I am going to start this review with a disclaimer. PUT.IO is a website service I subscribe to. They emailed me recently offering me a couple of months free usage of their service if I wrote an honest review. They were pretty insistent about the honesty bit. They insisted I talk about positive or negative experiences I have had with their service.
I had been meaning to write an article about their service so I guess this is as good a time as any other.
I came across PUT.IO around six months ago when it was recommended to me by a friend. For those of you who are not familiar with the service, PUT.IO is a specialized cloud storage system. It comes with a diverse set of useful tools:
I had been meaning to write an article about their service so I guess this is as good a time as any other.
I came across PUT.IO around six months ago when it was recommended to me by a friend. For those of you who are not familiar with the service, PUT.IO is a specialized cloud storage system. It comes with a diverse set of useful tools:
- Cloud torrent application
- MP4 converter
- The ability to schedule torrent downloads with an RSS feed
- Video streaming (Browser and other internet steams)
Why would I want a cloud torrent application? For two primary reasons. Speed and security. One of the disadvantages of running with torrents is connections are peer-to-peer which means bad guys like the Russian mafia and RIAA can snoop on what you are downloading. Since PUT.IO is doing the downloading, your downloads are private and incredibily fast.
If you select your media from ThePirateBay Top 100 Files, then downloads are pretty much instant. If you are like me and have a few regular files that are released weekly, you can use the schedule option so that your media is automatically downloaded and waiting for you to watch at your convenience.
Have a look at a schedule service like http://showrss.karmorra.info/
I think without a doubt the ultimate feature of this service for me is the speed at which you can start consuming your media. Normally I can add any file I want and be watching it within 20 seconds. For someone like me in bandwidth starved South Africa this is important.
Torrent traffic in South Africa is heavily shaped (slowed down), so one of the added advantages of using PUT.IO is the HTTPS encryption which not only means your traffic is unshaped, it also makes it harder for someone to spy on you.
If you run a Plex or XBMC media player for your home entertainment system, then you will be happy to learn that there are plugins to allow you to stream the media content directly to your main screen.
Well... thats a short breakdown of the positive side of PUT.IO, now I guess its onto the negative. They are a new service working with some amazing concepts, and a lot of what they are working with is beta type, cutting edge technology. So there have been some teething issues as they have expanded. I also am looking forwards to the day that one of the proxy servers are located in South Africa so I can get even better streaming speeds.
On at least three occasions in the last 6 months there has been lengthy service disruptions. In their defence the last one was caused by one of their datacenters and was beyond their control. They do communicate with you via Facebook and Twitter when there are service issues. The only other complaint I have is with the mp4 conversion times which can be frustratingly slow sometimes.
All in all I believe it to be a very useful service, one that I am happily willing to pay for monthly. I love it that I can pick any media I want and be watching it on any device in seconds. I can watch it on my XBMC media player, I can watch it on my S3 Samsung phone and I can watch it on my 10" Samsung Android Tablet.
Go check them out, they are a fantastic web based service: https://put.io/
