Credit: u/No-Refrigerator9154
Opening Notes (important stuff, please read)
This configuration of the Stremio app will allow you to stream movies/TV from most devices, with the exception being IOS devices such as the iPhone and iPad. If you want to stream from those devices, this guide is not for you.
You can use this Stremio configuration to stream movies/TV on most other platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, FireOS (includes Fire Stick and Fire TV), Linux, AndroidTV, and even the Steam Deck.
However, the Stremio setup guide will require that you use a Windows, Mac, Linux, or Android device. Please don't attempt the setup steps on another device.
Additional information for FireOS (includes Fire Stick and Fire TV) and Linux devices is located below the Stremio setup guide, but you need to go through the Stremio setup guide beforehand with a required device (Refer to previous bullet point).
Stremio Setup Guide
Part 1: Stremio
For Windows/Mac users - Go to https://www.stremio.com/ and download the relevant client for your platform
For Android users - Install Stremio through the Google Play Store: Stremio - Apps on Google Play
Open Stremio and sign up with email or Facebook
Part 2: Real Debrid
Go to https://real-debrid.com/
Sign up
Go to Premium Offers
Choose a package and subscribe. I found that using Amazon Pay as the payment method is the most convenient (if you have an Amazon account)
Part 3: Torrentio
Go to Torrentio Lite - Stremio Addon
Towards the bottom of the page, select the "Debrid Provider" option and select "Real Debrid" from the drop-down menu. This will cause a new text box to appear underneath.
Copy the API key from this link https://real-debrid.com/apitoken and paste it into the "RealDebrid API Key**"** box
In the Debrid Options menu: Check the box "Don't show download to debrid links" and leave the other boxes unchecked.
Click "Install" at the bottom. It should open the Stremio app and prompt you with an "Install Addon" window. Click the green install button at the bottom.
Optional but highly Recommended - In Stremio, click the puzzle piece in the top right to view your addons. Click "My Addons" and uninstall the "WatchHub" addon. It's an eyesore and it clutters your streams list.
Now that you have completed the setup, you may install Stremio on any device of your choice (excluding IOS) and log in to your account to start streaming Movies/TV. Refer to the section below for Stremio installation on FireOS devices (Fire Stick, FireTV).
FireOS devices (Fire Stick, FireTV)
After you have gone through the setup on another device, watch this video on how to install Stremio on your FireOS device https://youtu.be/U1o-scADuIg and then log into your account in the Stremio app. At this point you’re good to stream. It will download everything that you just set up and sync your shows across all devices. However, some FireOS devices may not be capable of 4k streaming.
Edit 10/16/2023 - if you are on firestick, make sure to download the Android TV apk from the Stremio downloads section. The youtube video linked above was created before Stremio had an Android TV version. The UI is much improved over the base android UI for use on a smart tv.
Linux
At the time of making this guide, I had issues in the setup process on Linux but I’m pretty sure that was my fault for having weird defaults on my Arch install. You should be able to complete the setup process on Linux without issues and streaming is guaranteed to work. In the case that you run into issues, Just complete the setup steps on a recommended device first, then install and log into the Stremio app on your Linux device.
Additional information
YOU DO NOT NEED A VPN.
Account sharing: You should only share your Stremio account with people who are connected to the same WiFi network as you. If you do not follow this rule, your Real Debrid account may be suspended.
Bugs/Glitches:
Sometimes, an episode of a show or a movie will display "No streams found" even though it should be available. This has only happened to me a handful of times, but the problem will resolve itself eventually.
If the picture is black but the audio is still playing, you should go back and select a stream with a different resolution.
Issue: No streams are appearing at all, or none of them work. Here are the possible explanations:
Your Real Debrid Subscription has expired. Go to Real-Debrid and check your account status.
Real Debrid servers are down/undergoing maintenance. Wait an hour or so, and then try again.
You made a mistake while following the guide. My DMs are open if you can't figure it out. I'll probably try to help.
Credit to u/OnlyTheCruxes for most of this stuff because I kinda just copied their guide and added more detail based on my own personal experience with the setup process (Original guide: Installing Stremino + Torrentio + Real Debird )
Fuck subscriptions
Step 2:
Buy a subscription
You beat me to it… Talk about tone deaf
Tbf; You’re paying less, for a better experience.
Yeah a lot less for a lot better.
Also, people paying for Usenet subscriptions since forever.
You’re right. The title says “subscriptions” not a subscription. So one subscription is fine. /s
Beat me to it. Like… wow. Is this an ad?
The ads… They’re getting smarter…
You saved one ‘s’ with this guide!
In their defense debrid is the same cost as vpn
I miss the days where you didn’t have to spend anything to pirate, of course you don’t have to now but it’s much tougher to get large files from file hosts. And the video quality on most streaming sites is mostly 720p and if a website does have higher quality there’s just a lot of buffering
I miss the days where you didn’t have to spend anything to pirate
Nothing changed with torrents afaik. Never tried streamio tho
Don’t use raw torrents with Stremio - it ties up slots on seeders, and doesn’t seed for itself. That’s why they recommend RealDebrid. If you want to rawdog torrents, go rawdog torrents and please without Stremio.
Haha yeah fuck debrid an fuck streamio too 😂 checked it out once and it pales in comparison to an Arr stacked seedbox.
Your title should be “fuck subscriptions, except subscriptions from this site pulled from 1998” since everything in your guide relies on a paid debrid sub.
“Fuck subscriptions, subscribe to this instead!” is hilarious
Pro Pirate tip: go and buy pirated DVDs
Sorry, you can use RD subscription or you can use it for free with torrentio add-in.
Please do not use Stremio without RD - you’d be a freeloader on the torrent ecosystem. Stremio doesn’t seed back.
Shit ! I didn’t know that. I’ll get RD
On some torrents, half my peers are Stremio. I ban them with extreme prejudice. Now that Stremio tries to hide that it’s Stremio, I’ll ban them even harder.
I’m cool with Debrid, because even if it doesn’t seed either, it only leeches once.
If you are using torrentio, you are downloading via torrent on your home network. Depending on what country you are in, it’s not safe to do that without a VPN. If you are trying to watch on a TV via Fire stick or Chromecast, setting up a VPN is not easy.
If you are using torrentio, you are downloading via torrent on your home network.
Because you can configure Torrentio to work with an RD API, this is not true. That’s the point of the setup – the end user is neither seeding nor leeching any torrent files. They are using the add-on to access a cache elsewhere, providing them with a simple and encrypted DDL.
Dude…I’m literally responding to someone who says “why use RD when torrentio is free”. But by all means, mansplain RealDebrid to everyone in this thread that knows exactly what we are talking about.
Yeah i can’t believe he put “You Do not need a vpn” in all caps 😂😂
Many people think you do not, for the reason I just mentioned in a reply to the comment you’re replying to. There are other reasons you might think it wise, but it is not true that with this setup you are torrenting on your home network.
Yeah I’m not really so sure running Real-Debrid without a VPN is much of a genius move:
“Files links that Users download are stored in a database for legal concerns and our internal use. All saved links are erased within 1 month for security reasons and service needs. However all requests made on our site are stored for 1 year, the legal retention period.”
“We may be required to disclose Users personal data in order to protect our legal rights or where disclosure of Users personal data’s are required of us by the judicial authorities only when legal procedures are followed.”
“Our servers can detect the IP Address of Users connection through the Internet. These IP addresses (public) and their approximative geolocations are recorded by our servers for internal use only (registration on the site, optimal use of downloads, protection against thieves, etc.).”
All from Real-Debrid Privacy information
It’s a question of whether they would ever get subpoenaed really, and then whether they’d comply. I’m not sure it’s worth it from the copyright holders’ perspective. The individual users are getting DDL links, so they’re not uploading – i.e. “sharing” – anything. These days, if holders go after anyone, it’s for the sharing not the downloading. As for compliance, I don’t think we have any evidence one way or the other, as (afaik) they are yet to be subpoenaed (despite running for a long time).
It’s also worth noting if you do want to do this totally privately: when you buy an RD subscription, you cannot use a VPN during that process (they block known IPs). So, you would want to use a public WiFi connection somewhere, and choose an anonymous payment method like paysafecard.
I’ve been trying to figure out what realdebrid actually does to no avail, and it doesn’t help that the website is likely purposefully unhelpful.
From what I can put together, realdebrid will run torrents for you, on their machines, and provide you with a download link? What are the torrent sources? Also, what about seeding ratios?
And then another comment points out that streamio is meant to work directly with torrents, which leaves me confused as far as how all the pieces fit together.
The sites are purposefully obtuse to not draw attention.
A debrid service generally has 2 purposes: caching files and unlocking premium file hosting sites for cheap.
The latter is self-explanatory and not relevant for this thread (basically imagine unlocking premium for sites like mega and rapidgator but only paying 1 site for all of it).
The former is what’s important. When you give a site like real debrid a torrent/magnet link, it will download the files in that torrent and cache them so that anyone who later wants to access that same torrent, instead of having to rely on seeders, can just download it directly from the debrid website.
What are the torrent sources?
It doesn’t have any, users are the ones who manually (or automatically with their API) provide the site with torrents, which the site then caches for anyone who later wants them.
Also, what about seeding ratios?
There aren’t any. Most debrid sites only leech and don’t seed, that’s why even among piracy communities they can be controversial.
And then another comment points out that streamio is meant to work directly with torrents, which leaves me confused as far as how all the pieces fit together.
Stremio doesn’t do anything on its own, the add-ons built for stremio are what do the work.
There is an add-on called torrentio which can pull torrents from several popular trackers and show them in stremio, where you can pick one and start streaming (or, more specifically, the stremio app downloads the torrent sequentially, which allows you to watch it while it’s still downloading). That’s what we’re using here.
This add-on can additionally be configured with your real debrid account’s API key so that when you select a torrent in stremio, instead of stremio downloading the torrent normally from the available seeders, it instead pulls the cached file from real-debrid, dramatically increasing download speed and more or less eliminating buffering altogether (since real debrid can provide the file at much faster speeds). Using real debrid also solves the issue of torrents with no/few seeds, since the file is always cached regardless and can be provided at fast speeds always.
Hope this helped.
Debrid leeching is much better than Stremio leaching. RD leeches the file once, but Stremio leeches the file every time someone watches it.
Extremely so, thank you
This is normal - if the police demand an IP address, they’ll get one. So don’t give the police a reason to demand one.
YOU DO NOT NEED A VPN.
Yeah that part of the guide is top-tier advice from the FBI and Bundespolizei.
Depends on the country. Some countries don’t give a flying fuck about people pirating
Mexican here, I can confirm, I can torrent and seed all the way I can (sadly through CGNAT).
Canada’s in a weird place with this. You can get a notice from your ISP if they receive a complaint from a copyright holder, but it’s basically just your ISP telling you to knock it off (and to be smarter about how you do it). For all the shit we give our ISPs, they really don’t care what you’re downloading.
Well, on the other side of the pond, the French telecom Free has a full fledged torrent and Usenet client right in their router control panel haha
The way it should be lol
In most countries that actually penalize pirating, what is illegal is sharing a file, not downloading it. You don’t need a VPN in this case, as what you’re doing isn’t illegal.
In this case you are given a real debrid link for the stream which cannot be opened without am account. Meaning people can’t really tell what it is
My point is that it wouldn’t really matter even if they could.
Where i live if they catch you downloading they will give you a warning, too many warnings and they can shut your internet off. Although it mostly applies to torrents, streaming is hard for copyright owners to go after cuz the streaming ips aren’t public
Yes, my comment certainly does not apply to all countries. German laws seem to be quite strict.
You don’t need a VPN to watch shit through RD using Stremio/Kodi etc… Better?
Yeah it’s a poorly considered generalisation, but the point is you’re not going to be getting emails from your service provider.
Im a cavewoman who downloads with torrents and just opens them on my pc when needed
what reasons would there be to not…do that
The difference is that with this kind of setup you have a somewhat similar experience to streaming services. You browse directly from the app and directly play the movie.
Torrent tip : if you make the download sequential you can start watching the movie using a player like VLC without it having to fully download. you start the download, wait a bit for it to load a few pourcentages and you can start watching while it’s still loading.
It depends on your internet speed, the file size and the movie length but if you’re internet is fast enough then no worries.
This is what I do with Tixati. It also works with Plex. You can watch it while it downloads.
why would i want the streaming experience when pirating kinda goes against that?
There is nothing inerrantly wrong with streaming, it is the fact that all the streaming services suck. The experience to watch a show through streaming is:
- Look up what streaming service its on.
- Realize you don’t have it, pay $25 a month for a subscription.
- Watch the show in 480p even though you paid for 4k.
- Realize you are using the “wrong” browser & try chromium
- Realize chromium doesn’t work either and install their proprietary app.
- In the time that you were getting their app working, they lost the rights to the show. Restart on new streaming service.
If it were instead:
- go to any streaming service of your choice
- Pay $35 a month
- Watch on Firefox on Linux in 4k, a lot fewer people would pirate.
I would certainly not pay $35 a month.
That is fair. I was more trying to make the point that what each streaming service charges now isn’t unreasonable, it is the fact that you need to pay for all of them which can easily be 80-100 a month. 35 for no drm, no bs streaming would be high, but still better than it is now.
Fair enough! I might be a little too stingy :)
convenience mostly. Having a streaming like UX is pleasant and It’s easier to browse directly from the app instead of looking for a movie to watch , search for it on torrent sites and then download it to watch it.
I mostly watch in 720p and This is why I watch directly on pirate streaming sites instead of torrenting. It’s more convenient for me.
Also, I don’t think piracy is against anything, it’s about making people’s life easier. At least, that’s what piracy is for me.
Why download beforehand when whatever i want can be instantly viewed ?
Eh paying for debrid(paying for access to pirated content) goes against being a pirate, not streaming. I pay for a seedbox and torrent/stream all my content. Its beautifully automated and worth the $20 a month for the online storage. Dont have to use a vpn, and i can easily download anything from the seedbox locally
Stremio works on android TV. I use the Stremio + RD + Torrentio setup, it’s great for essentially mimicking the Netflix experience in that you can sit down and browse movies/series, watch trailers then just select something to watch right then and there. It’s intuitive so my family can use it easily.
If you mainly watch movies on your PC/laptop then there may not be that much material gain from the above setup - but it is a good option if wanting to fully replace the Netflix-esque experience.
A Seedbox running jellyfin and an *Arr stack running on torrents work much better for this than streamio. It’s like having a pirate dvr. Notifications goto my private discord channel when content is added or applications need updating, and i just open Jellyfin on my android tv box(or literally any smart device) to stream my downloaded content. I tell people its like having my own Netflix server.
That’s more complicated than Stremio to setup though, and still requires you to download the movie/show before watching, correct? Stremio just requires adding Torrentio in the app and linking your RD account once - then it’s easy times.
Listen, I think Jellyfish is great - but it really is a horse’s for courses scenario. The Stremio + Torrentio + RD triad just works for a lot of people that need a wife proof solution (pardon the sexism) and don’t want to store all this content.
Out of interest, does Jellyfish have ability to list Netflix, HBO catalogues? That’s a convenient add-on in Stremio where you can essentially browse a specific streaming service’s catalogue, or at least their most popular items.
Yes it requires you to download before streaming, because specifically torrent-streaming, i.e. streaming the torrent chunks as they download only leaches and is pretty negative in the p2p community. Im part of a private tracker and always seed back.
My grandmother can connect to my jellyfin just fine with her roku and shes the least tech savy person ever so I dont feel like the “wife-proof” holds water. Jellyseerr or Overseer (for plex) lets people request content in an app friendly manner. Theres things so your friends or family can access your content without touching the bones underneath.
No jellyfin is bare bones open source streaming app. It does have addon support, but no Netflix or hbo. But i dont subscribe to any actual streaming services, because i don’t need them because of my Arr stacked Jellyfin. However an Arr stack server with Plex as the headend could do what you’re asking.
If you have decent internet…zero. why would you start to pay for services to get the same content you are already getting with a tiny bit less effort.
i was talking more in relation to the services to setup yourselve
I’m not sure I understand what your question is. You are asking why to not torrent, but rather stream…but in relation to the services to setup yourself…
If you live in Germany or the USA
I live in the states and exclusively use torrents/private trackers 😂 seeding over 100 as we type (however they arent seeding from the states). There’s no valid reason to use debrid or streamio imho, its pretty crap software.
Don’t use the triple-backtick code block markdown if the text doesn’t contain code. Most markdown renderers don’t wrap overflowing lines and it becomes a pain in the ass to read. Use the
>quote block markdown instead.Yeah this is impossible to actually read so I’m not going to
Thanks for pointing it out. I was using backticks for too long, but I fallback whenever the text has multiple paragraphs and when sentences shall be in a new line.
I am very disappointed that markdown is not perfect. I still use it and I hope there will be some day a latex html markdown successor.
I am very disappointed that markdown is not perfect.
Triple backticks are meant for code blocks, not to make the text look fancy. Not wrapping lines is a feature and working as intended.
If anyone came here for the free tip, just use Cloudflare’s free VPN service - WARP instead. They don’t care and you are not required to give them any information to use the service.
I don’t think warp change your ip. You’re still traceable.
Started out that way but Warp changes your IP today. Try it yourself.
Real instructions:
Download/install stremio from www.stremio.com
Download/install pimpmystremio from https://github.com/sungshon/PimpMyStremio
Make free account in stremio
Install English add-ons that you want from both
What is stremio??
Stremio is a video player that can run videos directly from certain Web sources.
The part of interest here is it can run directly from torrent magnet links too.
It has serie and movie browsing capabilities similar to a streaming service, and the interface also looks that way too. With plugins you can see various sources to stream the movies and series from, which includes plugins from various torrent trackers.
Ongoin series you want to follow can be added to your library. Doing so will add a calendar showing you on which days new episodes will drop, and notify you when they do.
Pretty crap software for those not tech savy enough to setup a seedbox. It uses a service called debrid for p2p content that you have to pay subscription to access.
Still better off paying for a VPN in these trying times. It has more use cases and can be shared between multiple users to bring the cost down to practically nothing. You can also download and keep your Linux ISOs .
That being said if it works for you then you do you.
How would I work around Real Debrid rules using a VPN+Stremio on 2 screens at home?
Maybe connecting the 2 screens to the same VPN server? Or if using Tailscale then using the same exit node on both screens, if possible. Apple TV supports Tailscale for example.
I use PIA for my VPN and I run Android TV devices for streaming. Not familiar with Tailscale so I’ll look into that.
It’s fine to use it on multiple devices at home, as long as it’s all coming from the same public IP (if you use the same internet connection for all your devices, you’re good.)
If both devices are using a vpn they need to be connected to the same server
What’s an easy way to accomplish this? I have a Chromecast and a TV with Android TV. I have PIA VPN installed on both.
The easiest way would be to have rputer that can use a vpn connection so all private ips route thru the same vpn, but that may not be doable with all routers.
I dont really have much experience with chromecast and never used pia so i cant really help, but i assume it would be kind of difficult unless your vpn provider allows profiles that can force connection to a specific server.
I had been thinking about setting up a router with VPN built in. I was already planning to upgrade my router anyway. So that may be the approach I take.
I don’t think PIA has that ability. They do offer a dedicated IP to connect to but that is another subscription.
“If the picture is black but the audio is still playing, you should go back and select a stream with a different resolution.“
This is actually a fire stick specific issue relating to HDR 10 and Dolby Vision. TLDR is use the Kodi branch in this thread: https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-androidtv/issues/2630 and inside that set either Dolby Vision or HDR 10, not both (the fire stick not being able to handle files with both is the bug.) Lastly, set the external player option in Stremio so Kodi is opened when you open a video
Beauty of living in 3rd world country is that I don’t even need debrid like service. Just the torrentio add-on. It’s great!
Seems like a neat option, but it still costs more than twice as much as a usenet+arr setup.
what Usenet provider are you using? the ones I’ve found were much more expensive
Got 15 months of newsdemon for $35 on Black Friday
No streamio is the worst, especially for torrents as it’s leech only. Arr setup is still king. I dont pay for usenet though. I use private trackers because i dont have to pay for them like usenet.
What about using IPTV instead, I pay $80 for two years of live TV channels, movies and tv shows.
That’s a really good deal. Is it reliable?
Pretty good tbh
How does this setup compare to arr?
It’s a lot easier to setup, and dont need to use time on seeding torrents or finding private torrents in the first place. I do both, by the solution described by OP is by far my favorite. But I guess this can depend from person to person.
Im my view its much, much worse. Setup is a one time thing on an arr stack, with maybe some tweaking here an there. But using streamio instead of my seedbox/Arr stack would mean i would have to spend time hunting down torrents again, dealing with shitty torrent indexers and shitty torrent ad-riddled sites, or worse pay for access through debrid. My Arr stack torrent searching and downloading is completely automated based on rules i set. Id have to start paying for a VPN which i dont need with my seedbox. And then i wouldn’t be able to access my content from everywhere like i currently do with my seedbox.
Sure if you’re not tech savy enough to setup a seedbox(and some providers make it so simple with guides and documentation), i guess there’s streamio 😂
I’m not sure you know what you’re talking about? You don’t need to hunt down any torrents, torrentio does that for you. You description of how stremio+torrentio+debrid works isn’t accurate at all…
Eh maybe, I’ll concede to torrent searching but everything else still stands. i used streamio/torrentio for all of ten minutes and uninstalled when i realized it doesnt do half of what my seedbox service does for me. When i discovered its leech only I blacklisted it.
Sure its more limited, but no way setting up the arr-stack is easier that what OP wrote up, I also do both methods, but find myself using Stremio way more.
My biggest issue with streamio/torrentio(besides the lacking functions) and streamio users is that they dont seed back, and now streamio implemented client spoofing to spoof as other clients to circumvent tracker bans. As a private tracker user i like having the community of people with the same common goal, private p2p sharing. Not torrent-streaming/leaching.
That’s a fair criticism, but worth noting that if you’re plugging in an RD API then the vast majority of the time you’re not torrenting at all (and never on your network). You’re downloading from the cache. One person, one time has to request a torrent file to that cache. Which has likely always happened before you’re making any requests, unless it’s something very niche indeed.
All solutions have their ups and downs sadly.
