5. Automating Downloads

A fairly recent addition to the Usenet scene is the abundance of download managers that essentially turn your PC or Server into a Usenet PVR.

These great tools will automatically manage lists of TV series, Movies, and Music for you and automatically search for the latest releases and keep your libraries up to date. All you have to do is tell it what you want to watch or point it at your current libraries and it will do the rest.

Unfortunately there isn’t 1 application that manages this all, but they are split out in Categories with each application specializing in a certain type of media.

TV Series Downloads

Sick Beard

Sick Beard has been around the longest and is one of the most full featured TV download managers there is. There is support for both Usenet and Torrents and it works with a large number of indexers and download tools.

Once installed you simply tell Sick Beard what shows you want to watch, or point it at your current Library to import the information itself.

http://sickbeard.com/

Check out our Sickbeard Drone Install, Configuration and Usage guide here! (Coming Soon!)

NZB Drone

NZB Drone is an alternative to Sick Beard with mostly the same feature set. A lot of people are making the switch over to NZB Drone due to it’s more active development and slightly better handling of failed downloads. NZB Drone also features an extremely slick and modern web interface that really helps bring the “PVR” feel to the application.

http://nzbdrone.com/

Check out our NZB Drone Install, Configuration and Usage guide here! (Coming Soon!)

Movie Downloads

Couch Potato

Due to the different nature of Film vs TV-Series, Couch Potato is a bit less automated in it’s downloading. Instead of automatically finding content for you, it is more generally used as a “new release search” tool. ie: You can tell it movies you are interested before they even release to theaters (as long as their is an IMDB entry already) and it will automatically scan that content for you until it is released and snatched.

You can additionally setup filters to only watch for specific resolutions and file types. This is great if you only want quality downloads and don’t want Couch Potato constantly snatching every low bit rate CAM release that hits sites.

https://couchpota.to/

Check out our Couch Potato Install, Configuration and Usage guide here! (Coming Soon!)

Music and More

Headphones

Headphones is a download manager for Music. Essentially it works the same way the TV series download tools work. You tell it what artists you like, or point it at your current library and it will use that information to download new releases and attempt to complete your library for you.

https://github.com/rembo10/headphones

Check out our Headphones Install, Configuration and Usage guide here! (Coming Soon!)

Mylar

Mylar is a fork of Headphones that is dedicated to Comic Book downloads.

My thoughts on this application are mixed. Comic Books on usenet seem to get posted with PAR or SFV files fairly often, meaning you may end up with a corrupt download and not realize it or be able to repair it. This can lead to pages “missing” in the comic book because they are corrupt and cannot be opened in your CBR reader.

Still, your mileage may vary and this is likely an area of Usenet that will improve with the release of Mylar!

https://github.com/evilhero/mylar

Check out our Mylar Install, Configuration and Usage guide here! (Coming Soon!)

 

Next: The Pros, Cons and FAQs