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Seedboxes etc
allthemtings
Member
in General
Can anyone explain why you would choose to pay (server cost) to watch movies/tv shows when you can watch 99% of them online for free? Can anyone explain the reasons I never understood it!
Thanks
Comments
The other 1% possibly?
Possibly but I’d be surprised if there’s a show or movie not online these days
Amazon Prime $120/year
Selected titles, instantly available.
Other benefit: 2-day shipping.
@PulsedMedia 450GB €18/year
More titles, wait 6 hours for downloading.
Other benefit: 250GB backup space.
OpenLoad free streaming
Very limited titles, so many ads.
Other benefit: computer virus.
I agree with that but there’s free “alternatives” to Amazon, netflix etc so many free streaming websites with every show/movie you can think of
If you're asking this question then that sort of thing isn't for you possibly?. I believe it's a popular thing to do so it must have it's merits in some way
Yes it seems highly popular im just trying to understand it, definitely not meant to be knocking it
Lets say theoretically - you were a movie buff who owns a high end home theater and wanted to watch your favorite movie in the best available quality. Would this be possible watching it online?
Ahh yeah I see what you mean
I don't do a seedbox because I do my piracy at home, but what you're really asking is why torrent/newsgroup something instead of just stream it from a random website. People pay for seedboxes because they would rather download something but their home connection isn't good enough to keep ratio up or they're worried about getting in trouble. Personally, I'd rather source things myself than use a random streaming site because I can get the absolute highest quality without ever worrying about missing links or trying to track down another site that has it because this one doesn't or this specific episode is missing in the middle of a season.
Another benefit is if you want to provide for friends/family, using a seedbox means you'll have enough bandwidth to stream to several people at once. Got that one aunt who just can't figure out tech and can't afford netflix? Jellyfin to the rescue.
In the past, I had an ISP that throttled torrent traffic so I used a seedbox, it cost less than one subscription streaming service and I got to archive everything locally. If none of those things sound appealing to you or you don't have any complaints about your random streaming, then no it wouldn't make sense to get a seedbox.
I'm only guessing there - but I'm sure that would be one of the reasons
Thank you I appreciate this
I would get better quality streaming from Prime Videos than streaming from Pulsed Media.
Prime Videos can offer up to 4K resolution, and can buffer the entire movie onto the tablet or TV stick.
Torrents are either 1080p or 720p.
Even if there's a 4K resolution file, it's a struggle streaming that from Finland to USA.
It's illegal to download pirated movies into any device in USA, but not illegal to stream.
Makes sense - I wouldn't try to stream a 4K DV Remux either
Convenience.
I can open Prime, Netflix, Disney +, Crave, etc. Pick anything. Watch anything. No VPNs needed, no storage, no torrents, no planning, no thought or reason. If I get 10 minutes in and don't like it, I move on. No ads, no delays, no extra steps needed. All our smart TVs have apps, systems, that let you click - click watch just using a normal remote...
The reason I started torrenting is because it was easier than renting a VHS or DVD and cheaper.
Now I know what you are thinking, these services cost you $9/month etc - but I'd pay that just for the convenience, instant access and ad free experience. And that's much cheaper than renting movies at blockbuster back in the day at $5/movie.
My question is why wouldn't you just pay for a service? They are so cheap. Sure you could save yourself 50? cents a day, but ... Why? The benefit outweighs the cost.
Yeah i agree, if something isn’t on Netflix or Amazon you can definitely find it online streamable, it might not be 4K but the point stands it’s definitely accessible easily from any device
you can watch 99% of them online for free
Name any one such source that isn't infested with ads or without shit quality files
The purpose of a seedbox is not watching. The purpose is downloading, storing, and seeding. Also, for many users, the most important factor is moving these things outside of your home jurisdiction.
Also, doing 24/7 seeding is REALLY stressful on hard disks, and after having had several of them fail after about 1 year each, I decided that the cost of a seedbox was roughly equal to the annual cost of replacing failed hard disks, and the download speed is 100x faster.
I agree but i see this abit like watching Po*rn videos, who downloads it these days when you can watch it/stream it online for free?
XTube closed their website earlier this year.
All the content are gone forever.
And do you really want to keep it if you've already seen it?
Exactly, it’s so accessible for everyone anytime on any device I’m trying to understand the whole seedbox thing but can’t fully grasp it
The whole concept of torrenting is downloading. You can't stream a torrent, because it downloads in random order, not an ordered stream. Torrenting is for downloading content that you can't get any other way, then watching it. Once you've watched it, you probably don't need to keep the files anymore, so you'd want to delete them. However, if you're a member of a file sharing group that requires you to maintain a certain upload/download ratio, leaving the source files on your seedbox allows you to continue seeding the uploads long-term.
I have to admit > @DogbertPrime said:
But surely streaming it online it a must easier way?
You can stream it, because you can request pieces in order. Qbittorrent for example has it on right click. You select sequential DL and first&last piece first which gives you ability to fast forward or go back in any media player or Plex. Basically you let it DL first and last piece and then it'll work as long as DL speed is higher than movie's bitrate.
Acestream is VLC based player that you can use for it too afaik.
I'll give you one random example: Metástasis, the Colombian remake of Breaking Bad. I could find it on one random streaming site back in the day, and it was missing half of the episodes, with the rest in 480p. Today, I don't see it anywhere, but you're welcome to look for it for me.
If you're just wanting to watch US/UK major TV/movies, sure, you can find that pretty easily online.
Yes maybe it’s good for niche shows but 99.99% of mainstream shows are available online very accessible
Everyone has their own list of things that they find important. For example, convenience, time, quality, safety, cost etc. In my setup I feel like I have a nice balance. You torrent with a seedbox (which only takes minutes. Who waits 6 hours?) And transfer the files to some storage server with a very fast connection to stream from. As long as it's encrypted, and you're the only one, who cares? Nginx (with forced ssl) and Kodi make a killer combo and throw in Wireguard if you're paranoid. As for streaming 4k, 1080p, etc. Resolution doesn't matter. Bitrate does.
Fuck shady websites and popups.
I can't speak for everyone, but personally I can say that the only things I download via torrent are things that I can't get any other way. I am in the USA and I subscribe to something like 8-10 different streaming services, and there are hundreds of TV shows that I watch via legal streaming. But, I watch a LOT of Anime which is either very old, very niche, or simply isn't available in the USA at all.
Yea this make sense for me very niche stuff I guess seedboxes are great
actually you can stream torrent:
https://github.com/webtorrent/webtorrent