Oh crap. I was going to do a guide. I forgot. Deffo tonight, honest.
This is just a quick overview of what works for me. I just turn on my tv app in the evening and all the new TV is there for me, whether it be produced by Netflix, Apple, Hulu, HBO, BBS, etc.
This is different to Netflix in that you will be downloading the (predominantly) tv programmes. The trick is to make it easy, and automated. I’m only going to do a quick high-level list of what you need for now. Software config can come later if needed if anyone wants to have a go.
The minimum you need for this is just a laptop or PC (or NAS or Pi) and some hard-drive space.
Essentially you will need:
1. A media server. Sounds scary, but this isn’t an actual bit of hardware. It’s just a bit of software that sits on a computer, accesses and catalogues all your downloaded TV and scrapes internet resources like tvdb.com to provide episode information/pictures, season information, trailers, etc. I use a desktop PC which runs Synology NAS software, but for simplicity, let’s assume it’s a laptop with Windows 10 or 11 on it. The benefits of using a spare Desktop is that you can have it always on. which means you can access it remotely. That's a guide for another day though.
For the server software, I use Plex Server (
https://plex.tv). It’s free for basic use (which is all you need) and sort of simple-ish to set up, plus there is tons of help on the internet and it comes with a full installation guide here --> .
https://support.plex.tv/articles/200264746-quick-start-step-by-step-guides/
2. A TV rss feed. I use
https://showrss.info. Sign up to a free account with it, then pick the TV you want to watch from the list. Brand new TV series usually get added to the list within a few days of the first episode being aired. You can also tweak it to just download 1080p/720p, etc. You will then be able to copy the feed url from showrss.info to your torrent download. This feed gets updated with torrents for the TV on your list. I’ve been using it for years and its really good. Each episode will usually be on the feed within about 12 hours of them being aired.
3. A downloader. I use Synology DS-Get, but I’m reliably informed that uTorrent works just fine for this. It accepts an RSS feed and will check and download new episodes from the feed on a schedule, which might just be as soon as you turn your laptop on or every 15 mins after that. For me my box checks the list every 15 ins, 24 hours a day.
4. A little Storage space. If you plan on keeping a lot of tv, you are going to need hard-drive space unless you want to do a bit of housekeeping (easy in Plex). This will be shared by Plex Server to all your other devices so you can stream content on other devices. Portable hard-drives also work just fine, but they need to be attached to the network somehow. For those of us in KCOM land, you could just plug it into your router and the default settings would make it available on your home wifi network..
5. A TV viewer app. If you use Plex server, you are going to want to use Plex client for this. I run Plex off my fire cube but it works with pretty much any device, whether it be iPhone, Android, FireStick, Smart TV. If you aren’t using an “always on” PC then your laptop with Plex server on will need to be on for you to watch TV on your tv/device.
And that is just about it. There's a bit of config in there, but the rss feed and the torrent downloader, combined with a great bit of media software just does all the magic.
