whatever resolution I went out of my way to download.
Addon Radarr, Sonarr, and Ombi and you won’t even have to do that.
Users make requests via Ombi, those get sent to Radarr/Sonarr to search for and download. Most stuff is ready to watch ~15min after requesting, with no interaction from the servers admin needed. (optionally, requests can require approval before downloading, that’s disabled for the users I trust)
I need to get around to setting up the arr stack but I’ve been manually downloading torrents for over a decade now I just forget there are better solutions
One of the issues these solve is the shear capacity to look through thousands of results from dozens of indexers all at once to choose the best match, in the sense of actually being what you wanted to watch, being in the quality you were looking for, and being readily available to download (has many seeds/is available on usenet, was recently uploaded, etc). As humans, we can only process so much before we just say ‘fuck it’ and pick something.
The other is keeping your library(s) up to date. Often when I searched for something, maybe recently released, maybe older but just uncommon; I can’t find a copy at all, the ones I do find aren’t downloading (no seeds), or maybe they’re just in lower quality than I’d have liked.
The arr stack will monitor each piece of media in your library that you tell them too; they will then ingest the rss feeds from your indexers, as well as perform occasional searches directly, looking for new uploads that match media you are looking for. If you don’t already have a copy, or the newly found one is better than what you already have, it’ll automatically download it and replace the older copy if it does indeed turn out to be better once acquired and verified.
This is fantastic for monitoring shows that are actively airing new episodes, or adding movies/shows that haven’t actually released yet, to be grabbed automatically once available. You can also choose whether it allows cam-rips/telesyncs or if it should wait for a digital release (ie wait till its out of theaters). There’s quite a lot of control over quality settings and what should/should not be accepted. (there’s also recycling bin settings for keeping things they delete until you manually permanently delete them)
Genuinely a life changing experience. Ombi and its request interface is just a cherry on top :)
I run my own unraid server with Plex, and have seen for what must be years people talk about the -arr stack to people who know the -arr stack, and none of it answers “what actually makes it worth all the trouble to understand and set up?” The features you describe are probably bullet points in a list somewhere, but it’s great to hear how they combine to actually save time and attention.
I’m technically capable but all I know about is manually torrenting from public trackers without even using VPN because I got old and out of time and also like living dangerously and don’t mind getting occasionally smacked with bandwidth punishment for arrrrrrring. Usually I just use arrrr streaming. Is there a good guide to learn about the stuff you mentioned ?
Ombi is just an interface for your users to submit requests for new media (and report issues with existing media).
Users can search for media, getting results from thetvdb/themoviedb and just click ‘request’. If they have the appropriate permissions, it’ll just get sent directly to sonarr/radarr to be grabbed as if you’d added them manually. If they don’t have ‘auto approve’ permissions, it’ll sent you a notification though whatever means you’ve configured saying ‘user x has requested y. This request requires manual approval’ before sending it off to be grabbed. It’ll even notify the user when something they’ve requested is ready to watch.
Ok so it still has to download the request fully before it can be viewed? It’s not like Stremio+Torrentio at all where you can start watching while it’s being downloaded?
Addon Radarr, Sonarr, and Ombi and you won’t even have to do that.
Users make requests via Ombi, those get sent to Radarr/Sonarr to search for and download. Most stuff is ready to watch ~15min after requesting, with no interaction from the servers admin needed. (optionally, requests can require approval before downloading, that’s disabled for the users I trust)
I need to get around to setting up the arr stack but I’ve been manually downloading torrents for over a decade now I just forget there are better solutions
I did the manual way for years as well.
One of the issues these solve is the shear capacity to look through thousands of results from dozens of indexers all at once to choose the best match, in the sense of actually being what you wanted to watch, being in the quality you were looking for, and being readily available to download (has many seeds/is available on usenet, was recently uploaded, etc). As humans, we can only process so much before we just say ‘fuck it’ and pick something.
The other is keeping your library(s) up to date. Often when I searched for something, maybe recently released, maybe older but just uncommon; I can’t find a copy at all, the ones I do find aren’t downloading (no seeds), or maybe they’re just in lower quality than I’d have liked.
The arr stack will monitor each piece of media in your library that you tell them too; they will then ingest the rss feeds from your indexers, as well as perform occasional searches directly, looking for new uploads that match media you are looking for. If you don’t already have a copy, or the newly found one is better than what you already have, it’ll automatically download it and replace the older copy if it does indeed turn out to be better once acquired and verified.
This is fantastic for monitoring shows that are actively airing new episodes, or adding movies/shows that haven’t actually released yet, to be grabbed automatically once available. You can also choose whether it allows cam-rips/telesyncs or if it should wait for a digital release (ie wait till its out of theaters). There’s quite a lot of control over quality settings and what should/should not be accepted. (there’s also recycling bin settings for keeping things they delete until you manually permanently delete them)
Genuinely a life changing experience. Ombi and its request interface is just a cherry on top :)
This is such a helpful comment.
I run my own unraid server with Plex, and have seen for what must be years people talk about the -arr stack to people who know the -arr stack, and none of it answers “what actually makes it worth all the trouble to understand and set up?” The features you describe are probably bullet points in a list somewhere, but it’s great to hear how they combine to actually save time and attention.
Is it possible to use all the arr services on windows? I couldn’t find a way and I won’t be able to switch to a dedicated Linux server for a while.
Yup, that’s where mine are running.
https://radarr.video/#downloads-v3-windows
https://sonarr.tv/#download
(indexer manager) https://prowlarr.com/#download
Absolutely, I run Radarr, Sonarr and Overseerr on a Windows box. Same machine runs Plex. It works seamlessly.
I’m technically capable but all I know about is manually torrenting from public trackers without even using VPN because I got old and out of time and also like living dangerously and don’t mind getting occasionally smacked with bandwidth punishment for arrrrrrring. Usually I just use arrrr streaming. Is there a good guide to learn about the stuff you mentioned ?
I’ve always found the servarr wiki to be a great source of info, especially their quick start quides.
Beyond that I’d just be googling around for you really.
https://wiki.servarr.com/
There’s some docker compose stuff that makes it easy. I just set mine up yesterday
I found one that is a good starting point, and just updated it to match my setup.
Here it is: HMS. It’s a bit overkill, but like I said, it’s a good starting point. Maybe you can give it a try if you wanna.
Man same here. That scenario above sure does sound enticing.
Not sure how to tag users on lemmy…
Commenting here to point out my other reply to the comment you’ve replied to.
Nice, appreciate it, and thanks for taking the time to write out such a helpful response!
It’s @user@server.tld
Alternative to ombi is overseer which imo has the best interface. Just throwing it out there as an option.
Jellyseer is also an option.
Wait, can you explain a bit more? I have Radarr and Sonarr setup to automate show downloads. What does Ombi do and how does it fit into the process?
Ombi is just an interface for your users to submit requests for new media (and report issues with existing media).
Users can search for media, getting results from thetvdb/themoviedb and just click ‘request’. If they have the appropriate permissions, it’ll just get sent directly to sonarr/radarr to be grabbed as if you’d added them manually. If they don’t have ‘auto approve’ permissions, it’ll sent you a notification though whatever means you’ve configured saying ‘user x has requested y. This request requires manual approval’ before sending it off to be grabbed. It’ll even notify the user when something they’ve requested is ready to watch.
Ok so it still has to download the request fully before it can be viewed? It’s not like Stremio+Torrentio at all where you can start watching while it’s being downloaded?
No, Ombi is just a way for users to add stuff to radarr/sonarr just like you do, but in a controlled way.