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Plex is a really easy way to stream video files from your computer to a chromecast, and I can use my phone as a remote. It works just as well as googe play and

Plex is a really easy way to stream video files from your computer to a chromecast, and I can use my phone as a remote. It works just as well as googe play and better than my current amazon workflow.(Which I can only play from the computer because they won't allow streaming to chromecast)

dewey 7y ago
You are not accounting for the important part of sourcing the pirated movies and running a Plex server though? That's what 99% of the people who only want to consume will be struggling with, not the playback client.
- JamesBarney 7y ago
  Most people have a friend who's technical enough to follow the plex installation instructions or install utorrent.
  - dewey 7y ago
    These technical friends may exist, but I'd guess most of the people would rather pay 15$ / month to some provider than bothering their friend to set them up with a Plex server, maintaining it, figuring out what file to download ("What is this 1080p, 720p?), waiting for downloads to be done, clear out old torrents so they have disk space again. These are all things that are fun to "us" technical people and I don't mind doing them for myself but if you have to choose between relying on someone else to keep your setup running or just paying someone and have a hands off solution most people will do that. Don't forget that this is very biased community here, it makes comments like this sound a bit like the dropbox vs a pile of shell scripts post.
    - JamesBarney 7y ago
      I think you're overestimating the difficulty of plex. There's no real maintenance, you don't have to be very technical to download a file(it's two clicks), and if they don't know the difference between 1080p and 720p they don't care, they've waited for downloads before, and hard drives are so large now you rarely have to clear out them out. My wife uses plex without any problem and she can't stand technology. But besides an issue which comes up every couple of years it's as simple as click and play. And you're 100% right most people would rather pay someone to take that off their hands. But if things get to the point where you need 15 $10/month subscriptions and can only buy certain shows from one of the 15 mobile apps which have varying levels of compatibility with casters, more people will start looking at other options.
      - dewey 7y ago
        I have a very well oiled Plex / Flexget / Sonarr setup myself so I know what you are talking about and it's seriously great. If you set it up for someone it'll work very well but if you have to do it yourself, or ask someone else to do it for you and they don't already have their own setup and offer it to you it's not really an option for most people who don't like to tinker with these things in their free time. I think we can agree on that it's great for people who'd like to tinker and maybe offer it to their family members, maybe even with something like http://plexrequests.8bits.ca http://plexrequests.8bits.ca but for "normal" people it's not really an option.
- chii 7y ago
  popcorntime still exists and works very well. No need to be running your own server.
  - dewey 7y ago
    In some countries (Germany) using public torrent trackers (like what popcorntime is doing behind the scenes) will result in 300+ Euros of fines pretty quickly. You also have to factor the legality in which is a pretty big factor for choosing to pay on top of convenience I‘d guess. Now you also have to explain your non-technical guest how to use a VPN, pay for it and make sure it’s always running before starting popcorntime.
    - kkarakk 7y ago
      i just set it up in the router, all they do is connect to wifi and follow a link. i do it for personal home movies but you could extend the concept trivially for sharing a home library of copyrighted torrented movies
- zaarn 7y ago
  Sonarr/Radarr can acquire the media files fairly easily, requires not that much setup. If torrent is risky in your country, they also support Usenet, which has most of the recent releases as well (and can be faster in some situations).
  - jsmeaton 7y ago
    Setting up sonarr and radarr is not trivial, especially if you’re hooking it up to Usenet. I spend a couple of hours every year repairing the setup after the NAS has updated the mono version. Finding the right Usenet server and the correct alternative block accounts, and then just the right search provider. Ugh. But it’s magical once everything is setup.
    - zaarn 7y ago
      It's not actually that complicated. There are templates that let you deploy both in a single click on a webinterface. You can use free crawlers for content out of the box. Various usenet providers provide you with picture-by-picture guides on how to setup Sonarr and Radarr. There are single-click Usenet and Torrent clients with VPN integration. Just upload the ovpn file as provided by your VPN provider and you're done. This is all either single click or explained thuroughly and easy to understand on-site or in the products FAQ/Installation Guide. Once you have it all, you can share Plex with others, which is even more easy than all of the above. Your friends and family have access to all the movies for very low cost (up to free).
      - Mashimo 7y ago
        Do most people know what a VPN is? I'm new to all of that Sonarr/Radarr/Ombi stuff, but I torrented for along long time. It took me some time to set it up, granted I had to make it work with my torrent client and trackers that where already in place. But before people can start with that they have to inform them self about usenet vs torrent, VPN yes / no and what provider, Plex/Emby or Jellyfin etc. It's a huge time commitment. Then get it to work on your TV and phone. Even if there is a guide to just tells you what is best, I doubt it can be done in the time most people want to invest.
mprev 7y ago
Pretty sure that most people value their time and staying on the right side of the law more than a few dollars a month.

dewey 7y ago

You are not accounting for the important part of sourcing the pirated movies and running a Plex server though? That's what 99% of the people who only want to consume will be struggling with, not the playback client.

JamesBarney 7y ago
Most people have a friend who's technical enough to follow the plex installation instructions or install utorrent.
- dewey 7y ago
  These technical friends may exist, but I'd guess most of the people would rather pay 15$ / month to some provider than bothering their friend to set them up with a Plex server, maintaining it, figuring out what file to download ("What is this 1080p, 720p?), waiting for downloads to be done, clear out old torrents so they have disk space again. These are all things that are fun to "us" technical people and I don't mind doing them for myself but if you have to choose between relying on someone else to keep your setup running or just paying someone and have a hands off solution most people will do that. Don't forget that this is very biased community here, it makes comments like this sound a bit like the dropbox vs a pile of shell scripts post.
  - JamesBarney 7y ago
    I think you're overestimating the difficulty of plex. There's no real maintenance, you don't have to be very technical to download a file(it's two clicks), and if they don't know the difference between 1080p and 720p they don't care, they've waited for downloads before, and hard drives are so large now you rarely have to clear out them out. My wife uses plex without any problem and she can't stand technology. But besides an issue which comes up every couple of years it's as simple as click and play. And you're 100% right most people would rather pay someone to take that off their hands. But if things get to the point where you need 15 $10/month subscriptions and can only buy certain shows from one of the 15 mobile apps which have varying levels of compatibility with casters, more people will start looking at other options.
    - dewey 7y ago
      I have a very well oiled Plex / Flexget / Sonarr setup myself so I know what you are talking about and it's seriously great. If you set it up for someone it'll work very well but if you have to do it yourself, or ask someone else to do it for you and they don't already have their own setup and offer it to you it's not really an option for most people who don't like to tinker with these things in their free time. I think we can agree on that it's great for people who'd like to tinker and maybe offer it to their family members, maybe even with something like http://plexrequests.8bits.ca http://plexrequests.8bits.ca but for "normal" people it's not really an option.
chii 7y ago
popcorntime still exists and works very well. No need to be running your own server.
- dewey 7y ago
  In some countries (Germany) using public torrent trackers (like what popcorntime is doing behind the scenes) will result in 300+ Euros of fines pretty quickly. You also have to factor the legality in which is a pretty big factor for choosing to pay on top of convenience I‘d guess. Now you also have to explain your non-technical guest how to use a VPN, pay for it and make sure it’s always running before starting popcorntime.
  - kkarakk 7y ago
    i just set it up in the router, all they do is connect to wifi and follow a link. i do it for personal home movies but you could extend the concept trivially for sharing a home library of copyrighted torrented movies
zaarn 7y ago
Sonarr/Radarr can acquire the media files fairly easily, requires not that much setup. If torrent is risky in your country, they also support Usenet, which has most of the recent releases as well (and can be faster in some situations).
- jsmeaton 7y ago
  Setting up sonarr and radarr is not trivial, especially if you’re hooking it up to Usenet. I spend a couple of hours every year repairing the setup after the NAS has updated the mono version. Finding the right Usenet server and the correct alternative block accounts, and then just the right search provider. Ugh. But it’s magical once everything is setup.
  - zaarn 7y ago
    It's not actually that complicated. There are templates that let you deploy both in a single click on a webinterface. You can use free crawlers for content out of the box. Various usenet providers provide you with picture-by-picture guides on how to setup Sonarr and Radarr. There are single-click Usenet and Torrent clients with VPN integration. Just upload the ovpn file as provided by your VPN provider and you're done. This is all either single click or explained thuroughly and easy to understand on-site or in the products FAQ/Installation Guide. Once you have it all, you can share Plex with others, which is even more easy than all of the above. Your friends and family have access to all the movies for very low cost (up to free).
    - Mashimo 7y ago
      Do most people know what a VPN is? I'm new to all of that Sonarr/Radarr/Ombi stuff, but I torrented for along long time. It took me some time to set it up, granted I had to make it work with my torrent client and trackers that where already in place. But before people can start with that they have to inform them self about usenet vs torrent, VPN yes / no and what provider, Plex/Emby or Jellyfin etc. It's a huge time commitment. Then get it to work on your TV and phone. Even if there is a guide to just tells you what is best, I doubt it can be done in the time most people want to invest.

mprev 7y ago

Pretty sure that most people value their time and staying on the right side of the law more than a few dollars a month.