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?

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!

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?

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.

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

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! 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! 😊

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!

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'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!

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!

Thanks for the detailed response! So, does a VPN do anything to protect you in relation to IDM Direct Downloading/Clip Grabbing Pirate streams or is it just a good idea to have one for anonymity? I'm trying to justify the cost.

My Radeon 470 had Kronos Open CL but I think some of my system drivers have gone crazy because the option to use it has disappeared. I'm really considering a new build even though my system's only 3.5 yrs old.

Can you encode H265 10bit using the amf_h265 in ffmpeg? I hope I'm using the right terminology?

I'm not working with High Def sources anyway. It's mainly shows from the 60s-00s and older cartoons so I'm wondering if the 8-bit vs. 10-bit is really even important. I mainly just want to re-encode my library and reduce it's "footprint".

It does but I've found how to force a HEVC 10-bit file using ffmpegBatch. I replace the program's version of ffmpeg with the full ffmpeg version & then use the libx265 encoder with Profile=10 & Pixel Format=yuv420p10le & I get a nice HEVC 10-Bit file everytime but there's one small problem, I can only process one file at a time or it pushes my CPU to 100% otherwise so I'll just need to be patient in my processing. 🙂 Thanks for your input!

I agree and have found that out. HEVC is a hog when it comes to processing. But, the reason I'm re-encoding is because my system crashed or should I say someone crashed it for me (long story) and I need to rebuild a large part of my library and just want everything consistent.

I'll give it another look but there was some reason I didn't like Handbrake when I tried to use it. But, thanks for the response.

Is that H265 (10-Bit)? Also, I have to use a GUI as I don't know how to use the command line version of ffmpeg.

Here is what the command looks like for one of my presets in ffmpeg Batch and you're saying I need to add MORE to it? I don't even know what half of this means...

-map 0 -c:v hevc_amf -quality balanced -rc cqp -qp_p 25 -qp_i 25 -quality balanced -rc cqp -qp_p 25 -qp_i 25 -vf "scale=640:480,crop=ih/3*4:ih" -c:a aac -b:a 128K -filter:a loudnorm

Thanks for all the information!

4K Video Downloader can download the "old" format of YT videos where a channel is strictly a particular language and put it in an MKV container with the resolution I select & an SRT subtitle using a VP9 codec & that's fine. I just run it through my video converter and I'm good. The problem is when I try to download from one of the "new" multi-audio/sub channels. (Ugh!)

Ok, so now let me see if I can answer your questions:
Q1 - Yes, I mean a channel with multiple audio tracks but I can only access the English version although I know there's a Japanese track there also.
Q2 - The subtitle is the one you get by selecting CC on the YT control panel. I can see it with IDM but it's in TIML format. 4K gives me a SRT on the "old" channels.
Q3 - Yes, when I download I want a pre-merged file with the appropriate streams (Video, Japanese Audio & English Subtitles) preferably with an SRT sub.

I hope that made sense. I've tried Tartube a bit but like you said it will still be the problem I run into with 4K Downloader, I can't get the original Japanese audio. I can go to YouTube 4k Downloader and enter the URL for the file and download the Japanese audio and remux the file but when you're talking about >100 files that's a long process.

Again, thank you for the information and explantion of the command line. I'm not very good with command line stuff but I will try it and see if I can get it work for me. Please feel free to comment back.

I agree that file is probably just a false positive. I deleted it from quarantine and it didn't affect the program at all.

You are absolutely THE BEST!!! I appreciate all your hard work so much. This saves me sooo much time and is so helpful! I cannot thank you enough.

It's crazy. Why does the libx265 take SO much processing power to just convert ONE file at a time. I mean it pushes my CPU to >80% and if I try 2 files it's 100% and stays there. And, the hevc_amf encoder won't create 10-bit HEVC through the GUI I use. I'm just about ready to encode from the original sources again to h.264 and forget it.

Yeah, I liked Jdownloader2 but I can do about the same with 4K Video Downloader plus it conflicted and corrupted my IDM installation so I had to remove both and reinstall IDM to get it back working. Lesson 1: you don't install 2 downloaders. LOL

Can it handle multiple files @ the same time?

My antivirus flagged it as a virus (Potential Unwanted Program). Thank goodness it caught and quarantined it.