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?
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.