I found that Bluray rips can come earlier than the release date, but I assume that’s because of the time required to get the whole product supply chain up and running. And insiders can a copy of the physical disc early in that process. But for streaming, yeah same time as the rest of us.

On rare occasions a high quality copy gets leaked early. But most of the time, all you’ll get is CAMs until the movie is released on a streaming service, then that will get ripped in full quality. This typically takes around 6 weeks these days. After that you wait another 6+ months for the Bluray release which is higher quality still.

Somebody please make this a plug-in for Firefox.

The “Vinegar” app for iOS blocks youtube ads as well as adding various playback improvements.

https://apps.apple.com/au/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303229

One consideration for me is: how grainy is the source material, and how much do I care about retaining that? Because film grain is the first thing to go when you apply too much compression. Dark scenes, too.

For kids movies or something I’ll watch casually: 15gb x265 rips are fine.

For new releases that I want to watch and maybe will a few more times: I’ll grab the 20-30gb web-dl and enjoy that.

For a movie I consider a masterpiece and want the best possible? Give me the 50-80gb remux.

Assuming the .iso file is a DVD/Bluray image: Open the file in MakeMKV. Select the tracks you want, and it will…make a MKV file out of it. That should be fine for Plex.

Yeah mine is about the same. More than enough for what I need.

I signed up using an anonymous email address and paid with bitcoin. I get an email from the seedbox provider when an “abuse notification” is receiving which recommends I stop the torrent. They claim no personal information is given out.

I’ve personally found it better to pay for a seedbox and connect to it via encrypted FTP than to worry about VPNs and downloading torrents locally. I share the cost between a couple of friends and we all access the seedbox and download/stream what we need from it. I don’t have to worry about keeping my computer running either.

There’s app called Swiftfin that should do it.

Get an Nvidia Shield or AppleTV. They are best-in-class devices and anything else is going to lead to some sort of compromise. They’ll last for years and are worth the money spent.

Then set up an app like Jellyfin, Plex, or Infuse (AppleTV only) to stream the files over your local network. You’ll be able to play back everything from those small 200mb rips to the 80gb+ 4K Bluray Dolby Vision remuxes with 7.1 lossless audio.

Looking forward to this. Didn’t see it at the cinemas. So going to enjoy it tonight with some popcorn, a 4K tv and 5.1 sound setup. The next best thing!

Is this for movies and tv shows? I fix it at the output level and leave my rips unchanged. Check your TV or AVR for a “night mode” or “dialogue enhancement” or use the “reduce loud sounds” system setting if you’re playing back an AppleTV.

If the issue is specifically quiet dialogue and loud action scenes, get a dedicated center channel and boost its volume by a few dB.