A lot of the private DDL forums dont deal with any of that. It's more on the level of "If you know, you know"

My home-base is a private forum (DDL). I think of it as a place where people gather the best media from around the internet. We may not get it first but it eventually makes its way there. There are also many exclusive uploads (mostly encodes) but people do some fantastic work with upscales of movies and/or TV series. The user base is also part of the many private trackers the world has to offer. I am part of like 2 private trackers and they are phenomenal as well. I also use public trackers extensively as well as there is actually a lot of stuff out there. I will always try and seed for public trackers but I definitely don't go as long as I would for private ones (just cause I don't want to get dinged) (Yeah I could use a VPN but too lazy, even though I am in a place that don't give many fucks about media piracy). I prefer DDL because I don't have to maintain ratio, but I do understand that with private trackers there can be some more longevity (but isn't really guaranteed). There are also other private trackers of the index variety that aren't built around ratio which can be nice.

There can be a lot of rules with private trackers, and yes some of them are really annoying, not gonna lie. The rules are there for a reason, for the most part. For some it's about building a community, while for others it's about making sure stuff survives for as long as possible. There are so many tools for a fellow seafarer to have and private trackers are just one of them and they serve a purpose. I am of the belief that all information should be available to everyone forever, but the world don't work like that and the long dick of the law can really fuck you life up. I think a valuable lesson from private trackers is that it makes one not just be a leech and makes one give back. There is nothing wrong with leeching, but I always like to think that piracy is about sharing the wealth. (not trying to moralize piracy, to each their own)

But as you said, public trackers have A LOT of stuff. So much media can be found on them. Private trackers help if you want the best of the best with regards to certain media or for hard to find stuff. Each have their place and it all about using the tools available to you

I'm going to chime in with what I think. I've been sailing the seas for a while now. And at the end of the day I am all for people doing whatever the fuck they want. Want to pay for streaming? Fine. Want to digitize you library of blurays, cassettes, dvd. etc..? Go for it. Want to share everything you have? Cool. Want to be a bootlicker? Fine, I guess. Want to hit n run every torrent you every come across? You a bitch, but I mean there isn't anything really stopping you. Luckily, certain communities have ways to weed out people that don't share similar values (whatever they may be). I am part of a thriving one. I am more of the belief that all media should be available to everyone forever. That's all I'ma say about that, and at the end of the day I know of the issues with this sort of thinking, but I am not gonna elaborate nor argue with anyone about anything.

At the end of the day people will do what they want (for the most part). With regards to the larger idea of paying for content, that is gonna be done in one way or another depending on what you do. You never want to pirate? That's fine you'll just have to pay for internet and whatever streaming services you want. You also run the risk on never again being able to access certain shows, movies for a variety of reasons (licensing issues, because companies can just pull the "fuck you" card, etc). As for pirating, the cost of this is always going to depend on what you want to do and how long. The minimum you will need is a HDD/drive to download your shit, internet, and then a player to play said shit (TV, android box, etc..). If you want to do more you'll have to pay or have available a computer that will host your shit (old computer, NAS, etc). If you have a robust collection or are digitizing your movies/shows, once again you are gonna need drives. You can get an external drive or invest in those huge drives (20+TB) to get more bang for your buck, but they also aren't pocket change to throw around. Luckily drives are always getting cheaper, but know that they don't last forever and they aren't always super cheap depending on how big you want them. As for services to stream your shit to your devices, there are plenty of free and paid things to make that happen.

There are also tools/services that I pay for that have made obtaining content much easier, but by no means are they necessary to eventually get the media. I'm not gonna lie, it does seem a little ironic that I have had to pay to do/obtain the things I have, but I do not regret it at all. These tool and services allow me to have the my current collection and allowed me to do it quickly for the most part. I am part of a community that is thriving and passionate about what they care about with regards to media. I am not going to go into the whole, "is it moral?", or "where does piracy stand?" argument cause at the end of the day I don't give a fuck nor am i going to try and moralize piracy or whatever . People can do that till the cows come home and feel any which way they want. Not my business and has no bearing on what I am doing.

Back to the point of money and piracy, like I said, one "pays" for media in one way or another. Some forms are cheaper, others are more convenient, and some choices are maybe even both. At the end of the day, from how I see things, most thing are never going to be truly free. It is going to boil down to what you care about doing, how fast you want something, how long you want said thing, maintenance, convenience, and finally, money. While you don't need much money to start pirating there is a bare minimum of required things. Yes, you can acquire them for free if someone gives them (computer, phone, etc..) to you but there are people that don't even have that. Someone that is destitute (by this i mean someone that literally has nothing, no home, no phone, no computer) will not be able to pirate. Then there's the internet issue which some people may or may not have regular access to nor have reliability.

Money will always be tied to piracy in one way or another. Depending on who you ask there will be different answers. It varies widely on how you view piracy and what you view as money spent towards it. They money I have spent on drives alone and my NAS compare to years of a subscription to multiple streaming services. Money is part of the equation on any side you take, whether straight laced or eye-patched.

With Alldebrid? I mean the premium link generator still works well and fine. It's just the cyberlocker aspect of it with regards to torrents that is messed up, since they used Uptobox. Still a bummer tho.

https://x.com/Uptobox_com/status/1704510079125295167?s=20 According to Uptobox's tweet none of the data lost, but I would take that with a grain of salt. Thus, I don't know how its gonna affect things at Alldebrid and all those cached torrents

Yeah I think so, RD is fine though, not the same servers. I only brought it up just cause I uses both services. Not that they are tied in any way.

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The cmd route should work. Done it many times doing like .mp4 to .m4b. You go I to cmd (command). Type the following: cd "FILE-PATH" (without quotations). Hit enter. Then type: ren *.file-type *.file-type Example would look like: ren *.jpg *.PNG This woukd be renamed the files all from jpg to png

I don't feel too strongly one way or the other. It's alright. You can make up your own mind about it. Anime fans tend to circle jerk a lot of things. If you like it, cool. If you don't, cool.

Fucking absurd.

That seems normal. The copy I have in an m4b ~530 MB (@63kbps). There are various tools like the one you mentioned and (https://github.com/VarSell/iAmDeaf) which I'm sure does the same thing. Unfortunately I am not too well versed in the actual ripping of content so i dont really know how people get the untouched "highest" bitrate content. But what you did appears to be wihtin the normal range, I would say.

I am not really part of the scene but am part of a community that shares the booty

For real. I become a little bit of a snob when it comes to my audiobooks. I have a collection going of near 2000 and thats about 2TB of space. Now, I do try and get the "best" I can of what's available, and, to be fair, 64kbps books are truly well and good. There are also ones that sound great and don't pack a high bitrate, but once it hits the 32kbps that when its rare I'll touch them unless the are the only copies I can find. Personally, I hate how much highly compressed books make the narrators sound. Just awful

Here is some basic info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirated_movie_release_types

As someone has said it pretty much goes [Title][Year][Resolution][Source][Codec(s)-Video/Audio][GroupName]

Title and Year: self explanatory

[Resolution]: 1080p, 2160p, HD, UHD, etc

[Source] Bluray, Webrip, Web-DL, Streaming-Provider, Cam, etc...

[Codec]: This can be a lot but kinda depends on what the uploader wants to mention/bring attention to

         Video: x264 (AVC) or h264, x265(HEVC) or h265, AV1,  x266 (VVC), etc...

         May also include stuff like : 8bit (SDR), 10bit (HDR),  DV (Dolby), Hybrid

         Audio: # of channels (5.1, 7.1)

                     Codecs:  Will tell you if the audio is lossless vs lossy

                     Examples DTS:X, TrueHD Atmos, DTS-HD MA, TrueHD, LPCM, FLAC [lossless] vs. DTS-HD HR, E-AC3, DTS-ES, DTS, AC3 [lossy]]

Group Name: Name of group or person that made the file.

Finally there is the container file which nowadays is MKV (Matroska Video file) but you can run into MP4. There are older formats but you don't see them very often so I wont really mention them.

This is a quick run down but there is plenty of info out there that goes more into detail and you can just google questions like: what is lossless vs lossy?

Hope this helps

I mainly stick to x265 for the size. I'm not too snobby with quality and for the size its fine with me. I want to like AV1 but have issue with playback on some of my devices. Usually i just play locally off a HDD on xbox (Kodi) . This may not be an issue if/when I get a NAS. Not sure if there are issues with transcoding as I haven't really looked into it

I'll look into this. I appreciate it. Probably down the road ill set up True NAS or set up some sort of thing with ZFS but have to kinda get more acquainted with all the programs and stuff associated with their use.

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Thanks. I will look into this. I think I have youtube-DLG installed and forgot about it. I've hear this is super good and useful i just feel like it may be over my head lol Gonna try and install and become more familiar with it

I use subscene and opensubtitles for when I need srt files. You can also look into addicted (spelled wrong).

As someone has brought up SubtitleEdit (program) is super useful is you need to OCR some PGS/SUP (bluray subtitle formats) files. You can also sync an existing SRT to your video file if push come to shove (this is usually my last resort though because its may be a lot of work if it isnt just a simple sync shift - doing line by line is awful).

Anna's Archive & Z-Lib. You can search by language. I cant speak on how big/good its German catalogue is though.

I have been using it for the past few years. I haven't had any issues so far.

My rule of thumb is to just wait till the blu-ray is released. Ill either get a remux or a very solid encode. Web-DLs can usually be found earlier than the blu-ray release too (usually like month, or a few weeks, before the BD release). I'm not saying rips or cams cant be "good quality", but I would rather watch an actual scene release or closer to the quality of a physical counterpart. I'd rather be patient and just wait for better releases.