Thread: TheBox (Box) Review

After reading el2em's suggestion for more in depth reviews I decided to try and write a comprehensive review of TheBox.bz which will hopefully give people all the information needed to decide whether or not they wish to join the community. Though I appreciate any input in case I've gone overboard on this review (though my aim is to make all information relevant)

TheBox
TheBox - Registration

I will start by saying that in spite of what many people think TheBox is not merely a TV tracker, it's a UK multimedia tracker meaning it has not only UK television but also Radio.

Joining TheBox is not particularly hard, not only are signups often open but invitations are quite easy to get, as you get one for getting promoted and 2 every 20 days when your ratio is over 1.05 and you have over 10GB uploaded, so even if the signups are closed it should be relatively easy to get an invite from someone on T-I.

But why would you want to join TheBox? Obviously this tracker is not for you if you're not interested in British television but if you enjoy British TV or radio be it Comedy, Drama or Sports (or many many other things) this is the tracker for you. Not only does Thebox have virtually every new show that comes out in the UK, with a very good pretime, it also has a massive amount of content going back easily 50 years. It's also worth mentioning that TheBox has very extensive categories (see below) making any searches much easier. On top if this if you are looking for something that is not currently available there's a request section and there's a good chance there's someone in the very helpful community willing to upload what you're looking for whether it's a loose episode a single series or the whole collection.

Now that I've told you about the content of TheBox its time to talk about downloading and seeding. Download speeds on TheBox are generally quite acceptable, though not quite up to par with the elite trackers. However when a torrent has just been uploaded it can take some time to get up to speed as it seems many uploaders don't have seedboxes, or even very fast connections for that matter, so it might take a while for a torrent to really get up to speed but once a torrent is in the swarm the speed is just fine.
When it comes to seeding it's not that hard to seed so you'll be able to survive even if you don't have a seedbox or download older torrents.

If you wish to improve you're ratio there's two main ways to do this, you can either take advantage of the many freeleech torrents (mostly soaps and very popular shows though certain special events are also freeleech) which allows you to get upload credit without downloads, or use neutral torrents which own't give you upload credit but at least don't count against your downloads. If for some reason useing these torrents isn't your thing, or doesn't work for you you can also greatly improve your ratio by downloading and seeding very popular programs (i.e. Dr. Who, Formula 1 or popular Comedy Series) just after they have been uploaded, if your connection is sufficiently fast this can lead to a ratio of 2-3+ on these torrents in a very short amount of time.

On top of all the tracker stuff TheBox also has an active community. This community will not only help you get those rare torrents you have problems finding but will also support you if you have issues with uploading/downloading or your ratio. Apart from this there's the standard general discussion all good communities have with very extensive discussions about all that goes on in UK multimedia.

Now that I've given a (not all that short) description of TheBox it's time to show what the site looks like:

Home/Main:


Announcements:


Banners:






Categories:


Browsing:


Forums:




Rules:



User Classes:


Special 1 - Requests:





Special 2 - TheBox Radio:


Now that I've given you an idea of what TheBox is about it's time to give it my ratings.

Content: 9/10 (Would've been 10 but can't bring myself to give it for a purely UK tracker)
Speed: 7/10 (Some torrents start a bit slow but speed is fine after that)
Community: 9/10 (Not only very helpful and nice but also a part of keeping the content up to par)

Overal: 9/10 (The incredibly content and community make up for the slightly slower speeds)

uTorrent allowed again.

My favourite tracker for all things british (TV). some real gems on there and easy to get reeseed requests filled when it is needed. great community with a lot of helpful friendly people. Can be a bit too conservative when it comes to allowed clients, but usually not a big problem.

Awesome tracker for TV maniacs :) Open now, advice to all.

hey there
i have a problem
Signup failed!

Registration not allowed!

and when i try to connect to irc i get this
You are banned from the channel #thebox.bz

i have no ideea why because from what i know this was the first time i tried to make an acc or visit that site

hope is the right section to post this....

very good review on a very good tracker one of my best trackers for any thing British

Great review. My favorite tracker as I'm into UK TV. Still find great new (old) shows to watch. Good and helpful community.

Only downside not allowed to use latest version of Azureus/Vuze but can run V4.2.0.2

My window to UK TV, heck, this is my UK TV :)
And almost anything for any taste can be found on UK TV
Just be careful with the rating, especially in the beginning, especially when you are sort of new. Make an effort to build it first, instead of trying to download 5 gigs of your favorite show immediately. There is plenty of sound advice about ration in the forum, so it's a good idea to do some reading first.

FYI,

Sign up is Closed for the time being.