After my last post on here asking about convenient streaming options at higher resolutions, I got a few comments recommending Stremio with Torrentio and Real Debrid.
I ended up going through with that and streamed a 4k movie. That said, what's the catch? I'm a little paranoid because I'm not sure if this still counts as torrenting, and if I should be using a VPN while watching something from RD.
No such thing as free lunch, so I'm assuming there's other downsides to this solution, could someone let me know what they are?
You don't need a VPN with Torrentio + Real Debrid. You are not torrenting - they already torrented it for you, and you are streaming the cached file directly from the RD servers. I think the only "catch" is that it's not free (obviously) so I don't think you can call it "free lunch" lol. Torrentio addon specifically scrapes the debrid service - now, if you were to install, say, TPB addon for Stremio, it would be torrenting, so you don't want to do that without a VPN.
This is what I understand as well. I have been using it (well, specifically streamio + Rd with torrentio addon) for half a year so far and it's fantastic. Definitely seems too good to be true, but there's no catch imo :)
There's only 3 cons which for me aren't big deal breakers unless it's important to you
- No auto renewal
- Not free, it's like $6 for 6 months or something which imo is insanely affordable and an incredibly good deal
- If you watch on multiple devices but at the same time, you get banned
EDIT: As I was corrected below, bullet 3 only applies when
under the same IPusing different external IP addressesYour edit clarification is wrong btw. It should read: only applies when using different external IP addresses.
I haven't looked up info on it yet - but the multiple devices at the same time, that's for one RD account I assume? So, could my spouse and I technically pay for 2 accounts in the same household, or no?
As far as I understand, yes! That's correct.
I have 1 account so I can't stream multiple devices at the same time. But if you have 2 separate accounts there shouldn't be issues. I'm like 95% sure but someone correct me if wrongEDIT: As I was corrected below, you only can't stream multiple devices at the same time when using different external IP addresses
You can absolutely stream as many devices as you please at the same time from the same IP address from a single account. You only get in trouble with RD if you stream from 2 different IP addresses simultaneously.
Ah that's the important part I was forgetting, I appreciate the correction!
So it's two months later, this still working for you? I'm looking at this for myself just setting up unraid now...
Yes, I use it practically daily and have had 0 issues aside from the very rare occasional maintenance/short outage. here's the guide originally from reddit that I followed after spending some time trying to figure it out
you don’t want to do that without a VPN.
It depends on the country. Here in NZ it's not a problem to torrent, they're not actively going after pirates. This may change of course.
real debrid scraping has gotten way worse after rarbg's downfall. it doesnt scrape torrentgalaxy correctly and i have no idea how to fix it
I used to use it without real debrid. It just torrents the stream so yeah vpn would be needed for that method.
Personally I'd still use a VPN with realdebrid.
I use it and don' care much but it's definitely Torrenting so if you are in a country with bad laws and very paranoid you whould probably use a VPN but just know that the few actual lawsuites that came from this bs are at best symbolic and your chance to get hit by a lightning is probably a lot higher.
Using a debrid service is paying for a third party to do the torrenting, so your IP is not in the torrent swarm. Your ISP knows you're using the service, but they don't know whether you're streaming illegal content, which means there are no grounds to subpoena neither the ISP nor the debrid service logs.
a VPN is probably not needed imho.
I am not a/your lawyer.
I would say the only potential issue (and it's a remote one without any irl consequences as far as I know) is this: your IP is logged, and you can't use a VPN to create an account or buy a subscription either, so potentially that information is all there. Plus, there is a download history for every file – I've no idea what they keep on record or how long. So in theory with the right subpoenas, information such as your IP, your bank details (if you didn't choose an anonymous method), and the exact files you pirated are available.
I've no idea how much of that could be realized in practice. And I would like to be wrong about it all.
That said, the likelihood of all this is probably very slim indeed. I would describe this as the only potential catch. It's worth noting that you wouldn't be able to be penalized for an action such as "sharing" copyrighted content though, since you'd only be downloading, not seeding.
I can't see any downsides. I've switched recently from an *arr stack to Stremio and can't be happier. Even with all the automation, I found it annoying that I first had to download something before I could watch it, after which Bazarr had to download subtitles (which only happens every couple of hours) and Kodi had to be updated before it was visible there. And downloading obvious requires storage.
Stremio also works across devices which is awesome. I bookmark shows on the go and watch it in the evening on my CCWGTV.
We've already noticed that we enjoy watching media more.
