BitTorrent + RSS = TiVo
A great idea over at ScottRaymond.net is the combination of two technologies that would enable him to keep up on TV programs he likes, without needing to even own a TV. BitTorrent allows you to share the downloading of large files with thousands of other people that have the file but there's no easy way to search for new torrent files. RSS is a summary file for sites that can let you know when a site or page has updated automatically when using a RSS reader.
If BitTorrent sites used RSS, you could essentially have much of the functionality of TiVo ("Give me all new episodes of Six Feet Under this year") on your personal computer, without the need for television. Of course, the legal issues around this type of technology would kind of make it impossible to do for very long, but it's perhaps a glimpse into the future of where entertainment could be going.
I just wish PVRs could use RSS as the program feed data. That way you would not be locked in to a vendor (which is the precise reason why this won't happen with TiVos). You could get recommendations from other people the way you subscribe to a weblog's RSS feed.
Posted by: Fazal Majid | January 05, 2004 at 12:07 AM
Scott pounds the nail through the wood. When I read Dan's article, it didn't click; I knew the formulation was wrong, but now how to fix it. Seems obvious now in retrospect. First website with an RSS feed of available .torrent files wins. Stick in a few ads, and you have a business.
Posted by: Ole Eichhorn | January 05, 2004 at 01:22 AM
My primary use of BitTorrent has been to download episodes of CSI: Miami I missed because of conflict with Third Watch while I was watching Monday Night Football. In an on-demand world, why wait months for reruns?
What would be extremely cool is if all three technologies would work together.
Posted by: Michael Pate | January 05, 2004 at 10:27 AM
I would really like a 'BTVCR' i asked around in the #BT channel on EFNET a few times for a script or a program that catches the torrents but nobody liked the idea.
My fast vision for this would be a linux installer cd like the firewall product Smoothwall(.org) you download an iso check if your hardware is compatible and install the software from that cd, it installs small linux distro with the needed video players and hooks up to the shared network. And watch.
Posted by: Diederik | January 05, 2004 at 03:04 PM
A while back I was reading an article about the delivery of RSS files via BitTorrent. They claimed that this was the way of the future, but I just didn't get it. BT for such small files just doesn't make sense.
But this is just the opposite and is a great idea. The delivery of torrents via RSS is certainly something that I'd love to see happen.
Posted by: Scott Johnson | January 05, 2004 at 04:08 PM
Check out Konspire. The project may be dead - but its open source, so...
Posted by: Oliver | January 06, 2004 at 09:52 AM
We Europeans use eDonkey/Overnet a lot. You can get new releases from the Sharereaktor site in RSS format at:
http://www.sharereactor.com/sharereactor.rdf
I don't think they have feeds by category though, so this one will get you notices about everything from TV series to warez to porn.
Posted by: Olivier Travers | February 28, 2004 at 11:59 AM
http://varchars.com/rss/ has torrentz.com and suprnova!
Posted by: thom | March 11, 2004 at 10:44 AM
Buttress is in beta, but works
http://www.sailes.co.uk/buttress/
Posted by: mark | April 18, 2004 at 05:34 AM
My primary use of BitTorrent has been to download episodes of CSI: Miami I missed because of conflict with Third Watch while I was watching Monday Night Football. In an on-demand world, why wait months for reruns?
What would be extremely cool is if all three technologies would work together.
Posted by: Daniel October 01, 2004 at 08:34 AM
I've been commenting on the intersection of TiVo and podcasting on my blog:
[1] http://redmonk.net/archives/2004/11/09/tivocasting/
[2] http://redmonk.net/archives/2004/11/14/tivo-podcasting-ii-getting-my-religion/
FYI
--Steve
Posted by: Steve Ivy | November 15, 2004 at 08:14 AM
I created a BitTorrent blog client. It's a plugin for Azureus:
http://writtorrent.sf.net
Thanks for checking it out!
Thomas
Posted by: Thomas | November 16, 2004 at 06:25 PM
i've been using BT for over 3 years to get all the new shows and episodes of my favorite showsbecause it takes a few years for them to reach overseas where i live. i'd be bored out of my skull without BT.
Posted by: catflap | December 25, 2004 at 03:03 PM
Wake up and check out Videora.
http://www.videora.com/en-us/
Too cool.
Posted by: GoatFeathers | January 29, 2005 at 03:55 PM
Hi everybody,
if you are interested in downloading .torrent files using RSS feeds, you can also give a try to my own software : TvMistress -> http://darkar.free.fr/tvmistress/.
It's really simple to use, no need to be a computer geek to use it ;). It uses RSS v2 feeds to automatically download your favourite shows.
Plus it has various features like show search on yahoo! and more...
It's free and available for Win32.
For any questions -> darkar@free.fr.
cya
Darkar
Posted by: Darkar | April 14, 2005 at 01:57 AM
Seen this? http://tapeitofftheinternet.com
Posted by: Eric Sandle | November 01, 2005 at 10:59 AM
A while back I was reading an article about the delivery of RSS files via BitTorrent. They claimed that this was the way of the future, but I just didn't get it. BT for such small files just doesn't make sense.
click link
http://www.ipod-video-converter.com
Posted by: ipod video converter | December 17, 2006 at 07:21 PM
I agree. This article is 3-4 years old now and there's still no great offering for this.
Posted by: Steve Webb | May 06, 2009 at 03:24 PM