I’m in my first month of Usenet. I own several popular BluRay Movies but thought I’d save time ripping them manually and instead see what I could get off Usenet (NZBGeek + Eweka) now that my niece is visiting and needs entertainment.

I noticed a number of popular titles are consistently difficult to obtain (“aborted, cannot be completed”), even when live within only a few days, or even hours.

I assume this is a very vigilant DMCA takedown bot. How commonplace is this? And why does it only apply to some titles and not others?

Is it worth continuing with Usenet? I thought paying for content would ensure a certain “quality” of experience. So far, I’m a bit disappointed.

  • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 months ago

    Usenet, while way better than torrenting, still requires multiple indexers and providers for this reason. I have 3 of each and rarely ever run into this issue except for very niche releases.

    • cerulean_blue@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      I’m just trying the scene out, but so far I’m put off by having to pay for both indexers and providers, and now I need multiple of both to get what I thought was basic content (a film about a boy wizard).

      Maybe it’s a different problem causing my downloads to not even start, but the help page suggests DMCA as likely cause.

      • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        It’s understandable, sure. It’s also a little more complex up front. For me personally, the pros outweigh the cons and I’d much rather use Usenet over torrenting, even with the cost.

        I definitely think it’s DMCA, unfortunately.

    • navi@lemmy.tespia.orgEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      I’m inexperienced with Usenet, but why is it better than torrenting?

      I have 5-6 trackers which provides me basically everything I need and it sounds like Usenet might be similar in that regard.

      • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        4 months ago

        The main benefit is that you don’t need to use a VPN, so you get full download speeds. Also the availability and download speed isn’t dependent on seeders, so more obscure content tends to survive longer on Usenet.

        • navi@lemmy.tespia.orgEnglish
          0·
          4 months ago

          That’s interesting about the life time. I’ve actually heard the opposite, where niche/old things can be easier to get from specific trackers vs Usenet because of their lack of popularity.

          I suppose it’s probably mostly about which websites you are a part of and if they specialize in specific content.