How we do things around here

Hi guys,

I have a lot to say, but I don’t want this to get long and boring. So, I try my best.

History(not very important, so you can skip it if you’d like):
It has been more than eight years since we started doing this. It all began with the TV series “Episodes” starring Matt LeBlanc. I enjoyed the show, but it wasn’t popular enough for anyone to bother uploading a smaller version of it. So, I decided to do it myself and uploaded it to TPB. When I saw that people liked the result, I decided to upload more popular shows as well, like “The Walking Dead,” and some big movies too. At that time, we used to upload x264 releases. Then, when x265 came out, I decided to try it and encoded the entire “Friends” TV show. The result was so good that I couldn’t keep it to myself. Back then, nobody used to do x265, so I had to be the one to do it. “Friends” in x265 was uploaded to TPB on September 13th, 2014. I remember when someone from the x265 development team contacted me, expressing surprise that we had started using the the codec so early on. Initially, x265 was quite buggy and I recall having to report numerous issues. However, it has since become much more stable.

After TBP was raided by the police and went down for months, I thought we could use a free weblog to continue what we had started. By “we,” I mean me, “Dr.XJ,” but as PSA, we are a collective “we.” Unfortunately, they removed the blog after just two weeks. This is how PSArips.com was born on December 10th, 2014, and we have come a long way since then. I was a young kid back then, but now I’m a grown-ass man still committed to doing this. Everything will eventually come to an end, but as long as there’s a reason for PSA to exist, we will do our best to keep things rolling.

How others do it?
Well, I think you guys have a basic understanding of how things are done. ALMOST all the “teams” WE know, do things automatically, meaning scripts monitor sources, download and encode videos, and upload them somewhere. This is terrible because it doesn’t consider where the sources came from or how their quality is. They are encoded with the lowest possible quality, which is disrespectful. It may get the job done, but in the worst possible way.

On the other hand, there are better groups that care about sources and try to select good ones. However, the rest of the process is still automatic, which is not recommended. What I mean by “automatic” is that regardless of content, basic encoding settings will be used for everything. Usually default settings. Sometimes I’ve seen them make it worse because they don’t know what they’re doing. Regardless of whether it’s a low-budget TV show or a blockbuster movie, settings are the same. It’s still bad. I don’t want to name names, but it’s almost all the other teams that are doing this.

How PSA does it?
We respect every individual who wants to watch our releases with their beautiful eyes. In order to provide the best possible quality, each release is carefully crafted by hand. We begin by selecting the best source available and, if necessary, compare multiple sources for a particular movie or TV show. Once we have selected the best source, we watch the whole thing in 2-3 minutes(fast-forward) to check everything, which may spoil the movie, but we do it nonetheless because we are professionals.

We then tailor our encode settings to the specific movie or TV show, sometimes even using different settings for different episodes. After the encode is complete, we go through everything again to ensure that the results meet our high standards. If we are not satisfied with the results, we tweak some settings and redo the process until we achieve the desired outcome.

At PSA, we never sacrifice quality and efficiency for speed. We use complex encode settings even for 4K releases, which may slow down the encoding process but help us provide the most efficient releases possible. Our approach has changed the game in many ways, such as being the first ones to use 1080p sources for both 720p and 1080p releases and utilizing Blu-ray remuxes as our sources to provide better results. Before that, teams used to pick like a 4GB 720p already encoded Sparks source, but we went for 30GB untouched remuxes. Nowadays, this is considered a standard.

That is the reason why we don’t have as many uploads on our site compared to other teams that upload 20-30 older movies or 1-2 TV show packs every day with rapidly. This is not how we operate at PSA because we prioritize quality over quantity, which means we cannot compromise on the results by rushing through the process. That’s why we may not be able to fulfill requests for older TV shows or movies due to our focus on providing high-quality everyday uploads.

While we strive to continuously improve our processes and results, we also acknowledge that re-encoding may become obsolete due to the rapid evolution of technology in the near future. Nonetheless, we encourage anyone who wishes to engage in this field to bring their best game and pay attention to every little detail to provide an exceptional viewing experience.

What do we want in return?
Absolutely nothing. We don’t expect anything from you in return for using PSA. It’s all yours to enjoy. However, we would like to express our gratitude to our VIP/Donor members who have been kind and generous in supporting us. Without their contributions, it would have been very difficult for us to keep running this website, which is quite expensive to maintain. I personally hug you all with love. Additionally, we appreciate those who take the time to go through the ads on our website, as it really helps us out. We have been working tirelessly for the past 8-9 years without any breaks, even during times when it was difficult, such as when I had Covid-19. We kindly ask that you refrain from downloading our releases from other sources, as doing so hurts us both financially and mentally. Our goal is to produce quality content for our users, and we are happy to see more people coming to our website to access it. If you find it hard to support us through donations, please consider spending just 30 seconds to go through our ads. We have removed all the popups and ads from our website, so you can browse it without interruption. We believe this is a fair tradeoff for the work we put in to create content for you. Ultimately, we hope that you will support everything you like, as that is the only way it can survive. All the things I mentioned take a big portion of our day. We do it only because of you guys. Hope you understand. Helping us in any form or way is actually helping yourself. We all keep PSA moving. There are a lot of fees and expenses to cover each and every month and have to pay them right on time. There’s no way around it. I wish there was.

Other problems?
Since we created this website, we’ve faced numerous challenges and encountered many enemies. We’ve had to deal with DMCA agents, DDoS attacks from large corporations, financial losses due to various reasons, domains being blocked and more. Despite these difficulties, we’ve persevered in order to fulfill our obligations of providing new releases in PSA quality as soon as possible. Maintaining a website like PSA is far from easy, but we don’t believe you should be burdened by our struggles. We simply want you to know that it takes a lot of effort and dedication to keep this website running.

I might update this article in the future based on the comments and other things.

//Dr.XJ