| This topic contains information on EVERYTHING involved with downloading fansubbed anime, as well as then what you'll need to do in order to watch it (I'm not talking about "open it up in your media player", I'm talking about CCCP and what media player to actually use). I'm no expert when it comes to most of this kind of thing, far from it. So I'll provide as much information as I know, which has so far proven to be enough to be able to get and watch anime without any problems. Getting Anime The way I see it, there are three main ways to acquire anime using the internet. All have their ups and downs, however there's a good chance that one method will always pull through if you can't find a particular anime using the two other methods. Hence, that's why I want everyone to be aware of all three. Direct Downloading Direct downloading, commonly abbreviated to DDL, is simply downloading something directly from a website through your browser's downloader, or through a download manager if you have one. This is probably one of the most unreliable methods of downloading anime, since it can cut out more easily than the other two methods, and you may be unable to resume your download. Therefore, direct downloading is a bad idea if you're planning to download movies or large OVAs, and better for single episodes. Below is a list of websites (including descriptions of each) that you can use to download anime, divided into two categories. Megaupload and Similar Websites Most direct downloading websites simply provide links to downloads at sites such as megaupload and rapidshare, though more commonly megaupload (because it's better). A lot of people dislike using megaupload since to gain the best speed and download limits you need to pay for a premium account. However, you can still register a free account, and it reduces the time you have to wait to download an episode, and it also slightly boosts your download limit. Also, I have found that if you download episodes one after another from megaupload, you rarely reach your download limit. Anime-Stop http://anime-stop.webs.com/downloads.htm Probably my favourite DDL website. It's very reliable, making sure that broken uploads (megaupload links that have been taken down/don't work anymore) are replaced, and it's also very fast with currently airing anime. Plus it has the largest selection I've seen yet. DownloadsAnime http://www.downloadsanime.com/free-anime-downloads Though good, this website is very unreliable, since there are a heap of broken uploads throughout the anime it provides. GetFansub http://getfansub.com/wiki/Default This website acts as a half-wikipedia for anime and half-download center for anime. It's very similar to DownloadsAnime, in terms of reliability unfortunately. Aniweb Blog http://aniweblog.org/ I don't really use this one much, since it has a limited range of downloads, and most of them are in .rmvb format anyway, which I try and avoid. However I have used it for shows like Ouran High School Host club, since it was the only website that I could find with all of Lunar's releases. Sites' Own Servers There's probably a better term for this, however this is basically what I understand it to be. What I'm talking about is download episodes directly from a website, without being linked to an external website (ie. Megaupload). To my understanding this puts a large strain on that site's server/s, however it's nearly as good as megaupload, sometimes better, from my experience. Loli Power http://www.lolipower.org/ When you visit this site, you'll see a link up the top of the page that says "Anime". This is what you click to access their downloads page. Lolipower doesn't have an extraordinary range, however it's great in that it uploads only the best quality releases of the anime it provides for downloading. AnimeEDEN http://www.anime-eden.com/anime/index.htm This is very similar to Anime-Stop in terms of its range - it's pretty extensive. However it differs in that you need to register an account first before you can download (it's free, so it's fairly simple and easy to do), and also it uses its own servers for downloads as far as I can tell. ChauThanh http://www.chauthanh.info Similar to Anim Eden, but with a slightly smaller collection (however with some rare anime), yet better speeds. Also registration isn't required. The websites listed above are of course not all of the DDL websites for anime out there, however these are just the best there are in my opinion. I've visited most that are out there. There's another one, AnimeA, however a lot of anime there have been blocked off from downloading for some reason (I assume licensing). Torrents Torrents are basically batches of something (be it videos, music, pictures, w/e) that are download from various peers around the world that have what you're downloading somewhere on their computer. Primarily, it's a method of sharing all kinds of data between people, without the use of websites, and it's my favorite method of getting anime. There are various bit torrent applications that you can use to download torrents with, however the best I've come across (well, I've only ever used two) is uTorrent. I originally used Azureus, however it took up a heck of a lot of CPU, and the layout was confusing and just no where near as simple and easy to use as uTorrent's. For those of you who don't have this yet, just get it here - http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/ It'll probably be very confusing when you open it up the first time round, however everything is self-descriptive, and all you really need to know how to do is get the .torrent files from the internet, add them into your uTorrent application (top-left), and then let them download. If you search around google you'll probably find a basic tutorial fairly easily. Oh, and something else you should know: Seeds = people that have the entire file that you're trying to download, and are uploading it to everyone who's downloading it. Peers = people that are in the process of downloading the file, and at the same time sharing the parts they already have to others like them. Leeches = people that are download the file, however not sharing it to others at the same time. Anyway, back to the anime side of things. As I said, downloading anime via torrents is my favorite method, because you download entire shows in one hit, and you have a heap of control over when and how you download it. For example you can start/pause it whenever you want, have as many downloads as you want going on at once, and you can set download speed limits. There are plenty of other perks as well. A lot of people dislike using torrents since they can't download at the maximum speed that their connection allows. However I've never experienced this to such an extreme degree, since my connection is generally crap anyway (1024/512kb/s) thanks to living in Australia. Still, so long as you have plenty of seeds OR you're downloading via Boxtorrents, then you should be fine. Plus you can just leave the torrent downloading overnight if you want. Boxtorrents http://www.boxtorrents.com If you haven't gathered already, this is my favorite and in my eyes the best anime torrent website there is - by far. Firstly, its staff are SMART, in that they upload the best fansubbed releases 99% of the time. Secondly, you can always get great download speeds from them for some reason. I don't know why, because I'm not that smart in this field, however it doesn't matter - the point is great download speeds, even if there are only 9 seeds or something. The thing with Boxtorrents is that in order to be able to search their collection of torrents, you first need to register an account. This is where it gets complicated, since if you download a .torrent whilst logged into your account, Boxtorrent's tracker (basically their torrent server (I think)) will take note when you download the torrent, and how much of the torrent you upload. In doing so, Boxtorrents keeps track of your download/upload ratio. If your download ratio exceeds your upload ratio by too much, then you literally are unable to download through Boxtorrents torrents unless you seed (upload) more. There is, however, a way to bypass this. And that is to register an account, search for the anime you're after, go to the page that contains the .torrent download link, copy the url for that page, log out of Boxtorrents, paste the url into your browser, go back to the page and download the .torrent whilst logged out. THIS way you can download as much as you want without worrying about your download/upload ratio. Boxtorrents is of course aware of this, and they allow this to get more people downloading from them. However they do prefer it if you seed a lot as well, since otherwise the system begins to break and you'll be left with dead or dying torrents. Another alternative is of course google searching the anime you're after until you find a direct link to its page on Boxtorrents. Either method is fine. Other Torrent Websites By "other torrent websites" I'm referring to sites like 'ThePirateBay', 'Mininova', 'TorrentReactor', etc. These are your standard torrent sites that have available torrents of EVERYTHING, including music, movies, and of course anime. Compared to Boxtorrents, these websites are much more unreliable, however they're a lot less trouble to use and don't require that you register. However this comes at a price - seed ratios are generally a lot worse, or at least that's what I've found in my experience. Also even if there are quite a few seeds, they might be difficult to connect to and hence to download what you're after. Still, they're not that bad, and they seem to work well for a lot of people. I guess it comes down to trial and error to discover what works for you best. Scarywater + Fansubber's Websites Another way to get torrents is from fansub groups' own websites, or scarywater. This is more reliable than the "other torrent websites", so if you don't like Boxtorrents, then this method is the next best thing. By fansubbers' own websites, I mean just that - a lot of groups provide batch torrents of anime they've subbed, as well as torrents of individual episodes sometimes. Scarywater is a fansub group torrent website where a lot of fansub groups upload torrents of their releases. If you go to http://a.scarywater.net/ you'll see a list of fansub groups. Just search through the list until you find the group you're after. Click the link and you'll see a list of their releases with links to their associated .torrent files. There's also... Tokyo Toshokan http://www.tokyotosho.info/ This is the site that all the groups post their torrents to. This is not a private tracker like Box Torrents. It is more of a compilation site for newly released torrents for all things anime. IRC IRC, aka Internet Relay Chat, is a program that has been around for AGES, since late 1980s. In simple terms, it's a huge network that serves the purpose of instant messaging between large groups of people, in what are known as 'channels'. Since this isn't meant to be about IRC itself, and since my knowledge in relation to this is extremely limited, I won't go any further. Although IRC's main purpose is chatting amongst groups of people in their own channels, it has other roles that it can perform. One of these roles is to transfer all kinds of files to those who want them, by means of what are known as XDCC Bots. Most fansubs groups have their own IRC channels, either for convenience only, or to serve as one of the ways to get releases from that group. In order to get these releases, that group must upload them onto their own XDCC Bot, which resides in their channel and is usually recognisable by its name. Common examples of the names of XDCC Bots could be "group's name|Releases", or "[group's name]Releases", or "groups name|*somerandomword*". By 'somerandomword' I mean some bots I've seen have names like "Kelloggs", "Akira", "Fabulous", etc. Basically, it should be fairly obvious which is the XDCC Bot. But before we go any further, you need to download an IRC client, of which there are more than one (I don't know how many there are, but I know this much). The one I use, and the one which seems to be the most common, is mIRC. However I don't use the standard mIRC. Instead I use a fansub group, Anime-Supreme's, pre-edited mIRC client, the download link of which can be found here. It could be different for some people, however I find this to be more easy to navigate, and overall more user-friendly, than the standard mIRC client. The only real downside to it is that as soon as you connect it automatically joins you to Anime-Supreme's IRC channel. However this is also a good thing, since it connects you to the rizon server, which is the most common server used by fansub groups on IRC, so you don't have to worry about connecting to rizon using other, more tedious, methods. Once you've downloaded and installed that client, you should be prompted to fill out some details when you first open it. Make sure you fill out your nickname and alternate nickname, and make them something abstract because there can't be two people with the same nickname on a particular server (I think it's server), and when there is, you're required to change your nickname using some commands that are annoying to try and understand if you don't know much about IRC. Ok. So, once you've done all that, you can start going to group's channels and download from their XDCC Bots. In the "Best Fansubs to Get" topic, you'll see links to fansubbers' IRC throughout the topic in brackets. Basically just copy these links into your browser and it'll automatically redirect you to open up the channel into IRC. Once you're in the group channel, and you've found which is the XDCC Bot, you can begin downloading from it. If you can't find which is the XDCC Bot, then post in the Questions/Concerns topic and I'll help you out. To download anything from an XDCC Bot, you need to enter in the following command into the chat window: /msg *name of bot* xdcc send #*file number* ...then hit enter. To find out the file number of the file you want to download, you first need to get the XDCC list of that particular bot. The XDCC list is usually file number 01 of the bot, so you can try and enter in: /msg *name of bot* xdcc send #1 and the list will be sent to whichever folder you set for your IRC downloads. Take note, most of the xdcc lists need to be opened up through WordPad in order to be viewed properly. If you try this, and file number 1 of the bot is not its xdcc list, then try going to that fansub group's website, and search around for "xdcc list" or "xdcc bots" or "IRC bots" or something like that. If you still can't find the XDCC list, then post in the questions/concerns topic. Now, that's about all you really need to know in order to get anime via IRC. I'll add anything else if I think of it. Watching Anime Watching anime is quite simple really. You download the episode, you double click it. Bang, you're watching anime. However it doesn't always go as smoothly as this. Quite often the "subtitles don't show", the "sound doesn't work", or "it's just not working at all". This is usually the correct or most up-to-date codecs aren't installed, or the wrong media player is being used. Below is information on what should be installed, and what you should use when watching anime. CCCP CCCP stands for Combined Community Codec Pack, and it is brilliant. It contains basically everything you need to watch all kinds of video and audio, and hence it's perfect for watching anime. If you don't have it installed yet, download and install it NOW. Installing CCCP installs a number of different programs along with it. You don't need all of these, however install them anyway, and make sure when you get to the part where you have to tick heaps of boxes and such, select "media player classic" for everything you can. This leads onto the next section... Media Players In terms of media players to watch anime with. Media Player Classic (MPC) is the best, easily. It's simple, easy to use, and it runs nearly every file type (.avi, .mkv, .ogm, etc.). A lot of people like VLC player, but I don't see how it is at all better than MPC. It doesn't play nearly as many file types as MPC, and I've experienced problems with it such as it closing when I try and skip to a certain point later on in a video. Anyway, enough bitching. All I'm saying is that you should watch all your anime using MPC. You should have no problem doing just that once you've installed CCCP. Remember, if you have any problems with any of the above things, just post in the questions/concerns topic and I, and/or hopefully some other members, will help you out. That concludes this topic. If there's anything that you think is missing, or anything that is poorly worded, or...anything you have a concern about, you know where to go. |
simo000May 10, 2009 2:56 AM
| you should add "The KMPlayer" under media players. it has the best support for mkv files and subs in general than any other player I have tried including MPC |
 |
shinigamidono said: you should add "The KMPlayer" under media players. it has the best support for mkv files and subs in general than any other player I have tried including MPC It does? I couldn't figure out how to get it to follow ASS/SSA formatting tags. It always used it's own font settings for all subs. |
| out of the ~100 series i have watched in mkv format on KMPlayer, i have never had to make any sort of adjustments to such settings ... + you can always change its own font settings if you need to |
|
| I'll look into it when I get some time - I've been really busy lately and haven't had much time for this club. D: |
| KMPlayer is good if you are knowledgeable user, but being that it is an introduction type thread i think it would be better to keep it simple. Suggestions: Private Server DDL Site http://www.chauthanh.info Similar to Anime Eden, but with a slightly smaller collection, but a little better speeds. Also Registration isn't required...i think Torrent Site http://www.tokyotosho.info/ This site is what keeps me going. This is the site that all the groups post their torrents to. This is not a private tracker like Box Torrents. It is more of a compilation site for newly released torrents for all things anime |
| Thanks man, I've added those two to the first post. That DDL site looks great, glad you mentioned it. :D |
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