TorrentFreak TV ‘On The Streets’
Written by Ernesto on November 30, 2008In this episode we go out on the streets in San Francisco to ask people how they feel about internet piracy. We also talk about new style of in-video ads, another ISP being sued, fanedits not liked by studios, and we give away a free t-shirt
‘TorrentFreak TV’ is a biweekly recap of some of the best, most interesting or remarkable stories from the wonderful world of BitTorrent.
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Previously: Anti-Piracy Lobby Defeats European Democracy
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59 Responses
very good, best episode yet!
the host has improved a lot
oh, and first post ftw!
pretty well produced, good one tf. what i don’t like is the blending from one news to another it’s somehow too … silent. you gotta put some music or jingle in those scenes.
looking forwards to the next episode :)
the intro is just so…unprofessional and awkward-”hi, it’s me ashley” i get that it’s trying to be personal, but news isn’t really personal. it should be something more like “hi, i’m ashley __(last name)__, thanks for tuning into torrentfreak tv! this week we’ve got…”
it just seems to amateur, and i know it can definitely be better with some better scripting.
Interesting to see how people on the streets think of all this p2p business. It seems like a part of the population are like “bad!” and the other part is like “meh.” Questions are, is San Francisco representative of the U.S. as a whole in terms of “piracy opinion,” and could there possibly be a mechanism for a change of opinion slight-pro-copyright towards the anti-copyright side?
Roze
http://www.10ch.org/
Strike 3, please do away with her!
the episodes are getting better :)
HOORAY!
I have one (little) suggestion; slow down the speed of the text in bottom of the screen. It’s – a little – too fast…
The rest is perfect (Y)!
yeah, didnt like the “im ashley” thing…like i was supposed to know her!
on top of that the host could be a little hotter maybe? :P
getting better each episode
PS: also great to see the reasons/intelligence of people who don’t pirate: i can’t get a computer to work.
I just gave up, she is too annoying. The way she talks makes me want to fire an automatic weapon untill I hear the Click Click.
stop
talking
like
your
16.
Haha, she is cute, reminds me of Jillian from Family Guy (end of s05e05):
Stewie: “Because once it’s done, never again will you have to listen to her talk like this? You know, where everything has a question mark at the end of it? With an upward inflection? At the end of every sentence?”
My one quibble is that, for the sake of familiarisation, Alex ought to read through the script once or twice before the final take. She seems to finish a sentence, then continue on with the same one; In these instances the cadence is somewhat awry.
Nevertheless, TorrentFreak TV is a great idea – &, aside from this (very minor) criticism, fairly well executed too.
=]
I like how this is being done. The only suggestion i would say is that, why explain news that appears on the site into the tv show again? Its always on the site, so its not like people cant see it. But contrary to others’ beliefs, i like the amateur feel to it. Makes it less formal and such. Keep up the good work!
iinet is said ‘eye-eye-net’ not ‘e-net’
Christ some of the comments on here are merciless! i got half way down and expected the next comment to be something like “Take her out back and shoot her”! give her a break guys!!! although if you do decide to change host’s I’m voting for some really hot topless guy :P
w00t!
free tshirt!
these are some sweet t-shirts.
http://TorrentMoon.com
Agreed at #14.
Sounds freakin’ retarded.
Good journalism requires thorough research, and since you’ve chosen a medium which will punish you for incorrect pronunciation, you’re going to have to account for it.
I spent five seconds googling “iinet ad”, and pulled up a 45 second youtube video of a current iinet television ad with the correct pronounciation used. That’s 50 seconds it takes you to raise the standard of your reporting.
Ashley is hot, everyone else saying she isn’t is insane. How many hot chicks do you have in your daily life that would talk about piracy with you? ZERO. Ernesto, is she in the SF bay area? Intelligent, hot, tattooed local chicks are exactly what I’m into. :D
I think it’s great to have video on tf.
it could be better edited though. Perhaps with fades instead of cuts (especially when it goes to the Top 10 lists)
But also if there was text/images relating to the stories she’s talking about would be great! Otherwise its too bland.
Keep up the good work!
Ashley, you’re getting better, hon! :P
Your accent is definitely more mainstream, which is good. I can you’re making an effort – Keep it up! :)
I agree that each subsequent episode of TFTV has gotten better and better. Ashley is fine, I seriously doubt any of the people criticising her could do a better job of presenting. She did make some very minor errors but nothing to worry about, I’m sure she’ll get better over time.
I prefer getting my news from someone behind a desk, wearing reserved clothes. Probably just a weird taste/prejudice I’ve picked up from a lifetime of mainstream evening news, but whatever.
Length of the video is good, and nice hidef. I have to say though; I will NOT be entering your competition. If reading torrentfreak has taught me anything it’s don’t ever give your personal info to any website that could even remotely possibly be raided by the Polizei (OiNK). I trust your impartiality and good intentions, of course, but due to the underground nature of p2p I still jealously guard my privacy. I would have preferred the competition to be creative, like ‘design a musical theme for TFTV’ or ‘write an article that our readers would find interesting’. That way, everyone who doesn’t win (or even enter) can have extra content to enjoy.
Keep up the good work.
Really enjoyed the man-on-the-street portion of this episode and think it deserves more play. Maybe different questions each episode or covering events where internet / media / hollywood industry types can speak their piece as well.
May even be worth accepting segments contributed by TF readers who happen to be in locations where such events are happening if travel is not an option just to open up the coverage.
Glad to see TF is still speaking up for the rest of us!
yeap <— Then don’t watch it! no one is forcing u to watch it..
what you have to remember is this, if you do a poll on the internet about P2P, you know they all use the internet.
When doing a poll on the streets, not everybody asked uses the internet, so the geneal view of file-sharing will be much more against it.
You can clearly tell that the girl co anchoring was not live and I heard someone in the background make some kind of farting sound…however the the show is getting better, and thank you for bringing back the tattoos! Wohoo!
Can you please wear the outfit you wore on the very 1st show? It spices things up and grabs your undivided attention when you’ve got something to look it…
Nice work. Gosh, there’s a lot of negative stuff about the host. Nevermind that, I like her. I figure we will get to know her better in the oncoming episodes, so “Hi,I’m Ashley” won’t be a problem by then, right? :)
I missed some background music in transitions between the news and when you put on the chart. Some simple tune with a bassline will do.
Good luck with your work on new episodes and Ashley, don’t worry, you’re doing a good job, you deserve a chance. And guys cut her some slack, will ya.
Great video, they’re getting much better. I think its great you did something different than just a run-down of current events. I like to know how people view Bittoreent and the reasons behind their opinions. You should keep doing different things like this.
I’m using older versions of Firefox and IE (which I hesitate to upgrade because the newer ones are so bloated) and this video locks up both. I don’t have any problems on YouTube, DailyMotion, or any of the other video sites, but as soon as I start to play this video, my system bogs down to the point where the pointer is sluggish. I have to kill the browser using the Task Manager.
I’d really like to see this. Can TF please try to make their videos more compatible with different browser versions?
#28 you’re an idiot
#29: Why? Because I don’t automatically upgrade to the latest version of every bug-ridden piece of bloatware that comes out?
Besides, I discovered that the problem wasn’t the browser versions I’m using, it was the fact that Flash is a piece of sh*t that uses about 4x more resources than it should. Asking it to play a 960×540 mpeg4 video is like using a toaster oven to cook a turkey.
I used URL Snooper to grab the URL of the video, downloaded it and used ffdshow and Media Player Classic to play it. Excellent video and audio quality and it played perfectly with CPU power to spare.
By far the best episode so far. You really took peoples input from the last episode and added more graphics and put less emphasis on just having the announcer read things out. Well done tf tv!
I still think it’d be better if Ashley was standing and not sitting.
She needs to read the script more times or do a few rehearsals so her sentences don’t run into each other so much.
The on the street portion was an interesting touch! Improving all the time.
The street girl is better because she doesn’t always have a rising intonation and doesn’t generally speak monotonously like an automaton, Perhaps Ashley would do better if she wasn’t reading a script, Or if the format was two people discussing the topics rather than just reading a script on the topics, get the other girl in the studio to discuss the issues with her.
the latest version of firefox is in no way bloated.
New features yes, and thats to be expected. If firefox runs slow on your computer, you need a new computer. Period.
Save me your pathetic argument, firefox runs fast on all of my computers, and theres nothing bloated about it. IE on the other hand, it doesnt matter what version your using… its just crap.
Ashley….your doin great…take no notice of these little boys that slag you off, Real men appreciate you. Keep up the good work.
@ #30
I can’t even begin to imagine what I did to offend you.
Awsome Stuff i liked how you went on the street and got peoples views
Like that black women who say’d she hated piracy yet she admitted to taking a burned Cd.
Hypocrite eh
Damn, what bitrate is that video at? Sorry to add more negativity here, but I couldn’t download it fast enough without buffering on a 1 mbit connection (120 KB/s). I got to about 50% through it and saw it’d already cached in 100meg at that point at which point I click page 2 of the comments (because I’m bored waiting for the video to buffer some) and in doing so lose the cached data. FFS, it looks nice and everything; nice, crisp video quality in fullscreen, but is it really necessary? As purty as Ashley is, I just don’t need to see that level of quality for a few minutes of news.
I’ll have to take other’s word for it that the on-the-streets section was pretty good, because life’s just too short…
Looking good though, TF (comparred to the first episode I watched a while back).
Hey,
About the huge download times for the flash episodes, we are looking to it. No idea right now why it downloads the big file instead of the compressed flash version.
Fixed!
I found this episode to be the most interesting and entertaining one so far. Very well done!
The on-the-street interviews should be only with people who use the Internet, so I agree on that with a previous poster. Like most people, I would tend to discard any opinion given by someone who has no idea of what it is they’re being questioned on. Simply a waste of time.
Ashley is great — she comes off as real and not like the phony hosts of your average newscast. Why anyone would want just a “talking head” sans personality is beyond me.
Keep up the good work!
I’m going to try and say this in the nicest way possible,
This would be much better with a different host.
She sounds like she should be on spring break instead of reporting.
Looks great and has a lot of actual content! Great job guys, especially Ashley and the street reporter – I’ll miss those lovely, lovely, bouncy boobies but Ashley’s presentation is much better now.
BTW, I really do miss the lovely boobies, she has a great pair and they do deserve some air time.
Please stop saying Enet, it’s i as in eye i net
eye eye net, please
I think Ahley is doing a fine job.
The only criticism I have about thist latest episode is the ticker that played during the “street interview”. It was a little distracting. I would have positioned the ticker during Ahley’s interview (if at all). I would have also timed it to run a little slower.
Just a little positive criticism :)
“New features yes, and thats to be expected. If firefox runs slow on your computer, you need a new computer. Period.”
I’m using an older version of Firefox as well, on my 1.8Ghz ssystem. Opening the history sidebar takes at least 20-30 seconds, and that’s with the history set to only 7 days. When it was set to 30, the sidebar would take a minute or more to appear. Even after it appears, scrolling the history list causes the whole browser to freeze up for several seconds at a time. Strangely, opening the bookmarks sidebar is instant and I have more bookmarks than history links.
If I leave any program running, but unused for 30 minutes or so, when I bring the window to the front, there is a 10-15 second delay while Windows reloads it from the swap file. If I leave Firefox sitting idle for 30 minutes and then brong it to the front, it takes a good 30-45 seconds for the window to appear. It’s not functional at that point though. Clicking on any menu causes another 20-30 second delay. Select one of my bookmarks and the browser freezes for another 20-30 seconds before starting to load the page. Once the page starts to load, there’s another freeze before it starts to render the page. Even after the page appears, you can’t click on anything because Firefox has to reload even more junk off the drive. It’s faster to just kill the existing copy of Firefox and reload it from scratch. I admit that my 512MB of RAM isn’t exactly state of the art, but Firefox is the only program that goes off into limbo like that.
“@ #30
I can’t even begin to imagine what I did to offend you.”
The comment numbers change as various comments are deleted or added (apparently).
“Damn, what bitrate is that video at?”
Originally the site was trying to play a 247MB mpeg4 video with a resolution of 960×540.
It wouldn’t play properly for me either until I downloaded it.
how can ii represent ee….
Americans… Its so funny when hearing them say aussie words :) hehehe
Aw. Can you teach her how to read properly, in a way that she talks to the people watching it?
She seems to talk to herself. Makes it boring. The news is interesting, but the way she read almost made me sleep.
@Joe I was referring to the guy who uses a really old firefox or old internet explorer, as someone else said the comment numbers change, I would have referred to you by name otherwise.
Andrej, it’s spot-on for me now. No problems streaming it in throughout. I can see the quality is diminished but it’s not an issue at all; it’s still perfectly watchable. Maybe a touch framey (looks about 10fps or so?) but it’s sound enough.
Nice work all.
“Originally the site was trying to play a 247MB mpeg4 video with a resolution of 960×540″
F’in hell fire, no wonder it croaked here, LOL… :D
“@Joe I was referring to the guy who uses a really old firefox or old internet explorer, as someone else said the comment numbers change, I would have referred to you by name otherwise.”
Sorry, I’m not really familiar with the comment systems quirks.
Cheers.
Well done, I also think she should be more professional and state who she is in a tone that is not expecting we know. Also it would be great for her not to making statements sound like questions. Ashley You are the godess of reporting news about file sharing, I want you to sound like a queen. Queens rarley ask questions and when they do, they sound like direct statments.
Wow, this time I’m not the only one noticing Ashley’s peculiar pronunciation. I’m getting used to it, however, and the show is definitely improving. Still, I tend to miss the background music and Ashley seems to look better when she doesn’t try to be as close as possible to a classical news announcer. She seems to be better off as she were in episode 1.
not bad at all, considering you probably have a rather small budget for it.
the one thing that bugged me was the TV shows rating slide.
the first rule of broadcast is “never a moment of silence”. there’s a reason newscaster just keep yammering on even when there’s nothing to say. it’s just awkward otherwise.
so if you want to keep it as a regular segment you must write some background commentary, which could add substance. if not, you’d better cut it all together
I wish I was reporting.
I would say to the black girl, “Well I really hate you. Enjoy your burnt, pirated CD.” :D
Hey, I’d smush it up. But she’d have to prove that she knew what she was talking about in the episode.
Maybe every time she says “RIAA” or “DMCA” she should take off a piece of clothing.
I’m with iinet!! Shit! I better pack my bags! LOL
better than previous episodes.
by the way, for those unfamiliar iinet is pronounced “eye eye net” not ‘enet’. I would know, I’m Aussie and they are my ISP.
the guy speaking at 4:45 i think is on the right track with the issue of p2p.
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