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?

  • illyria817@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Jaluvshuskies@lemm.ee
      ·
      1 year ago

      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 IP using different external IP addresses

      • janguv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        ·
        1 year ago

        Your edit clarification is wrong btw. It should read: only applies when using different external IP addresses.

      • win95@lemmy.zip
        ·
        1 year ago

        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?

        • Jaluvshuskies@lemm.ee
          ·
          1 year ago

          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 wrong

          EDIT: As I was corrected below, you only can't stream multiple devices at the same time when using different external IP addresses

          • shortypig@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            ·
            1 year ago

            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.

      • Learning2Draw@lemmy.ml
        ·
        1 year ago

        So it's two months later, this still working for you? I'm looking at this for myself just setting up unraid now...

        • Jaluvshuskies@lemm.ee
          ·
          1 year ago

          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

    • sylverstream@lemmy.nz
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

    • Gailthesnail@lemmy.ml
      ·
      1 year ago

      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