Do I Need A Giganews Subscription To Use Sick Beard / Sabnzbd?

[AlexDorneles]

I am trying to set this thing up and I am having a hard time. Do I need the giganews subscription or just the NZBMatrix VIP will do?

Thanks

[smiling mantis]

Any usenet subscription that offers binaries should work.

All NZB files do is tell you the identity of the articles are that make up the file you're looking for. You still need to download it, and for that you need the usenet subscription. Giganews is probably the biggest, but that doesn't necessarily mean the best.

[AlexDorneles]

Thanks mantis. So would just NZBMatrix do the trick? I prefer to pay $10 for a 10yr membership than $5 a month for Giganews.

Edited April 23, 2012 by AlexDorneles

[bobl]

Giganews service is superb. I've been using Usenet for more than a decade and have never found a more reliable feed than Giganews...

[lopburi3]

NZBMatrix is just a listing - you download the link but have to go to a USNET server such as Giganews to download with SABnzbd. This is why torrents are more popular as no special server farm is required but for NZB files much better to pay the small fee than try to find free servers (which may have doctored downloads). Newsdemon is another good site.

[AlexDorneles]

So to use Sick Beard and SABnzbd I need a Giganews subscription + a NZBMatrix VIP subscription?

Sorry about all the questions but I know very little about these services and I am trying to set up Sick beard and so far has been very difficult. Do I need the NZBMatrix VIP subscription in addition to the Giganews?

[muratremix]

Giganews is expensive. Try astraweb for cheaper solution.

[lopburi3]

I do not use SICK BEARD but that appears to just require a listing such as NZBMatrix and a source such at Giganews or other USNET server. No SABnzbd required as the Sick Beard does the downloading function. So you would connect it to internet and your index NZBMatrix and a USNET server and it should do it's thing from quick Google.

[lopburi3]

Further read (which may explain your issues - I would not be expecting much if you do not even have USNET experience yet).

The program is currently in alpha - any new update might break existing functionality. Use at your own risk!

It is really easy to download programs using NZBMatrix to find and SABnzbd to download to a folder where you can arrange into folders or directly play with Media Player. But for NZB files you will need to connect to a USNET server.

[negreanu]

Sickbeard requires SABNzb as it has no download function.

To use sick beard you will need a usenet provider suggest easy news unlimited no connection limit so good for 100 connections to maximize your crap Thai ISP.

Nzbmatrix VIP required would also suggest newzbin2 along with it.

Pain to setup but awesome when it's all done with a raid server streaming to xbmc on your tv.

Sick beard is the best way to organize automatically download your series. Much much better than just using a nzb provider. Combine with xbmc for the best home media player

Edited April 23, 2012 by negreanu

[negreanu]

Many good guides on sickbeard setup.

Here is a good one if you are going to run it on a mac:

http://www.davidthurston.com/articles1.asp?CategoryID=2

[AlexDorneles]

Thank you, this is the most complicated thing I ever done in my computer and I still have not figured it out.

I am using with windows. My question now is what are the programs I need to download?

I downloaded Sick beard and SABnzbd. Do I have to download XBMC?

[lopburi3]

I obviously do not know anything about sickbeard but it seems you have what you need except a USNET provider. I would take another look if you really need this automatic downloading system as it is easy to find/download what you want just using NZBMatrix and a USNET connection. What I do not like about this system is the overload involved as it appears all new postings of the programs you select are downloaded - and this can often by 75% or more things you do not want as multi versions of programs are almost always available - to me it makes sense to pick what you want prior to downloading and this is easy using NZBMatrix or such listings.

[negreanu]

Sick beard has some very clever algorithms that avoid crappy versions, multiple copies of things etc. u just specify HD or SD or either

You can tell it to skip all previous episodes for example or can mark specific episodes u want and of course it will auto download a new aired episode and notify u even on your iPhone when it's downloaded and available to view.

Been using nzb since its creation way back but for tv movies it is now sick beard and couch potato. It just works really well. It will not download every posting of a new show on usenet it is clever enough to figure that out and maintains a database of what episodes it has already got. It's really clever. If you have a couple of hours free to set it up it is well worth it.

Xbmc is a media front end for pc / apple tv etc. it is good for watching your downloaded items from sick beard and couch potato on your sofa - not required tho.

It even knows the next day your show will air via tvdb that it automatically access's.

As it states it's basically a pvr and I know the next episode of my favorite show will already be downloaded repaired tagged and unrar'd moved to my network shared folder and all the .rar files and pars deleted ready to view on my xbmc media player on the sofa. Without even have to touch the pc to do anything.

Edited April 24, 2012 by negreanu

[AlexDorneles]

Thanks lopburi3 and negreanu. You are right I have no clue of how this stuff works but I am committed to get it working.

I downloaded sick b, SABnzbd, got the NZBMatrix VIP and Giganews subscription. I chose this because it was recommended on a previous post here.

I was able to get it to work and downloaded 3 episodes of a show but most others downloads fail. I get the "out of server's retention?" message on most of the downloads.

Any ideas?

[negreanu]

There are settings in sick beard sabnzbd and if I recall nzbmatrix where you set the retention to match gigs news retention - whatever that maybe.

[lopburi3]

Will give it a go when get the chance and see if can get it working - thanks for the information.

[AlexDorneles]

Thanks again. I did it and every things works now. I also switched to astraweb as someone suggested, much cheaper than giganews.

[negreanu]

Also consider Easynews unlimited NNTP US9.99 a month with unlimited connections so you can even max out 100mb True connections using 100 connections to the server 24/7.

One of the very few that allow unlimited connections to the server and has the capacity to maintain it.

Now you have sickbeard working suggest you setup couch potato also.

[lopburi3]

Sickbeard is still sick for me after several hours getting nowhere - easier to do myself and spend more time watching. Could not get beyond add show process as takes to tvdb but from there no way to select back to the program that I could find.

[AlexDorneles]

It took me 3 half days to get it done. lopburi try going to the site below and check your settings. They have screen shots which helped greatly.

http://www.users.on.net/~dholmes66/sb_guide/

negreanu, I checked out Easynews, they charge 9.95 for unlimited NNTP access BUT you also need to subscribe to the classic package which is another 9.98.

I think Astraweb is still cheaper.

[negreanu]

They have unlimited NNTP. I do not have a classic account and no web access only NNTP for $9.95. IF you click sign up you will see NNTP only.

It is not advertised on their main page. It kinda of is with an addition to the classic. but NNTP only is available from sign up page.

Quality and speed wise with 100 connections from Thailand easynews is the best having tried them all from giganews, usenetserver, astraweb etc. Easynews states 20 connections but i connect a 100 without issue. It maybe because previously i had classic+NNTP unlimited then cancelled the classic part of it and it did not reset the connection limit..... or perhaps they just don't enforce that 20 limit.

I did not find it that difficult to setup sick beard there are so many step by step guides to follow 2 linked above and the sick beard sabnzb forums.

Once you have setup sick beard then couch potato is done in minutes. Then leave a machine running both 24/7 with a big raid drive and stream to your xbmc client on your tv such as a jailbroken apple tv with xbmc or a zotac mini pc (which i use for bedrooms and living rooms)

Edited April 25, 2012 by negreanu

[lopburi3]

I have used newsdemon for several years and they are excellent (both sides of the pond) and no problem maxing connection even with a handfull of connections. Current unlimited downloads offer is

$7 for First Month, then $10/month

1349 + Days Retention

50 Connections

30 GB Online Secure Storage

Free Newsreader

Unlimited Speed

24/7 Live Support

Free Headers

[lopburi3]

Tried to get SickBeard working again yesterday - got programs into system OK (next screen rather than Add) solved original issue and after much work got the snatched NZB sent to SAB but they were all empty of data so nothing to download. Went back and downloaded same version NZB file using browser and SAB having no issues downloading them. Perhaps will try again after complete my downloading backlog.

[lopburi3]

Update - after several days of intermittent trying have the basic SickBeard working well but have not gone beyond to XBMC or even SAB integration beyond download queue yet. Never have got NZBmatrix to provide more than 19 bit empty downloads but SickBeard built in index seems to be good and getting downloads from there OK.