Stremio (with Torrentio + Real Debrid) makes for pretty nice user interface. I actually went that route instead of Kodi specifically so it's easier for my husband to use.

You don't need a VPN with Torrentio + Real Debrid. You are not torrenting - they already torrented it for you, and you are streaming the cached file directly from the RD servers. I think the only "catch" is that it's not free (obviously). Torrentio addon scrapes the debrid service - now, if you were to install, say, TPB addon for Stremio, it would be torrenting, so you don't want to do that without a VPN.

It's funny because we subscribe to the AMC A-List and go to the movies quite a bit (obviously this is in the US). But it's because a) we have a couple of AMC theatres close by, and b) it's just me and my spouse, no kids involved. So it's something that to us is worthwhile (having a night out a few times a months to see a movie on the big screen). Also, we never buy concessions. I can't imagine how an average family with a bunch of kids can just go and drop over 100 bucks on tickets and concessions on any given night.

Maybe on some trackers you have to resort to these cheats, I don't know. On many private trackers, you get bonus points just for seeding a torrent - doesn't matter if anyone downloads from you, the points just accumulate hourly. Then you exchange the points for upload, which counts toward your ratio just like it would if you had physically uploaded that amount.

Netflix - my husband watches it a lot more than I ever did.

Amazon Prime - using a student discount (not a student lol - I emailed my uni's alumni association and asked to get one of their .edu email addresses, and used that to get the student rate for Prime).

Pandora - my husband listens to it all day long while he works, so to him it's worth it just paying for premium without ads

Get Peacock Premium for free from my ISP so that doesn't count.

Which downloader do you prefer?

I've used PIA for probably close to 10 years now. They removed the 10-device limit recently and just give you unlimited devices now. I've found the connection to be very stable. If there's ever a problem, it's usually due to a specific server getting overloaded, so I switch to a different one. Lots of countries and port forwarding options to choose from. The promotion they have going right now is the best I've seen ($79 for 39 months).

We haven't been able to watch our local NBA and NHL teams in 4 years on most major cable/satellite providers in the area because of a contract dispute (that's what happens when the same guy owns every team AND the sports network). Last season, one of our team's games was nationally televised on TNT - and you STILL couldn't watch it in our area because of blackout restrictions. It was an away game that was not airing on the local sports network...it was literally only on TNT, and you still couldn't watch it.

Now even my 73-year-old dad is proficient in finding illegal sports streams.

myanonamouse has sheet music

x265 doesn't work for some hardware scenarios for me (e.g. files served up by UMS from my PC don't play properly on LG TV or using the standard media player on Roku). So I have to use x264 for anything that I won't be watching on a computer or via Stremio.

Yeah, I saw it on the site a couple of times but the book I wanted was mainstream, so there were several other versions available for download. Didn't actually think about using the TOR version, but I'll keep that in mind!

I only found out after the fact that Supernatural on Netflix had the original music stripped out. It's very discouraging when you realize that you are not experiencing the content how the creators intended for you to experience it.

Fun fact: epub can contain a virus without being an exe. Epub is essentially an archive of text, image and stylesheet files (try opening it with WinRAR, you might be surprised). You can put a malware script inside that archive, and it won't flag until you try opening that ebook on your PC. So you actually need to be more careful with ebooks than, say, video or audio files.

Yeah, they started canceling shit long before the pandemic, I think around 2016. Once they decided to go all-in on original content, they began letting licensing contracts expire.

Totally doesn't take "terabytes of data". I'm in the US, and one time I got a notice from my ISP (Comcast) for a file that took all of 7 seconds to download. It was an episode of an HBO show so no mouse affiliation, and also pretty sure I was using a private tracker (can't remember exactly, though, since it's probably been 10 years, and I've been using a VPN ever since).

My VPN comes out to about $2/month (got a promotional offer). What other service, exactly, can I buy for 2 dollars?

I found that Google is head and shoulders above DDG when it comes for my work searches. Technical stuff - like code errors, Oracle syntax, technical references, etc. I used DDG for a couple of months and had to switch back to Google because I literally wasn't finding the results that I knew existed.

I'll check it out, thank you!

You can read their rules ahead of time, they have a Wiki that's freely available without a login (just google for "torrentleech wiki"). The 10-day minimum duration doesn't have to be consecutive. For example, on TL it would take you 50 hit-and-run torrents that you stopped seeding for 5 days to get a warning that can potentially affect your acount. It's really not hard to steer clear of that.

If you download a partial torrent, it will never count as full 100%, which means the 10-day rule doesn't apply. You would have to physically upload the amount that you downloaded for it to hit the 1:1 ratio. Which could be next to impossible to do. Unless you absolutely have no disk space or something, just download the full torrent, even if you only want a few episodes (especially when it's freeleech).