Sometimes I’m just too lazy for torrenting because downloading whole 8 seasons when I want to watch series is kinda off. Whenever I give chance to streaming it’s always low quality and sucks. I checked streaming links on reddit’s r/piracy, you know the wiki, year is 2025 and it’s still slow and sucks. Maybe I don’t know good sites. Can you link me up, and what do you think about streaming vs torrent way in general? Thanks guys.

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[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 64 points 2 weeks ago

I hate streaming anything unless it's coming from my server.

Bandwidth and storage is expensive, so free streams will usually be heavily compressed and look terrible.

[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 43 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (9 children)

Feel free to use mine https://jfin.gravitywell.xyz/

Create an account using this invite code: ARRLEM so I know you came from Lemmy

For best results uss a browser or client thar supports HEVC and AV1.

There is jellyseerr for requests, its hooked to both usenet and various private trackers.

[–] MusketeerX@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

Thanks dude, that's very generous!

I mostly use other method/services, but was looking at trying out Jellyfin.

Being able to see your server makes it easy to see an example of how it works.

Thanks again!

[–] opulentocean@lemm.ee 5 points 2 weeks ago

OMG, that's an amazing effort. Definitely saving it!

[–] shut@lemmy.pt 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

thank you!! How can I buy you a coffee?

[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 weeks ago

I suppose the easiest way is probably ko-fi

There is also librepay and some crypto addresses options listed on the bottom of the main page https://gravitywell.xyz/ if you prefer that.

[–] speq@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Thank you very much! Unfortunately after confirming the information in the signup dialog, it says "Please wait" and hangs. Is it me?

Edit: It works on the second try on the computer, thanks again

[–] Lemming007@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

You absolute madlad!! Thank you for providing this. I am in the middle of migrating to a new home server and as part of that process, moving away from Plex to Jellyfin. This will be a big help in testing things out and figuring out the idea setups for my use case (like streaming to Apple TVs) ahead of the actual migration. Not to mention some great ideas for movies to snag I wasn't aware of ;) Sending a couple of coffees your way!!

It looks like we have a fairly similar library size and I've always wanted to be able to offer something like this to folks as a way for giving back for all the years of media I've been able to gather and enjoy - but I have never felt confident enough in my networking skills to let the vast majority of my services see anything outside of the LAN, let alone provide it to other people. I hope with this new lab environment I am going for I can get to that point, but if you have any pointers I am all ears! 😀 Thanks again, matey!

[–] UndergroundGoblin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Invalid Code :(

[–] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

oops, I set it to a one time use and someone used it. New one (ARRLEM) should work for everyone now. Valid for 1 month as of this posting.

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[–] airgapped@piefed.social 35 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Put first episode on max priority + download sequentially. Go make a cup of tea. First episode is ready to stream. Do same to second episode before you start watching the first and Robert is your father's brother (Bob's your uncle).

[–] locuester@lemmy.zip 32 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

After 20 years of pirating the slow way (manual searching and torrenting), I invested the time to setup a proper *arrr flow into Plex, Ombi for auto adding plex watchlist to the dl queue, and Usenet indexes and access + nzbget.

Now I can search for a movie in the plex app, if I don’t have it I add it to my watchlist, and it sends me a notification 5 mins later that it’s available.

I did all that about 6 years ago and it’s been so nice. Well worth the time to setup. I forgot how painful the manual way is.

[–] lemonuri@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You forgot the number one rule about the usenet: you don't talk about the usenet.

[–] DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 2 weeks ago

The most talked about thing on Usenet? That's right: Usenet.

[–] LisaTrevor@hexbear.net 5 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

is there a good guide you followed?

[–] RandomLegend@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 weeks ago

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/26287096

Gotchu fam'

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[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 25 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I exclusively stream torrents. It's almost flawless for me. The trick is you need a paid service like real debrid to get access to the good links. If you are only searching free ones, it's going to be low quality, and selection sucks. I use RD and Kodi personally, it also allows you to torrent traditionally, too, and without the need of a VPN if your isp is nosey.

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 5 points 2 weeks ago

fmhy and trying a couple options always worked out for me

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 4 points 2 weeks ago

Yep, this is my setup. I did the whole *arr apps, Plex and Usenet setup for years, but hated dealing with storing the files. It also didn’t help when my 8TB drive decided to act up and make files inaccessible.

Now I stream everything through Stremio with RD+. Works on every device flawlessly.

[–] malin@thelemmy.club 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

https://hydrahd.sh/

This is the best site I've come across, but it's still not perfect.

My advice is to keep spending time getting experience using free streaming services. Since very few are like kissanime/cartoon (been around forever, haven't changed layout), if you go awhile without using them then it's like having to relearn what to do.

This is unfortunate, but the more people we have looking at them the better they should be.

[–] sawyer@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago

Thanks this is perfect

[–] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Yeah I've tried it a couple times and don't see the appeal. It's like watching nothing but cam copies except half the time the files won't load. I don't understand how streaming became so popular.

Also set up radarr and sonarr because it makes everything easy.

[–] ogmios@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I don’t understand how streaming became so popular

Have you ever found yourself using someone else's PC for some reason and they've got 20 browser toolbars, 3 anti-viruses and no ad blocker, and they've just been using computers that way forever, thinking it's perfectly normal?

Yea, some people have extremely low standards.

[–] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

It’s like watching nothing but cam copies except half the time the files won’t load.

I dunno what sites you tried but this hasn't been my experience, especially if I'm just going through whatever current season of show XYZ is running. Even recent movies don't generally have cam quality unless you're trying to watch them very close to the release date.

Sometimes you get broken links or stop and start with load times and in those cases I'll take the time to fire up TPB, but mostly it's been no problem finding decent quality streams that load right away, and that's been true for me for at least 15 years since using shit like icefilms back then.

[–] Tigeroovy@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago

Nah, torrenting 8 seasons of a show I want to watch is the way to go.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 2 weeks ago

You can download a torrent for a full season or full series, and only download like the first three episodes, or the first season. And then if you like it, download more of the torrent.

Nobody is making you download all 8 seasons.

Or if you want to anyway, but don't want to wait for the whole thing to finish download, most torrent clients let you set priority for individual files, and you can set the first couple episodes to "maximum" and start watching right away while the rest download.

[–] unperson@hexbear.net 10 points 2 weeks ago

downloading whole 8 seasons when I want to watch series is kinda off

You can untick every episode except the first few when you download.

You can also download a torrent sequentially and play it while it's downlading but it's fiddly.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Can't say Jellyfin sucks

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[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 7 points 2 weeks ago

I torrent on my media PC and stream from there.

[–] promitheas@programming.dev 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Check out stremio

[–] JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

This is what I use. Stremio, Torrentio add-on for Torrent sources, and a bit of tinkering so I don't see the paid options. Works pretty well for single episodes of some shows (for others I download the box set).

Edit: I mean it works for full shows, but when I really like a show enough I'll have a hard drive copy.

[–] throwawayacc0430@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

When I was a kid, I didn't even know what torrents are and ended up suffering with all the noise in the videos. Or find some really shitty quality ftp server download.

Luckily, I've since became enlightened and find torrents for everything. I set the first 3 episodes of a series at high priority, it only talkes between 30 minutes to 3 hours (depending on popularity), and then I can start watching, and then set 4, 5, 6 on high priority and once I'm done episode 3, I find that 4 5 6 is already done and the rest are at 90%.

Be a little patient and you get to enjoy higher quality.

And if you have dont much freetime to wait for downloads, you should be pre-choosing a show and have the first few episodes downloaded before your previous one is done watching.

I just use VLC for everything, torrented straight to the device, and video files played locally.

[–] FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 weeks ago

The only place I’ll stream from is the archive.

[–] godlessworm@hexbear.net 4 points 2 weeks ago

if you use streamio then you can choose whatever quality you want

[–] angelmountain 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm old but i still think popcorn time was the best solution. P2P streaming.

[–] Goodtoknow@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 weeks ago

Popcorn time and the Torrent plugin for stremio are nice but are leech-central and not sustainable if everyone did that without seeding

[–] punkisundead@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 weeks ago

Streaming sites are great to share the spirit of piracy with your friends that do not want to get into any other piracy option. Literally just sending them a link so they dont buy the movie on amazon is always worth it

[–] Engywuck@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

[–] Mugmoor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Yeah Debrid + Stremio and you're set.

[–] Skellysgirl@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This has been working for me for a whilst however if one of the links in the chain goes down at some point then you have nothing to watch. I might even have to talk to my family!

I’m gonna start considering local server. I remember the good old days of getting up in the middle of the night to check limewire.

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