I have a paid Usenet account with good retention and I download through sabnzbd. I’ve only ever used nzbindex.com as an indexer.

For a long time it was easy to find TV/movies but in recent years it’s become almost impossible. Has Usenet become a bad option because of takedowns or am I missing a modern way of using it?

I see there are lots of binaries posted with cryptic or random string names. Are these supposed to be regular TV/movies etc. with obfuscated names so they can’t be found and taken down?

Do better/private indexers give access to these files or otherwise solve not being to find anything? Is it still supposed to be possible to find reliable new release shows and movies?

Are Sonarr/Radarr are what I need, do they solve the problem of not being able to find files, or do they just provide more convenience for the same files I can already find?

  • pcjones@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Looks like first and foremost you need a good(that means paid) indexer. NZBgeek and Drunkenslug come to mind as a good start - they both cost 15-20€/year. Drunkenslug registrations are closed right now but there are a lot of invites floating around. NZBgeeks registration is open.

    • MortalWombat@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      This is the answer. There are free indexes out there like https://binsearch.info but thanks to automated DMCA takedown bots, there’s very little on “open” usenet that stays up for long. You need to get on a private index and, unfortunately, pay for a subscription to get any kind of reliability.

      • zoostation@lemmy.fmhy.mlOP
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        1 year ago

        How do private indexers help files remain available if they’ve been taken down? I subscribe to one paid usenet provider, don’t the files get taken down from there no matter who indexes them?

        • pcjones@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          They are obfuscated and encoded so it’s not easy to find the files. Since they are encoded they basically look like random noise instead of actual video files (very simplified)

    • Reproach6745@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      While this is a hot topic, I would like to chump in a bit, I’ve been using torrent till… recent even of rarbg, I want to give usenet a try, basically it need 3 thing: downloader, indexer and provider. I get downloader is something like qbittorrent, indexer like the torrent page (rarbg/torrentgalaxy), and provider is like… seedbox. My question is why do we need the provider? To use usenet I have to pay for provider and indexer?

      (This knowledge it getting from the mega thread)

      • pcjones@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        The provider is there to access the usenet, just like you pay your internet provider to access the internet (well, not exactly like that in a technical sense, but you get what I mean I hope). And yes, while there are some free indexers they are basically useless - so you do have to pay for both, usenet access and an indexer. It should still be cheaper than a seedbox though.

        To start I’d recommend frugal Usenet for 40$ a year if you are mostly downloading new stuff:

        https://billing.frugalusenet.com/signup/neQeZxl

        If you are also downloading a lot of older (think 10+ years) stuff you should get ewaka for 48€/year (or keep an eye out for the 36€ year deal that pops up a few times per year):

        https://www.eweka.nl/en/landing/special-deal

        Let me know if you need more help :)

        edit: good indexers to start are NZBgeek (open registration) or Drunkenslug (closed registration, but there are a lot of invites going around). Both cost 15-20€ per year

  • netburnr@lemmy.austinite.online
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    1 year ago

    Sonar and Radarr will make a big difference in automatically finding files and it will keep retracing until it runs out of things it sees.

    What is most important us indexers. When you go to setup indexers look at the provided list and get api keys for all ones that are open.

  • Petter1@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Yes, definitely, paid private Indexer are worth the money. In my opinion, you only find crap using free Indexer. Use radarr and sonarr together with hydra2 or bowlarr(sorry if written wrong) to mange your Indexer. Get as many as you can, especially Private. Of you get that running, it’s a matter of minutes to grab a realese after it’s aired. Download is blazing fast on my server like 15min for 4k

  • mondomondoman@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I rarely have issues finding things on Usenet. Even old shows and movies. Sonarr and Radarr are a more convenient way to find what you’re looking for. Your indexer May be the problem or it could be your provider. I’d suggest getting radarr and sonarr to see if that will help find what your searching for. If you’re still not getting the results you want you’ll want to invest in another indexer. Personally what I have may be overkill but I have Newsdemon, Eweka, Usenetexpress, and newshosting for providers and 5 different indexers, several which are private.

    • apprehensively_human@fedia.io
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      1 year ago

      I also rarely have any issues finding content on usenet. However I only use a single provider (Newshosting) and two indexers (nzbgeek and AltHUB).
      Sonarr and Radarr make it incredibly easy to find and organize stuff. I also have Overseerr which makes requesting more content a breeze, and my indexers are configured together in NZBHydra.

  • deviantkhaaos@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    As soon as you go to a paid indexer, the whole world changes. My suggestion would be to set up a NZBHydra ‘server’ and plug in as many indexers as you can find if you dont want to pay. But again, Paying a small sum to the site improves the outcomes greatly. I might have a dognzb invite or two I could share with you, just let me know… Its a really good indexer

  • Kuvwert@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    My stack is sonarr radarr sab newsgroupninja and drunkenslug. I always easily find what I’m lookin for, no lack of options for everything

  • GregorGizeh@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Bookmarking doesn’t work yet on wefwef so I’m gonna comment this to find it again later