Sunday, July 31, 2016

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 08/01/16

indepenThis week we have three newcomers in our chart.

Independence Day: Resurgence, which came out as HDRip with Korean subtitles, is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Ranking (last week) Movie IMDb Rating / Trailer
torrentfreak.com
1 (10) Independence Day: Resurgence (Subbed HDRip) 5.6 / trailer
2 (…) The Nice Guys 7.7 / trailer
3 (3) Batman: The Killing Joke 7.3 / trailer
4 (1) X-Men: Apocalypse (Subbed HDRip) 7.7 / trailer
5 (4) Warcraft (subbed HDRip) 7.7 / trailer
6 (2) Central Intelligence 6.9 / trailer
7 (8) The Secret Life of Pets (HDTS) 6.8 / trailer
8 (…) Jason Bourne (CAM) 7.4 / trailer
9 (…) The Angry Birds Movie 6.3 / trailer
10 (5) The Purge: Election Year (subbed HDRip) 6.3 / trailer

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.



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Kodi v17 “Krypton” Alpha 3

With this announcement we’re happy to release v17 alpha 3. This v17 release which the users have named Krypton features a huge amount of rework in various areas like video playback, live TV & PVR, music library, skinning and more. All these areas underwent heavy changes which are now coming to an end and ready for the masses. This means this will be the last alpha and we’ll soon be pumping out beta builds at a steady rate so the broader audience can give Kodi v17 a try. However let’s first focus on what changed this past month.

 Skin features

As you have noticed we included two new default skins. Estuary for regular use and Estouchy for touchscreen devices. At the same time we made sure some limitations we had to deal with in the past are now solved or at least improved. One of those was that the context menu (right click) didn’t work on any media items that were displayed on the home screen. Well now you can call up the menu like in library view.

v17 homescreen context movies v17 homescreen context add-on

Add-ons can now include screenshots which will be visible within Kodi itself to give you an idea how they will look.

v17-addon-screenshots

 

More more changes were done in different areas however we’ll let discover those yourself.

Music library

This section received a lot of love during the past year to get it up to speed again and it’s certainly catching up to the video section. Some of the improvements include better tag scanning, browsing speed ups and a lot more tag fields to be used and shown. You music enthousiast will certainly be happy with these changes so we encourage you to try it out and leave you feedback on our Kodi forum.

Live TV and PVR (Personal Video Recorder)

To make it easy i just copied the list from one of our developers on the changes that happened in this section.
• Extend Kodi eventlog with PVR events, namely ‘create/delete timers and timer rules’ and ‘start/stop recordings’.
• Guide window: Allow timer creation for EPG in recent past.
• Timer window: Add option to hide disabled timers.
• Separate windows for “Timer Rules” and “Timers”.
• Guide & Search window: Add ‘Edit timer’/'Edit timer rule’ to context menu.
• Timer rules window: Echo up important Status info to Timer Rules.
• Guide window: Use timer logos depending on its state (needs skin support).
• Added enhancement and improvements to the PVR add-on API (connection state change handling, asynchronous EPG updates, and more – needs support from the different PVR add-ons!).
• Channels window: Add support for sorting channels by ‘last played’.
• Recordings window: Separate TV and Radio recordings.
• Guide window: performance improvements, especially on first open.
• Guide & Search window: Add ‘Delete timer rule’ to context menu.
• Add “ShowTimerRule” builtin, so one for instance can map a key to open the “add timer” dialog which is pre-filled to create a epg-based timer rule.
• Rework PVRManager: add-ons are now owned by add-on system.
• Make instant recording behavior configurable (fixed-time vs. current show vs. interactive).
• Timers: Allow to change timer type for existing timers. Makes it possible to for example ‘transform’ a timer for one episode of a show to a series recording (timer rule) for that show.
• Recordings window: make ‘group items’ setting persistent.
• JSON-RPC api: Sync pvr types fields with current implementation.
• Lots of bug fixes in all Don’t forget Game controller add-ons this timeareas.

Game controller add-on

In the past it has always been a pain to configure game controllers within Kodi. There were some XML files people could download and copy to a certain location. This has now been solved by making them add-ons (like almost everything else) which you can install with a click of a button. This rework of the controllers was needed for retro gaming feature which may land somewhere in the future. No sadly that doesn’t mean retro gaming will be available in v17 but we keep our hopes up for the future. Adventurous users can grab a build from our forum though here.

v17 game controlles

3dlut and simple ICC linking support for color correction

Developer laurimyllari added a ColorManager class that supports loading madVR 3DLUT files, and loading ICC display profiles, creating source profiles and linking them. Users can use this to correct their display response with a 3DLUT file, or emulate other displays (with whitepoint, primaries and gamma selectable at runtime) with an ICC profile of their own display. The ICC profile linking is still work in progress, but is functional and shows what can be done with it.

 

Other improvements

Well as always we did the usual round of bugfixes and stability improvements that happen during the entire cycle so let’s not bore you with those. Though here are some mention worthy improvements form that list.

• Added “Copy to Kodi” functionality on iOS which adds the option to the iOS share sheet of apps to “Open In” Kodi
• Bump a variety of external libraries which Kodi uses to function which includes ffmpeg 3.1
• On Windows all the external libraries were rebuild with Visual Studio 2015 and received some DLL loading cleanup which hopefully solve some startup problems on some installations
• Video playback got further improvements in the wake of the big change from DVDplayer to VideoPlayer

Should you wish to see the entire changelog then you find it here

Conclusion

Should you want to download and install this build please visit our download page. You can install these build just on top of your current Kodi installation.

Please report any problems on our forum http://forum.kodi.tv and not on the release announcement.

Don’t forget we also have some official tablet/phone remote controls for both Android and iOS. You can find the links to them on the download page.

Donations or getting involved

Getting involved is quite easy. Simply take the plunge and start using these 16.0 Jarvis builds. If you use these builds, we encourage you to report problems with these builds on our forum first and after that, if asked, submit bugs on Trac (following this guide: How to submit a bug report). Do note that we need detailed information so we can investigate the issue. We also appreciate providing support in our Forums where you can. You can of course also follow or help promote Kodi on all available social networks. Read more on the get involved page.
We are always happy to receive a donation by which you show your support and appreciation. All donations go towards the XBMC foundation and are typically used for travel to attend conferences, any necessary paperwork and legal fees, purchase necessary hardware and licenses for developers and hopefully the yearly XBMC Foundation Developers Conference.



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How to watch Rio Olympics 2016? – TV Channels, OTT, Kodi

Watch Rio Olympics 2016 - US TV ChannelsI am sure many of you (especially cordcutters) are wondering how to watch Rio Olympics 2016. Olympics is set to begin on August 5th, 2016 and we start our Olympics watching guides with a Rio Olympics US TV Channels list and how to access them on various platforms such as TV, smartphone, tablet, Fire TV, […]

How to watch Rio Olympics 2016? – TV Channels, OTT, Kodi is a post from htpcBeginner.



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10 Kodi ADDONS to watch Olympics live – Rio 2016

Watch Olympics Online imageThe biggest sports event is about to start. Rio 2016 Olympics are just around the corner. In some days, records will be broken and medals will be won. And you will be there, watching the action from the comfort of your couch, in HD. Streaming it with Kodi, no matter if it’s Kodi for Windows […]

10 Kodi ADDONS to watch Olympics live – Rio 2016 is a post from htpcBeginner.



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Peter Sunde’s Pirate Innovation Dream Won’t Happen Anytime Soon

peter-sundeEvery time a major torrent site goes down, millions of people mourn the loss. Last week, when the owner of KickassTorrents was arrested in Poland, was no exception.

Following events like these, several repeat questions come to the forefront. Will the site come back? Will there be a replacement? How can other torrent sites avoid the same fate?

While the first two questions mostly originate from users, the latter is perhaps the most important in terms of the torrent scene in general. After all, if people don’t learn from history, how can they stop it repeating itself? And if it does indeed repeat, how much more damage can the scene take?

In response to the KAT shutdown, this week Peter Sunde called for action. Speaking on the Steal This Show podcast, the Pirate Bay co-founder said that innovation, decentralization, and cooperation is needed to safeguard the future of piracy.

“If one of the big sites goes down a lot of smaller sites are hit as well because they are just a copy of the original database. We need lots of sites that federate all the data instead of having to depend on the higher-ups,” Sunde said.

But just how likely is it that Sunde’s dream will come true? To find out, TorrentFreak spoke with some large and long-standing smaller players in the torrent scene.

The operator of one major site outlined many perceived weaknesses in the way that sites operate and provided some interesting thoughts on how these issues might be fixed. Interestingly, he doesn’t believe that decentralization is the key, instead preferring a “network-over-network” model for both server operation and downloads.

“Decentralization is not the key here. A network-over-network is. Decentralization means no back-updates and [issues with advertising],” he explains.

“Instead, imagine a private network running on the normal internet. You connect to a node, which joins you into a VPN-like network. Like TOR, but you don’t actually use the users to push the traffic.”

The site operator also went into considerable detail about other aspects, particularly in respect of preserving the security of users with a similar “network-over-network” model. However, overcoming technical issues doesn’t appear to be the main stumbling block. Instead, there’s a problem with cooperation.

“You have to understand that torrents are no longer the answer to these type of threats. Sure you can upgrade everything related to torrents to a more secure and better way of usage by promoting to users how they should use you through your new type of network etc, but at some point the protocol should upgrade,” he says.

“However, unless there is an agreement from at least three major sites, none of the requirements to push this new system to enough users will be done. There is currently no agreement to do anything between any torrent site.”

And it appears that even in the wake of KAT’s demise, there is still no momentum to innovate.

“[The major sites] are not interested in building a non-raidable, permanent domain system for users. They are not interested in a new protocol. No one works with anyone. They simply don’t care,” he says.

“Only [one major site, redacted] expressed some basic interest, but that’s only if all [other sites] agree. Which will never happen?”

In parallel, TF spoke with some site operators further down the chain but anyone hoping for some good news there will be pretty disappointed. While most agreed that doing something innovative would be a positive thing, most expressed a combination of pessimism and apathy.

“I find it hard enough to work with my own staff, so working with several other sites will not be possible I’m sure,” one said. “My site is a dictatorship (LOL) so I don’t need others outside telling me what I must do.”

Another admin, who operates two sites in the private scene, said that even building trust across sites will be an almost impossible task.

“It won’t happen. Why should any sysop trust [other sysops]? Who are they? I don’t know who they are. They don’t know who I am. And do you think that the bigger sites will agree to what smaller sites say? No. They will keep their [dominant] position and keep the best pie for themselves no matter what great system someone can make. I would. Who wouldn’t?” he said.

Generally, however, the overall feeling is that while there’s always a threat, things aren’t quite that bad yet. TF asked when people might feel compelled to do something dramatic. The answer seems to be “when people really have to.”

That notion is shared by Peter Sunde. He’s repeatedly called for the closure of The Pirate Bay to spark innovation but the closure of KickassTorrents alone (which was a bigger site) failed to have the desired effect. Maybe it will take another really big bombshell to finally provoke people into action but until then it seems unlikely that much will happen.

In the meantime, however, most of the people we spoke with were enthusiastic about the potential offered by Zeronet and IPFS. In the absence of any coordinated effort, perhaps the future is already here.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.



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uTorrent Quietly Ditches Rating and Comment Features

utorrent-logo-newWith more than 150 million active users a month, uTorrent remains the leading torrent client, by far.

Despite its popularity, the introduction of new features has stalled in recent years. In fact, some of the more prominent changes date back five years, when uTorrent launched its long awaited 3.0 version.

Among other things, this release introduced a commenting and rating feature. This allowed users to rate the quality of torrents and discuss their contents from within the application.

Both the comments and ratings were shared via trackers, which means that they were not centrally stored but distributed among peers, just like the download itself.

“µTorrent 3.0 adds an extension message for distributing comments within the swarm. All clients that support this extension message store all comments they have seen, per torrent,” uTorrent’s engineering team informed TorrentFreak at the time.

A handy addition, which was appreciated and used by millions of users in recent years. However, out of nowhere, the uTorrent team has decided to ditch the feature in their latest versions.


uTorrent comments and ratings

utorrent

While it’s up to uTorrent’s parent company BitTorrent Inc. to decide what to do with their client, it’s at least a bit odd that users haven’t been informed about the change. There is no mention in the release log of the stable version either.

The only reference we could find was listed in the release log for the beta version a few weeks ago.

Hoping to find out more about the motivation to retire the feature we contacted BitTorrent Inc a few days ago, but thus far without response. The company doesn’t seem very keen to speak about uTorrent, as our inquiries about the hacked forum also remained unanswered.


Disable Rating

disablerating

The above leaves us with no other option than to speculate about the mysterious removal. Perhaps BitTorrent Inc. decided that the feature was no longer relevant, or maybe the system was flooded by spam comments?

On the other hand, perhaps there’s a legal reason why the company doesn’t want users to rate and discuss potentially infringing content from within the client?

Without an official comment from BitTorrent we’ll never know what the true reason is. It’s clear, however, that users who want to comment can no longer do so from the uTorrent application itself.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.



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Saturday, July 30, 2016

Quick HP Pavilion 300 Review: good things are expensive

HP Pavilion 300 Review featuredAbout 320 bucks will put the HP Pavilion 300 Mini PC on your table. At least, that was the price for the HP Pavilion 300-220 model we analyzed. This HP Windows Mini PC has great specs and includes peripherals. It can act as a media server if you want to use Plex on Windows, for example. Is […]

Quick HP Pavilion 300 Review: good things are expensive is a post from htpcBeginner.



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ES File Explorer removed from Fire TV App Store

ES File Explorer Blocked on Fire TVIt was only a matter of time before Amazon pulled ES File Explorer. Unfortunately, that time has come. ES File Explorer, if you are not aware, simplified sideloading Apps such as Kodi, SPMC, FTP Server, FireStarter / FireStopper, etc. on to Amazon Fire TV and Stick without needing ADB or external computer. It was one […]

ES File Explorer removed from Fire TV App Store is a post from htpcBeginner.



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Install Mobdro on Android TV Box / Device – Free Live TV

Install Mobdro on Android TV Box / DeviceMobdro allows you to watch free live TV channels from almost anywhere. In this post, I will show you how to install Mobdro on Android TV box. With Modbro you can watch Rio Olympics 2016 live on your TV, Smartphone, or Tablet. Mobdro finds free video streams online from around the world. The database is […]

Install Mobdro on Android TV Box / Device – Free Live TV is a post from htpcBeginner.



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