4 ms·

Isn't torrenting way down from its heyday? Streaming companies are not perfect, but I always thought they were at least moderately successful such that in 2025,

Isn't torrenting way down from its heyday? Streaming companies are not perfect, but I always thought they were at least moderately successful such that in 2025, average, casual, non-techies no longer bother to jump through the VPN and private tracker hoops just to download a movie.

shkkmo 1y ago
For a while, streaming was better than any alternative. However over the last several year prices have a spike while the collections available for streaming have shrunk and splintered. Then a bunch of the streaming sites started adding ads for their paying customers. At this point streaming servcies have been enshitified enough to make piracy again the better experience.
- seanw444 1y ago
  Can confirm. The only streaming service I use anymore is Disney+, and I only have it because I like to watch the new Star Wars stuff when it releases at good quality. Everything else I care to watch, which isn't much besides older stuff, I'll just torrent now. Greedy companies really need to heed Gabe Newell's words.
  - bombcar 1y ago
    Even Disney+ is crappier than Netflix in the streaming heyday - there are Disney Junior shows that Disney+ didn’t have (maybe still doesn’t). Buying DVDs and ripping to Jellyfin is much easier.
    - seanw444 1y ago
      Why do the ripping myself when the torrents are mostly all rips other people already did?
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- int_19h 1y ago
  I still subscribe to some of the services, but the experience has deteriorated sufficiently that at this point I rip all videos I care about and then watch them in Plex.
dsissitka 1y ago
In my circles the modern alternative seems to be using Yandex to search for "$show stream". I don't know about BitTorrent but Usenet is way up: https://www.newsdemon.com/usenet-newsgroup-feed-size https://www.newsdemon.com/usenet-newsgroup-feed-size
- namrog84 1y ago
  Daily volume could just be more bluray high quality downloads with people with better internet. And not neccesarily larger number of people right?
  - kimbernator 1y ago
    I would be pretty surprised if the quality of rips since 2017 would account for a 20x increase in traffic.
    - jauntywundrkind 1y ago
      Most of the rips are probably the same-ish size. But there are definitely now a lot of incredibly huge rips. A 13-episode season of television that's like 80 gigs. It's an additive load, and while it's not that regular, it could have a massively outsided impact.
SSLy 1y ago
dunno about public sites, but the private ones are healthier than ever
e40 1y ago
I torrent content I’m legally allowed to watch because the UX is far better with Plex than with the plethora of crappy apps.
- Marsymars 1y ago
  I rip stuff from YouTube for the same reason. Currently watching Taskmaster which has all or most episodes freely available on YouTube, but no way am I interested in using that dumpster fire of a UX.
dml2135 1y ago
It's down from it's heyday for the mainstream, but for the dedicated few, it's better than ever before. Gone are the days of manually searching for a movie on tracker sites, downloading them, organizing your library and watching stuff on your laptop. There are now open-source, self-hosted applications that automate that entire process, so it's as simple as requesting a movie on your phone and having it show up on your own personal streaming service on your TV a few minutes later.
- IshKebab 1y ago
  What are the names of these immoral piracy applications, so that I can know to avoid them if I happen to stumble upon one?
  - DaSHacka 1y ago
    Plex/Jellyfin for streaming, the *arr suite for cataloging/downloading [0] [0] https://wiki.servarr.com/ https://wiki.servarr.com/
    - jajuuka 1y ago
      It's so nice to have all my legal media backups cataloged and organized and easily viewable. My server isn't powerful enough for 4k HDR though so I need to upgrade it.
  - kylehotchkiss 1y ago
    :D I'm glad you're protected from these terrible services now
  - xtracto 1y ago
    Do not under any circumstance download Stremio (available in Firestick as well). Also don't try to install the Torrentio extension for Stremio. That would allow you to play pirated content with one click I your TV, similarly to PopcornTime.
- neuralRiot 1y ago
IshKebab 1y ago
I think it was down when the answer to streaming was "get netflix, it has most stuff", but now it's "pay for netflix, Disney+, Amazon prime, apple tv, ...".

shkkmo 1y ago

For a while, streaming was better than any alternative. However over the last several year prices have a spike while the collections available for streaming have shrunk and splintered. Then a bunch of the streaming sites started adding ads for their paying customers. At this point streaming servcies have been enshitified enough to make piracy again the better experience.

seanw444 1y ago
Can confirm. The only streaming service I use anymore is Disney+, and I only have it because I like to watch the new Star Wars stuff when it releases at good quality. Everything else I care to watch, which isn't much besides older stuff, I'll just torrent now. Greedy companies really need to heed Gabe Newell's words.
- bombcar 1y ago
  Even Disney+ is crappier than Netflix in the streaming heyday - there are Disney Junior shows that Disney+ didn’t have (maybe still doesn’t). Buying DVDs and ripping to Jellyfin is much easier.
  - seanw444 1y ago
    Why do the ripping myself when the torrents are mostly all rips other people already did?
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
int_19h 1y ago
I still subscribe to some of the services, but the experience has deteriorated sufficiently that at this point I rip all videos I care about and then watch them in Plex.

dsissitka 1y ago

In my circles the modern alternative seems to be using Yandex to search for "$show stream". I don't know about BitTorrent but Usenet is way up: https://www.newsdemon.com/usenet-newsgroup-feed-size https://www.newsdemon.com/usenet-newsgroup-feed-size

namrog84 1y ago
Daily volume could just be more bluray high quality downloads with people with better internet. And not neccesarily larger number of people right?
- kimbernator 1y ago
  I would be pretty surprised if the quality of rips since 2017 would account for a 20x increase in traffic.
  - jauntywundrkind 1y ago
    Most of the rips are probably the same-ish size. But there are definitely now a lot of incredibly huge rips. A 13-episode season of television that's like 80 gigs. It's an additive load, and while it's not that regular, it could have a massively outsided impact.

SSLy 1y ago

dunno about public sites, but the private ones are healthier than ever

e40 1y ago

I torrent content I’m legally allowed to watch because the UX is far better with Plex than with the plethora of crappy apps.

Marsymars 1y ago
I rip stuff from YouTube for the same reason. Currently watching Taskmaster which has all or most episodes freely available on YouTube, but no way am I interested in using that dumpster fire of a UX.

dml2135 1y ago

It's down from it's heyday for the mainstream, but for the dedicated few, it's better than ever before. Gone are the days of manually searching for a movie on tracker sites, downloading them, organizing your library and watching stuff on your laptop. There are now open-source, self-hosted applications that automate that entire process, so it's as simple as requesting a movie on your phone and having it show up on your own personal streaming service on your TV a few minutes later.

IshKebab 1y ago
What are the names of these immoral piracy applications, so that I can know to avoid them if I happen to stumble upon one?
- DaSHacka 1y ago
  Plex/Jellyfin for streaming, the *arr suite for cataloging/downloading [0] [0] https://wiki.servarr.com/ https://wiki.servarr.com/
  - jajuuka 1y ago
    It's so nice to have all my legal media backups cataloged and organized and easily viewable. My server isn't powerful enough for 4k HDR though so I need to upgrade it.
- kylehotchkiss 1y ago
  :D I'm glad you're protected from these terrible services now
- xtracto 1y ago
  Do not under any circumstance download Stremio (available in Firestick as well). Also don't try to install the Torrentio extension for Stremio. That would allow you to play pirated content with one click I your TV, similarly to PopcornTime.
neuralRiot 1y ago

IshKebab 1y ago

I think it was down when the answer to streaming was "get netflix, it has most stuff", but now it's "pay for netflix, Disney+, Amazon prime, apple tv, ...".