How is IRC for Movies and TV shows downloading? it has been a while since I used it. How does it compare to Usenet and Private Trackers?

It's good enough for recent releases (note you may have to open a port for passive XDCC) but because it's not easy to automate, even public trackers + *arrs (w/ VPN) are just more convenient.

Occasionally you might find releases on IRC and not on public trackers, and visa versa, so it's good to have a backup. I prefer scene releases so it's easy to find specific stuff with the xdcc search sites (e.g. dot eu and sun), and maybe a 'lil help from srrdb to verify CRCs.

IRC is fine to get your movie and TV needs met. There are a couple servers doing it well. Speeds are decent enough, a few minutes per 8-9 gig files. Retention sucks, as pretty rapid turn-over is basically required; these are files hosted on dedis/vps's with finite disk space.

You should be able to find most stuff released with-in the last year without too much effort.

Also, some servers offer request credits in exchange for downloads, so you can ask for more niche or rare content. Happy hunting!