Information in Norwegian: Dette er en engelsk artikkel som informerer om at NRK har satt opp sin egen BitTorrent-tracker. Noe som kan være av internasjonal interesse. Vi har også en egen artikkel som forklarer hvorfor vi av og til skriver på engelsk her på NRKbeta. Oppdatering: her er den norske versjonen av denne nyheten.



(«The internet is a series of tubes» – Photo: Eirik Solheim, Creative Commons.)

After some very successful tests through 2008 the Norwegian state broadcaster has decided to set up their own BitTorrent tracker and start offering content through this form of distribution on a more regular basis.

The tracker is based on the same OpenTracker software that the Pirate Bay has been using for the last couple of years. But it will only be used to distribute content from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK).



(Photo: Eirik Solheim, Creative Commons.)

NRK is license funded and aims to reach their audience with the best possible quality. Tests with traditional download methods have proven difficult because of the large files and extreme load on the servers.

«By using BitTorrent we can reach our audience with full quality media files. Experience from our early tests show that if we’re the best provider of our own content we also gain control of it.»





With our own tracker we will get better statistics and gather important data about how this technology works. And as we did with our early tests we’ll also try to share the knowledge as we grow this service.

The first show we’re putting on our new tracker is a very popular television series about people living in remote places in Norway. It features fascinating people and spectacular scenery. We have provided all the Norwegian subtitle files and if people want to fansub any of the episodes we’re more than happy to let you do that. Please let us know in the comments and we’ll link to your translations.

Subtitles

Yay! People have already started fansubbing! To use the subtitles you need to download the video files from the torrents and then replace the norwegian subtitle file with the ones linked here. If you use VLC media player it will play automatically.

English

Episode 1: Fansubs from user «flipside» for episode 01 ready!

der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e01.1024×576.h264.NRK.srt

Episode 3: We provide a professional translation of episode 03. It’s about an American woman moving from a life in luxury in New York. To live as a farmer like farmers did in Norway 100 years ago.

der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e03.1024×576.h264.NRK.srt

Episode 4: And user Harald Korneliussen (vintermann) has already fansubbed episode 04. You rock!

der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e04.1024×576.h264.NRK.srt

German

German fansub: And here are the subtitles for episode 1 in German:

der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e01.1024×576.h264.NRK-Deutsch.srt

German fansub of episode 3 by Markus Lobsiger:

der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e03.1024×576.h264.NRK_De.srt

Rights issues

We are providing full quality video files with no DRM. The biggest problem regarding this project is to clear all the rights we need to be able to distribute content in such an open system. NRK is a big content producer, but record labels, actors, external production companies and format rights owners usually have contracts that prevent us from distributing our content freely in the internet. We are in constant negotiations over these issues. And it seems like it should be possible to find a solution where NRK gets the rights it needs and the rights holders get the compensation they want.

In addition to this we look into new providers. Pump Audio, Magnatune and other companies with easier licensing systems are interesting sources.

Miro

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation is promoting the free and opensource Miro software as their preferred BitTorrent client. It is user friendly and contains everything you need to both download and play the high quality video files.

You can subscribe to the show in Miro using the 1-click button below:



Links to the torrent files:

Full RSS-feed:

http://nl.nrk.no/torrent/deringenskulletru/deringenskulletru.rss

Individual files:



Torrent file: Kirkefjorden i Lofoten (1:6)

Link to english fansub by «flipside»: der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e01.1024×576.h264.NRK.srt



Torrent file: Folka på Femundshytta (2:6)



Torrent file: Jenny og det store samspelet (3:6)

English title and description:

Jenny and the great interplay – English subtitles (3:6)

Posh girl left US to live simple on remote farm

Jenny grew up in wealthy Westport in Connecticut, USA. She’s never owned a computer, a car or a television. But every evening she sits in front of her loom weaving, and she goes out to milk the cow from the lantern-light. Jenny Endresen lives on the remote mountain farm Moslid in Telemark, southern Norway, without any electricity or roads. She lives as farmers did a hundred years ago. The purpose is to be self-sufficient and avoid contributing to the mechanical system destroying the earth.

Link to the english subtitle file:

der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e03.1024×576.h264.NRK.srt

German fansub by Markus Lobsiger:

der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e03.1024×576.h264.NRK_De.srt



Torrent file: Knut og budeia i Hattfjelldal (4:6)

English fansub by Harald Korneliussen (vintermann).

Link to the file: der.ingen.skulle.tru.s07e04.1024×576.h264.NRK.srt



Torrent file: Kirsten og dei 13 rallarane (5:6)



Torrent file: På vitjing i havgapet (6:6)

What is NRK and NRKbeta?

NRK is the major tv and radio station in Norway. We are license funded like the BBC in the UK. For more information – see our English about page. NRKbeta.no is NRKs Norwegian technology website with some occasional English articles. E-mail nrkbeta at gmail dot com if you want to talk – and these guys work at NRKbeta.