Recently learned about this stuff on a Lemmy World post and I thought I’d move the conversation here since they’ve been fussy about DB0 in the past.

I’m really just a common seaman when it comes to the high seas. I just use Proton and qBit and whichever website is supposed to be safe and active nowdays (currently Torrent Galaxy?). I just download from the magnet link to qBit and save it on my drive. I don’t know much about torrent streaming or ports or networks or anything IT might ask me to check beyond “plug it in”.

But for some shows I’ve only been able to find single episodes, not full seasons, so when I heard about something that compiles stuff for me, it seemed convenient. I’d be curious to learn more. Unfortunately the websites for these services don’t really offer any explanation to new users and laymen, so I got a bit lost. Thought I’d ask here rather than venture into their forums where they already don’t seem to welcome idiots like me.

So… what the heck is Sonarr and how do I use it?

  • Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    You tell Sonarr what shows (seasons, episodes, or complete) you want to watch. For episodes that aren’t out yet (ie something that airs tomorrow, or in a week, or next season) so long as Sonarr is watching it, it will download once available.

    One an episode is released/availible, Sonarr talks to indexers (Usenet or torrent; through jackett, prowlarr, or other) to find those shows in the quality profile and language you asked for.

    Sonarr then takes that torrent/Usenet and gives it to a downloader.

    Once the download is finished, Sonarr moves a copy to the media folder you designate.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      So the Indexer would be the website where I download my torrent magnet? Like old school pirate bay or currently in my case, TGx?

      And the downloader would be qBitTorrent?

      I guess I would also need to have my VPN running before I start the application too.

      • Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Almost, but the indexer looks at all the torrent sites you tell it to.

        So you could have it search torrentbay, 1337x, demonoid, and more (public, semi-private, and private). It will then pick the best torrent from all of them.

        This is also helpful if one site it temporarily down, it still searches the others.

        You can also set up some fancy rules if you want (for example download my movies from this one private tracker only, TV shows from these trackers, and music from any tracker) there’s also priority sorting, if your interested in that too.

      • maxprime@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Yes.

        This works best when your services are all running through a browser. You can set up most torrent clients to only work through a vpn. The rest of your traffic should be fine unless you don’t want your ISP to know that you’ve visited torrent sites.

        • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Thanks! Sorry, I’m just getting back into this after awhile of not doing it. I’ve done some reading up on this part of it already, but I hadn’t got there yet. :)

          • maxprime@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            NP! Honestly there is a lot of services that all intertwine and it’s a little confusing at first. But once it’s set up it’s pretty easy to let it be.