I’m a pretty heavy torrent user, running a media server complete with sonarr/radarr for automatic downloads. I download a lot, and have multiple TBs of upload on various private trackers. I’ve been torrenting forever, but I’ve always wondered about usenet. Over and over on this, and other, forums I see people saying that usenet is way better - but why?
I understand what it is overall, but what makes it better than traditional torrenting? In my mind, it’s always just seemed like a different means to the same end. I pay for a VPN and torrent for “free”, or I pay for usenet access and download directly from there. As someone who’s “snobby” around the quality of the stuff I torrent, does usenet provide an advantage there?
Usenet fans, I’d love to hear what makes you love it! I’m always open to trying new things, and if It really is better I’d love to know why! (Plus, maybe what providers/tools etc you recommend).
I’ve been using Usenet for about 20 years. So many upsides.
Usenet traffic is essentially indistinguishable from normal internet traffic, so you don’t have to worry about hiding your activity with a VPN (though you still can of course). And since you don’t need to upload/seed anything, you’re safe in that regard.
Downloads are pretty much always available, no seeds. Once a file is uploaded and propagated across all the servers, everyone can just download it at whatever full speed their connection allows. I saturate my connection at around 110 Megabytes per second. There are retention times based on your Usenet provider, but they’re incredibly high these days so I doubt you’d come across many incomplete downloads, if any.
Quality is consistent. This is the biggest deal for me, as I’m incredibly snobby about quality. Want 4K SDR because the HDR on your TV sucks? You can find it for most new shows. Want a version with a super-high bitrate? It’s usually out there. Full untouched BluRay rips? Definitely. Nearly all media is available from SD up through 4K, from consistent uploaders/groups so you can rely on the overall quality. And since you don’t have to worry about seeding or download speeds, you can grab the highest quality you want as long as you have enough disk space.
Automation is a cinch with native arr integrations, and new shows and movies are usually available right after they air, often before it’s finished airing. If a show airs at 8pm you can usually grab it by 8:15, 9:15 at the latest.
Keep an eye out on Black Friday, providers usually have awesome deals.
I am the same as OP, although I’ve never managed to automate my torrents. I kind of enjoy the browse and bulk download method. But I’ve heard of Usenet for like decades at this stage, is it an invite only service or is there many variations? How would I go about joining?
You gotta pay. I posted an explanation on usenet as a reply to this post. You can find more info, such as specific providers and indexers, in the /r/usenet wiki.
Curious how it is now as I used to be a Usenet person back when fserves and bots on IRC channels were some of the best ways to request and get nzbs to throw into your Usenet client. I’ve been a torrent user on private trackers for the last 15 years and while I have everything automated, I still run into quality issues or rogue releases with inaccurate language info / subtitles / etc
I’m relatively new to usenet myself and have both torrent and usenet tied to my *arr automations. From what I can tell, for newer stuff they’re less distinguishable than for older stuff. Things basically get uploaded in both places for the most part, so you can also get duds on usenet, the same duds you’d get on torrents.
Thanks! Interesting, if I can get better-categorized releases that would for sure be a plus. And I’m always happy to have faster downloads!
Does Usenet have content other than just shows or films? Like games, books, etc?
Oh yeah, books galore. Plenty of games too, but be cautious with that kind of thing…wouldn’t trust them to be honest.
Do you have any recommendations for usenet providers?
There are so many to choose from, I’d search around a bit on your own to find one that meets your needs. As much as I hate diverting traffic to the place that should not be named, r/usenet has an extensive wiki of providers and is a good place to start.
If you don’t care about any of that and just want a single answer, I use Newsgroup Ninja. It’s one of the cheapest options even when it’s not on sale. But wait a couple weeks, they usually have a significant Black Friday sale.