Windows/Mac/Linux: If you just saw an awesome movie in the theaters and want it on your computer as soon as possible, free app CouchPotato will look for it on Usenet and automatically download it as soon as a copy is available online.

So you've gotten started with Usenet, and maybe you've even turned your computer into an internet PVR with Sick Beard. If you're a movie buff, though, you're still stuck searching for and downloading movies manually—and that just won't do. CouchPotato automates the process: just tell it what movies you want to download, and it will search according to your quality and language specifications, find the perfect match, and download it for you. If the movie isn't out yet, it'll check back periodically until the movie is available, then download it for you right then and there.

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How to Get Started with Usenet in Three Simple Steps

Usenet is a wonderful service for finding and downloading digital media, giving you speed and…

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Step One: Install CouchPotato

Installation on Windows is easy—just download the ZIP file and extract it somewhere on your computer. It's a portable app, so you don't need to install it or anything—just double click on it to start it up. Mac users will need to install Python, then drag the app into their Applications folder as usual. Linux users will need to do a bit more work. This guide also assumes you have SABNzbd installed as described in our original Usenet guide.

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Step Two: Configure Your Settings

Once you've started up CouchPotato, it should open up the web interface in your browser. Hit the cog icon at the top of the page to edit your settings and get it set up.Under the General tab, you can tell it how often you want it to search, and which search terms you want it to add (like 'Bluray' or 'DTS') or remove (like 'dubbed' or 'hardcoded') from your search. You can also add a username and password if you want to protect the web interface from others.

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Under 'NZBs/Torrents', type in your host IP for SABNzbd, the API key, and the username and password you use to access SAB (you can find all this info in SAB's settings under General). You'll also need to enter your username and API key for your NZB provider—like NZBMatrix or Newzbin—under the 'Providers' tab. The Quality and Renaming tabs let you customize how you search for and save movies.

Step Three: Add Movies to Download

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To add a movie, just type a movie name into the box in the top right-hand corner of the page. Select your preferred quality and click 'Add'. You should see the movie show up on your wanted list, which you can access via the 'Wanted' button in the upper left-hand corner of the interface. CouchPotato will check Usenet every so often to see if someone's uploaded that movie, and send it straight to SAB to be downloaded when it finds a copy. If the movie's been out for awhile, it'll find the best version according to your specifications and download it for you.

It's actually very simple to set up, and takes a lot of the annoyances out of downloading movies on Usenet. Now, instead of wading through search results and checking back periodically for new releases, you can just punch your movie into CouchPotato and get on with your day. When your movie's ready, it'll show up in your download folder. Hit the link below to check out CouchPotato's home page.

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.

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