Update 2/6/2012
As I said before, BTjunkie was IMO the best torrent site on the web. All is not lost however. There will always be more. For those that use torrents my recommendation is to try kickasstorrents here or Extratorrents here. Both are solid and safe. Of course EZTV is a great place to find TV shows and if desperate there is always The Pirate Bay.

OMFG, I’m watching the Super Bowl like the rest of America and I go to download a movie for later tonight and this is what I see,

“2005 – 2012 This is the end of the line my friends. The decision does not come easy, but we’ve decided to voluntarily shut down. We’ve been fighting for years for your right to communicate, but it’s time to move on. It’s been an experience of a lifetime, we wish you all the best!”

Obviously this is MegaUpload and Pirate Bay continued fallout. Very depressing. Time for a shot as a final send off to what has been the best bit torrent site on the internet for years. Dark times my friends.

I’m going to show you step by step how to easily download and view movies and TV shows to your iOS device. With the death of MegaUpload I highly encourage any of you to try this method. It’s really quite simple and in many ways better. Best of all, you don’t have to be jailbroken to do this. If you like this post or find it helpful, please leave me a comment on it. Without further adieu let’s begin!

You only need two apps to make this happen. One is a BitTorrent client called iTransmission that I reviewed previously and the other is any Media Player of your choice (for this guide I use OPlayer). If the word BitTorrent bothers you it shouldn’t. Just keep reading and you’ll see the many benefits it provides. OPlayer (or any other media player) you can get in the App Store. You can download iTransmission here. Download iTransmission_1.1.ipa. It’s the one in the middle dated July 13 with the highest download count. Other versions seem to have problems, but this one works on iOS 5.0.1 and lower. I’ve tested it and it works great on both the iPhone 4 and iPad 2. Once you have it downloaded you’ll need to open iTunes and click on Apps in the left sidebar (the fifth one down under Library). See Image 1 below. Drag on drop the ipa file into the main iTunes Window to add iTransmission to your App list. Don’t worry if its’ icon is white. Once that is done connect your iOS device to iTunes, click your device under Devices in the left sidebar, select the Apps tab (between Info and Tones) in the main iTunes window, find iTransmission, check the box next to it and apply/sync to your device. See Image 2. You now have iTransmission on your device! That may have been the hardest part of this guide so keep reading. You can get iTransmission in the insanelyi or xSellize repos just be sure it is version 1.1.

Now that you have iTransmission on your iOS device you are ready to roll. First you need to get a torrent to download. Open Safari on your iOS device and goto any torrent website and search for whatever you want. The Pirate Bay is the biggest torrent website, but I recommend you use btjunkie.org. When you goto the website just type what you want in the search box (for example Dexter) and tap Go to search. You will see a list of episodes and some full seasons. See Image 3. Think of the green bubble next to each file as someone verifying it as trusted. You should feel safe downloading anything with a green bubble number of at least 10. You will also see the size of the file and number of peers listed in green as well. The higher the number of peers the faster the file will download. If you decide to download a full season it will download into a folder with each episode as a separate file. Tap the movie, episode, season, song etc. that you want. On the next page press and hold on “Download Torrent” in blue between the green arrow and magnet. See Image 4. When you get the pop up tap on Copy. Go ahead and close Safari and open iTransmission.

iTransmission will open to the Transfers tab. Just tap the plus sign (+) at the bottom left and then tap URL. See Image 5. Press and hold in the address bar that pops up until the magnifying glass appears and then release and tap paste to enter the torrent url you just copied from Safari. Tap “OK” and your download should start within a minute!

Here is a video showing the process described above. At the beginning of the video I show how you can also download iTransmission from Cydia.

Some tips on using iTransmission.

1) Before Downloading goto Settings – General – Auto-Lock and set it to Never. If you don’t when your iOS device locks to save battery power your download will stop. Once done downloading I would change your Auto-Lock back to one or two minutes but that’s just me.

2) In iTransmission settings (tap the bottom right gear looking button to bring up settings) turn your cellular network off. See Image 7. Unless you aren’t on wifi and want to use a lot of data on your carrier’s plan this is the smart thing to do.

3) Along the same lines as tip #2 tap the Global bandwidth tab at the bottom of iTransmission (it looks like a Globe). Under Upload turn Enable Limit on. See Image 6. This means you are being a leech and only downloading but not letting others upload from you. It’s not that nice, but if you don’t pay attention and leave cellular network on (you really should do tip number 2) you could be uploading 24 hours a day and not realize it til you get a huge bill from your carrier.

4) The best way to do things is before you goto bed load iTransmission with whatever TV shows aired that night that you want to see. Torrents appear on btjunkie and eztv within a hour after a show airs. You won’t drain your battery since it’s plugged in and you won’t use any data since you are on your home’s wifi (I’m assuming you have access to cable or DSL wifi at your house). When you awake in the morning all your shows will be ready!

Viewing Your Files Downloaded to iTransmission

I find it easier to just cut and paste files from iTransmission to your media app (in this case OPlayer) with iFile. However, you can just connect your iOS device to iTunes, click on your device under Devices in the left sidebar, click the Apps tab and scroll down and you should see iTransmission listed like in the picture above. Select the Downloads folder as shown and click “Save To” and save your downloaded files to your Desktop. Next, staying on the same Apps tab click on OPlayer (or your media player of choice), click “Add To” and select the files you downloaded. See Image 8. As opposed to just .mp4, these can be .avi .mkv or many other file formats. When it comes to movies and TV shows however they will likely be mp4, avi or mkv. Moving a movie or one hour TV show from iTransmission to your desktop and then back into your Media Player App should take less than a minute. Once done disconnect your iOS device from iTunes and you can view your transferred files anytime.

So there you have it. In a lot of ways this is better than downloading through MegaUpload. If your file stops downloading for some reason you can resume from the point it left off. It’s easier to download a full season of a TV Show since it’s only one link. Searching btjunkie is easier than finding Megaupload links. Trust me, they have everything. If you are looking for TV shows within hours after they air try EZTV. They rock!

You really don’t need MegaUpload. Let me know what you think and if you have any problems just ask in the comments. Also, if there is a torrent site you like better than btjunkie or eztv please leave it in the comments as well.

My guess is some of you like streaming, but this is better IMO. Once on your device you don’t have to depend on a good internet connection to keep your video from pausing. If you do the downloading while you sleep it really is a great method.

Image 1

Click Apps in the left sidebar of iTunes to bring up your Apps list. Drag and drop the iTransmission ipa and then it will appear in the list (the white icon in the bottom right of photo).

Image 2

Click on your iOS device under Devices in the left sidebar. Click on the Apps tab (between Info and Tones) in the main window and find iTransmission. Check the box next to iTransmission and hit Apply/Sync.

Image 3

List of torrent files for search of Dexter.

Image 4

Press and Hold on “Download Torrent” in blue between the icons of the magnet and down arrows. When you get the pop up choose Copy. You now have your torrent ready to paste into iTransmission.

Image 5

Open iTransmission and tap the “+” (Add Torrent) tab at the bottom. When you get this pop up tap “URL” and paste in the torrent you just copied from Safari.

Image 6

In the Global Bandwidth tab turn Enable Limit under Upload on. This way you aren’t using extra data to upload. Be sure your Enable Limit under Download is off.

Image 7

In the Preferences tab of iTransmission (bottom right tab) be sure to turn off your Cellular Network. If you don’t you might get a very large bill from your carrier. Of course with Cellular Network off you can only download on wifi. You must turn this back on to download over 3G. Just be aware of the amount of data you are using.

Image 8

Select your iOS Device under “Devices” in the left sidebar of iTunes. Click on the Apps tab and scroll down to find your media player (OPlayer for me). Click on OPlayer and then click on your Inbox and click “Add To”. Select the files you transfer to your Desktop from iTransmission to load them for viewing.

All is not lost. At least not yet. Here are three good ones still operating in order.

RapidShare: RapidShare has been around a long time and is very similar to MegaUpload. Anyone can log in and create free account and upload and share files on Rapidshare. Users can upload files of unlimited size and share them with links. There is also no storage limit, but files are automatically deleted after a certain period of time. Users can get a premium RapidPro account for 10 Euros a month or 100 Euros for two years. This provides two main benefits. One is uploaded files never expire as long as you are a Pro Member. Two, do don’t have to wait for a countdown before your download link appears after entering the captcha. This countdown starts at 30 seconds to two minutes but can become longer if you download multiple files the same day. A Pro account also allows you do download more than one file at a time. Unlike many other storage lockers RapidShare has come out and said it’s business as usual since the MegaUpload arrests.

MediaFire: MediaFire also lets users upload any type of file, with a maximum upload size of 2GB for free users. There is no storage limit, but like RapidShare, free users will have their files deleted after certain period of time. Files are shared via a link. A $9 per month pro account increases the max file size to 4GB, with unlimited storage and allows you download 100GB per month.

WUpload: WUpload allows users to upload any type of file with a max size of 2GB. Free users storage space is limited to 750GB, but Premium users have unlimited space. Like RapidShare, WUpload has the standard countdown after you enter the captcha. No simultaneous downloads are allowed for free users, but premium users ($55 per year or $10 per month) have unlimited downloads and speed. However, files can still be deleted if not downloaded for a certain period of time.

These three are the best IMO. There are other ones like DropBox, YouSendIt, Oron, SendSpace and others. However, new sites should be popping up soon as well. Anonymous, a famous group of hackers are working to build a Megaupload copycat site. It should be up and running in a week. The site reads, “For your safety, our infrastructure will be out of the U.S. jurisdiction (Russia).”

There are still lots of warez forum sites posting links for new movies and TV shows. The problem is there aren’t as many links and a much greater percentage that those links are dead or die within hours! Who knows what websites might be changing policies over the next few days.

When Napster went down, some thought it was the end. Then Morpheus and Kazaa were killed. Next, the big bittorrent sites like donkax and torrentse.cx went up in flames. There’s always something else.

Over the weekend visitors to FileSonic were met with the following, “All sharing functionality on FileSonic is now disabled. Our service can only be used to upload and retrieve files that you have uploaded personally.” Over the past 24 hours FileServe did the same thing. They have removed their affiliate program and anyone in it has had their files and accounts deleted. It’s like a law firm shredding documents as fast as it can. FileServe having no intention of paying what it owes to its’ affiliates will surely be out of business a year from now.

Yes, the United States has some juice. While there are still other storage locker sites (RapidShare, MediaFire and WUpload being the cream of leftover crop), it’s possible they all could be gone in a month. Hollywood has to be rejoicing even though this will do little to stop piracy long term. Expect a major increase in torrent usage over the next month.

What’s also really interesting is what has to be one of the biggest copyright infringers on the planet has been left alone in this mess. Search YouTube (owned by Google) for any song, sporting event or television show clip (not full episodes but clips are copyright infringement as well). You should be able to find what you are looking for and many will be on YouTube partner channels. That means YouTube is paying their partners for this illegal material. That said, don’t expect dozens of police and helicopters to be showing up at Larry Page’s (Google’s CEO) home anytime soon.

From the reports I read picture this, dozens of New Zealand police backed by helicopters swarmed the barricaded mansion of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom to arrest him on Friday. Again, this isn’t for murder but for Internet copyright theft. As opposed to surrendering Mr. Dotcom ran back into his home grabbed a shotgun and went to his safe room. Police had to cut their way through electronic locks to a safe room before he finally turned himself in. A list of assets taken during the raid include multiple bank accounts, PayPal accounts, 20 vehicles including 15 Mercedes-Benzes, a Lamborghini, a Rolls-Royce Phantom, a 1957 Cadillac El Dorado, a 1959 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible and a 2010 Maserati GranCario registered to Megaupload’s chief marketing officer, Finn Batato. Some of the vehicles sported unusual vanity license plates, such as “God,” “Stoned,” “Mafia,” “Hacker” and “Guilty.” I bet he had some great parties. In Hong Kong, where Megaupload is based, officials seized more than $42.5 million in assets. They said the company operated out of luxury hotel room costing more than $12,000 a day, and they seized high-speed servers and other equipment from the offices.

Don’t expect someone with ballz as big as Kim Dotcom to go down without a fight. Washington attorney Robert Bennett said Friday he will represent the company. He has previously defended Bill Clinton against sexual harassment charges and Enron against allegations of corporate fraud. Today, however, he withdrew from the case because of a conflict of interest with at least one other client of his law firm. I’m sure Mr. Dotcom will find another power attorney soon. That is, if there is one out there that isn’t already on the Hollywood payroll.

As the Mega Drama unfolds I’ll be sure to keep you updated.