So I’ve been torrenting for over a year now (just in time to get attached to RARBG and get my heart broken) and mostly loving it. Now that I have access to actual high quality files I’ve been looking to improve my home setup. I was wondering what setups people have and what I should aspire to.
In the old days I would just stream with chromecast and then I got into the Laptop to HDMI cable setup but now I know the joys of a 5TB hard drive plugged directly into my TV and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. My TV isn’t all that big (only 45") and it’s only 1080p. It’s an older TV too so it can’t play HEVC files which limits what I can play in this setup. I’d love to be able to access the 4k HDR content out there. Does anyone have any advice on what kind of TVs are out there that would work well with this or other potential setups?
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the joys of a 5tb hard drive plugged directly into my TV
You’re missing out on the joys of a Plex or Jellyfin server with a quality streaming device plugged into the TV. No way would I waste time manually transferring files around like that. With Sonarr and Radarr I don’t even waste time manually downloading stuff.
I use a Nvidia Shield Pro to stream to, it works great for my 4k BluRay Remuxes. I personally hate using the built-in TV features because the quality and codec support can be a total crapshoot.
Yep, as far as I know, at this time the Nvidia shield pro is the best for playing pirated content, either directly or streaming. It does all the audio and video standards you need (including Dolby Vision) and has enough power to do it without stuttering (with the right player)
I’m guessing you have to plug a separate hard drive into the Nvidia Shield Pro to stream files that large? I’ve been thinking of going that route since Netflix has started being sucky. I don’t want to support them, but I miss their 4k Dolby Vision/Dolby Atmos/5.1 content for my own basic, little home theater.
Nope, just cat6 ethernet.
Nvidia shield makes a decent Plex server in a pinch. You can use an external NAS or plug an external HDD in directly.
Almost everyone that runs Plex also runs some sort of NAS though. Personally I run mine off TrueNAS and have an unRAID backup.
Damn, Nvidia Shield Pro is kind of expensive, $200. And so are some of the NAS’s I’ve seen pop up on google. Trying to get both sounds like this will end up being a long-term project over a couple paychecks lol.
Well that is kind of the premium way to do it.
If you have a computer of some sort the cheap option is to just run a Plex or Jellyfin off that. Maybe get an external hard drive if you need more storage.
Then just get a cheap streaming device that has the Plex/Jellyfin apps. Even some TVs will support them natively.
You could potentially get everything up and run for free if you already have a computer with enough storage and a TV that supports the apps.
Sure you might be limited on some formats without some transcoding.
Sometimes you can pick them up used for $100 or so. It really is the best smart TV device short of a mini PC. Basically it’s responsive and “just works”
I think you can run a Plex server right off the Shield.
…that’s what I said, right?
Oh sorry somehow I misread that.
Will HDR work as well with Plex/Jellyfin? TV does support that reading files directly off the NAS, but I agree it is high maintenance
HDR works just fine in both, yeah. Obviously, avoid transcoding if you can. Shouldn’t be a problem if everything is on your local network.
Yup, HDR works as well. Can’t speak on Dolby Vision though as my TV doesn’t support it.
EDIT: Specifically, I use Plex. No clue how it all works for Jellyfin.
Get an Nvidia Shield or AppleTV. They are best-in-class devices and anything else is going to lead to some sort of compromise. They’ll last for years and are worth the money spent.
Then set up an app like Jellyfin, Plex, or Infuse (AppleTV only) to stream the files over your local network. You’ll be able to play back everything from those small 200mb rips to the 80gb+ 4K Bluray Dolby Vision remuxes with 7.1 lossless audio.
Does AppleTV have a Jellyfin app yet? We’ve got a few around the house and I’d love to switch to Jellyfin from Plex.
Infuse has been the only way it was usable for me. Tried Swiftfin but as of a week ago it had too many issues with my media where it would refuse to play until you messed around with the developer settings which you then have to change back for the other media that did used to play. Infuse I paid $10 for the year just to try it and it has been flawless
There’s app called Swiftfin that should do it.
There’s Swiftfin but YMMV because it’s in a very slow development phase.
This is the bible of home theaters.
Yep! I use Sonarr and Radarr, connect to their web servers from my phone to get torrents going and they automatically organize the files on my NAS. Then Infuse picks up from the Apple TV and populates meta data.
It’s a beautiful solution. A couple of taps on my phone in the couch and I’ll have a clean, organized and beautifully presented addition to my library a couple of minutes later.
I’m still learning this stuff so I have two plans - try Usenet, and also run it all through cloudflare so I can get downloads going while I’m away.
Any tips on where you source the torrents from? Also looking into Usenet as well
Right now I use 1337x and eztv, but it’s not perfect
Most (all?) Bravia series televisions have built in android TV and the interface is imo super slick and not bloated.
I have a x950h plugged in ethernet and I can stream Plex in 4k HDR DV without any issues. It’s basically plug and play.
5.1.4 surround. I use an nvidia Shield for playing back files (via kodi), and it works pretty well.
LG OLED TV-s are where it’s at. Superb picture quality and prices have come down considerably.
As for sound, Denon 3600/3700/3800 AVR–everything else is either overpriced or crap (or both). The 3000 series has good power amp section and Audyssey MultEQ XT32 which actually does something below 100 Hz where room correction is most needed (see https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/difference-between-audyssey-multeq-vs-multeq-xt-vs-multeq-xt32.14786/#post-460377). For speakers I quite like ELAC Debut Reference speakers and SUB3030 subwoofer–price-performance ratio is really good.
That’s for the normal consumer level stuff. Of course, if you have the time and will, you can do what I have done and go down the rabbit hole of DIY speakers and subs to end up with something that blows the socks off of actual THX cinemas–highly recommended ;)
I have a 7.1 home theatre setup with a 4K 55” hooked up to AppleTV.
I use the Infuse app. They have a free trial version in the App Store. Tried it, the setup was easy for me and the player did exactly what I wanted: play media files from a local network drive. Supports a wide range of encodes, audio codecs, 1080p, 2160p, HDR, and so forth. I bought the lifetime subscription after that, which is good for all future versions including the big updates.
For setup, I have a small PC with 2 x 5TB HDDs shared through my local network. Both the PC and the AppleTV are connected via Ethernet (no wireless or you might experience playback issues from time to time)
