72
What do you do if you can't find a movie on torrents?
(infosec.pub)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2026
72 points (98.6% liked)
Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
70947 readers
262 users here now
⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.
Rules • Full Version
1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy
2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote
3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs
4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others
Loot, Pillage, & Plunder
We heartily recommend visiting the free port of freemediaheckyeah (aka FMHY) while you sail the high seas, for all the freshest links the ocean has to offer.
📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):
🏴☠️ Other communities
FUCK ADOBE!
Torrenting/P2P:
- !seedboxes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !trackers@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !qbittorrent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !libretorrent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !soulseek@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Gaming:
- !steamdeckpirates@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !newyuzupiracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !switchpirates@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !3dspiracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !retropirates@lemmy.dbzer0.com
💰 Please help cover server costs.
 |
 |
|---|---|
| Ko-fi | Liberapay |
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
I've determined it's basically impossible to do that if you don't own a dedicated high-bandwidth seedbox. That costs a bunch of money, at which point you may just pay for another service (usenet) that has the stuff you want.
You have to maintain a certain ratio in all of them, but even though I've literally seeded everything I downloaded all the time, barely anyone ever connected to me, because their download need was already filled. Torrent clients prefer seeds with higher upload speeds. Thus I stayed at 0.0X ratio the whole time. Even when some of the files were designated as "free leech", so you can download and seed them to get your ratio up, that simply didn't work either.
Combine that with what you said with how hard it is to join them, they're just not worth it.
The whole concept is pretty stupid because of that. If there was a private tracker that simply looked at availability instead of ratio, sure. It's so weird to me how you would keep requiring ratio if all files are well-seeded.
Edit: the "dedicated" part was exaggerated, yes. However, "high bandwidth" means different things in different areas. Many areas in the world still have shitty 5 Mbit internet. Just because you personally are in the "lucky area" where you can do high-bandwidth seeding from home, does not mean other people do. If you can get much more than that at home, you're already in the "high bandwidth" group.
In most private trackers, you get bonus points for availability that you can use to maintain your ratio.
I don't know why you're getting pushback on this, what you're saying is 100% correct. I spent around a decade just using Usenet and not bothering with torrents. Then I got into one highly sought after private tracker. I spent several months not downloading a thing except freeleech to create a buffer, which was going absolutely nowhere. Then recently I decided to test out this seedbox thing I'd heard so much about. I set it up to automatically download freeleech torrents the second they're posted. Even with that setup I discovered that I still can't get a 1:1 ratio. A bot that downloads the freeleech torrent the instant it's posted still only achieves a 0.5 ratio. It's madness. Within 20 minutes of being posted, the torrent will have 150 seedbox users seeding it and no one else will be able to upload a single byte.
Before this I was manually downloading freeleech torrents that I found interesting, and was literally getting a 0 ratio by doing that. Now I know why. This system encourages everyone to buy seedboxes, which then makes it impossible for regular Joe shmoes to use private trackers, unless they signed up back in 2013 or something
Different people have different experiences ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I guess most of the pushback is from people that through some privilege or luck either got into a "good" private tracker or have just been there from very early on. For those, they probably work very well.
But because of the massive hurdles for new users and the elitism inside it, it's a terrible idea to suggest then to anyone new.
There are private trackers where you can earn a currency based on seeding uptime, not actual upload. Then you can spend the currency to get more download buffer. Farm the currency by just downloading and seeding a bunch of freeleech stuff.
Basically all private trackers have seed-time bon to encourage long term seeding. Only difference is the amount.
Completely untrue. I don't have a seedbox, never had one, and I keep perfectly fine ratios on two different private trackers. One has a ratio of 56 I think, the other (the one I use the most) has a ratio of 4.5, both just have a minimum requirement ratio of 0.5 i think before you're kicked.
I just have a computer on my home network, which is also the media server.
What’s your upload bandwidth? Just asking because it is kinda relevant to the topic at hand.
Technically I pay for symmetrical 1Gbit, functionally I only have around 100Mbit upload bandwidth
On one hand, that’s great news for uploaders!
On the other hand - oof! ISPs are bastards! You definitely deserve a bill credit! I was limited to about 100 Mbit when I moved in to my new apartment - turned out the fiber jack was bad. Have you been able to get a tech to check it out? Definitely a pain to get one out to check the physical line sometimes.
Up until recently, I was limited to 12Mbps through Comcast and had no issues building ratio for the 10 years using those speeds, while also dividing that speed between multiple users remotely streaming from my Plex server.
Back in the day (pre 2018) I was 30/5 on Crapcast and could still maintain a decent ratio.
Most private sites now will count the time you seed even if no one gets the file from you.
A factor that comes to mind as someone who also runs a Plex server with friends is the importance of hard-linking vs copying files. I may be projecting my own experience from when I first started sailing the seas, but you can save a lot of storage space once you learn you can have a torrent folder AND an organized TV/movie folder(s) without doubling your media collection size!
I'm on 150 mbps and get 0.00 ratio on most torrents. The trackers own guide says to use autobrr on a decent seedbox as the only reliable way to build ratio.
I think my best torrent is at around 7.0 after 2 or 3 years, all the others are under 1.0
BS.
Either you fetch only unpopular media or you arent responding fast enough to requests (I think the time is relevant when talking NVMe vs HDD storage).
My 1gbit seedbox with HDD storage is maybe tickled most on public trackers and even there it's meh.
Think my best upload on a private tracker was 20 MiB/s for about 2-3 min before someone else snatched the leech requests.
I've been in numerous private trackers and all of them offer bonus points from seeding that you can use to 'buy' ratio if people aren't downloading from you. You might also ensure that you have port forwarding setup if nobody is ever connecting to you because even though I rarely ever get a lot of seed ratio, I usually get something on most files and this is all through my home internet connection.
I've been on a few different private trackers since the early 2010s and I had 1-5mbps upload for like a decade and I've never had any issues with ratio on any of them
Seedboxes are as expensive as a 1080p netfliix sub.
I pay about 15€ per month for one and not even have to bother with maintenance.
And usenet can get DMCAd very quickly on popular stuff.
Had a relative request a file that was about 1 day old and already had broken binaries.
Massively depends on the private tracker. Some have a hard economy where you must seed every byte, but there are plenty of trackers that have bonus points based on seed time and torrent size which you can exchange for download allowances.
Some easy to get in trackers are torrentleech and seedpool, AFAIK both of them have open signups occasionally.
But that's kind of my point, if it is so hard to find a private tracker without that system and then also joining them is hard again, why would you bother? 95% of stuff you can find on public trackers and for the rest you can go on usenet once in a while.
Why would you want to join one without a bon-system?
Exactly what I am doing. And I get the best of all worlds.
Usenet (which get's most of it from trackers)
Torrents
DDL from known and unknown pages
Actually joining is the easy part.
Building ratio is the commitment and major hurdle. It's costs a bunch of money or time. A years long project. That can be shortened with money on a seedbox like you said. But it's a project you only need to do once. I did it a couple decades ago. Now I don't think of it. I can get almost anything at any time. It's absolutely worth it.
Oh absolutely. If you already did the hard part, then it's worth continuing to use it.
What I'm saying is that if the hard part is in front of you, then why not be fine with 95% of stuff being available and once in a while paying for usenet for the rest? Usenet is ~1€ per month, and you don't have to be subscribed all the time, only when you want to get stuff you can't find on public trackers.
Ive got a Raspberry Pi (from back when they were cheap) and a USB HDD that chugs along just fine in the background. My upload speed is utter shit (rarely exceeds 1MB/s) but I've still uploaded terabytes of data. All you need is the ability to just leave the server running in the background.
this is very much untrue. I've just got a home connection and manage fine.
You're home connection is then probably in the top% of available home connections. If you're in the countryside in certain countries you can be lucky if you get 1Mbit up/down
I live in Australia, our internet is garbage.
Your assessment is correct for particular private trackers. I belong to several and they all operate in different ways with different rules. What you are describing is my experience with trackers like TorrentLeech, my least preferred tracker. But on the other end of the spectrum is a tracker like Seedpool, where it is very easy to maintain a ratio just by keeping your client online with some data available.
Private trackers can be very accommodating and useful without a seedbox. Just find one that suits you. They are not all the same.
I prefer private trackers that permit cross seeding and decent rewards for making data available over time (in lieu of focusing just on how much data you transmitted).
Several trackers also freely give data buffer just for interacting with the site on a regular basis. Some have simple daily tasks like commenting or thanking an uploader. Others just want you to click a button and voila, you have 20 gigs free to use everyday.
TL being hard? What are you talking about?
Literally downloaded the Merry Melodies v2025 collection and this is my best entry by upload easily.
Yeah, then the problem becomes again, "how do you get into the right private trackers", and most of the time the answer is "hey show us how you did on other private trackers", and then you ask yourself if you're in a philosophical dilemma involving eggs and chickens.
A seedbox is cheaper than a single streaming subscription. A high end one isn't necessary. It's definitely worth it. Most private trackers allow you to make requests for content that isn't already on the site.
I have not talked about a streaming subscription, but usenet, which is even cheaper than a seedbox.
That is not true. I have a home server on a mid level connection, and it works perfectly for maintaining ratio as long as your ports are forwarded correctly so you remain connectable.
I pay $6 or $7/mo for Ultra.CC and it's 1TB storage with 4TB monthly bandwidth. I never exceed the bandwidth, but the 1TB allows you to seed for quite some time. I set rules to keep stuff until a minimum 10:1 seed ratio, and some rare stuff for 50:1. Some stuff is so minimal/small, it's there indefinitely.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying, a usenet subscription costs less and you get everything you want without even having to seed anything.
You keep your ratio when you stop paying for the seedbox, can you also keep your usenet access?
It's a good point, but you also don't keep your ratio, if you stop seeding and only leech, eventually your ratio gets bad again. You just changed to prepaid volume instead of subscription :D
But yeah, you also don't need your usenet access forever. It's only for rarely found stuff, remember? You just accumulate those over some time, then pay for a month to get it all, then cancel again. Main tool is public torrents.
I was just thinking, of "a bunch of money" is a lot more than $6. Pulling up Usenet plans range from $4-8month for basic stuff. I've never used it. I don't know enough about it. To each their own I guess.