I use a seedbox to run qBittorrent with Jackett, and have a bunch of sources on there. I know there are other methods, but that works for me and I’m comfortable with it.

Rarbg has been gone for about five months and it’s harder and harder to find 4k TV rips. For current shows, sometimes you can get episodes as they air, but it’s rare to see full seasons.

The tipping point was when I searched for a Netflix show from two weeks ago just now, with zero 4K results.

I’ve always hated private trackers since they’re a pain in the ass, but is that the only option now? Do I need to look at a different method entirely? I’ve been torrenting since that existed, but if I need to do something else, let me know.

I don’t expect to get torrent sites in any responses, but you can do that if you have any 😂

  • Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 months ago

    While ‘the paywall for access’ argument can be made for usenet indexers (which just index NZB files, not the releases themselves, with most still allowing up to 5 downloads a day via free membership tiers), in contrast to torrenting, usenet providers cache newsgroup binaries (the actual releases) on the servers of their respective usenet backbone. Because of that, releases that might run out of active seeders on public or even private torrent trackers after a few years are sometimes available for significantly longer on usenet.

    Edit: While it’s not an excuse for the usenet indexers, rather the providers, usenet newsgroup binaries are downloaded directly from the servers of providers, and are thus not P2P like bittorrent is.

    • spaceaape@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 months ago

      I get what you’re saying, but personally speaking, that’s not enough of a benefit to start subscribing to a usenet provider and invest time hunting down newsgroups for content access. Its also not worth changing the bottom layer of my arr stack. Not to mention the time I’ve already invested into getting in the couple private trackers I’m in. I already don’t have any issues getting the content I want to watch. I honestly don’t see how its worth it for anyone. Like how often would one need to be searching for obscure content for it to be worth the monthly cost?

      Edit, 5 downloads per day for a free membership is downright laughable to me. We’re pirates ffs. This is p2p sharing.

      • Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        Admittedly, if you’re already using private torrent trackers, you’ll probably find more missing releases by working towards joining higher tier trackers than usenet alone has. Usenet is more worthwhile for people without high enough bandwidth to build the ratio needed to join such trackers.

        • spaceaape@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 months ago

          Ahh this makes more sense to me now. The seedbox service i pay for has great bandwidth, and my personal bandwidth is enough to stream 4k content from it. So i kinda use my seedbox as a proxy instead

        • ECB@feddit.de
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          8 months ago

          For me it’s less about bandwidth and more about not having to worry about building/ maintaining ratio. It’s just one less thing to think about.

          I love seeding so I thought private trackers would be for me, but it’s so hard to go positive when EVERYONE is trying to. Yeah, there is freeleach but then I was downloading a bunch of stuff that I didn’t want, just for the sake of it.