You know what’s hotter? Running an automated piracy server using Plex (Or Jellyfin i guess xoxo) and the -arr family of apps on a raspberry Pi so you can pretend you’ve got a cute little netflix system :^)
Requires slightly more hardware than a pi, but once you get to the double digit terabytes range of storage, you can honestly have a better plex/jellyfin library than Netflix in any one particular country (except maybe the US? I think US netflix has all the good shows and movies that we’re missing here in Europe).
Netflix might have more volume, but there’s a lot of low quality shit nobody wants to watch, whereas you can just throw literally every blockbuster ever made on just a couple of terabytes at lower quality levels.
I have an always-on vpn container and a transmission server container on my home server. Then I use transmission as a client on my laptop and I don’t need to continually connect and disconnect.
Any interest in a how-to guide? I won’t get to it for at least two weeks, mind.
This is how I torrent over Mullvad. I have no hesitation to recommend Mullvad - but I am not a crypto or security expert.
The main image fails closed - if the VPN goes down, transmission disconnects.
This setup also includes a SOCKS server that proxies your traffic over the same VPN. I use a separate browser (librewolf) and set the SOCKS proxy to :2020 including sending DNS over SOCKS. That’s because my country blocks piracy-related sites at the DNS level. If you don’t need this, you can delete the socks section of the docker-compose file.
On my ubuntu laptop, I install transmission-remote-gtk in order to click on a magnet link and have it added. Otherwise you have to browse to the container’s web interface, which gets tiresome.
I have this installed as a systemd service so it runs on boot. I use the systemd state and credential features as a safeguard against my own mistakes with permissions, but my long-term goal is to encrypt these files on disk. Linux can be pwned - I have read that around 35% of botnet nodes are linux (although these are presumably mostly weak IoT devices). The secondary benefit of the LoadCredential/CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY mechanism is that it doesn’t expose secrets as environment variables.
The p2p.service file needs to be in that path, but you can put the other files wherever you want.
Known issues / todo list
The socks proxy sometimes falls over, I haven’t looked into why
The downloaded files will be owned by root, since that’s what the container runs as
For mullvad, there is no password, only an account number. I believe that the empty quotes are necessary. This file should be owned by root and chmod 600; containing dir should be 700. Replace the account number with your own account, obvs!
Install docker and docker-compose, e.g. with sudo apt-get install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
Create the files with contents as above
sudo systemctl enable p2p
sudo systemctl start p2p
Check what it’s doing: systemctl status p2p
On first start, it will take a few minutes to pull the images
To debug interactively while also passing the creds, use sudo systemd-run -P --wait -p LoadCredential=mullvad:/root/.secrets/mullvad docker compose up --remove-orphans
Every so often, cd into /usr/local/bin/p2p and run docker compose pull to update the images.
Then you’re shitty American ISP throttle you for too many downloads. Fuck I hate Comcast, and no they are not fooling anyone changing their name to Xfinity.
The xfi gateway ($20/month) gives you unlimited / no caps, but you have to have their gateway. Otherwise it’s $30/month for unlimited without their gateway. The gateway can have the bridge mode turned on quite easily through the Xfinity website.
I discovered real-debrid yesterday, thanks to this post.
I was playing around with it last night using kodi. I’m gonna try out stremio thanks to your suggestion.
That said - it didn’t seem that reliable with kodi. Like I got through a whole movie but it just died once or twice. I ended up switching to another torrent / link and it played through to the end just fine.
I imagine this won’t necessarily improve with the switch to stremio. Was I just unlucky? Or is this the usual experience?
edit: yeah ok you’re right. kodi + real-debrid. great stuff.
You can get unlucky on the odd occasion, theirs some torrents out there where the actual video file format isn’t friendly with streaming, but RealDebrid itself has been 100% reliable, for me anyway. If your using stremio their are settings you can change to increase the cache size, or you can play around with using a different video player within stremio, but in general the default settings should do the job.
I’d strongly advise not using debrid. With debrid you’re leeching off torrents without ever seeding anything back. It’s an abusive system. Not to mention it’s usually not files of any level of quality.
That doesn’t make any sense. The whole point of the debrid service is that it caches the torrent. When my client wants to stream the content, the debrid doesn’t leech it from seeders it just pulls it from the cache.
The quality seems fine, for everything I’ve looked at thus far there’s all the usual types of releases.
Sure you’re pulling from the debrid service but debrid still hit and runs the torrent. Aside from one or two providers that seed for a day or something.
Stremio is hard to beat for ease of use, but personally I prefer Kodi/Fen for
Kodi’s ability to customize audio - ie turn up center channel so you can actually hear what actors are mumbling without needing to constantly adjust the volume
Fen’s interface and ability for the user to discover new content
The downsides are Kodi’s (relative) lack of stability compared to alternatives and the fact that you have to manage storage meticulously if you’re using a smart device to run it. Kodi’s thumbnail cache can get out of control rapidly.
You got any good overviews of RealDebrid outside of “google.”
Not sure where to look for info, but I’ve been doing this for a looooooong time (25+ years?) and always like to learn more. Currently rocking a 125+ TB server hosted in my basement for all my Linux isos and figure there may be another way.
No worries if not! I’m not expecting a novel or anything from anyone personally - just hoping there’s a decent crash course and some decent suggestions.
The idea is essentially debrid services download the content of a torrent, and once one user has requested them, its stored and available for all other users to download, so no more dealing with Torrents with 0 seeders, at the speed of top grade file hosting services. You could use it for downloading content quicker and storing it on your local drives.
You say uTorrent, I say µTorrent. We are not the same ;P
EDIT: I get µ from [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [m] (or [Alt Gr] + [m]), in case someone wants to be able to do it easily themselves. It might be different on your keyboard…
I did this a while back, and while the alt I tested was great on mobile it didn’t offer the functionally I like to use with the built in UI.
I wanted to split mobile/desktop traffic, which I imagine is relatively straightforward if you have a decent amount of web dev experience, but alas I do not.
There are so many good sites now with a VPN, downloading is obsolete. Websites are just as good as Netflix, can skip intro, auto play, get subtitles, auto next, etc. I used to torrent but now I just watch on the sites online. No need to fill SSDs
You caim people that wrote complex open source applications are not intelligent at all because it has one thing you dislike, but can’t set Docker up to solve the issue? RTFM
Sonarr destroyed my one piece folder by renaming things incorrectly. Also sites like the TV db and anidb mislabel season numbers on a lot of anime lately. So my beef is mostly anime based and against the databases that sonarr uses, not sonarr itself.
I have tried and was, the first time, turned down and told I was incorrect. When the next season came out for the same show, I submitted again for correction and got zero response. Similar for another show where the show’s single season that had a break had its second half called “season 2” (happens a ton lately, infuriating), I also got no response. And that’s TV db. Don’t get me started on anidb later. They fucking divided the two halves of that show as well, but not into two seasons… INTO TWO SHOWS. So now the second half of the single season of “Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury” on anidb is a whole other show entry and is named “Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury (2023)” - fucking maddening. And applications like Plex rely on those kinds of databases for sorting things. And naming things. And similarly, sonarr uses them for renaming your files to fit the format you set up. And it’s also not 100% smart on some stuff. Sure, “one_piece_207.avi”, let me rename you as One Piece - S02E07.avi that will be fabulous.
Correct, and there were ways in place that was supposed to allow sonarr to understand absolute numbering, similar to another agent plugin I use for Plex that gives it that understanding. The file formatting for sonarr can even include {absolute} for this use case. I was numbering these files, hoping to rename them with episode titles plus the {absolute} as well as S{season00}E{episode00} (can’t recall the exact code), but anyway… Despite everyone in this thread calling me an idiot, I know I made no error other than not backing up first.
I understand you want to defend something that you enjoy. That is fine. The program completely misinterpreted the filenames as they were with absolute numbering and erroneously assigned incorrect filenames, such as making episode 201 into S02E01. I set the format and trusted it to uniformly rename. It failed at that. You can still enjoy it. I’ve found an app called Filebot that seems to do better interpretation and allow more freedom. I’ve mostly gone back to manually managing things, though. I also found some features in sonarr to be a bit obtuse. Since it’s renaming files, it has to keep the original file to seed the torrent. That’s completely understandable but I wish there was a way to have it wait until ratio/time limit before renaming. It would save hard drive space to allow that.
You can still enjoy sonarr. The databases it pulls info from are also part of the problem as I detailed in another response here. For me, it is not ideal.
Your issues with sonarr seem to entirely be based upon a lack of understanding. For one thing it seems like you probably didn’t set the show to the anime format which detects absolute numbering. And beyond that, the rename tool provides an interactive interface where you can easily verify and adjust the renaming. Not to mention, sonarr’s purpose is primarily retrieving and indexing content. Content which usually adheres to a standard naming already. Renaming existing content is a secondary function and is the wild west when the files might be in whatever nonstandard naming convention the user thought up.
Since it’s renaming files, it has to keep the original file to seed the torrent. That’s completely understandable but I wish there was a way to have it wait until ratio/time limit before renaming. It would save hard drive space to allow that.
This is where I can really tell you just don’t understand the program. One of sonarrs primary features is hardlink management. When a torrent is done downloading, sonarr creates a hardlink from the torrent file to the proper location in your media directory and then renames that hardlink. There’s no additional storage usage. It wouldn’t be helpful to wait for a torrent to finish seeding to rename it because in the mean time it wouldn’t be picked up by Plex/Jellyfin because your torrent directory is (or rather it should be) separate from your media directory that Plex/Jellyfin sees. And additionally, another primary benefit of sonarr is that it allows you to permanently seed torrents while also having nice naming. In which case your file would never be renamed if it waited until it was done seeding of course.
That’s mostly in thetvdb.com and not Sonarr, though.
Edit: there was a time I fucked up the folder structure of the downloads and multiple series got mixed up. That was also a “Me” issue - not Sonarr’s fault I didn’t read the manual.
It’s still beats doing it manually. Did that shit for far too long. I’ll take a few hours of cleanup once a year (if even) over manual effort that could take a few hours per day.
Hijacking this comment cause more people REALLY need to know about Debrid services, such as Real-Debrid. It “caches” torrents, so anything you want can be downloaded instantly at your connection’s maximum bandwidth; no waiting for seeds. And since you’re not distributing anything, you don’t have to pay for a VPN, either.
EDIT: It’s kind of like a seed box, except it’s more of a collective seed box. So if at least one user added the torrent before, you can download it immediately.
I have a Gigabit connection and was able to download three different AAA titles, 50+ GB each, play all of them, then decide that I don’t like any of them, all within a couple of hours. It’s mind-blowing how much faster it is than using a torrent client.
Even better, you can integrate it with your favorite media center app like Plex or Kodi (personally I prefer Stremio for its Netflix-like interface). Now you have every show and film from every streaming platform – all in one place – streamed instantly to your TV. I’ll never use torrent clients ever again. They take too long.
EDIT: It bothers me that so many people are willing to dismiss Debrid services without even giving them a chance. Here’s proof that this is legit – /r/Piracy megathread on reddit | Video 1 | Video 2 (sorry for the shaky phone video. I just wanted to get this evidence out quickly before people move on to a different thread, and it’s kinda difficult to have a steady hand when you’re trying to film and click at the same time.)
The “too good to be true” sell and complete lack of detail / pricing on their website is sketchy imo. I’m immediately suspicious of any org that profits off of piracy in such an opaque way
Bro, you have no idea what you’re turning down. I get it; on the surface it does seem sus. I was suspicious too until I tried it. Debrid is an absolute game-changer. It’s kind of like a seed box, except it’s more like a collective seed box. So if at least one user added the torrent before, you can download it immediately.
I don’t know what you mean by “lack of detail / pricing” on their website. The pricing is laid out very clearly, and there’s not a lot of explanation cause it’s really that simple. (EDIT: Looks like you need to make a free account to see the pricing; I’ll admit that’s stupid). So here’s a screenshot:
You don’t have to use Real-Debrid. I just mentioned them cause they’re the most popular. Google “Debrid services” for alternatives. There’s also a megathread on reddit.
I get the “never pay for piracy” argument, but with torrents you need a VPN to keep your ISP off your ass, so at the end of the day, you’re paying for piracy regardless. Debrid is cheaper than a VPN.
It bothers me so much that you’re not willing to give it a shot, that I made a video to show you how fast, easy, and convenient it is. And here’s another video of me streaming a movie almost instantly, in case you still think I’m full of shit. (Videos might still be processing when you see this, so try again later if the quality is too low for you to see what I’m doing.)
Idk, I’ve been using the free tier of torrents (except for a VPN, which I’d have anyway) and never not downloaded close to my full speed. Don’t really know how what you say beats that.
Also btw if you load sequentially and first and last pieces first you can start watching your downloaded files immediately with any normal torrent. DL speed just has to be faster than total playtime of what you’re watching.
Even if that were true, Debrid services are still faster. Torrents can take a minute or two even get started in torrent clients. Debrid is instant, even if the torrent doesn’t have a lot of seeds. Think of it like a shared seedbox, where anyone can add to/download from it. And like I said, it’s cheaper than a VPN.
But whatever, do what you want. If you don’t want to try it, that’s on you. I literally offered to pay for it, and you still won’t give it a shot it. I give up.
Also the other problem I have is that when I start paying for a piracy service, then when the service gets busted and I’m in any way identifiable as their customer, I might very easily be in legal trouble. With a VPN at least you have plausible deniability that you’re using it just to stay as private as possible.
Thank you. I was worried that I was shouting at brick walls for a moment.
I also use Stremio with Real-Debrid. The girlfriend knows nothing about piracy, but Stremio is so easy and convenient that my mother could use it. She uses it almost daily to watch anime that she can’t find on Crunchyroll.
People are suspicious cause it does sound too good to be true; I get it. Being able to stream any 4K HDR video you want without buffering seems unbelievable. It’s a little frustrating cause I always seem to get downvoted by a bunch of skeptics every time I bring up Debrid. Maybe cause I come on too hard and sound like an advertisement, but I can’t help but be fanatical about it. It’s just so much better than any other method for obtaining free content!
Absolutely understandable, this was my hold up for a long time. I believe it really depends on your setup, what I had before wasn’t working as well as I wanted to and this was my solution. Unfortunately, I don’t have the means for local storage, so this was the next best thing for me.
I’m just in the mindset of the fact that I went from $40 a month paying for my streaming services to $40 a year for this plus my VPN.
The *arr + torrent client setup just works so well, I can’t be bothered to change it. The *arr software automatically picks out good torrents that are the format you requested and that are seeded. I never really saw it not saturate my connection. For movies, I have to wait a few minutes (depending on file size and my own connection speed). For TV shows, new episodes are downloaded automatically as soon as they are released, so I just have to select the episode under “new episodes” in my media center app on whatever device I’m on.
Even if I were to use a debrid service, I’d probably still use a VPN for it because I wouldn’t want them to log my real IP.
If that works for you, that’s absolutely fine. No judgment. You do you.
All I want is for people to know that there’s another alternative to torrent clients and VPNs. That said, use what you’re comfortable with, but if I can convince even one person that there’s a better way, then my job here is done.
I have nothing to gain from my little crusade; I didn’t even post an affiliate link even though the option is there. Just trying to inform those who are interested. There’s no wrong way to sail the high seas, just faster routes to your destination. ;)
Edit: And BTW, your IP logging concerns were addressed in the reddit thread I linked to.
I saw your post by chance. I am an old sailor of the seven seas (15+ years) and torrent (with a seedbox) has been my favored ship for years. But I did à test with your solution: what a breeze it is (even for me who watch movies with french subtitles)
Thanks for putting that much energy in explaining and convincing that stremio + RD is a very convenient tool; it indeed is.
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