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1. Go to {insert-seedbox-website-because-there-are-so-many-like-seriously}.com (I'd share my favorite, but you know, don't want to break any rules, suffice to say there's a great search engine named "Google" that will point you in the right direction)

2. Pay $5-$10/month for a seedbox that pre-hosts rTorrent. Zero configuration. It will give you a web address, you visit it, and boom, torrent client.

Wait, should I pay for it in Bitcoin? I mean, you can. But you don't have to. It literally doesn't matter. No one gets caught doing it this way, unless you're a real Whale.

3. Go to {any-number-of-piracy-websites-even-that-one-everyone-knows-about-yeah-it-still-exists-and-its-fine}.com

4. Download torrent -> Upload into your rTorrent

You can, alternatively, skip all of that, pay for NordVPN or whatever, and just use your favorite local torrent client. Same thing.

A whole 3 pages, to be sure. I've got friends who wouldn't know a Mac from a PC, and they still pirate all the latest movies. Its startlingly easy. Experientially, there's near-zero risk of getting caught. It hasn't changed even a millimeter in a decade. Its the same process we all used back in middle school (or, you know, wherever you were ten years ago). Its just gotten cheaper, and also less interesting because of the Golden Days of streaming, but I think it'll come back if streaming continues splintering as it has.

Or...

1. Download Popcorn Time.

2. Watch pirated content.

On a Mac TPB + a decent VPN + BiglyBT = trivially easy torrenting. I have certainly never encountered any of the hardships you describe.

I have been using that same setup for… 10+ years? With BiglyBT replacing Vuze after Vuze was purchased and turned in to garbage.

You are blind to the amount of time you spend finding torrents, manage disk space, cleanups, feeding your TV-box, replacing broken/fake media, versus just opening an app and clicking play.

I say this as someone who's setup sonarr, radarr, bazaar, nzbget, usenet priorities, indexers, ombi, etc, which eliminates most maintenance and labor. Stuff can still break, quotas run out, and I want market options.

If I could pay to watch British panel shows, and everything else I want to watch from where I reside, I would do so.

Whoa; lots of great responses :)

I've read all the comments, and they're helpful, illuminating, insightful, and I've learned a lot (genuinely).

But overall they did not change and rather enforced my perspective:

1. the "Easy, out of the box, set-it-and-forget-it, everybody knows this" method to safely and easily to this seems to still change every 6-12 months, and still doesn't compare to convenience of just pushing a button on Netflix.

2. Paying for VPNs or Seedboxes etc easily equals the cost of a "just works" streaming service, while incurring new and exciting security & privacy threat vectors.

3. Most importantly, they don't take into account on what I will put forward is the actual mainstream public scenario: family that just wants to watch stuff . Between spouse who cannot be bothered with three remotes and two computer keyboards and six devices and 7 steps to watch something they could otherwise just stream on their phone, parent-in-law who wants to watch NBA/NHS/Soccer/Whatever reliably and in real time with no interruptions, kids who want to watch Paw Patrol safely now now now, all of this at the same time and all of them expecting six nines reliability and utter convenience across all their devices all the time always.

I'm off that particular wagon train, and if that makes me less of a computer geek, then so be it :-)

I truly cannot relate. All one needs is a VPN, a torrent client, a browser and an internet connection. Most tv's nowadays are smart enough to either connect to a simple Windows share or at least be able to play movie files. My SO and I watch a new movie almost every single night with a very simple setup and rarely encounter problems. It reads to me like you've over engineered movie night and are now complaining about the complexity.

Three comments so far that highlight the exact point the parent was making, a true lack of empathy. VPN alone is enough complexity for most... it's hard to find one that doesn't have comments calling it potentially insecure, questioning the owner, nevermind keeping tabs on if it sells to another owner.

Maybe. It is still more complex than just using Netflix. OTOH, there’s enough stable software for this out there that’s it can be a “set it up and forget about it” experience if you want it to be. The right client will search N sources for you with the click of a button, instead of you having to search Netflix, then Hulu, then HBO, then Disney+, then Funimation, Crunchyroll, and so on until you find (or don’t find) the thing you’re looking for.

At what point does the daily time savings from having a unified view into all the world’s media outweigh the initial time cost of setting it up? It surely varies by person. Personally, spending one day setting up a media server is a far better experience than spending 5 minutes every #%$!ng night searching for some show on all these platforms and still not finding it.

I don't think VPNs are that complex. At least if the ads on just about every YouTube video I watch are to be believed. I think VPNs are actually pretty mainstream now.

> VPN alone is enough complexity for most...

Where is it complex? Most VPN providers these days provide a one-click solution to connect your devices to a VPN.

You can use a seedbox and then download via sftp. The seedbox is exposed and the service takes the piracy notices.

This eliminates exposing your IP from torrents and the file being downloaded.

For a site like HN, I'm really surprised at this discussion.

> All one needs is a VPN

You don't need that. At least, I don't.

> a torrent client

All good operating systems (i.e. Linux) come with one. Though obviously most non-technical people don't use Linux.

> a browser

Pretty much standard on everything.

> an internet connection

Which they would be using anyway for streaming services.

> Most tv's nowadays are smart enough

Aaagh! Don't use "smart" TVs!

You do need a VPN to mask your IP. Especially if you're going to be using public trackers. Otherwise you'll get copyright notices and you're ISP could terminate your service.

Depends on where you live. At least in the UK, ISPs can kick and scream but generally won't terminate you.

Get a seedbox and download the files over sftp from it. All your ISP will see is a large transfer, no file names or knowledge of content.

> Aaagh! Don't use "smart" TVs!

This response is the perfect example exactly what the OP was talking about.

Smart TVs are great. Click a button, see the show you want.

> I'm a computer geek, and I'm LONG past the point where setting up safe VMs and signing up to half a dozen services like newsgroup server and directories and search engines and what nots, download software with impossible names like sabnzbd

Then as a computer geek you don't seem to be aware about the modern tools to do that.

I mean, that reinforces every single one of my points, doesn't it? :) its unhelpful, dismissive, and shows a complete lack of empathy.

My whole point is that Netflix is fire and forget. Piracy is not only a complex install and a security threat, you also have the cognitive and time load of keeping up, learning about and reinstalling / reconfiguring new stuff all the time... I deal with sysadmin all day at work, at home, sometimes I just want to watch stuff - and certainly my family does.

Some people get pleasure out of mowing the lawn, some people get pleasure of endlessly reconfiguring their home lab - I was one of those for 25 years, but! It's crucial to recognize that's a minority.

Yeah, you could do that... or get an invite to a private torrent site and go wild with a cheap seedbox

Like, what even is all that other stuff?

He's talking about all the stuff to set up to actually watch the stuff you pirate. Like, on a TV, from your couch, using a remote, without fussing with an HDMI cable to your laptop every time. Or setting up your kids / SO to watch on a tablet, phone, etc. Just getting the files without getting caught is only like a quarter of the battle.

Even then... I run Kodi on a Shield, which pulls data from a NAS. Copy the files to the right folder and let Kodi rescan. Still simple... the hardest part is setting up the network drive

"Honey, it's easy, just go [there] and download a torrent, then wait for it to finish, then copy it to the right folder, oh, you don't see it? you have to mount the NAS on your computer, you can't on your phone, then reopen Kodi so it scans, no I mean you have to force close it: home, home, down, enter, then open it again, wait for it to scan, it takes a couple of minutes, then the kids can watch Paw Patrol after dinner. Also, don't forget dinner."

Even that seems like it's much simpler now. The desktop player I use has Chromecast support. Haven't connected a PC to the TV in ages. I don't have an Apple TV, but I would imagine Airplay support isn't difficult to find either.

And it doesn't even require a desktop / laptop. It's possible to use your seedbox to torrent, then download it to your phone, and then cast it from your phone.

The one thing I do have to futz with are subtitles. It's usually easy, but fails every now and then.

My father-in-law has no idea about technology, yet tells me I'm dumb for paying for things like netflix when he just downloads them

I spend 11 pounds a month on a seedbox where you can just download everything via http or even stream it probably afterwards. It's really not that complicated.

Take a look at seedboxes.

Well there is put.io (no affiliation). If it became popular enough though I’m sure it’d get shut down some how.