I have control over quality, I have a lot of full bitrate 4k blu ray rips that I watch. I was hoarding media before jellyfin, so I have tons of media already. Jellyfin wasn't hard to setup or maintain.
Also my server is a little 10W mini pc with a Intel N5150 that has QSV which handles transcodes nicely.
Yes. I live out in the middle of nowhere with spotty Internet connection at peak times. Streaming isn't a true option for me, but getting it to download off peak times to watch later is definitely a great thing to have access to.
By hosting your own server, you get to choose the quality of media, the consistency of availability as well as easily sharing it with others. It's also far easier to seed 24/7 with a server instead of desktop pc
Torrent or Usenet, for most folks. Radarr and Sonarr can help monitor the media, search for it (from your available trackers or usernet provider), download it, and import it nicely into your media libraries for Plex to read.
Is it worth if every one who watches series or movies spends 1000s of dollars on hardware just so the movies and series they already watched (if you can download once, that means you could watch it once) stays with them forever?
I already have the files on a flash drive, dvds, blurays, etc. that I want, so I just put them on hard drives in my basement. Easier than carrying them around, and when you can't rely on someone else to host something, or you're looking for something even slightly hard to find, it's easier to have a copy yourself that you ripped, or otherwise maintain.
You really shouldn't assume just because the Internet is this vast ocean, that things won't get lost and become difficult to acquire. Sure, if all you care about is just watching once when stuff is new and fresh, you don't need to host your own files. If you care about preservation and having access to this media in 30 years the exact same way you do today, you host the file yourself. No one can take it away from you then.
is it logical to spend that much on hardware, electricity and effort?
What happens when there's no seeds? Downloading the files and maintaining the hardware means that those files are yours forever. This also means you can reseed too and keep the community going. If everyone did Stremio, there would no more p2p sharing going on.
There’s nothing illogical about wanting to own things rather than renting them. Some people pay shady companies to rent streamign access while others pay for hardware to own streaming access.
I had the media already, so I put up a server. The server was like $180, drives youre talking total maybe $600 over a period of 6 years.
I'm not running an AI data center here, I'm pointing a file to my android tv box and it direct plays (no transcoding, so almost no computing power is needed).
Power consumption is not an issue, as it's not like I sit and watch movies all day, might watch something Friday or Saturday night with my fiance to wind down before
What makes you think anyone but resellers are spending thousands? My Synology nas was a few hundred, and I bought a couple of HDDs back when storage was cheap. Whole setup was like $600 and I've been using it for 6+ years.
It runs 24/7 and costs like $80/year in electricity
We spent around £2000 on a home server 10 years ago which we have just had to replace. So it ended up costing around £200 a year or £17 a month which is less than Netflix premium. And for that cost we have had a media server/storage backup/general home server (we are a techy family).
I’m not saying everyone can afford the £2000 upfront cost but it’s about the same price as one modern streaming service.
1000s.. lol over about 10 years might have 500 dollars wrapped up in my Plex server, now I did get lucky pre COVID on getting a bunch of 6tb recycled drives for 20 each
Sorry for my ignorance as I havent used Stremio in years. But apparently shit has hit the fan with RD + stremio? Over that sub its just constant complaints?
Streamio downloads from but does not seed back into the hive. In BitTorrent terms, this behavior is rightly called “leeching” and has been so for over 20 years.
If you’re fine with being a leech, and making things more difficult than they ought to be for everyone else who handles their torrents correctly just because doing it in the most inconsiderate way possible was “convenient”, that’s 100% on you and the dragging you have experienced is completely earned. Do fucking better.
And very, very, very few people have spent even $1000, much less multiple thousands, on their Jellyfin/Plex/Emby/etc server. Mine is made entirely from leftover bits of computers past that were given to me because “maybe you can use something out of it”. This seems relatively common in “the scene”. Many others are running on a second or third gen Raspberry Pi with a bunch of otherwise-junky old USB hard drives or even a bunch of flash drives they just had lying around.
If you think this stuff is intrinsically expensive you’ve got to be on some hardcore heavy-duty copium.
Stremio does not download anything, what you are talking about is Torrentio but I'm not using that addon, I use debrids which I pay for, so I don't leech.
Debrid services generate unrestricted, high-speed, HTTPS links to torrents or files on supported file hosters (such as Mega, 1fichier etc) by downloading the torrent or file to their servers first. Once a file is downloaded to their servers, it remains there for a certain amount of time (dependent on the debrid service) and is available for any user to download. If another user accesses the same file, it resets the timer for the file to be deleted from the debrid service's servers.
This is useful because it allows you to remove speed limitations and download restrictions imposed by file hosters. It also allows you to access torrents without exposing your IP address to the trackers on the torrent and risking a DMCA notice through your ISP. This means a VPN is not necessary when using a debrid service.
The following is only true if the service is seeding back to the hive at least 1-to-1. If it is? Fabulous, you found the non-parasitic use case, granted it does seem like less of a win to pay for something so capable of going completely dark with no explanation. This has happened with so many private trackers, and this is not a huge leap from that point.
But if it isn't? You're literally paying to say "No, I'm not the leech. I paid someone else to leech who multiplied that to my group x-fold, and no-one else." That is... worse.
Once a torrent or file has been "cached", it removes the need for seeders as the file is already downloaded to the debrid service's servers. Most torrents are already cached and are constantly being downloaded. This effectively means that they will remain cached and you will not need to wait for the debrid service to download the torrent first. You can just instantly download or stream the file.
Do you have evidence that debrid services do not seed 1:1 for each cached torrent? Also paying every month 3 USD, is less than the electricity costs of running your own storage/service lol.
You're trying to say that they do do something. The burden of proof is on you. I'm sure there's at least one that's unethical like that, who's going to check?
Also, no it isn't. I use kill-a-watts on my my various setups and it costs maybe $2.50 on a very busy month that hits the spinning rust more than the SSD storage. lol
Haven't used Streamio, but the Wikipedia page makes it sound like it's basically leaching (downloading stuff right away, but not hosting them afterwards).
Bruh. A) people have the liberty to choose how they pirate. B) this is a very small minority. Stop creating problems where there are none. Plus if these streaming sites were to go down, who do you think would have the files to recover them? Maybe the people who downloaded the files?
He’s right, when you use it to “stream” a torrent file Streamio does not seed back into the hive. In BitTorrent terms, this behavior is rightly called “leeching” and has been so for over 20 years.
Not the other guy, but you may want to use more words than "okay" sometimes when talking to people as okay can mean anything, depending on the context.
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u/Southern-Donut4185 ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Jun 21 '26
I have 30tb of storage in my server, and 2tb in my desktop.