TV series worth watching/downloading

[Homer]

Dexter http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0773262/
My rating: 9

The following is from a review I agree with. It's of the novel, but fits the show as well:
It's been years since there's been a thriller debut as original as this one by Lindsay, who takes a tired subgenre-the serial-killer novel-and makes it as fresh as dawn. Lindsay's premise alone is worthy: narrator Dexter Morgan, a blood-spatter specialist for the Miami cops, is also a serial killer. But all his life, Dexter has followed the rules set down by his cop foster father (who knew of Dexter's proclivities), to indulge his passion only by slaying other serial killers. What makes this novel zing, though, is the narration-humorous, self-deprecating, smart and sometimes lyrical, it's a macabre fun ride ("I thought about the nice clothes that I always wore. Well of course I did. I took pride in being the best-dressed monster in Dade County").

Seasons 1 - 3 were riveting. Season 4 went astray, as if it were done by a new set of writers. Season 5 was crap.

[hhfarang]

I tried to download the first episode of The Wire twice using two different download sources and different source copies. Both were straight .AVI files (over 300mb) and took about an hour each to download onto my Windows 7 netbook. Both play very good quality video, but with no audio. I only have windows media player on my (relatively new) netbook at the moment and it plays the audio just fine with .mp3 music files. Why do I not get audio with the mini-series?

[sandman67]

HHF

This will be an issue with the audio codecs loaded onto your computer..or not loaded as it seems to be. Standard issue Windows has hardly any of the AVI codecs (or MKV or DIVX or XVID) as Billy Gates' crew of geek scum dont bother making life easy for anything non Microsoft....which is about 90% of audio and video codecs. The only Microsoft video/audio format is WMV so thats the only set of codecs they pre load.

A codec is a tiny bit of software that translates the video and audio compressed data into stuff you can see and hear.

download and install the K-LITE codec pack from here

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_l ... c_pack.htm

that has all the up to date audio and video codecs in there. It is safe and user friendly...just download it and install. It does all the hard work for you.

If that doesnt fix your woes let me know and ill suggest a more esoteric fix... they may hae used the latest DIVX codec which you need to install from the DIVX site. You need to be careful with that one as it also installs a load of other bundled DIVX crap and search bars if you arent careful.

You may also wish to dump Windows Media Player, which is toss, and use a decent media player on your system. Two I use and recommend are

VLC MEDIA PLAYER - excellent quality and very simple

http://gofree.com/download/Video/Media- ... 6wodziReTQ

GOM PLAYER - the dogs balls of media players.... top quality and one of the best - auto looks up and downloads any missing codecs from the company's own site. Can play partial files, and also can repair broken files. Plays any sort of media.

http://www.gomlab.com/eng/GMP_download.html

cheers bro

[Homer]

I tried to download the first episode of The Wire twice using two different download sources and different source copies. Both were straight .AVI files (over 300mb) and took about an hour each to download onto my Windows 7 netbook. Both play very good quality video, but with no audio. I only have windows media player on my (relatively new) netbook at the moment and it plays the audio just fine with .mp3 music files. Why do I not get audio with the mini-series?

^^ What he said about codecs. That is common problem with .AVI files. The latest version of VLC video player is known for being best at playing files others won't. It's free. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Do the download sources have comments pages? Usually when a file is bad people will post comments.

[BaaBaa.]

What SM said. GOM player has played everything I've ever thrown at it.

[Johan]

Spartacus is the best !

Breaking bad is also very good.

True blood and vampire diaries are also good series if you like vampires.

Game of throne it's new but also very very good.

Weeds is not bad.

Dexter is good.

The sopranos are excellent.

Boardwalk empire nice one also.

[BaaBaa.]

Arrested Development is a class US comedy.

[pharvey]

Arrested Development is a class US comedy.

Now THAT I'd forgotten about!! Got to Season 2 I think - were there anymore BaaBaa??

[BaaBaa.]

Arrested Development is a class US comedy.

Now THAT I'd forgotten about!! Got to Season 2 I think - were there anymore BaaBaa??

3 seasons apparently, not seen them all, probably 2 I borrowed off a mate.

Very good though, I'll get on to season 3!

[sandman67]

Not exactly drama series but Im glued to the screen by American Pickers and Pawn Stars as old Americana is fascinating triple cool stuff. Sort of US versions of Antiques Roadshow on the BBC.

similarly Swamp People is excellent watching - a unique look at the lifestyle down on the bayou. Man it takes some stones to live where just about everything not human is deadly and out to get you before you eat it. Could do with subtitles sometimes tho. Lovely scenery as well and some classic backwoods characters.

All on History Channel.

[Nereus]

Not exactly drama series but Im glued to the screen by American Pickers and Pawn Stars as old Americana is fascinating triple cool stuff. Sort of US versions of Antiques Roadshow on the BBC.

similarly Swamp People is excellent watching - a unique look at the lifestyle down on the bayou. Man it takes some stones to live where just about everything not human is deadly and out to get you before you eat it. Could do with subtitles sometimes tho. Lovely scenery as well and some classic backwoods characters.

All on History Channel.

Yes indeed, a couple of excellent, "life as it is", entertaining shows.

Another good show is "Swamp Loggers" and one of the characters on there most definitely needs, and has, subtitles!

I used to work with some of those characters and some of them have a language all of their own!

[hhfarang]

download and install the K-LITE codec pack from here

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_l ... c_pack.htm

Thanks Sandman, I tried that. The had basic, normal, and full and I downloaded the full one to be sure. Now when I play the video, it's plays slow and jerky and has sound but it sounds like birds chirping to each other over a bad cell phone connection instead of music or voice... Maybe something in the installation setup...

VLC MEDIA PLAYER - excellent quality and very simple

That's what I use on my old desktop XP machine... the netbook is fairly new and I haven't bothered to load anything other than WMP yet.

[sandman67]

HHF

I would drop VLC and try running files through that as VLC will tell you if there is a problem with the file, if part of it is missing (which with an avi does screw the sound up).

WMP is a nightmare software that eats up memory like a starving dog....which is what it sounds like is happening now. The stutter is wht happens when the bit rate of the playback file consumes too much memory and your laptop cant keep up with the bitrate needed for smooth playback. I get that with any video file that runs at 1280 resolution s my old laptop cant cope. Yours is new so shouldnt be having the problems.

My guess is these issues are all down to WMP being a pig, and some poor encoding of teh files by the person that ripped them to AVI. Its a common issue.

Try VLC or GOM and if its still cranky I can direct you to some file analysys software that will look at the coding of the files and the type of compression used, and then fix any issues such as missing audio instructions.

Failing all of that working we can always just source you better verified versions of the files from a site like oneddl.com

[kalbow]

Guys

Agree on those shows...

Currently watching/watched/about to watch...

The Killing
The Borgias
Chicago Code (punchy cop show based in, er.. Chicago)
Mad Men
Game of Thrones
The Tudors
The Wire (excellent show)
Dollhouse
Justified (just finished season 2 - really like this show)
Hung (only seen up to season 2 - maybe they've cancelled the show)
House
Outsourced
Underbelly (Australian crime history, haven't got the recent spin off shows)
Entourage (are they making another series?)
Californication (season 5 coming next year)
Deadwood (classic)
Sopranos (classic - I have the complete box set, the earlier DVDs are deteriorating - another reason to rip to disk!)
West Wing (catching up on this one)
The Good Wife

Kalbow

[buksida]

I've always used the K-lite software to play video, very rarely does it reject a format. The sound out of synch is usually due to poor encoding so just find another copy of the same file.

Game of Thrones is starting to heat up a bit now, ie more sex and violence!