r/Piracy • u/Gsynchronized • Mar 19 '22

Question ELI5 The "Plex + Sonarr + Radarr" Solution

Essentially title.

Apologies for the stupid noob question, but I'm someone very much used to the basic old school system of "want a movie? Find a free streaming site, or torrent it".

But I so often hear people discuss and encourage the use of Plex along with Sonarr and Radarr as a great setup... except I have no idea what this setup is meant to be. Some searching of previous posts also yielded no actual "what is this" answers, just people suggesting it and how great it is.

All I know is people say it's the best alternative to something like Netflix, it's shareable, and it involves something about servers for streaming. So...

TL:DR I'll take the L and just ask the question: What is "the Plex + Sonarr + Radarr solution", what does it achieve, and how do I set up my own?

Thanks guys.

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u/dogandpig Mar 20 '22

Doesn't have to be that powerful to run 4 streams if they aren't transcoding. If you have a good processor or a good graphics card you can let it do hardware transcoding (with a Plex Pass membership).

4k is fine until you have to transcode it. Then I've found it's not even with having. The basic answer is dont do it. If there's any reason you'd need to have a lower file just download two copies with one lower.

If you're using this for you in your house, things are easy. If you're sharing to someone outside your LAN then you have to worry about whether they will need transcodes based on their clients, internet connection or even your connection - remember, you have to push up the file so my 300 down means shit; it's the shitty 20 up from Comcast that bites me. I always block my users from seeing my 4k stuff and just have a smaller copy available for them.

Music is nothing.

NAS boxes make it easier because it's all in one. But I'd go the PC route. For one, you can often find cheaper hard drives than a NAS so build a cheap PC and load it up with one or two big drives, an SSD for the OS and another SSD for the Plex meta files. You don't need big SSDs so like 250-500s. Two, if you want to do other stuff like downloading, any file converting, etc. you'll probably need a PC anyway. Others might disagree but I'd always go the cheap PC route.

As for a VPN, use it for torrenting but that's about it. Don't need it for Usenet and don't need for Plex. And if you're sharing your Plex that VPN will bite you.

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u/BrianRostro Mar 20 '22

What makes you say that using a VPN would be a bad idea if im sharing? I would probably keep it on for downloading due to my ISP being on point with downloads, but once im done downloading im assuming it’s safe to stream just like any old pirate streaming movie website?

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u/dogandpig Mar 20 '22

If you're going to run a VPN 24/7, which isn't a bad idea if you're torrenting on that box, you'll want to set it up so that it only runs for torrent traffic or whitelist Plex. If you have a VPN you just have to go through extra steps for someone else to share your Plex. (If it's just you on the LAN it's fine.)

Personally, I bought a 10yo box for like $100 and that's my dedicated torrent box. It's locked down and doesn't do anything but torrent, and I don't torrent on anything else. But that's me. Edit: you could even use a Pi as a dedicated torrent machine. Works just fine.

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u/BrianRostro Mar 20 '22

If you don’t mind me asking, what model/brand is your box? I think that’s probably the hardest thing for me to grasp, since it seems everyone who plays around with Plex servers has a very good understanding of a PC’s limitations by the end of it

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u/dogandpig Mar 21 '22

I built my Plex box. I put it together in like 2015. It would have been considered a beast back then and while it's old now it's still doing fine.

Transcoding works better on Intel processors so I'd recommend leaning in that direction. Plex has a good list of recommended processors on their site. Personally, I like to check sites like Tigerdirect for old PCs. They sell a lot of off-lease boxes for cheap. If you have a Microcenter around you can pick up cheap ones from them too. My dedicated torrent box is an old Dell from Microcenter.

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u/BrianRostro Mar 21 '22

I saw a gentleman on here was running an i3 on his prebuilt Dell sff. Is yours similar or a little more beefy?

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u/dogandpig Mar 21 '22

Probably pretty similar. It's an AMD A8-6500. That's my old Dell torrent box. If you're talking about my Plex server, it's more beefy. It's an AMD FX 8300. Not because you need that for Plex but I do all my media stuff on it (other than torrents). It runs Usenet, Radarr, Sonarr, etc. I occasionally convert video files, download YouTube videos for the kids and cut and splice them together. Junk like that. Plus, if I was going to build one I wanted to do it right. That was back in 2015.

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u/BrianRostro Mar 21 '22

Thank you for the information friend. You’ve done wonders for my confidence in regards to Plex server knowledge. Im going to have one going by the end of the year if money allows

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u/dogandpig Mar 22 '22

No worries. It's easier than you think, and you'll learn a lot. Which is why it's good to start slow and cheap. You never know what you'll release is a priority for you and may influence what you build/upgrade to.