With the recent password sharing crackdown, I decided to ditch my Netflix subscription and try piracy. What I miss about Netflix is scrolling through content and finding something to watch. With piracy I need to know exactly what I am looking for.
So I am wondering if it’s possible to have a Netflix like GUI but powered by piracy? And as this is the pirate world, it shows shows and movies not just from Netflix but also from the other streaming services? And finally it is available on TVs ( Samsung tizen in my case). Something like this would be the best case scenario. Wondering if someone has a similar setup?
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Front End:
- You can have multiple users,
- tracks your progress in a series,
- gives you imdb and soundtrack info,
- metadata and cover art.
- Automatically handles discoverability - Log in with your account and it’ll find your server wherever you are in the world!
- Great app support across mobile, tv, web, and desktop.
- Automatically syncs to films/tv folder(s) when new shows are downloaded.
Back end:
- Versatile and stable torrenting client.
- Can control up/download speed
- Online front end can be a lifesaver when diagnosing issues remotely.
- FOSS
- Automatically discovers torrents for your chosen shows and movies, and forwards them onto torrent client.
- Can track unreleased content, downloading it as it becomes available.
- Supports user-configurable quality formats to weed out torrents that don’t meet your quality or space requirements.
- Automatically searches multiple trackers - If one tracker lacks a show, it can try another!
- FOSS
- Indexes thousands of known torrent trackers for all kinds of content, with sonarr/radarr-ready configs.
- Add tracker to Prowlarr and it syncs to Sonarr/Radarr clients automatically
- Add your own private trackers too with a simple interface
- FOSS
Operating System:
- Debian-based server OS with powerful terminal interface for managing and starting your first streaming server
- Rock-solid stability of debian, paired with a curated packaging system that reduces risks of breaking configurations
- Popular services are auto-configured to align with best practices, such as Nextcloud, Plex, Sonarr etc. all installing and configuring their own databases at install
- Powerful utilities for managing disks, files, power management and other server necessities with minimal existing knowledge of the command line
- Can be set up in a day on a raspberry pi, and be streaming torrented content by the evening!
- Great support, both with hardware and software. The devs are active and helpful on github if you have problems.
- Loads of tutorials for installing every single service you could need for a piracy server, from VPNs to linking services together and accessing them remotely.
- FOSS
DNS:
- Link your IP to a friendly domain name for free.
- Like, free. I can type in my domain anywhere on earth and access my rpi server easily.
- Loads of choices available
- Just log in once every 6 months to keep the DNS listing active.
Very detailed, thank you!
Is it possible to have such a setup without the torrents but rather using a streaming website? Also does are there prepackaged setups with all these ready to use for example a raspberry pi os built with everything. I just hook it up with my NAS for storage and am good to go?
Dietpi is pretty good to get up and going in a day or so. Loads of videos on youtube for setting up various services too :)
Open media vault might be an option over dietpi but I’ve never used it myself. Again, lots of youtube documentation:)
If you want to stream torrents, you can use stremio and torrentio which let you stream the content of a torrent instead of download, but depending on the media you watch youll find it difficult to get enough seeders to download it fast enough to stream.
The benefit of running the downloads over streaming is that a poorly seeded torrent won’t ruin my viewing experience since by the time I view it’s stored locally.
Using docker containers is a lot easier to manage than installing all the packages directly to the OS. Using docker compose simplifies this even more. You have a simple docker-compose.yml file and it’s usable to any other Linux environment! Just have to be aware of where your drive mount mappings are.
Everyone always recommends the torrent solutions, plex and the arrs, but unless it’s something I’m really excited about or want in extra high quality, I find it’s easier to just use the browser streaming sites. In Firefox with ublock there’s no ads, it has subtitles for multiple languages loaded automatically usually, and a nice ui that shows most popular show/movies, and has a good catalogue. There’s lots to choose from, I think the guide has a list, but the ones I use are:
Bflix.gg Hdtoday.cc Fmovies.to
Quick, simple and painless.
The files these sites rely on are generally the lowest available quality in their resolution, that’s why they aren’t recommended often. Fair play if you don’t care about visual and audio quality, but I find them unwatchable most of the time. The artifacts and distortion detract from the experience significantly.
This is fine but doesn’t work unless you’re watching on a device with a decent and usable web browser. Most people are using android boxes and Apple TVs etc so that’s not a viable solution.
There is an app called OnStream that works on Android. If you are okay with putting third party apps (non open source) on your device, that is.
The option to cast a stream from a phone to a Chromecast, Roku, etc has been pretty functional for quite some time now.
That’s just another not ideal situation though. Casting is crap, that’s why people buy media boxes. They get a remote, a UI, apps, etc.
I’m having a good experience with Samsung DeX on an 7 year old TV. Gives me a trackpad with keypad on my phone to navigate a full OS on a large screen. In a pinch, I connected a Bluetooth keyboard to my phone and have even used it as a document editor using Google Docs without any hitch.
I love Dex too, but let’s not try to pretend it’s anything more than a niche use case for what OP is asking.
What else can you complain about?
You don’t forego any of those things when you cast.
Your remote still works, you’re in the same media box UI, still only a click away from other apps.
Maybe slightly imperfect, sure. But it works great and I see no reason to act like it isn’t a viable workable option.
I second the first, haven’t used the others.
I think what you want is either plex or Jellyfin which will give you a nice UI to browse your already downloaded files.
Now how do you browse new releases and figure out what you want to download? I just setup https://overseerr.dev/ to go along with sonarr, radarr, prowlarr, nzbget, transmission… it’s a lot of different services but they all work well together. Now to look for new movies, I or my family goes to Overseerr to request downloads, then plex to watch.
I set up plex, overseer, sonaar and radaar to let my family request videos and stream from me when Netflix kicked them off my account. My boomer dad hasn’t had any issue using overseer to request stuff to watch. I even overheard him kinda bragging to a friend of his about the setup.
Overseerr pings me on discord when someone makes a request. I auto-approve movies but require approval for series to keep from them from downloading every episode of Grey’s anatomy all at once.
My setup:
Jellyfin for the frontend. Has apps for android, iOS, windows, android TV, bunch of other platforms as well…
Deluge as torrent downloader. It’s old, but it just works without the (in my opinion) complicated configurations of qbittorrent.
Prowlarr to search a bunch of sites simultaneously for torrents.
Radarr to add movies, search them with Prowlarr and add the best torrent to deluge, eventually moving the downloaded content to Jellyfin to view.
Sonarr to do the same as Radarr but for TV shows instead.
I would add jellyseer as a nice option to request movies rather then doing it directly through so are/radarr
Nice list but sub out torrenting for usenet. There’s a fee associated with usenet but worth it imo as you get higher quality releases, more likely to find niche stuff and don’t have the issue of no seeders.
Kind of amazed Usenet is still a thing, I assume all the info is somewhere in the megathread how you find your nzbs and whatnot these days?
My favorite period of piracy was back when I did private trackers, and it seems like they’re still around but back then I didn’t have to use a vpn, can you get credit for your seeding through a vpn? I recall them requiring I actually forward a port back in the day. Not getting into any of that mess lol
I would start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/index/. I’m using NZBGeek as my main indexer. Cost me $12 USD for a year of access. There’s lifetime for $80 or something but I’ve only just gotten into usenet over torrenting so testing it out. DrunkenSlug is also another highly recommended indexer, currently open for registrations. I’m using their free tier as NZBGeek has been sufficient so far. For my usenet provider I’m using frugal, $40 USD for a year of access. I’ve got this all setup with an old pc running Debian using docker compose with radarr, sonarr, jellyfin, sabnzbd and jellyseerr.
Can’t speak to private trackers as I’ve never used them.
If you have all these setup I’d recommend getting NZB360 on Android. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kevinforeman.nzb360
Not heard of prowlarr before! Any comments on using it over Jackett?
Stremio with an addon like Google Drive or Real Debrid (torrentio).
You can set up Couchmoney through trakt to get similar recommendations algorithms.
Stremio has a UI which works amazingly on TV, and should be familiar to Netflix.
This is the right answer.
Streaming is the way to go.
No need to download anything and watch anywhere you have Internet with a UI comparable to any popular streaming service.
+1 for fmovies
also sflix
So I am wondering if it’s possible to have a Netflix like GUI but powered by piracy?
It’s called Plex.
Check out Sonarr and Radarr to automate downloading.
Then there’s tools like Ombi that work with those and Plex to allow your users to make requests that can download automatically
Nah plex suck atleast use jellyfin. I prefer stremio
What you need is Jellyfin, around 2-5TB (depending on your quality) and access to a private torrent tracker, usenet or DDL site.
Then you can stuff like this:
This is a cool setup. But torrents in Europe? Too many horror stories.
Usenet is a good option then, although not completely free
seedboxes are my way. Download through a provider that doesnt care.
Am downloading from public and private repos.
Are you able to filter it by language? My parents are old, and they did not have a chance to learn any other language like English
You could create different libraries for different languages.
Also helps with auto metadata fetching.Sonarr and Radarr can be configured to only download torrents available in your chosen language.
Where/how do you find private trackers?
Kind of luck based but you can read up online on how to get into private trackers. Some have open registrations which will get posted to places like here. Some are invite-only.
But Prowlarr lets you add a bunch of public trackers to cover most new stuff. I find that private trackers are better as archives for less popular stuff.
Earlier you could find temporary open trackers on r/opensignups
Now it’s a bit more difficult.
Torrentleech is a good beginner tracker. Usually opens around Eastern, Summer, Black Friday or Christmas.You could aso search “open signups torrent” online and try to find something with enough content.
Use usenet over torrents. You’re downloading the files from a server rather than peer to peer so you avoid the issue of not having any seeders. There is usually a fee associated with registering with a usenet provider and indexer, however, you can sometimes get a free trial or a limited number of “grabs” per day to test it out.
Get stremio.
This. Stremio is exactly what you’re looking for OP. Works just like Netflix, runs on your TV. Every show/movie from every streaming platform is there.
Just make sure to install the Torrentio and Streaming Catalogs plugins to get the free content to show up. I also recommend a Real-Debrid subscription cause it it allows you to stream instantly without delay. (In fact, you can download any torrent you want instantly with Debrid.)
Is this possible without torrents? Like getting content from a streaming website rather than torrents?
Stremio uses torrents, but they’re direct downloads. Everything is stored on a separate server. It’s similar to a seed box, except no waiting cause the files were already downloaded beforehand by what’s called a “Debrid service”.
You can also use Debrid to directly download any torrent you want, not just movies and TV. I have a gigabit connection so it’s way faster than any torrent client could ever dream to achieve.
Is streamio similar to Kodi? I used to use that back in the day and it was good, then suddenly it got super popular and a bunch of the plugins were taken down/blocked by ISP’s and I moved back to torrenting
Not really. Is like Netflix but it streams torrents. You just need the toreentio or tpb plugin. And then take all the normal torrent precautions.
Use Plex, and the *arr apps along with a usenet subscription. When I add something to my watchlist in Plex, it automatically downloads. It takes a little work to set up but it’s pretty seamless.
I didn’t know you could do this… shit there goes a bunch more hours of my life…
Voting this over Jellyfin. Plex actually has good apps for the end-users to stream from. Jellyfins apps are iffy at best and awful at worst
Agreed, BUT: I am really concerned about how much data Plex has, especially with their push to go legit. I set up a pi-hole and plex sends out a good amount of analytics. They know what you’re watching, which means it’s possible they’d have to share that information.
Also, if plex goes down so does your server. I love plex but if any of the 100% self hosted stuff catches up I’m absolutely jumping ship.
Jellyfin is really really nice btw. I havent experienced any issues and I have it setup in docker with gpu for transcoding.
I’ve played with it a bit, and am in the middle of upgrading my setup and will probably run both in parallel. My biggest issue with Jellyfin is the app UI is just miles behind Plex right now. I have a fair amount of people that use my server, and there is no way I could get them to use a Jellyfin client. That and, while I kinda mostly know what I’m doing, heavy emphasis on “kinda”.
But I rally like Jellyfin in concept, and I’m excited to have some proper dedicated hardware to get to know it better!
Also, if plex goes down so does your server. I love plex but if any of the 100% self hosted stuff catches up I’m absolutely jumping ship.
That’s only for authentication and some apps. You can set an IP whitelist so it doesn’t require auth from certain ranges - when I changed ISP a little while ago, I was still using Plex offline.
oh that is awesome! I guess I’d still have to manually input a (dynamic) IP for anyone outside of my local, but that is an awesome work around to know, thanks!
This is why I’m not quite ready for Jellyfin as a main platform. It’s pretty good, but I’m still getting a handle on how this all works.
How did you setup the plex watchlist download? I use overseerr for that now, but if I can just use Plex that makes it easier…
The integration is built in. Just go into the settings.
I wonder if there’s a way to do this, but only if that show or movie isn’t on one of your services.
Oh that sounds a lot nicer than having to add them to sonarr/radarr. Very interesting.
Setup a jellyfin server, and then you can use custom CSS options to outright make jellyfin look and function like netflix.
Example: https://github.com/Automationxperts/jellyflix
There are many more options to completely customize the look and feel. Also you can do this system wide (meaning all clients get what you set up, or you can set it up per client since its just CSS)
Check out overseer, it’s a request system that has a streaming service like UI that pairs with sonaar and radaar.
https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-desktop/releases/
It’s a torrent client with a Netflix-like interface. It hides all the torrent stuff from you and just shows movies and shows in a nice format. It downloads and plays on the fly, it also grabs subtitles as needed, you can pick 720 or 1080, and you can choose to keep or delete the stuff you watched after you’re done.
Keep in mind that under the hood it’s still a torrent client, so if you have trouble with that kind of thing in your country you may want to use a VPN and all that jazz.
As far as I know it has no vpn option build in right? And getting a VPN on regular smart TVs is not really easy
So you want to be able to browse films and TV shows to add to your queue?
I use NZB360 for that. It has upcoming for me to schedule, recently released and popular for me to add to sonarr or radarr.
Is that what you are looking for?
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You can also improve on that by paying for a real debrid service, which will make streaming faster and will also prevent dmca notices (if you live in such a country)
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I’m with you on this. But since I can’t torrent without a VPN in my location, I switched the VPN costs to this.
I usually avoid anything to do with torrents. I don’t know how to get a VPN working on TVs basically.
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What’s cinestream?
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