Hello! I never used *arr stack, and was interested into it, but one thing is stopping me. I see a lot of articles like how it is Netflix (or any other ONLINE theater) replacement, but as I see it is not online. I see two big factors that stops me from trying seerr + jellyfin (and other stuff in between):
- You have two switch between those apps to search and then watch.
- You can’t watch media before it’s completely downloaded.
I imagine sitting on coach, searching for show. Then you want to watch some, and then you have to wait half an hour for full episode (or even season?) to download. And then you can realize that you not into it and have to repeat all the steps above. Is my expectation correct? Please don’t consider this as negative opinion. Just want to know what to expect. I remember an app called “popcorn time” that does not have that flaws.
Firstly, the core *arr suite is not a streaming service, whatsoever. It’s a media file manager meant to help with running a private server streaming app, like Plex or Jellyfin. With that out of the way:
Download speeds depend on your own setup. IMO, a Usenet connection is the only way to use *arr. Downloads happen at the maximum speed and don’t rely on some other person’s seed rate. You, conversely, don’t need to worry about seeding.
When you manually add a show to Sonarr, you can select it to only pick up the pilot episode of the show, which could cut down on DL times by focusing bandwidth. You can also select a lower definition. With Usenet and something like a 720p quality, there’s no reason why this should take more than 5 minutes to be in your library.
I’ll also paste my comment I left below about connecting to lists:
I’ll also add that I’m not some CompSci nerd, either, so don’t be scared to give it a shot. My server runs off Plex on my Windows 10 desktop because I don’t know how to do any better but I’ve never had an issue watching what I want to watch