It wouldn’t be wrong to say that BitMeTV, TVTorrents.Com and Tv.Torrents.Ro (now accessible via FreshOn.tv) hold the top three spots when it comes to private trackers for TV shows. Out of these three BMTV and TVT.Com are the most sought after trackers due to their closed signup policy. Getting into Tv.Torrents.Ro was considered relatively easier due to their random open signups. However, TVT.Ro have brought their invite system back online and since then, open signups seem to have disappeared. If you were looking forward to get into this tracker, perhaps this giveaway should help. Keep in mind that TVT.Ro now comes with an overhauled interface, faster navigation and many other upgrades.

TV.Torrents.Ro aka Freshon.TV

TVT.Ro is probably overshadowed by its competitors BMTV and TVT.Com. However the fact remains that it’s still a great TV tracker which indexes almost all major television series aired in the US. In terms of user base, it rivals BMTV with nearly 20k active members. It’s torrent index has over 8000 torrents as opposed to BMTV’s 16000+ and TVT.com’s 12000+. Seeder/Leecher activity on indexed torrents at TVT.Ro is pretty good with popular single episode releases having even 800-900 seeds each.

Tv.Torrents.Ro recently went through massive changes and no, it’s not just a new skin as many people seem to think. The entire site seems to have been re-coded and now the loading and navigation speeds are faster than they used to be. A brief rundown of new features, rule changes, etc is given below (quoted from a forum thread):

Site completely rewritten (html/css/php code).

Stuff added

  • Announcement system.
  • Bookmarking system for torrents.
  • The .torrent files can be downloaded as text files.
  • Privacy level: can hide some profile fields from other users.
  • Users receive an email after 40 days (unparked) / 90 days (parked) of inactivity announcing them that their account will be disabled in 10 days.

Rules

  • Unparked and no upload/download accounts are disabled after 50 days of inactivity.
  • Parked accounts are disabled after 100 days of inactivity.
  • New bbcode tags added - [align] , [audio] , [video] (see http://freshon.tv/tags.php for details).
  • Reseed request: if there are 3+ seeders the function is unavailable for that torrent.
  • Requests are deleted after 90 days.

Signup

  • New accounts can be created only based on an invitation from a member.

And the site now looks much, much better than before. New usability features such as the additional browse page for HD only torrents, too have been added. A screenshot might explain things a little better:

TVT.Ro screenshot

Now to the main topic – the invite giveaway. Freshon.tv admins have agreed to provide 100 free invitation codes exclusively to FILEnetworks readers. However, this will be a little different to our regular giveaways – you will need to provide at least two ratio proofs from trackers you are already a member of. Following conditions apply to ratio proofs:

  • Sites don’t have to be l33t but images should be un-cropped and un-edited. They should clearly show your upload:download ratio on the tracker.
  • All screenshots need to have the text ‘filenetworks’ on the browser address bar.
  • Please do not send attachments. Upload the screenshots to an image hosting service and send the direct link. Some free image hosts - ImageShack, PwnMyPic, etc.
  • Screens and images you send will never be made public.

E-mail your requests to invites.filenetworks@gmail.com and be sure to set the subject as “Tv.Torrents.Ro”. In the message body, please clearly indicate the E-mail address you want the invite sent to (along with links to ratio proofs). Invites will be handed out on a first come, first served basis – our supply of codes is limited so only the first 100 requests will be filled. Also, please note that since we have to check and send invitation codes manually, it might even take 2-3 days for your code to arrive. Good luck!

Special thanks to Freshon.tv administration.

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Blu – Twitter client with a great interface

Posted by TEAM FILEnetworks | 10/25/2009 | , | 6 Comments »

No matter how hard you try, you cannot keep Twitter out of the picture – this is again a Twitter related post. Huge popularity this micro blogging tool has lead to the birth of a number of different 3rd party desktop clients for the service. Up until now, we’ve mostly been using TweetDeck and web interface to update/monitor FILEnetworks Twitter account. But that was until we discovered Blu. Blu has one of the best interfaces we’ve ever seen on a Twitter client – it’s simple, it’s easy to use, it’s flashy and it’ll look great on your Windows 7 or Windows Vista desktop.

Blu Twitter Client

Unlike other similar tools such as TweetDeck and Twhirl, Blu does not run on the Adobe AIR platform. Instead, it utilizes the Microsoft .NET framework 3.5. It doesn’t have as many features as some of the other Twitter clients out there but it does have the basic functions (@replies, favorites, automatic tinyURL generation, direct messages, replies, retweets, status updates, etc) required by a regular Twitter user. Best thing about Blu is its flashy and animated UI - this makes the available features very much accessible. Downside to this is that the application takes up a significant amount of RAM. On my Windows 7 desktop it usually takes about 50-70MB of system memory which would be ‘a lot’ on most low end systems .

Two features I’d like to see included in the next version of Blu is the ability to resize the UI and the ability to minimize the app to system tray. We Tweeted these as suggestion to @blueapp and we were told they’ll be implemented in upcoming Blu v2. We don’t know if this will really happen or not but at least they cared enough to reply. 

Download

Blu is free software and it’s not bundled with ads or any other crapware.

[Click Here] to visit official download page to download the latest version of Blu

Related Articles

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Wow Ntorrents is open after what seems like a lifetime. This is without a doubt one of the best resources on the net for Nintendo games downloads. Ntorrents tracks a large selection of games for a number of different Nintendo consoles such as the Wii, GameCube, Nintendo DS, GBA. N64 and more (they now have an XBOX360 games section for X360 fans as well). This tracker hasn’t had an open signup in months. If memory serves correct, last time nTorrents opened up was back in late 2008, almost an year ago. Now here’s the good news – public registrations at NTorrents has been opened for a limited period and if you were looking forward to get in, now is the perfect time.

nTorrents

Running on the Gazelle codebase, Ntorrents has one of the best looking interfaces among private torrent trackers. User interface is sleek, has smooth navigation and is very well organized. NT actually was one of the very first private trackers to migrate to Gazelle. This site has been online since 2008 and has established a solid footprint in the BitTorrent community. As of 24/10/2009 Ntorrents tracks over 4400 active torrents and has a user base close to 10000 members.

A said earlier NT is primarily a tracker for Nintendo games. You can find and download games (and in some cases ROMs) for the following Nintendo consoles:

  • Wii
  • GameCube
  • Nintendo DS
  • GameBoy Advance
  • GameBoy Classic
  • NES
  • Super Nintendo
  • Nintendo 64
  • WiiWare

Note that the default ‘Torrents’ page will mostly show you Nintendo torrents. But this tracker does have a large number of XBOX360 torrents which can be accessed by the torrents2.php page (‘x360’ link at the topmost toolbar or via the xbox360 category in search). In addition to games, they have some books, OSTs and some game related movies indexed as well. Part of the torrent index can be seen in the screenshot below:

nTorrents index

Signups for NT are currently open – note that this does not happen often so be sure to make use of the opportunity. It is currently unknown till when open signups will continue. If by the time you read this article signups have closed, you can try their IRC invites channel linked to below.

Site Name: NTorrents (http://ntorrents.net)

Signup URL: http://ntorrents.net/register.php

IRC Invites Channel: irc://irc.ntorrents.net:6667/nt-invites

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Here on FILEnetworks Blog, we report about the birth of many torrent trackers. Unfortunately, this post is about the death of one. Smoking In The Rain (better known as SITR), a General/0Day private torrent tracker that has been online for ages, went down a few days ago due to a server failure. Sad part is that it seems the site too would die along with the server; there are no plans to bring it back online. Reasons cited by SITR’s administration regarding the decision involves lack of user activity on tracker as well as time constraints. Full message posted on site homepage is quoted below:

smoking%20in%20the%20rain_thumb%5B3%5D[1]

SmokingInTheRain.us

It's after long deliberation and with great saddness that we bring you the news that SITR will not be returning online.

SITR has unexpectedly suffered from one of it's servers failing completely and needing to be replaced. Considering SITR's prior state as well as the time involved to fix this, all we would be bringing back is the remains of dead site. After what have already been many months of struggle and digging in deep in order to hang on with SITR lacking the member support to survive, the means required to resolve this are just not there.

With a heavy heart towards those few that stood by SITR right up to it's last minute, we are left no other choice then to conclude that SITR's current situation is beyond repair and that our only option left is to shut SITR down permanently.

We're thankful to all of you that have been a member at SITR and appreciate the time you've spent here with us. No doubt all of you and us will find other sites to call our "home", but we do not wish to just turn off the light on SITR and leave all of you behind in the dark.

Any of you that may have questions regarding SITR's situation or Anyone looking for a new place to join is welcome at www.TorrentZilla.org .

Any of you that wish to come in and say your goodbyes are welcome to do on our irc. (irc.Lostirc.org #sitr)

S.I.T.R was one of the older private trackers and it was one of the first trackers to be featured on this blog. Since we first started reporting about BitTorrent sites back in end 2007/2008, SITR has been mentioned nearly 5 times. But all good things do come to and end. R.I.P. SmokingInTheRain. Thanks for the good times and you will be missed.

You may find some of our old articles about SITR below:

Thanks to 'CSS' and 'turbo man' for the heads up.

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At the rate things are progressing in the BitTorrent community, it wouldn’t be a surprise if someone launches a torrent tracker for cats. Thankfully, CatTorrent has nothing to do with cats. On the contrary, it’s an underrated private tracker that tracks lots of audiobooks and e-books. CatTorrent should not be mistaken for an E-learning tracker – it mostly indexes fiction and doesn’t have much educational content. In a world populated by thousands of general trackers, it’s really great to see the likes of CatTorrent around – if you love audiobooks/e-books, public registrations are open right now.

CatTorrent

There aren’t many sites similar to CatTorrent out there. Two torrent trackers that come to mind are My Anonamouse (Open via IRC Recruitment) and MakeGreatMusic. With MakeGreatMusic shutting down for good, the demand for CT probably went even higher. Some of you may never have heard about it but CT is not one of those isolated, ghost town of a tracker. The site tracks over 3600 torrents and has an active user base in excess of 2600 members.

As for the content, CatTorrent mainly tracks E-Books (in PDF, LIT and TXT formats) and Audiobooks. There are some good E-book collection torrents available, in addition to individual book downloads. CT probably has one of the largest audiobook libraries in a BT tracker with over 3000 torrents indexed under this category.

CatTorrent torrents

Download speeds are generally good on CT with some torrents (ones with an animated blue icon next to them) hosted on seedboxes. There is no use talking about pre times as this tracker mostly has non scene uploads. A seed bonus system also exists.

If you want to get hold of a CatTorrent account, it’s pretty easy. Signups are currently open. Be sure to read the rules before you start using the site, as always.

Site Name: CatTorrent (http://www.cattorrent.net)

Signup URL: http://www.cattorrent.net/signup.php

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Long time readers of this blog should be familiar with the name SceneRace (or ScR). ScR is a general/0day torrent tracker based on the gazelle codebase. Earlier today, visitors to SceneRace homepage saw a strange message. It claimed that one of ScR staffers ‘stole’ their server and they were betrayed. The site has since been down and remains to be offline at the time this post is being written. There was promise of site coming back online along with the launch of ScR v3 so we don’t think fans of the tracker have anything to worry about. Full message that was posted on SceneRace homepage is quoted below:

SceneRace_thumb2[1]

SceneRace's server has been stolen from us by our traitorous staffer [name edited] from the infamous Funfile tracker. He has the database with ips and emails, and undoubtably will try to use those to forward his malicious agenda, after a failed attempt at overthrowing kliik (ScR Founder). SceneRace.net WILL return soon, with the V3 codebase in action! Until then, do not trust any emails from the .org domain, which has been setup by juan to undoutably lure unsuspecting members into his trap. -The REAL SceneRace team

We don’t know how true this message is as we’ve not been able to confirm it with a ScR staffer – right now the above text is not displayed on homepage and seems to have been replaced with the word ‘Oops’ and the title ‘brb’. They probably will be back online sooner than expected? However it’s recommended that you change passwords ASAP, just to be on the safe side (if you are using the same password on ScR and on other trackers that is). When ScR v3 is launched, this blog will be updated.

UPDATE: ScR has confirmed that the story is indeed true.

“they didn't as such 'steal the server' more like tried to overthrow the sysops so then the decision was made to change the domain DNS. then as they had access to server (lower admins payed for it) they stole that.”

Related Articles

This story was first broken via our Twitter feed @filenetworks.

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Gaming and BitTorrent are two of the most frequently discussed topics here on FILEnetworks. Here’s a post we think would bridge gaming and torrenting together. Featured in this article are 11 private torrent trackers specializing in PC, XBOX360, PS1, PS2, PSP, GameCube and Wii games (and even ROMs and emulation). Between these trackers, you’ll pretty much be able to download any game you want. All of the sites mentioned in this article are open for signup – you will not have to beg for invites or wait in IRC recruitment queues. As usual, summarized information about trackers with statistics, links to full review and signup URLs are provided for your convenience.

Note that this is not a complete list of specialized games trackers that are currently online. Trackers that have closed signups were not included in the list. Also note that some trackers might close registrations after very short periods of time – if this happens, there is no other option than to retry later. As always, please take a moment to read the full review of a tracker before joining it – signing up for a site that you’ll never use is not going to help anyone.

GC Tracker
GameCube Tracker 
Site Name: GC Tracker (http://gctracker.mine.nu/)
Signup URL: http://gctracker.mine.nu/account-signup.php
Statistics: 5200+ torrents and 9400+ members
Description: Another tracker for Nintendo stuff. You don’t see this site mentioned often but it still is a pretty large games tracker. Games found are mostly for Wii and GC platforms.
Full Review: [Click Here]

GameUpdates
GameUpdates 
Site Name: GameUpdates (http://www.gameupdates.org)
Signup URL: http://www.gameupdates.org/signup.php
Statistics: 2000+ torrents
Description: GameUpdates is a unique public BitTorrent tracker. It tracks extras related to PC games such as mods, patches, demos, trailers, etc. No registration is required to download. Read full review for more information. 
Full Review: [Click Here]

Games BitShock
Games BitShock 
Site Name: Games BitShock (http://games.bitshock.org)
Signup URL: http://games.bitshock.org/signup.php
Statistics: 200+ torrents
Description: The games tracker from BitShock tracker family. Tracks both console and PC games.
Full Review: [Click Here]

My-Gamebox
My Gamebox 
Site Name: My-Gamebox (http://my-gamebox.com/)
Signup URL: http://my-gamebox.com/signup.php
Statistics: 7600+ users and ~800 torrents
Description: Another PC/Console games tracker that has been around for a while. Indexes some NZB files in addition to torrents.
Full Review: [Click Here]

Emuparadise
Emuparadise 
Site Name: Emuparadise (http://bt.emuparadise.org:6969)
Signup URL: http://bt.emuparadise.org:6969/index.php?page=signup
Statistics: 12100+ users and 1320 torrents
Description: Emuparadise is a tracker full of ROMS and emulators for many different consoles such as Playstation 1/2, PSP, XBOX . With the help of this tracker, you should be able to play some of your favorite console games on the PC. See full review for more info.
Full Review: [Click Here]

SeedGames
SeedGames 
Site Name: SeedGames (http://seedgames.org)
Signup URL: http://seedgames.org/signup.php
Statistics: 2600+users and 132+ torrents
Description: SeedGames is a games tracker that had a promising start. Growth has however slowed down – apparently the admins are working on a major site overhaul so this would be a tracker to watch.
Full Review: [Click Here]

GamesAccess
GamesAccess 
Site Name: GamesAccess (http://www.gamesaccess.net)
Signup URL: http://www.gamesaccess.net/signup.php
Statistics: 3300+ users and 485+ torrents
Description: GamesAccess is another decent games tracker that’s shown a lot of promise. Both PC and Console games are available.
Full Review: [Click Here]

XBOX360 Torrents
XBOX 360 Torrents 
Site Name: XBox 360 Torrents (http://360torrents.org/)
Signup URL: http://360torrents.org/signup.php
Statistics: 1600+ users and ~150 torrents
Description: Relatively new site – specializes only in XBOX360 games torrents.
Full Review: N/A

PS2-P
PS2-P 
Site Name: PS2-P Tracker (http://ps2ptt.com)
Signup URL: http://ps2ptt.com/signup.php
Statistics: 2775+ users and 350+ torrents
Description: Underrated but excellent resources for Playstation and Playstation portable games. Lots of packs and fullsets. Read review for more information.
Full Review: [Click Here]

Wii-Leech
Wii Leech
Site Name: Wii Leech (http://www.wii-leech.info)
Signup URL: http://www.wii-leech.info/signup.php
Statistics: ~1300 users and 280+ torrents
Description: Wii-Leech is a private tracker for Nintendo Wii games torrents. Impressive growth for such a young site.
Full Review: [Click Here]

vgmTorrents
vgmTorrents 
Site Name: vgmTorrents (http://vgmtorrents.net)
Signup URL: http://vgmtorrents.net/wp-login.php?action=register
Statistics: 350+ torrents
Description: Not exactly a games tracker – vgmTorrents is a video game music tracker. OSTs and other stuff may be found here.
Full Review: [Click Here]

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Well this came as quite a surprise but it’s true – The DVD Club (TDC) is currently open for signup. TDC is a private BitTorrent tracker that specializes in movies and TV shows in untouched DVDR and Blu Ray formats. Almost every file sharer is probably familiar with DVDRips and BRRips that are found in countless general/0-day trackers. The DVD Club is not just another tracker that indexes movie and TV rips – in fact, you won’t find any DVDRips, BRRips, etc on TDC. It only has untouched, non-ripped versions of DVDs (Or Blu Rays) that come complete with interactive menus, bonus features, extras and all the other goodies that usually aren’t available in rips.

The DVD Club

We’ve seen several new DVDR trackers popping up in recent times but TDC is one of the oldest trackers catering to this niche. It’s been online for more than three years and is a well established site tracker in the BitTorrent scene. As of 21/10/2009, TDC has an active user base of 8400+ registered members. That’s over 2400 new members added since January 2009, and the site was in invite only mode for the most part. Also keep in mind that TDC purges inactive members very frequently – collectors don’t stand a chance on this tracker.

Speaking of the content in TDC, you can find both movies and TV shows here. TDC initially began as a DVDR only tracker but it expanded with the arrival of Blu Ray, etc and caught up with the times. Now, untouched DVD5/DVD9/R5 (both PAL and NTSC) as well as x264 encoded Blu Ray movies are plentiful on this tracker.

The DVD Club screenshot

As you can see from the screenshot above, TDC has a nice clean layout, well organized search features and easy-to-identify color coded torrents. They are currently running a Halloween theme that’s why the category icons look a little odd. Speaking of Halloween, expect to find a lot of horror movies on TDC as they only recently ran the Horror Fest 2009 competition.

The DVD Club is usually closed for signup – there was a time it didn’t open up for years but open signups have been more frequent during end 2008 and 2009. However this is the first open registration in almost 4 months so they are still not that commonplace. Following is quoted from site homepage:

Open Sign Ups - [Oct-19-2009]

We are open until some undisclosed date/time, so hurry and let your friends know. Just remember cheating/trading will get you banned so think twice before doing it, we are watching
Also please use the site(leech/seed) if you are a collector you'll get disabled in no time WE WANT ACTIVE USERS!!!!!

What they say about collectors is true. If you don’t plan on using it, don’t even bother to register. But if you actually are a fan of untouched DVDR/Blu-Ray content, this is one of the best trackers there if for that niche.

Site Name: TheDVDClub (http://thedvdclub.org)

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

If you liked this tracker you may also like:

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About two weeks ago we posted about Sublight, a desktop software to automatically download matching subtitles for downloaded movies and TV shows. Developers of Sublight have come up with a new project, this time a web application developed using Microsoft Silverlight. The web based version of Sublight acts very much like it’s desktop counterpart (but with some limitations) – it’s primarily a subtitle search tool/downloader that is fully online. So what makes it different from hundreds of similar services already available?

Silverlight web

Unlike most Subtitle search engines and repositories out there, web based version of Sublight does not make users go through several pages to download a subtitle. Searching, selecting and downloading can all be done via a single interface, without interruptions. Languages can be filtered and options are available to optimize search with information such as year, season number and episode number (for TV shows), etc. All in all it’s a good alternative to those who dislike installing additional apps to fulfill simple tasks such as subtitle search.

Note that you’ll need the Microsoft Silverlight browser plugin for this to work. Also keep in mind that this is a very early version of web based Sublight – bugs may exist.

[Click Here] to visit Silverlight powered Sublight

[Click Here] to download desktop version

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CoExist (better known as CE) is a private music torrent tracker that’s gained some popularity over the past couple of months. Although most of you won’t remember, this is our second mention of CE here on FILEnetworks. First post was made back in February 2009, when they downgraded from Gazelle codebase to TBDEV script. Back then, there was talk of CE having open signups but this never materialized (well not ‘officially’ anyways) – the site remains closed to date. However if you are interested in getting in, the way is not completely shuttered. Did you know that CE still offers invites on their Invites IRC channel? It’s pretty easy to obtain an invite, provided that you pass the short interview.

CoExist Tracker

CE’s decision to downgrade from Gazelle to TBDEV came as a surprise for many as Gazelle was (still is) becoming increasingly popular in the world of BitTorrent. However, looking back several months later, it doesn’t seem to be a bad decision at all. CE now sports a sleek, clean interface that is very much user friendly; it looks very organized and there is no clutter. CE’s coders have customized the visual layout so well that it now has a really unique feel to it.

As we mentioned earlier, CE has almost always been an invite only site since it’s inception. As a result, it’s user base comprises of a limited number of registered members. When this article was being written, registered user count at CE stood at 1350. However when it comes to content, CE has no limitations. The site tracks over 3700 torrents of high quality English music spanning across 40+ genres. Following types of music releases may be found on this tracker: Albums, EPs, LPs, CDM, CDs, promo-CDs, Boxsets.

CoExist Screenshot

As the title of this article suggests, CE is a ratio free tracker. However, there are some rules that all downloaders must adhere to. Following is quoted from the ‘Downloader’s Code of Conduct’ which is a must read for all new members of this tracker (unless one wants to get banned):

Do not leave the swarm when you have completed a torrent until there are at least 3 other active seeders, regardless of your ratio on the torrent. Although we are a ratio free tracker, we do have hit & runs, which are logged. Further, you must be able to seed a torrent for 3 days within a 5 day period. If you feel you cannot accept this obligation, do not download the file. Hit & Run under these circumstances puts additional burden on the uploader and cannot be tolerated.

Note that average seed time also affects userclass promotion. Ratio system on CE is more or less replaced by the ‘Fame’ bonus system (which is waay cooler). There are multiple ways you can earn fame (seeding, etc). Once you earn enough fame, you can exchange them for various goodies at CoExist Record Shop. CE Record Shop is far more advanced that the average bonus exchange present on most private trackers. Goodies found in the record shop are placed in four categories; Unlockables, Raids, Invites and Disk Space. Some of the stuff that can be unlocked include hidden torrents, invites and even seedbox slots.

Currently CE is closed to the public. However, you can get invited for free if you pass the IRC interview. CE interview IRC channel details are as follows:

Site Name: CoExist (http://coexist.biz)
IRC Server: irc.j3di.org
Channel: #ce.invites
Direct Link: irc://irc.j3di.org/ce.invites
New to IRC? Read this first.

Good Luck!

Special thanks to ragincajun for the help provided.

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