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I have been out of the loop for over a decade, where do I begin?
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
Title, I haven't Yo ho ho'd in forever in internet time.. What/where do I need to start again? I'm tired of ads and 3+ streaming services to watch stuff that's interesting. Running windows. Thanks dudes and dudettes.
Right, reading through the comments, you say you've got a couple of kids. I'm guessing that means you're a bit older and don't have that much time to binge-watch long pointless series etc
To pare it down, ignore the comments about Sonarr and Radarr etc, they're for people who are addicted to downloading as much media as humanly possible, or folks in the US with 1990s internet speed. I've tried them and didn't find much benefit to them.
If you just want to quickly download a film or a series, setup is very simple.
In twenty years of torrenting, I've never needed more than a good VPN, a good BitTorrent client, and a good website for magnets. Plus a PC hooked up to the TV with the screen extended.
Torrent client - Use Qbittorrent, for reasons explained later
VPN - As others say, port forwarding is necessary. Use Proton, when you start it up, it gives you a different port number each time. In Qbittorrent, click options then connection, and change the port number to the one Proton gave you. Bit of a fucking about each time but worth it
As for torrenting sites, I rarely need anything more than 1337x.to
BUT, as stated, the search function on QBT is amazing for finding obscure stuff. You need to install Python on your PC first, then there are plenty guides online for installing the search plugins. It sounds complicated but is incredibly easy and stable once installed.
That's it. That's all I use and have done for decades. With fibre optic nowadays, a 1.5gb film takes about two minutes to download, you don't need an entire hard disk full of media, just plan ahead
This I really disagree with. Sonarr is absolutely terrible for backfilling shows with many seasons, it's not at all what its for and you're much better off manually finding season packs and downloading those and then binge. Sonarr is for monitoring shows with continuous releases and automatically download the new episodes so they're ready for watching when they drop. I love not having to manually track when the few shows I do follow release new episodes and then add them to my client, because they're just there in my library when they're available.
You missed the bit where I assumed OP isn't looking for long-winded series due to having kids
1337 tends to rate limit so having other options is good.
I like TGx, but that's mostly due to it's good search engine.
I didn't know 1337x rate-limits! Thanks for the info.
Yes, TGX is excellent too
RARBG is sorely missed
Torrentleech is good
Nah. If you're catch and release then stremio is much better than all of this. Install the app on your Android TV, get debrid for a few dollars, and you're off to the races. Great wife approval factor.
This is great advice. I'm not at all interested in building and maintaining a library of stuff I won't watch twice anyway. Resist the urge. I hooked an old laptop to my TV, put Linux Mint on it and use KDE Connect to remote control it's mouse and keyboard with my phone. Bookmark some streaming sources in Firefox, install FreeTube for your YouTube needs, add an external harddrive for stuff your really want to keep and your have a great media center for zero money.