MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In 1999, Napster was the latest sensation. In the course of about a month, the words, “I’ll just download it” could be heard in middle school cafeterias and college dorm rooms alike. Practically overnight, the concept of paying for music became obsolete, and the era of free downloadable media began.
It started with the MP3 file, the trendy new way to store your favorite songs, while making your Sony Walkman become the equivalent of an eight-track player.
Napster was quickly shut down, but by then it was too late. The realm of free media had already evolved, and its foothold as part of a new, high tech American lifestyle was too strong to be uprooted. Soon it was not only music that was free. Movies, TV shows, and even whole computer games and programs could be downloaded.
In the course of a little over a year, Kazaa, Limewire, iMesh, Morpheus and BearShare all emerged on the Internet, promising access to millions, if not billions of dollars of free media.
As wonderful as it was to be able to download the “Die Hard” trilogy and every episode of “South Park” ever, the trade off was that you slowly saw your computer die a slow and painful death, with symptoms of declining processor speeds, viruses, spyware, trouble opening programs and crashes.
In the dwindling twilight years of my bulky desktop computer, I remember I could go make a sandwich in the time it took for iTunes to open.
The problem with downloading files from the Internet is the same as buying drugs on the street or eating Spam: you’re just not quite sure what exactly you’re getting.
But nowadays, a good, steady supply and chunk of the highest quality media meat can all be found in one place online: http://www.ovguide.com/
Write it down, people. OVGuide is an amazing Web site that serves as a portal to a little over a thousand separate media streaming sites.
You might have heard of Web sites like tv-links.com, bedroommedia.com, alluc.org and more. They are all Web sites that host or host links to places where you can stream media directly to your computer; a concept similar to YouTube.
What this means is that you don’t have to download the files (and the viruses that come with them) to your computer’s hard drive. Furthermore, you don’t have to wait to watch the media, because it is a stream that is played “live” as you download it.
OVGuide offers much more than a list of Web sites, however. At the top of the page, there is a built in Google search bar, allowing you to type in whatever media you’re looking for and search all 1,000-plus sites using Google’s extremely efficient search engine.
In addition to the huge package of benefits already offered, streaming media is reportedly not illegal, in comparison to downloading media which is considered pirating. This way you know that Lars Ulrich won’t show up at your door with a subpoena.
Because of the diversity of sites offered on OVGuide, you can literally find almost anything. You can even watch some movies that aren’t out in theaters yet (I don’t know how, but the files are there). Certain files are not of the highest quality, and many are bootlegs, but at the same time many files are in perfect, DVD quality.
I know it might sound too good to be true, but this site is for real and has certainly been an enormous asset in giving me excuses not to study.
You might have to search around a little, but chances are that what you want is out there on the Internet somewhere, and OVGuide.com is just the tool with which to find it.