I was a happy Netflix user until 2018, before that I haven’t really pirated any movies (with very rare exceptions) for almost a decade but I recently started again. I’m was doing my monthly budgeting and realized I was paying for too many subscription services. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Shudder, Disney+, Hulu and Crunchyroll. My family likes to watch different types of content that is distributed on many different platforms.

I was never subscribed to these many services until a couple years ago. I was thinking which service I should cancel when I realized I had the option to cancel all of them this entire time. I’m torrenting again and I started saving a considerate amount.

The only service I’m paying for is Spotify which I think it’s fairly priced and offers all the music my family listens too (and it’s convenient). All the competitors pretty much offer the same content and that’s how streaming services should be.

I remember back in the day using eMule and BitChe (to look for torrents). Now I’m using Deluge as my torrent client and I I get my torrents from 1337x. What sites are you guys using?

  • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Idk if I would use whatever this debrid is. You can easily accomplish torrenting trackers and what not via either biglybt or any other torrent client that allows I2P, or you can use a vpn, etc.

    I don’t understand all this hype lately for downloaders, they look and few exactly like crap ware and malware used to come bundled in - what’s the benefit to using a “downloader” over using a setup with torrenting, plex, private trackers and maybe an *arr product like sonarr?

    • KairuByte@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      When you use a debrid service with Stremio, you do not need to use a VPN, and you are less hindered by a devices ability to understand torrent content. It makes it easy to stream in your browser, for instance. Even on your phone.

      • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah see I wouldn’t expect that sort of services from something that’s supposed to manage downloads though.

        I’m not going to trust software that’s in charge of downloading my content, doing xyz to it and returning it to me.

        Now for the steaming portion, I can do this same thing, with plex. So I still don’t understand what value is being added besides one layer of obfuscation to your identity. Where are these servers hosted, do they have to comply with international regulations and global legal compliance? I bet they do and it’s just a matter of time that they go down and every other IP they have info on with it too.

        Just my 2c

        • KairuByte@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          It very much depends on the provider, same as VPNs.

          Something you cant do with PLEX though, is real time streaming with zero storage necessary.

          • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, again - just not something that’s needed for me and the risk that’s posed by allowing a 3rd party to act as an intermediary for your files is a great way to get infected.

            This streaming part also seems nice, but I personally don’t need to watch something as soon as I find it if I just need to wait a couple hours or create a backlog of shows to dl while I’m doing other stuff.

            The only reason I’m especially hesitant of this is because it’s unnecessary risk, this seems like a product for young people and the inexperienced which is who threat actors target

            • KairuByte@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              I mean, if you’re concerned that malware is going to be injected into your video files… Who’s to say your torrents aren’t already infected?

              And yeah, to an extent it requires less knowledge, but the WAF is much higher on a “watch it now” platform than a “I want to watch this let me add it to a queue to watch it later” platform.

              I’m also a fan of the fact that I don’t need to dedicate storage to what is essentially a single use file.

              But to each their own, of course.

              • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Oooo that’s a really good point I hadn’t thought about although I’m sure you could setup an auto purge of old torrents pretty easily with whatever language you’d like.

                Also an excellent point about the initial source possibly being malicious but I did want to bring up the counterpoint that the torrent portion is inherently risky but this service would be adding additional risk on top of that

                I can see the use for a real-time torrent streamer but the download management portion just screams adware, Trojan, etc which are only getting worse and nastier as the days go by.

    • BitterSweet@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      You don’t need to know about bittorrent or set things up as much no VPN either needed and it’s easy to understand. I used it only for a week though personally and thought it was good.

      I’m picky though and wanted ZR releases and everything very specific so I opted into a complete starr stack and plex on a dedi server.

      • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Noooice, I was hopeful for an automated setup on my Pi4 but had issues with sonarr or somethin I can’t remember and then I thought about it more and decided to keep things manual and prevent any unnecessary additional risk. The downloads from i2p usually take longer but I just start whatever I might want when I’m making dinner and it’s usually ready for watching that night or next day so its been working pretty well and I don’t have to worry about any malware or anything suddenly creeping in on me or laying low for a long time because something was done automatically without my knowing

    • gd42@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      With some clients and addons + debrid, you can set up a Netflix/HBO clone, with no downloads necessary and instant streaming. You just browse the shows (it automatically downloads info and images form Trakt, TVDB, etc.), select play and it plays just like any streaming site.

      Depending on the jurisdiction it’s also legal to stream video, while downloading or torrenting is not.

      • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        That sounds nice! Wonder if that will continue to work with netflixs new restrictions on account sharing, how are they accomplishing such a task?

        It looks and smells like a free lunch but I’m just not convinced that it’s safer. This is a big claim for them to be making that it’s somehow legal for them to be streaming Netflix and hbo shows to people who do not have an account and haven’t paid for those services