Nah, I've been doing piracy since the '80s. I've always been on the edge of 'interesting' stuff.

Getting a machine with lots of storage is first step. Make sure you also get an Intel graphics card. A380 I think. They're amazing at transcoding and color mapping (10bit->8bit). Transcode is very important to support with hardware, since it allows realtime resolution change, colorspace conversion, and pretty much every video file format to mp4. Can be done in CPU but not recommended.

I'd recommend Linux, but Jellyfin works with damn near everything. Use whatever youre comfortable with.

Getting content? First, use Firefox with Ublock Origin. Turn on all filters. Pirate websites are VERY hostile.

Get a VPN that can port forward. PIA and Proton can both do so, and are reasonable priced. VPN keeps simple copyright scanners from attacking your network, legally speaking.

Sites to look for goods: thepiratebay.org still exists. /r/piracy reddit has loads of links. Yandex search of "show torrent" has all completely relevant links. If you have a Usenet subscription to alt.binaries then you can use that method to grab stuff.

I also grab DVDs and Blurays and rip myself. Doing this is great since you may be able to find shows, but special features are almost never included. I use this tool to quickly rip: https://github.com/xenomachina/dvdrip/blob/master/dvdrip.py

https://www.bfloeser.de/posts/bluray/ covers Linux Bluray ripping, including where to download the AACS keys.

There servarr docs are pretty good, if you already know how to set up Linux servers. Otherwise look at the homelab subreddit

r/selfhosted could be a starting point. Also search for "arr stack", something like this: https://github.com/Rick45/quick-arr-Stack

You don't have to use this, but maybe it inspires you.

If you go the torrent route, there are also subreddits about trackers.

I am going to go counter to the other reply.

Pay for a seedbox and get access to a single private tracker site and that’s all you need.

I built my Jellyfin server on $180 PC from Amazon and an old USB HDD. It was basically installing it from the downloadable installer and configuring parts. You will need a client to access it, and Roku works great.

I'm running it on the Windows Pro that came with the device. I'm not saying you should use Windows, I'm just pointing out that you don't need much to run it.

These guides are usually recommended on reddit: https://trash-guides.info/

Piracy is still peak, there's 0 reason to download anything or install any special software. Just go to yandex and type watch (show/movie) online.

You do have to follow the naming scheme, though 95% of the time I don’t need to touch the names of tv show episodes, just stick them in the correct folders. The exceptions are mostly anime and shows I could only find on internet archive, as, for some reason, those often come with just the episode number in the name, not the full “s01e14” that basically everyone else uses.

I rename my movies but that takes maybe ten seconds per one I add, tops, and the result is easier to read when managing files later than leaving them as “www.torrenting.com The.Matix.ita.eng.1999[rarbg]” or whatever insane file names they usually come with.

I honestly think the world would be in a better place if there was more local news media, even if it was both ad driven and user supported.

Netflix has been profitable for years without this bullshit. The question you should be asking is why they're spending untold billions churning out mountains of crap that maybe a handful of people watch, before canceling them anyway?

Stay private, stay humble, and be willing to say you have enough. The problem is "good profit" is a constantly growing number.

It’s not just the tech world, it’s every business. It’s basically the function of the private equity industry to enshittify every business.

It's even worse: a lot of them don't know an ad when it's presented to them.

As I understand it, very few cable channels started out ad-free, and that didn’t last long.

By the time it was available in my area, cable TV was a service to provide better reception and more channels that OTA, but everything aside from subscription channels like HBO were riddled with commercials.

My point is that for most people in the U.S. there was never a bait and switch with cable. It was just more programming (ads). And you paid for it, unlike OTA.

The bandcamp model works for music because music that is worth paying for can be produced on a laptop in a bedroom

I just don’t see a whole lot of TV/movie content worth paying for that isn’t produced by a studio that will lock up the rights to rent it out