This sounds like excellent advice. I happen to have a licensed version of BeyondCompare that I can install and do Hex compare. I appreciate the guidelines to follow and I agree with you on the "pre-cracked" options. I would always install from the developer's site first and then use the patch if I use it at all. Unfortunately, this software mush have a "phone-home" features and has a "hosts file" change as well. As with the previous response, I would appreciate your input on whether you would try it or not.

Wondershare Uniconverter

Thanks for your excellent advice & input!

Thank you so much for explaining all of this! So, it's not an "exact" match for a virus, it's the "behaviour" of the Patch/Crack that makes the AV/Malware software "see" or "think" it's a Virus/Malware. That makes much more sense.

I've copied the link for the software with patch below. Wondershare UniConverter

At the bottom of the link, are the references from VirusTotals. I use Avast & Malwarebytes Pro and the report says Malwarebytes would catch and quarantine it. I guess a virus/malware to me is always a risk and I've had my system crashed in the past due to that and don't want a repeat. If you don't mind, I would like your opinion on whether to try it or not. Again, thanks so much for the explanation!

I've tested the process in a single & multi-language channel and a single video & it worked for perfectly for all.

Several questions I have:

1 - When I installed Tartube, my Antivirus told me the gslangValidator.exe file was infected by Win64: Evo-gen [Trj] and quarantined it. Any idea why?

2 - How do I get rid of all the other files like jpeg, txt, json etc. files or are they supposed to be there.

3 - Supposing I wanted a 360p resolution downloaded, what would have to be changed in the format options?

I'm really amazed at this and hope to learn more about Tartube. Thank you very much for your time in putting all this together & I look forward to further correspondence!

Phew, that worked better. No virus that time. I'll give it a try and see if it'll work for me. I was getting a bit nervous there for a minute. Thank you for updating your information!

I have a problem with 10-Bit though. When I try to encode more than 1 file in 10-Bit with the HEVC_AMF ffmpeg encoder, my CPU usage goes to 100% and stays. And with 1000s of files to do. Well, you can imagine. Ugh!

I see what you mean about the other CODECs like VP9 and AV1. The future looks good for them but for a Plex library not so much. I tried converting a single ~20 minute TV episode and it took about ~16mins for AOM-AV1 and VP9 was somewhat over an hour or so. But, H265 zips right along in ~5 mins or less an ep with not as much strain on the CPU. Probably be going down the H265/AAC route. Thanks for the data & information. It's helped very much!

So, any device that handles 4K should be able to handle H.265. Good informattion to know. Thanks for the input!

Thanks for the clarification on 264. I have an AMD 3700x with Radeon 470 graphics card. I'd like a decent balance between CPU/GPU encoding so not to put too much stress on just the CPU. I know nothing about AV1. Can Smart TVs read the AV1 or VP9 codec? I know my LG will take H.264 & H.265 but I haven't tried the others?

Thank you for the info! I've already enabled the Kill switch and I'm finding out from ExpressVPN what to put in the Network Interface inside Qbit. Also, why not The Pirate Bay out of curiosity?

Isn't a VPN enough to protect me when using public trackers? I'm sorry it's been a long time since I've done this.

Thank you so much! This is exactly the information I needed to know. You've been a great help to know how to safely move forward with my downloading. At this point, I've only visited the sites and watched a few things. No harm there but I will definitely get a VPN up and running again. Now I can "Sail The 7 Seas" with peace of mind. Best to you! 😊