HOWTO Use uTorrent as a Digital Video Recorder for Automated TV Show Downloading

BitTorrent is a powerful peer-to-peer file sharing protocol used for downloading large-sized files from a variety of sources very quickly. One of the most popular uses for BitTorrent these days is for downloading TV shows. With so many people connecting their computers directly to a TV for the sole purpose of watching TV shows and movies, it quite practical to use an automated TV downloading workflow. The TechMiso Crew will teach you how to use uTorrent on Windows as a “digital video recorder” of sorts to automagically download TV shows as they are released online.

The issues of legality aside, have you ever used a BitTorrent client to download TV shows? It is pretty straightforward to download just about anything with a BitTorrent client, especially with the easy to use yet highly lightweight uTorrent. There are a metric ton of clients for Windows but uTorrent is exponentially better than the competition.

What if you are out of the house or working when the show you want to watch is airing, and you desire to have the file automatically downloaded and waiting for you upon your return? uTorrent makes this entire process so easy that your grandmother could do it in her sleep!

Here are the steps required for setting up uTorrent as a digital video recorder for automated TV show downloading:

1. Surf to tvRSS and head over to their feeds section to see the list of available RSS feeds of the latest TV show additions to the various online trackers. To ensure you capture every possible TV show, it is recommended to use the Combined RSS feed. If you so desire you can use the Combined RSS (Legacy) feed but the former will suffice. Right-click and copy the link address to the Windows clipboard.

2. Open up uTorrent and click the “RSS Downloader” icon on the toolbar. This is the button that looks like the standard RSS feed icon. Once clicked, a new dialogue box appears.

3. On the default “Feeds” tab, click the “Add” button, paste the copied URL in to the provided edit box and click the “OK” button. The feed should be added to the list of RSS feeds being polled.

4. Select the “Releases” tab and click the “Update Now” button to ensure uTorrent is able to pull the RSS feed from tvRSS. If all works as it should, and I stress that there is no reason it should not function as advertised, then you should be presented with a list of TV show releases matching those listed on the tvRSS feeds page. If not, well, you need to do a little troubleshooting and unfortunately that is not the scope of this HOWTO. Check to ensure you copied the correct link is about all I will offer at this juncture.

5. If all went well in Step 4 then you are all set to start adding Favorites. Select the “Favorites” tab and click the “Add” button in the lower-left. Use the following values for the “Filter Settings” in the right pane:

• Filter: This is where you put the name of the TV show followed by a single wildcard. If the name of the TV show has spaces in it, because it is two or more words, then replace the spaces with question marks.

  For example, to download Lost, simply use “lost*” as the filter. To download Hells Kitchen you would use “hells?kitchen*” – both sans quotes.

• Not: If you desire to download a file which matches the above but want to discard certain files then you can add another similar expression in this box. For most cases, leave it completely blank.
• Save in: Put the full path to the location you would like your TV shows downloaded. If you want them placed in the default uTorrent download folder then merely leave this blank. Some folks like the files placed in a specific folder which is automatically mapped to a network drive that is connected to a decoder attached to a TV. This way there is no need to move files around to get them playable on a TV.
• Feed: Leave it set to “All” unless you have an aching desire to set the feed specifically.
• Quality: It is recommended to leave this to “All” just to ensure your downloads will function as expected. Once you are satisfied everything works as you desire, you can go back and select only the versions of the TV show you want to download, assuming they are available.
• Leave the rest of the fields blank until things work, upon which you can come back and start tweaking things so you get more granular control over your downloading experience.

6. Once you are satisfied with the filter settings for the favorite, click the “?” button to test out your configuration. If the TV show you want to download matches a file in the RSS feed then clicking this button will let you know if your settings work properly. If the resulting dialogue says “Matching Releases: None” and you see the file listed in the list on the “Releases” tab then you have done something wrong. Return to step 5 and tweak the settings more. This step is usually quite straightforward but may lead to some confusion with the expressions.

7. At this point you are completely done. Revel in the knowledge that you no longer have to manually download TV shows. Instead, you only have to periodically update your uTorrent favorites to add or remove shows you want to download automagically.

The process could not be any easier. I am very surprised when I hear folks exclaim their love for downloading TV shows via the Internet but have to do so manually. Most people I talk to are always surprised when I explain the simple process for automating the download process.

As an aside, while Azureus and Vuze are great products, I highly recommend uTorrent if you are a Windows user. There is no reason why uTorrent should not outperform any Windows BitTorrent client. If for some reason you find your uTorrent experience quite shaky then you might consider scouring the web for some tips on fixing things. Chances are you will have to tweak either a Windows setting or, most likely, a router configuration to allow uTorrent to perform the way it should.

So there you have it – using uTorrent as a digital video record for automated TV show downloading could not possibly be any easier than this! You might as well put that Windows XP box to use for something productive? Why not turn it in to your entertainment downloading appliance and enjoy watching media from the comfort of your living room, reveling in the knowledge that you did not have to lift a finger to get that TV show on the LCD!