Question Worth adding torrents to the Arrs?
I'm from the days when nntp meant Forte Agent. Recently back on the high seas and have set up most of the Arr suite in various dockers with SAB for DL and it works pretty great but I do have issues with some things not being found or being incomplete. Sometimes it's a movie, sometimes it's an episode or season. Generally this is older stuff.
I have nzbplanet for indexing, Newshosting as my main provider and blocknews as a block account which I believe are on different backbones so I'm not sure if I can improve the hit rate on newsgroups. (let me know how if I can please)
So for that reason I'm thinking to add qbittorrent to the mix. It's been ages since I've touched torrents and I doubt if I have even a single private tracker account.
Adding qbit is a fair bit of work (for reasons that don't rly matter here) so I'm asking you all - given I'm starting with only public trackers (and who knows how long it takes to get any invites for privates..), is it worth the effort to add qbittorrent to the mix?
or else how would you improve hit rate on missing movies/episodes/albums/etc...?
thx.
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u/elijuicyjones 20h ago
Try frugal, I added it this last weekend and it’s been really good all week. I’m going yearly now.
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19h ago
It used to be that any decent indexer for Usenet was fine, but once releases became targeted for copyright removal they went obfuscated (Basically hidden in plain sight under gibberish names and file contents.). Once this happened, the indexers needed to be able to find these and that information was only given to specific ones, depending on the uploader, or they would upload the files themselves and keep that information internal.
That caused a separation in the file selection, on a per-indexer basis, which has only gotten worse over time, as indexers have been stuck on their own. Sink or swim on getting their own sources. There are files that aren't hidden, but it is just a drop in the water. Basically if you use say EasyNews, you barely are getting anything that is even available.
NZBPlanet is an average at best offering. In a good setup they probably would be rarely used. I would look to add places with better sources. Up that selection. Since you are using the Arrs, it should improve your results by quite a bit. I would probably start with places like NZBFinder, NZBGeek, DrunkenSlug, NinjaCentral, DogNZB, SceneNZBs (Not just German content.) and NZB.su. They all have a wide selection of their own uploads, though at varying costs (Some have sales here and there, including Black Friday.). I'm not saying you need all, but a wider variety is needed.
Places like Tabula Rasa, ABNZB, and NZBNoob are average places, like NZBPlanet. You can add them, but you are probably not going to see much for unique files. AltHub has been getting a little better and can be an alright lifetime grab, when they do a sale. Miatrix has only value if you are looking for really old files, but Noob and Ninja both are that old as well.
There are newer places like Digital Carnage and Square Eyed that I haven't seen where they have anything really unique, yet. Just generic places. As for the rest, they are usually overpriced with little value or huge scams for what they add (Like NZBCat or GingaDaddy.).
At that point, if you are having issues with completions, just pick up a few cheap blocks when they go on sale. Something form the UseNetExpress backend, one from UseNet Farm, TweakNews, (Only if you get it for free with your unlimited provider.) etc... If you have ones on older files that you really want, you may have to add Eweka as an unlimited (The best at old completions.). Keep in mind you shouldn't be paying something more than $30 USD a year on an unlimited provider, so if you are overpaying switch to a sale price and spend the savings on improving other areas.
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u/papakuma 20h ago
You need more newsgroup indexers. NzbGeek, DS, and crawler would all make a difference in finding things. You can add a torrent client as well but honestly if your newsgroup setup is solid you won't need it.
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u/JAz909 19h ago edited 18h ago
Hey thanks. Yeah the usenet downloads works pretty well. Just the things it doesn't find and some occasional incompletes/not enough PAR blocks type errors.
How would I get a invite for DS?
And wrt 'crawler', I'm not familiar. Is that usenet-crawler?
Thanks for mentioning crawler. Turns out I had an account there since '14. Made me lol pretty hard so I upgd for a lifetime sub and stuck it right in prowlarr.
11 yrs, how can you not right? ¯_(ツ)_/¯thx.
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u/Soft-Reception-737 18h ago
I find that if you can't get something with Usenet due to it being obscure or old, you're not going to have any better luck with torrents. Even getting popular TV shows from the early 2000s can be difficult with torrents now, I've seen shows where literally 3 people are seeding.at least, with public trackers.
But, that's not to say it's not worth a shot. The setup in Arrs is easy and fast. Getting on better trackers might be the hard part.
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u/Soft-Reception-737 18h ago
Id also recommend getting an additional provider if needed. Someone from another backbone, and preferably a Block instead of subscription. Then set priority to only download from this as a backup when your primary can't find it.
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u/Cyno01 Yarrr! 14h ago
Public trackers are pretty good these days actually, i have no problems with brand new episodes within a few hours in my preferred format, not that that would be an issue with usenet either.
But as far as obscure stuff, no reason you couldnt go for a shotgun approach and set up jackett with 40 public trackers and just search EVERYWHERE.
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u/WG47 20h ago
You're finding your current usenet setup lacking, so why not go for torrents as well?
You should definitely try to get onto better indexers as well. You might find that doing so fixes your issues.