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.

  • فریدون حسینی@vegantheoryclub.org
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    11 hours ago

    Go to a host like feralhost and rent a seed box. This gives you a webhosted transmission to paste magnet links in from any torrent site. Then you connect with filezilla over sftp, no vpn or nonsense needed and its all super fast because the torrenting is done from a data center and you download only from there over encrypted ssh at max speed when its finished.

    • khorovodoved@lemm.ee
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      4 hours ago

      That’s just VPN with extra steps. Why not just set up a SOCKS5/Shadowsocks/wireguard/whatever on any hosting and get a lot better experience?

      • CoopaLoopa@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 hours ago

        Pretty sure most hosting platforms have egress costs on their cheaper VM instances.

        I know Google cloud charges for bandwidth to AUS, and Oracle is 10TB of egress per month before charging (which I think is the most generous of free/cheap hosting platforms).

      • فریدون حسینی@vegantheoryclub.org
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        4 hours ago

        In my country I don’t get good upstream internet so I can still have good ratios on torrent sites and the private trackers I use. The prices on the dedicated seed box services can’t be beat for bandwidth and for someone with kids it’s already all set up.

        • bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          19 minutes ago

          FWIW if you have a seed box which you can ssh into, you can setup a SOCKS5 proxy to route all traffic through the seed box. It’ll act like a VPN for you and is the best of both worlds in my opinion. This way your ISP and government can’t block your traffic or see that you’re accessing trackers at all (even to get the magnet links).

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          4 hours ago

          OP is new to this so they won’t have access to private trackers anyway.

    • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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      4 hours ago

      You have to do this under the full moon of the longest day of summer too. Otherwise it doesn’t work.

  • Sibbo@sopuli.xyz
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    4 hours ago

    Well, you can stop wearing those weird clothes for once. Nowadays we pirate from home. No sailor suit required anymore. I recommend you start by buying a laptop. But those are quite hard to use if you have skipped a century or two. Can you even read? Do you speak modern English?

    Anyways, maybe go to some adult education center first and learn how to read and write. Yes you got that right. Piracy requires education nowadays. Who would have thought?

      • pyrflie@lemm.ee
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        10 hours ago

        And only for those interested in streaming rather than downloading.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          3 hours ago

          What? Those are used for downloading. Can you even stream using those? (Well you obviously can with Jellyfin but you stream downloaded content so that doesn’t count)

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        8 hours ago

        Jellyseer doesn’t have a Windows installer as far as I know.

        Bazarr seemed useful but most stuff comes with subtitles anyway, and every time Bazarr grabs them for me, they’re inevitably out of sync because they’re for a slightly different version. I normally have to go to opensubtitles and grab a few until I find the right one. It’s probably more useful if you require subs in a language other than English.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          3 hours ago

          I use bazarr primarily because the included subs are often vobsub which works very poorly on my TV.

          Also you can adjust the requirements Bazarr uses for downloading subs and automatically sync the subs if need be.

    • r00ty@kbin.life
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      9 hours ago

      Well, I would say bittorrent with a good vpn or, usenet with a good indexer and depending on how much you download, block account vs monthly.

      Personally I top up all my block accounts whenever I see a sale. With priority set from cheapest per gig to most expensive (so the pricey ones are only used as fillers).

      But that does involve paying some money, but then doesn’t really require a vpn. In the long term I don’t think I’m paying that much though.

  • JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works
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    15 hours ago

    Grab Stremio, it’s a program you can download.
    Once you’ve downloaded that and opened it up, in any browser go to torrentio.strem.fun and click to install that to your client.

    In the program go into your settings and remove the official sources from showing up (like apple TV, Netflix, etc.) and et viola.

    You can use popular lists or search for series, and it’ll find the episode/movie from pirates sources.

    The fun thing about this is it’s all educational. Not the program nor the torrentio link are illegal, it’s only what you do with it. So all in all, I hope you enjoy searching for legal documentaries supported by creative commons licensing!

  • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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    16 hours ago

    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

    • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 hours ago

      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.

      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.

      • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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        6 hours ago

        You missed the bit where I assumed OP isn’t looking for long-winded series due to having kids

        • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 hours ago

          Shows that are continuously putting out episodes are not necessarily long-winded…most shows I “follow” (there’s only 3) are on season 2 or 3 and do either batch releases of a few episodes or release single episodes one at a time.

          It’s just nice that when I have the time to watch them, I don’t first have to check if something has come out and then wait for it to download (even though I have gigabit), it’s just already there and ready to go. Why wouldn’t I want that? What would I possibly gain by having this be a manual task instead? Spending 5-10min finding itin the resolution etc. that I want and then another 10-20min waiting for it to download compared to just opening jellyfin and seeing “ooh, another episode dropped, neat!”…do you prefer finding what you want to watch on e.g. Netflix, and then wait 10-20min for it to buffer before you can watch it over instantly beginning streaming it?

    • pyrflie@lemm.ee
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      10 hours ago

      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.

      • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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        6 hours ago

        I didn’t know 1337x rate-limits! Thanks for the info.

        Yes, TGX is excellent too

        RARBG is sorely missed

        Torrentleech is good

    • Teppichbrand@feddit.org
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      15 hours ago

      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.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
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      11 hours ago

      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.

  • sodamnfrolic@lemmy.sdf.org
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    15 hours ago

    I recently started paying for debrid services (I use real debrid, but there are others) and couldn’t be happier. Got an app called Stremio on my TV and after adding the credentials, everything just works - easy & fast like the streaming services.

    It also allows you to download torrents much faster than torrenting them, especially if not many people seed them.

    Oh, and if you ever need to download something from Rapidshare or whatever other websites like that it does that too.

    Honestly, I should’ve started paying for it earlier.

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    14 hours ago

    qBittorrent is probably the best torrent client for Windows

    Mullvad is a relatively cheap and trustworthy VPN provider (they unfortunately removed port forwarding, which is important for torrenting)

    AirVPN and Proton VPN are trustworthy VPN providers that support port forwarding

    Servarr is the way to go if you want to set up a server that automates everything for you

    Jellyfin is the best media server, far ahead of Plex and fully FOSS

    FMHY and the Champagne Piracy Wiki have lots of valuable information

    • rooster_butt@lemm.ee
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      5 hours ago

      You can’t say jellyfin is far ahead of plex when it doesn’t have nearly as many clients as plex does. I’ll agree that in the free tier jellyfin is better, but as of now it’s not as fully featured as plex pro. Even non pro plex just makes it easier to share outside your home too.

    • emhl@feddit.org
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      23 hours ago

      A bit of topic but why the hell does the champagne wiki reccomend Edge as a browser citing it’s AI capabilities? Is this copied directly from MS marketing material?

      Edit: I am starting to read through it and there Is so much bad, outdated and just wrong information there:

      • they recommend to set a DNS level adblocker using an app that isn’t supported on the android version the guide is for and completely forget that you can just set the DNS server without any additional app on any modern android version (what is what the provider of the Dns server they recommend reccomends)
      • they tell you protonVPN doesn’t support Torrenting (maybe just bad wording) and recommended mullvad because of that

      I don’t really want to continue beyond before-you-begin

      Edit2: Uh why is there an extensive article on how to deal with addiction and how to do meditation in the piracy section?

      I don’t think I should continue any further

      Edit3: you can contribute to the wiki by sending markdown files in a discord channel. Wikipedia should switch to this model as well imo

        • jittery_shibe@lemmings.world
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          2 hours ago

          Why is port forwarding important? I have my torrent server running, downloading and uploading perfectly fine. Is port forwarding needed for like something else besides general down/uploading?

    • Admax@lemmynsfw.com
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      23 hours ago

      Please could you elaborate about how qbittorent is a good VPN and why is port forwarding important for torrenting ? I’m kind of confused about those statement…

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        20 hours ago

        I’m fairly positive they meant “qbittorrent is a good torrent client” instead of “VPN”

        As far as port forwarding, I know it’s important for seeding but I don’t know why.

        • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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          17 hours ago

          It’s a poor analogy, but imagine a public IP like a hotel, there can be lots of guests (clients) at this hotel. Hotel policy is they won’t let any outsiders in unless you know the room number (port) of the person you’re trying to reach.

          Imagine you and a friend are staying in separate hotels and want to give each other copies of your favorite Linux .ISOs, but neither of you knows the other’s room number - you show up at the hotel and the front desk tells you to pound sand because you don’t have their room number.

          As long as one of you knows the other’s room number though, you can meet.

          Torrenting without port forwarding means you can only trade your favorite .ISOs with people who have port forwarding enabled (sharing their room number to the tracker), which makes you less effective of a seeder. Enabling port forwarding allows you to share with anyone (sharing your room number with the tracker).

  • metaStatic@kbin.earth
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    22 hours ago

    if you’re in Australia ignore all VPN advice. Companies can only come after you for the cost of a single copy of whatever you pirate making it functionally legal here.

    Torrents are your best bet for now because they are super easy.

    Usenet is a paid service, absolutely worth it but you’re paying for at least 2 different services to make it work and setting up a whole bunch of software. Just steer clear of the Arr suite until torrents fail you (and they will)

  • Bigfoot@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    The simple answer:

    Get Qbittorrent and use it’s built-in search engine.

    The fully automated gay space answer:

    • Look into selfhosting - (optional but makes it easier/coler)
    • Look into Plex (or Emby or Jellyfin) - optional but makes it pretty

    These are the apps you’ll need:

    • Radarr - Gets movies
    • Sonarr - Gets tv shows automatically as they come out
    • Prowlarr - the thing that does the searching for radarr/sonarr.
    • Overseerr - Makes it simple to request stuff
    • Qbittorrent - downloads things

    (There is also Lidarr for music and Readarr for books)

    If all set up correctly, you simply just request something with Overseerr and it shows up in Plex minutes later with artwork and metadata all pulled in and presented nicely. You can configure the apps to look for specific resolutions/file sizes/formats/etc. TV shows are downloaded as soon as a new episode is released. It’s better than any streaming service by leaps and bounds.

    • themadcodger@kbin.earth
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      20 hours ago

      Does overseer do anything besides let you request from the others? And where does Prowlarr come in?

      I more or less have this setup, but I start in Trakt (which I was using before I started with the arrs) and add something to my watchlist. Sonarr and Radarr regularly sync with that and check the indexers I have set up and download via sabnzbd. It unpacks and gets to where it needs to go, and I watch it in Jellyfin.

      It all works fine for me. So what I’m really asking, is am I missing out on anything by not using Overseer and Prowlarr or is it just another way of doing the same thing?

      • Bigfoot@lemm.ee
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        8 hours ago

        Overseerr is basically a polished front end for Radarr/Sonarr. It’s useful if non-techies are requesting things, and/or you just want a single, dead-simple place to request (video) media. If you want to just try it out it doesn’t affect your radarr/sonarr setup at all.

        @ShepherdPie@midwest.social gave a good explanation of Prowlarr. Just another simplification/automation tool.

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        11 hours ago

        Prowlarr allows you to manage all the indexers/trackers in one location. This is helpful if you want to add or remove one or limit things from being automatically downloaded from site A but not B, C, and D like when you join a new private tracker and need to build ratio first.

      • Petter1@lemm.ee
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        10 hours ago

        Overseer makes recommendations according your plex/jellyfin views, but don’t know if it is better than trakt (don’t know trakt well…) Prowlarr is to manage indexer centralised for all the arr services. It is as well a good tool to search releases manually, if the arr services fail to grab a release you want.

  • SteveNSFW@yall.theatl.social
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    1 day ago

    Recognize that there may be some costs involved: hard drives, a raspberry pi, VPN/VPS/seedbox, even just electricity.

    Get a good VPN and use it for any torrenting you do from home. Nord is not a good VPN. (unless your government doesn’t care or you use a seed box, then do whatever)

    Use public torrent trackers if you have to but: If you have some private torrent tracker accounts from yore, try to get them re-activated. Surprisingly they may have your old info. This will probably require IRC. If not, look into interviewing with RED, OPS, or MAM to learn the ropes, then use them to get invited into movie/TV/general PTs.

    If you don’t like the sound of torrenting look into newsgroups. This will cost money in two ways: a newsgroup account and a news indexer.

    Check out the arr suite, especially radarr and sonarr, to automatically get what you are interested in.

      • Policeshootout@lemmy.ca
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        24 hours ago

        I think it’s mostly to do with their advertising tactics and misleading people in what their service is actually doing.

        They also had a data breach and did not handle it well.

        Maybe there’s other stuff I don’t remember… I’ve never used them, I’ve been on Mullvad for some years now but considering proton next.

        • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          20 hours ago

          I’ve been using it for a while and had no idea it didn’t support port forwarding! I know it’s important for torrenting, but my private tracker ratios are all 2:1 or more (my record is 6:1)

          I should read up on why it’s important.

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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            11 hours ago

            Because the people in your private trackers have port forwarding enabled so a connection is still made but someone else who hasn’t setup port forwarding won’t be able to connect to you.

          • Klopstock@feddit.org
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            18 hours ago

            The Problem with not having Port forwarding is that you can only connect to people which have port forwarding. That means If the seeds are also using no port forwarding you cannot download/upload.