Best way to get British TV? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 year ago by jordank1977@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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*NOTE: I am NOT asking for an invite. I'm very happy to go through the normal channels (IRC, Discord, application, etc).

I think TV Chaos is probably the best current tracker for British TV? I saw that they haven't had open signups for a number of years. Tried joining their chat and didn't get any replies.

Basically looking to get recent seasons of British reality TV (TOWIE, Baby Steps, Love Island, etc) and having a hard time. I'm currently on IPT and TorrentLeech and it's slim pickings. The public trackers don't seem much better (1337z, EXTV, TorrentGalaxy). Any help would be appreciated!

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[-] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

I use Smart DNS Proxy on my media PC to access British TV streaming channels. It has been working flawlessly for me for years, watching BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, 4 On Demand etc accessing from Canada. You may also have to set your windows system time to a UK timezone too - I think BBC in particular can sometimes detect you otherwise. You don't necessarily have to change your entire PC DNS settings as they recommend - you can set a specific browser to use their DNS and just use that for TV.

[-] gemew26@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

this is probably the best solution. I also used a vpn to watch BBC iPlayer

[-] theskyisfalling@lemmy.fmhy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

A lot of these shows are free on their respective streaming service (ITVX for Love Island for example), are you not able to use a VPN to access them?

[-] jordank1977@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

I'll have to try again. Originally I tried with Mullvad (prior to the port-forwarding implosion) and ITVX kept throwing errors. I wonder if it had issues with my device's timezone as another matey mentioned? I'm on Windscribe now so might try that.

[-] doleo@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

ExpressVPN works for me, from outside the UK. This is without changing system time on any of my devices; Tv, laptop, mobile. You do have to carefully select with UK server you use, some of them have been blacklisted.

[-] jordank1977@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Sounds good. Last I tried I was on Mullvad, but I've switched to Windscribe so might try that again.

[-] innercitadel@lemmy.nz 3 points 1 year ago

There is some British stuff on Usenet (e.g. nzbGeek) but yeah in general I have concluded that British TV doesn't have broad appeal and so it is hard to find even if willing to purchase.

You could also try using a VPN with the BBC iPlayer app. I've done this before.

There is also the acorn TV app which is a paid streaming service, $8 a month, and probably the best option if you're really into regularly watching British TV as there isn't really a great alternative option.

[-] Crinkly4516@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

Has anybody tried using yt-dlp or similar to download shows from ITV/C4? I know it works with the iplayer.

[-] jordank1977@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago

Also curious about this. If I can get VPN working like others suggested I'd love to actually have them on my media server and not have to set up the wife's phone with VPN and all that.

[-] halfpipe@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 year ago

Love Island looks like it’s available on BT4G.org

[-] jordank1977@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

Oh thank you! So does BT4G pull from other trackers? I don't see a way to add it to Prowlarr.

[-] brickfrog@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 year ago

BT4G is not a tracker, AFAIK they just run a DHT crawler and index torrents they find in their search database.

There are a few sites like that, not sure if any of them have compatibility with Prowlarr / Jackett. Implementing wouldn't be that straightforward e.g. just because a DHT crawler finds an infohash it doesn't mean it is "new" content, just something new to add into its own database. Your Prowlarr / Jackett would keep notifying you ever time it finds a new torrent hash for the same thing you already downloaded.