents daily but also by introducing tons of usability features quote frequently. It hasn’t been two months since we talked about KAT’s latest improvements and add-ons in a blog post and they’ve gone on and launched the public beta of KickAssTorrents 2.0. Needless to say this is a major milestone for the BitTorrent indexer and KAT 2.0 has so many new features that it took site staff three blogs posts to cover the whole list :p It was interesting to note that some of new additions and changes were ‘social features’ – hell, now there’s even a Facebook like ‘wall’ on KickAssTorrents user pages.

A summarized list of all KickAssTorrents 2.0 features is provided below:

Friends – One of the social features in v2.0. You can now add other KAT members as your friends.
The Wall – Users now have a Facebook like wall where they can leave updates. Others can comment or reply to these.
New design – KAT now sports an even more polished look with a new site redesign.
EZTV and Limetorrents integration – Both these groups have teamed up with KAT so you can now download their latest releases directly from KickAssTorrents itself. EZTV is a leading TV show indexer.
Comments subscription – You can now subscribes to a particular comments thread. This is very useful if you want to stay up to date on discussions.
Google account support – Aside from Facebook connect, KAT now supports login to the site using a Google account.
Revamped ‘Search Trends’ and ‘People’ page.
Search enhancements - Tabbed search, movies and TV auto recognition and more
Multi language support – KAT now supports 11 languages other than English. More will be added soon, with the help of existing members.
Messages – Messages are no longer limited to the forums. They can now be sent to any user who’s on KAT.
Improved FAQ
Idea box – now you can communicate your feedback on using the site to the administrators directly.
New forums (http://www.kickasstorrents.com/community/) and social groups (http://www.kickasstorrents.com/community/socialgroups/)
Numerous bugfixes including fixes for cross browser issues
Other minor usability features

You can read full details of all features (along with some screenshots) in KickAssTorrents blog posts located here, here and here. For a list of new features added prior to KAT v2.0, please refer to this post.

While most in the BitTorrent community would welcome KAT’s improvements with open arms, this wouldn’t be such good news for anti piracy companies. A torrent site which they helped grow (by shutting down Mininova) is taking things to the next level – let’s hope they don’t try and take KAT down.

[Click Here] to visit KickassTorrents homepage

Convert & Rip DVD, DVB Captures & Blu Ray Video Into MPEG-4 With StaxRip

There are hundreds and thousands of software out there that allow DVD/Blu Ray ripping. However, most such applications I have come across had one major flaw – non user friendly interfaces. While most of these software did a great job of encoding video, they were not very usable for the average PC user. StaxRip is a video conversion utility that tries to overcome this problem – the app has an easy to use interface which even noobs can easily figure out. Of course, it does have advanced features for ‘pros’ but ripping video or converting between video formats is a pretty straightforward task with StaxRip. Speaking of converting, StaxRip lets you easily convert your DVD's, DVB captures and many more other video formats into MPEG-4 with codecs like x264, XviD and DivX.

As you can see from the screenshot above, encoding/ripping video with StaxRip is very simple and can even be done in three clicks – select source, select output profile and select destination file. When you do this, the software will fill it’s advanced settings with default values. You can of course tweak these to your liking if you are an experienced encoder. StaxRip supports a number of difference input/output video formats, some of which are listed below:

Video Output Formats: x264, XviD, DivX
Audio Output Formats: AAC, MP3, AC3, Vorbis
Container Output Formats: MKV, AVI, MP4, DIVX

StaxRip is free, open source and is quite popular in the encoder community. For those who want to learn of it’s advanced features, there are plenty of guides and tutorials scattered across the internet.

Download

[Click Here] to download the latest version of StaxRip from the official download page

[Click Here] to read StaxRip tutorials in project homepage (scroll to Where do I start? section)

Underground Gamer – BitTorrent Tracker For DOS, Windows & Console Games Now Open

Underground Gamer is a very unique BitTorrent tracker. Unlike other games trackers which mainly focus on new releases, UG seems to deal more with retro, classic content. It indexes a lot of DOS, Windows and console games including some rare old games packs which are almost impossible to be found these days. In addition to PC and Console games, UG is known for emulation and ROM files - two elements essential for playing console games on a personal computer. Launched several years ago, this sister site of bitGamer has been able to win the hearts and minds of many PC and console gamers over time. For those who still aren’t members of this great tracker, we have some good news. In a rare move, UG has opened its doors to recruit 2000 new members – site wide free leech has also been activated in celebration of open signups.

In the last couple of months, you may have come across instances where UG appeared to be open for signup. The site was indeed open to the public at random times but this was almost always due to automatic account deletion. In other words open signups lasted only for a few minutes. An extended, official open signups hasn’t been announced for months until now:

Underground Gamer Presents…
The Grand Reopening Freeleech!
We are proud to announce that Underground Gamer will be once again opening its doors to new members! In tribute to this wonderful moment, there will be a site-wide freeleech starting this Friday (23 July) and lasting until the following Friday (30 July).
In addition to the freeleech, we will also have some other goodies to announce soon so keep your eyes peeled!
We are limiting signups to less than 2,000 slots with a hard cap at 30k. There will be no better time to signup than now so please take this opportunity to tell all of your friends about Underground Gamer!
// UG Staff

Underground Gamer has been online for several years and has grown both in terms of user base and content over time. Being a niche games tracker focusing on retro content, you’d expect user and torrent statistics of this site to be somewhat on the low end – this however is not the case. With over 28500 registers users, it’s actually one of the largest games trackers out there – one that can even rival Blackcats Games in terms of size. As of 20/7/2010 UG tracked over 11500 torrents, again an impressive amount for a specialized tracker.

As highlighted earlier, UG deals primarily with retro, classic games. This includes old DOS based games, classic Windows games as well as a lot of ROM files for a number of different gaming consoles ranging from ATARI 2600 to NES, SNES, Genesis, MAME, NeoGeo, Amiga, etc. A ROM file is basically an image of a game cartridge which can be mounted using a compatible emulator software – this lets you play your favorite console games on the PC (an example based on SNES may be found here). Coming back to the content on UG, they even have some pretty impressive fullset ROM collections for many different consoles from the golden era – these can be found in their Collections page. Screenshot below should cast a clearer picture of the type of content indexed on this tracker:

Signups for UG are currently open. As stated in the quoted news post above, they will only remain open till the site hits its max user cap of 30000. This leaves around 1200 more free slots remaining – a lot of people are signing up as we speak so hurry and get in while you can. If you like retro PC games, ROMs and emulation, this is definitely a site worth checking out.

Site Name: Underground Gamer (http://www.underground-gamer.com)

Signup URL: http://www.underground-gamer.com/signup.php

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Special thanks to Peter Vig for the heads up.

5 Best DDL Forums, Release Blogs To Download & Watch TV Shows Online

Downloading TV shows online is hugely popular among file sharers these days. Over the years, we have discussed on this blog a number of websites that specifically offer TV show downloads. This post lists 5 of those which stand out from the rest – each featured site has an impressive amount of content as well as a decent set of usability features which makes discovering and downloading shows easier. Note that all sites mentioned in this post are either direct download link (DDL) forums or variants of release blogs. BitTorrent trackers are not included and will be featured in a different article. As usual, we have included up to date statistics, registration URLs, Twitter and RSS feed details, links to detailed reviews, etc along with each entry. If you download TV content online (let it be single episodes or full season packs) here are 5 excellent resources you’d definitely want to check out.

Reading the full review of a site before signing up is recommended.

Tvfreeload

Site Name: TVFreeload (http://forum.tvfreeload.com)
Registration URL: http://forum.tvfreeload.com/ucp.php?mode=register
Stats: 57200+ members and ~20000 threads
Description: TvFreeLoad is probably the largest online DDL forum specializing in television shows. Be it single episodes or full season packs you are looking for, chance are that TFV has some direct link to it hidden among it’s many forum threads. Files are usually uploaded to multiple hosting services and are available in multiple video formats. Recommended for every TV show fan.
Full Review: [Click Here]

Dedicated TV

Site Name: Dedicated TV (http://www.dedicatedtv.net)
Registration URL: Registration not required
Stats: Thousands of episodes relating to 1370 shows
Description: Dedicated TV is without a doubt an excellent resource for TV related downloads. With it’s clean and well organized interface, automatic uploaders, detailed download description pages with screenshots & multiple download links from different file hosts, DTV is clearly a leader in this particular niche. For a detailed list of site features, please refer to the full review.
Full Review: [Click Here]

TV-Dump

Site Name: TV-Dump (http://tv-dump.org/)
Twitter Feed: http://twitter.com/tv_dump
RSS: http://tv-dump.org/feed/
Stats: 12600+ releases
Description: Another excellent site for TV episodes and seasons. Not only does TV-Dump index direct download links to shows, it also lets you watch some of the episodes online. Files are usually uploaded to two one click hosting sites (Depositefiles and x7.to) – links are verified and reliable. Read the full review for more information on how this site works.
Full Review: [Click Here]

ev0.in

Site Name: ev0 (http://www.ev0.in)
Twitter Feed: http://twitter.com/ev0dotin
RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ev0in
Stats: 11800+ releases
Description: ev0 is another leading DDL indexer for HD and non HD TV releases (mostly scene). At a glance, ev0’s interface looks dead simple. However it does an excellent job of integrating direct download links with 3rd party sites such as IMDB, TV.Com and TVRage. In addition, it also enables users share links over social media platforms includign Twitter and Facebook. Downloads are usually uploaded to multiple hosts, giving the users a choice as well as extending release lifetime.
Full Review: [Click Here]

CouchTater

Site Name: CouchTater (http://www.couchtater.com)
Registration URL: http://www.couchtater.com/register.php
Stats: 16200+ members and 11500+ threads
Description: CouchTater indexes links to TV shows aired on major US TV networks such has CBS / NBC / ABC, Fox / The CW, Comedy Central, HBO/Starz/SHO, FX / SyFy / USA, TNT, Discovery / A&E, History/NatGeo, etc. It’s a content rich forum which indexes both individual episodes as well as full season packs.
Full Review: [Click Here]

If you know other similar online destinations for free TV series downloads, feel free to share them in comments.

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