I have a paid Usenet account with good retention and I download through sabnzbd. I’ve only ever used nzbindex.com as an indexer.
For a long time it was easy to find TV/movies but in recent years it’s become almost impossible. Has Usenet become a bad option because of takedowns or am I missing a modern way of using it?
I see there are lots of binaries posted with cryptic or random string names. Are these supposed to be regular TV/movies etc. with obfuscated names so they can’t be found and taken down?
Do better/private indexers give access to these files or otherwise solve not being to find anything? Is it still supposed to be possible to find reliable new release shows and movies?
Are Sonarr/Radarr are what I need, do they solve the problem of not being able to find files, or do they just provide more convenience for the same files I can already find?
I rarely have issues finding things on Usenet. Even old shows and movies. Sonarr and Radarr are a more convenient way to find what you’re looking for. Your indexer May be the problem or it could be your provider. I’d suggest getting radarr and sonarr to see if that will help find what your searching for. If you’re still not getting the results you want you’ll want to invest in another indexer. Personally what I have may be overkill but I have Newsdemon, Eweka, Usenetexpress, and newshosting for providers and 5 different indexers, several which are private.
I also rarely have any issues finding content on usenet. However I only use a single provider (Newshosting) and two indexers (nzbgeek and AltHUB).
Sonarr and Radarr make it incredibly easy to find and organize stuff. I also have Overseerr which makes requesting more content a breeze, and my indexers are configured together in NZBHydra.