Start with the internet, if that doesn't work try your local movie theater.
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I also use 1337x.to, but for anything obscure my next stop is rutracker.org
alldebrid.net, you can paste magnets from 1337x.to for instant cached download
Also real-debrid.com They have competing good reviews from basically everyone. RD seems to cache torrents for longer (although this is debatable, so, grain of salt)
If anyone has these services already or is interested I HIGHLY suggest also looking up on github a project called "plex_debrid" the main dev is itstoggled
Basically it integrates a debrid service (real-debrid, alldebrid, etc.) into Plex and allows you to have nearly instant access to any movie/show by simply adding it to your watchlist in Plex. It also supports external watchlists from Trakt (I also suggest this app anyway- I pay the yearly premium to support the single developer) and overseerr. You add a movie or show to your list, it searches for cached torrents, refreshes Plex, and the media is available to stream immediately (nearly. A few secs usually). It also supports Jellyfin instead of Plex if people dislike Plex (I bought lifetime like a decade ago to support them at the time, so, I just keep using it for now)
If you don't have a server or host pc of any type at home, or aren't interested in such things, then streamio is my next recommendation. It also uses debrid services to instantly search for and play whatever media you want. Caveat for streamio though is the project is closed source, lacks customization options, and the devs, in my experience, are slow to update and add features like customization. It is a nice program though and totally free. Available for Android tablets, phones, and android TV products. Also PC and I think Linux and Mac too (too lazy to check).
Stremio + RD is perfection, we are gradually moving all our devices away from iOS to android for this
I will second torrentgalaxy and 1337x, I can find most stuff on there. rutracker if it's really obscure
some general notes about torrenting movies:
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avoid anything that says CAM or HDCAM or TS or HDTS. look for BluRay or WEBRip instead. if the movie has not been released on Bluray or digital then you should practice patience and wait instead of watching a cam
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file size will often reflect quality. usually ~2gb is passable quality for a 2 hour movie in 1080p. for really good quality without compression artifacts then something like 6-8gb will be much better at preserving details and film grain
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4K (2160p) rips are usually HDR so they won't look right unless your device supports HDR. you probably don't need 4K but if you have the storage space and fast internet and want super high resolution that's an option
notes on quality of different release groups I know of:
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YTS / Yify are pretty mid quality IMO, probably fine for some stuff but I generally avoid unless that's all I can find
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RARBG releases had decent quality/filesize tradeoff, not perfect but good for most things (that site is now defunct so you won't see them release new movies but you can find a lot of their old torrents on torrentgalaxy)
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GalaxyRG - I think their 1400MB rips are dumb but the 10-bit GalaxyRG265 rips seem pretty decent, comparable to RARGB or slightly better
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QxR releases very high quality encodes, the file sizes will also be larger but it's worth it for movies where you really care about visuals. their torrents often include commentary tracks and sometimes even special features (which you don't have to download) which is awesome
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HeVK (uploader on 1337x) releases a lot of really high quality encodes of horror movies in particular, if you're into that sort of thing. also usually includes commentary tracks
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torrentz2.nz (Meta-search of a bunch of torrent hosts)
1337x.to (For movies, tv, etc. it's fine. Be EXTREMELY cautious of other media. The admins there have been caught straight up allowing malware (Balder's Gate torrent shit)
solidtorrent.to (Just another option)
Also if you don't mind a small monthly fee for huge convenience gains: real-debrid(dot)com alldebrid
And many more offer cheap (~$2/mnth totally unlimited- and I've downloaded 100s of TBs with no issue) cached torrents. Basically you paste (or usually this is automated via a script you're using in some fashion. I have a bunch of stuff setup on my home server) a torrent magnet or upload a .torrent to the sites. If a cached torrent exists, you can download it immediately at full bandwidth. The two sites I listed have shitloads of cached torrents of movies from 480p-4K and 8K of everything imaginable. All streamable instantly once setup.
Look up "plex_debrid github" if interested. The main dev is called itstoggled. Free project. compatible with jellyfin also if you dislike Plex and want more open source and free. (Ive no affiliation with the project or the dev beyond using the program(s) and donating to their continued efforts)
torrentz2.nz (Meta-search of a bunch of torrent hosts)
I poked around the source code for a minute and it seems that site is a merely a braindead clone of bitsearch.to without the sorting function.
For
abyss 1989- both are 295 results which I assume are exactly the same.https://torrentz2.nz/search?q=abyss+1989
sorted by size - https://bitsearch.to/search?q=abyss+1989&sort=size
I get most of my torrents from https://yts.mx/ or 1337x.to
If it's older/more obscure Yify sometimes has fuck all for seeds though.
I thought YTS was defunct and any domains around right now are just shady copies. Nothing's ever come up for you on a virus scan?
1337x is good though. I've also used EZTV for some more obscure things and it's been fine.
Get a private tracker
Private trackers are good but I have found it hard to maintain ratios without a seedbox. As a poverty stricken guy it sucks because private trackers are good shit.
The issue with private trackers is that you end up downloading stuff only to seed it because its like some bonus point torrent. The other trick I would use was to grab the torrent hash and see if it was on DHT without the private tracker which sometimes happens. You can then add the private tracker back to it and remove the public DHT trackers and reap the benefits of pure upload. Sadly both of these require you to play the system a bit and who the fuck has time for that?
EDIT: In other words there is a warm up period for torrent accounts on private trackers that can sometimes last around a month or two depending on if you get onto a site with a generous bonus point system you can learn to use. If you mess up this break-in period your account will always be in shit status and you might as well delete it and start over.
Do you mind spending $10 a month on a seedbox? Because if you do there is a torrent search engine that I use that hooks into a seedbox and it pulls from a shit ton of public trackers. It looks like this:
You hit the send to put.io button and boom its on the put.io site and you can just watch it then delete it.
a torrent search engine
What's it called?
Its chill institute you have to have a put.io account sadly to use it.
Use a vpn for public trackers. Require encryption for private trackers.
Since the demise of rarbg I have been getting them from torrentgalaxy.to. It's not as good but gets the job done. There was one TV show that I found through limetorrents though the exact domain name escapes me right now. There are also sites like solidtorrents.to that let you search multiple indexers.
What about pirate bay
Avoid it. It is mostly unmoderated so there is a lot of malware.
I’ve been a fan of torrentleech.org for the last few years. They open for invites a lot.
the internet
if you want, instead of torrenting, check out stremio with torrent addons. it allows you to just stream movies in a netflix looking interface without actually downloading anything onto your computer
you get the addons here https://stremio-addons.netlify.app/
and download it here https://www.stremio.com/downloads
i feel like it's self explanatory but feel free to ask questions or look up a reddit tutorial or something, there's lots of them
