this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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Depends where you get your alternatively-sourced shows from. Downloaded a torrent yesterday that was so dark that I could barely see anything even with my screen's brightness turned all the way up. Downloaded another torrent of the same episode, and it was much easier to see everything.
Call me a loser for this one but I use the Pirate Bay for my high seas sailing. If there's better avenues I would love to see it.
It’s not so much about where you find the download, but more about which person or group encoded it.
1337x.to is pretty good
Sorry for the long comment incoming . I went into detail with a lot of things.
The one I use costs a little bit of money and may be a little time-consuming to setup depending on the device, but it costs less than most streaming services these days, and you only need to pay for one of it (versus multiple streaming services).
It's called Kodi. The program itself is free, and it technically doesn't support piracy or torrents, but it does support 3rd party add-ons and 3rd-party repositories.
Here's how it works:
Install Kodi on your platform of choice. It supports Windows, Android (including phones, Fire TV, and Android TV), iOS, and Mac. The steps should be about the same regardless of the platform.
Sign up for a "debrid" service and subscribe. This will affect what torrents will be available for a show or movie, so choose wisely. (I personally use Real-Debrid..)
Sign up for a VPN* and subscribe. (I use ProtonVPN.) Depending on where you live, some Internet Service Providers (the company you pay for Internet service) may not like you using a debrid site since it allows for very high-speed downloads, and it's generally a good idea to use a VPN anyway. Install the VPN onto the same device you installed Kodi on.
Use Google to find an add-on you want to install. Many add-ons cater to different wants. For example, some cater sports, others to anime, and some to live action shows. This site has a good list of available add-ons.
Start Kodi. Use this guide to install the add-on of your choice.
Once the add-on is installed, start it and go to its settings. Most of them should have a section called "Accounts" or "Your Accounts" somewhere in there. In there, you should find the option to add or authorize the debrid service you subscribed to. (If it's not there, it's not supported. This is another reason to choose a good one and another reason I recommend Real-Debrid.) Follow the onscreen instructions to connect the add-on to your debrid account.
Turn on your VPN. Find a show you want to watch, pick a cached torrent when/ if it asks, and enjoy. You may need to adjust your audio language and subtitle settings. If you want to choose a specific torrent, you can do so by right-clicking (on PC) or holding down the OK button (on TV) and selecting the option. It might say something about "rescraping providers".
*Many debrid providers automotive or manually whitelist certain VPNs. Whatever VPN you sign up for should be compatible with the debrid service you chose. Some sites (like Real-Debrid), will list the VPNs they're compatible with, while others (like AllDebrid, another debrid service) will simply have you submit your VPN's IP address for manual approval.
I realize this might seem complicated, but I think the payoff is worth it. I pay under $15 (less than $5 for Real-Debrid and $9.99 for ProtonVPN per month) for access to a TON of TV shows and movies, including shows on several different streaming services. And it costs less than most streaming services do these days.
Some add-ons also support Real-Debrid's cloud functionality. Basically, Real-Debrid has the ability to download torrents on its own, and it stores them so you can download them to a storage device later if you want to. For example, you can use this if you have a long car or train ride ahead, and you need to bring some entertainment. Some Kodi add-ons can take advantage of this. They'll send the magnet link (torrent) to your Real-Debrid account, and it'll be available for you to download later. If it's a cached torrent, it'll be available immediately. If it's uncached, Real-Debrid will begin working on downloading it. I'd recommend using a VPN whenever downloading directly from a debrid service so your ISP doesn't complain to you. Anyway, I've put that to pretty good use myself. I watched an episode of the new Percy Jackson TV show recently on a train ride by downloading it beforehand via Kodi and Real-Debrid. I also got most of the episodes of an old anime I used to watch that way, too.