I've been spreading the piracy gospel every chance I get. This is how I'd explain to a layman how to set up a rig similar to mine.

1). First and foremost, you need to do this shit behind a VPN. You're specifically looking for a VPN with port forwarding so you'll get better download speeds on your torrents. I'm using ProtonVPN because when I was setting my rig up for the first time about a year ago, that was the top recommendation. Just do a little research and type in "best VPN for torrenting" into your favorite search engine. Set up your VPN as instructed. You'll want to make special note of the "openvpn" username/password. You'll need it later.

2). Next, you'll need hardware. While any old laptop that's been sitting around collecting dust is probably fine, you'll run out of storage on it pretty fast if you want anything more than a few shows and movies. If you're running out of storage space, I would recommend a Network Attached Storage device (NAS). There's lots of brands to choose from, but I'm partial to Synology.

3). Next (regardless of hardware) you'll want to be familiar with Docker and the container model. Essentially, containers allow you to run a little piece of software in a self contained virtual environment. All you have to do is tell docker the containers' dependencies and configuration and it'll spin up the container you ask for it.

4). Next you'll want to get smart on the arr stack. This is a set of services that run in docker containers that can completely automate your piracy activities. At a high level, you specify the TV shows and movies you're interested in, then the arr stack will search for the torrent, download it, and move it to where your content distribution service is scanning for new media.

5). Not sure where else to put this, but I'd recommend gluetun for the VPN client (this is where you'll need your openvpn credentials), qBittorent for your torrent client and Jellyfin for your media distribution. These are all services that can run in Docker containers. I'd recommend using the docker containers from https://fleet.linuxserver.io/ since they tend to standardize the configuration of their docker containers.

Resources:

https://old.reddit.com/r/VPNTorrents/comments/rikthc/list_of_recommended_vpns_2022/

https://old.reddit.com/r/Piracy/wiki/megathreadhttps://wiki.servarr.com/

https://trash-guides.info/

https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki

It's a lot to distill from into a single Lemmy comment, but hopefully this sets you on the right path!

Quality and ease. Torrents don't always have enough seeders or they disconnect. You can get by on them, but it's a case of getting what you pay for. I go through a lot of media as do my friends using my server. The cost is negligible and basically means I have no headaches.

Usenet pros:

• not p2p so no real chance of getting busted
• max out your bandwidth the whole time you're downloading
• no need to seed, no ratios, etc
• Cheap AF

Usenet cons:

• Files aren't forever. Servers do delete content after some time so search results aren't always available on your server
• Usenet servers, especially in the US, are pretty responsive to DMCA demands
• Not free
• Complexity of setup (Sab + Arrs) are a barrier to entry
• Public nzb search engines aren't always going to have what you need. Private search engines are usually invite only and/or cost money per year
• Far less variety for niche stuff than torrents (imo, ymmv)