I don't do this myself, but this community has made me aware of Stremio and a plugin for it called torrentio that connects to a (paid) downloader backend called Real Debrid. From the sounds of it, it seems to be a painless user experience for instantly streaming pretty much everything.

I use Jellyfin, Radarr/Sonarr/Bazarr/Jellyseerr/Torrents to play & acquire media. Building a library in advance works for me, but my SO is the "I just want to flick through a list, play something for a bit and if I don't like it flip to something else random" type. Advanced curation doesn't lend well to that user behavior, so I am going to explore making the switch.

[–] crdz@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I set something like this up for my dad but using kodi and some add-ons then connect it to real debrid. It's like $20 USD for like 6 months. I was able to get him to cancel his cable since he was paying like a hundred dollars + his subscription services a month.

And I have it running on a firestick 4k so really inexpensive.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How can I set this up on my grandparents tire stick?

[–] crdz@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I always used the guides from reddit[.]com/r/addons4kodi, but you can also Google troypoint and they have great guides for getting kodi up and running. After getting kodi up you can choose an addon, I went with Seren for the Netflix like feature of playing the next episode automatically without having to choose the next link. I also chose The Crew for the sports package they have so he could watch UFC fights without having to pay the PPV. It works most the time but can have some stutter depending on the broadcast.

Get a real-debrid account pay for the 180 day package then when setting up the add-ons you choose link it to the debrid account and you're set. You also have an option of getting a Trakt account for keeping track of what you have watched, I set this up for myself personally but you don't need it, my dad doesn't use it.

Edit 1 - I have found a community on lemmy that's still small but someone brought over the Seren instructions if you don't want to go to reddit. https://lemmy.ml/c/addons4kodi

Edit 1.2 - Found on the lemmy.ml community addons4kodi

Seren

An addon created by Nix, it works with Premiumize and Real-Debrid to stream torrents with the appropriate provider package instantly, and behaves similarly to Netflix, with autoplay and Next up Dialogs. With source select / Resolver / Next up Dialog and more all theme-able

Warning: This add-on DOES NOT work without either Premiumize, Real-Debrid, or All-Debrid (and only works with the paid premium versions of either service), and the "Smart Play Settings" (Up Next, Auto Playlist Creation, Auto Episode Resume, and Pre-emptive Scraping) DO NOT work without an authorized Trakt account.

Current Version Seren : 2.2.4 SETUP Add https://nixgates.github.io/packages/ to your Kodi File Manager Sources, call it something like "Nix's Repo" Go to Add-on browser and Install from Zip File, go to "Nix's Repo", and install "nixgates.repository.zip " After it finishes installing, go to Install from repository>Nixgates Repo>Video Add-on's>and install Seren Once you get the notification that Seren installed successfully go back to the home screen Open Seren, go to tools, Open Settings Menu Go to Accounts and authenticate Trakt and your debrid providers: PM, RD, and/or AllDebrid Go to Providers, Manage Provider Packages, and Install Package. Type in https://bit.ly/a4kScrapers A prompt will come up asking if you'd like to install the scrapers, Press "Install", then Press Okay after successful install Adjust your settings how you like with filters and such and you're ready to go! :)

Kinda Optional Install Context menu addon. Follow instructions above but where you picked Nixgates repo and then video addons . this time go Nixgates Repo > context menu addons . This will give you much more options when you pull up context menu on Seren Items.

OPTIONAL Themes

(you must be using the skin that the theme is made for )

Arctic Zephyr 2 users = https://github.com/drinfernoo/seren.theme.az2

AuraMod users = https://github.com/SerpentDrago/SerenTheme-SerenMod-Full

Arctic Horizon users = https://github.com/drinfernoo/seren.theme.ah

Edit 2 - I was incorrect about above you do need a Trakt account to use the autonext feature of Seren, I have it set up so I didn't even notice that whoops. It is free and set up is easy and it's a set and forget feature for me.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yo I appreciate the update but I think you got the wrong link there ;)

[–] crdz@lemmy.one 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn I copied and pasted it but I'm on Jerboa for Android so still learning everything I'll try to remember to update later when I get on my desktop. Thanks for the update!

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can edit on jerboa!

[–] crdz@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

I figured it out and rerere-edited my post lmao hopefully it's all right now.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago

That sounds pretty good. Thank you for the leads. I'll probably buy one for myself and figure it out first.

[–] crdz@lemmy.one 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

[–] aeki 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've been using stremio + torrentio for a while and it's been the best for me so far. Have tested kodi, jellyfin and others. I don't pay for a private tracker, but it's been good enough so far.

I do want to keep a local library instead of streaming, but I'd focus on getting the things I like the most, while this set up helps with discovering. My ADHD in particular may make me suddenly want to watch something that I haven't prepared.