Better Quality Top Gear Season 1 Rips Now Available

[FinalGear]

Previously, the only decent quality rips of the current edition of Top Gear season 1 were from a channel called BBC Prime. They weren't the best quality and were shorter than a normal episode due to the removal of some content.

However, the season just finished re-airing yesterday on the SBS network in Australia and we are glad to announce that much better quality rips are now available.

Download them and enjoy them -- they should help with the wait until the next new season of Top Gear starts sometime this summer.


Posted By: Viper007Bond
Link: http://www.finalgear.com/news/2008/0...now-available/

[Viper007Bond]

You can use this thread to discuss the torrent if you wish. If you want to talk about a specific episode though, use the episode's thread: http://forums.finalgear.com/top-gear...asc&sort=title

See also: http://forums.finalgear.com/top-gear...ies-1-a-25138/

[Shawn]

I are probably a n00b for asking this here, but do any of the FTPs have these episodes up yet?

I'm getting a new HTPC setup soon so this is perfect timing for me. Though some of the subsequent early series are much worse rips that the BBC Prime rips of series 1, so I'll be even more glad when those come out in higher quality.

Good work Vip'.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Shawn

I are probably a n00b for asking this here, but do any of the FTPs have these episodes up yet?

They're all on 95's FTP, but the version there of 1x03 is slightly outta sync.

Why can't you just download them via the torrent?

[Shawn]

Yeah, I should probably get them from torrents. When I first started keeping up with Top Gear when series 5 had finished airing, I got all the old episodes via the FTPs, so I guess I'm just used to getting TG through FTP.

[Prost264]

these rips are incredible

I don't feel like I'm watching a 20 year old tape anymore

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Prost264

these rips are incredible

I don't feel like I'm watching a 20 year old tape anymore

Yeah, they're quite awesome.

Still though, I have to watch them on my small monitor because if I watch them on my 24", they're just too pixelated.

[Solberg]

Can you guys help seed this?

It`s really slow

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Solberg

Can you guys help seed this?

It`s really slow

No, it's not. We have TWO seedboxes doing about 100mbit combined (done close to 1TB up combined) plus the dozens of other people also doing tens of megabits each on it. There's 214 seeders and 551 peers and you download off both, so that's 765 people to download off of.

Trust me, it's not slow if you're doing it right. Try optimizing your settings -- after all, BitTorrent is a protocol that rewards those who upload.

http://torrentfreak.com/optimize-you...ownload-speed/

[kalle]

is there a mirror for the torrent-files somewhere? mininova is down at the moment.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by kalle

is there a mirror for the torrent-files somewhere? mininova is down at the moment.

Mininova's back.

[Shawn]

So is the quality supposed to be a decent amount higher than the BBC Prime rips?

I downloaded 1x01 from SBS in 700mb format and it pretty much looks as bad as the old 350mb rip I had. Is the 350mb any better than the old Prime rips?

[Ironlord]

Originally Posted by Shawn

So is the quality supposed to be a decent amount higher than the BBC Prime rips?
I downloaded 1x01 from SBS in 700mb format and it pretty much looks as bad as the old 350mb rip I had. Is the 350mb any better than the old Prime rips?

I haven't made it round to watching these yet, but if I understand correctly, the point of these is to eliminate the inconsistency between episodes.

Those I picked up off an ancient torrent were particularly capricious; some were BBC Prime rips, some were BBC2, and I think one came off TVN Turbo in Poland - so the length varied. Some were 350 MB, some were more, some were less. Most were in mono. At least one was in WMV format with the others AVI. One (probably the WMV) was a Jabba rip with the annoying title at the top and the shockingly low bitrate. One had the aspect ratio wrong so Jezza looked eight feet tall.

Series two off that same torrent suffers from much the same problems - there's no Jabba rip but the episode lengths vary even more, and one of them has been hardsubbed in Italian. Series three is more consistent, but these are (I think) all BBC Prime rips so, again, a fair bit has been carved out of each episode. Presumably if SBS show these two series, these will end up as new series packs as well which we can all enjoy. Anyone in Oz-land want to tell us what SBS's plans are?

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Shawn

So is the quality supposed to be a decent amount higher than the BBC Prime rips?

Yes, and it is.

Originally Posted by Viper007Bond

Okay, I downloaded a bunch of Top Gear to my PC overnight to make a comparison.

Episode #1

BBC Prime, at 57:34 long:



SBS, 350MB version (700MB available), at 59:07 long:




Seems to me SBS is what we should go with. Off to find those missing 90 seconds.

[Quiky]

Still seeding.. pushed about 3TB so far with our boxes.

[Shawn]

^ I can confirm that it's going well. I averaged about 80kbps, so those with good connections shouldn't have problems.

Viper, I still see little difference between those screenshots. Maybe it's my eyes or that I'm viewing on a big TV as opposed to a computer monitor, but it was a letdown for me.

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Shawn

Viper, I still see little difference between those screenshots. Maybe it's my eyes or that I'm viewing on a big TV as opposed to a computer monitor, but it was a letdown for me.

The quality is a bit better and look at the aspect ratio -- i.e. no cutoff sides.

The audio is also better, especially on 1x03 (we only had a ridiculously shitty rip of 1x03 previously).

[Gladius]

Thanks for these brilliant rips. (I hadn't seen season 1 yet )

I was just wondering, will there be rips like these of the other seasons (season 2, 3 etc.) aswell?

[Viper007Bond]

Originally Posted by Gladius

Thanks for these brilliant rips. (I hadn't seen season 1 yet )

I was just wondering, will there be rips like these of the other seasons (season 2, 3 etc.) aswell?

If and when they air them. Check out the latest pages of this thread for details: http://forums.finalgear.com/top-gear...ies-1-a-25138/

[AarheadC]

Downloading it now. I like that this will give me another reason to watch Top Gear. (not that i needed one )