I’ve been in similar situations while renting. I ran ethernet cables along skirting boards and around doorframes and hid them inside adhesive cable raceways.

This one should be an improvement:

http://www.lpgear.com/product/LPGCFN3600LE.html

Or this if you want to spend it:

http://www.lpgear.com/product/LPGATN3600DLXHE.html

I pay for a seedbox and get torrents from a private site. Then I transfer from the seedbox to my home NAS server with many terabytes of storage. I like having my own copy of files which I have total control over.

Are you sure network isn’t a bottleneck? Even with a gigabit network, copying 40gb worth of data back and forth can take a while.

Are you wanting to play it back on a TV? Get an AppleTV 4K and run the Infuse app. It’ll scan the network folder and build a library with its UI.

Although I’m pretty sure you can do the same with Kodi and its various themes.

AppleTV4K + Infuse + LG OLED TV.

This gets me 4K HDR and Dolby Vision support. 24Hz frame rate matching, and lossless audio to my 5.1 audio system. And a UI that doesn’t lag or have any ads.

Infuse is what makes the AppleTV worth it. Although I download from a seedbox to my NAS, it’s so nice having a fluid and modern interface for browsing everything. How does real debris compare to that flow?

Now if Apple would just add TrueHD Atmos support, the device would be perfect.

I don’t think it handles livestreams. It’s just for playing back files in network storage. There are probably other apps for live streams.

I personally use an AppleTV with the Infuse app. Great UI, no lag, and it plays everything including 4K Bluray remuxes. You also get Dolby Vision, frame rate matching, and Jellyfin support.

You get diminishing returns. But yes, on a large 4K TV you can notice the difference.

I pirate my stuff anyway, so it’s safely stored in my NAS. But it’ll be a shame to see high quality Bluray media go away.

We need a “premium” streaming provider that can offer the same audio/video quality as 4K Blu-ray Discs. And then I’ll download those rips!

I’m not sure if this is what you’re looking for…but if you have multiple video files and just want one with multiple audio streams, you can combine them into a single file using the free tool MKVToolNix. This assumes the videos are the same length to keep them in sync.

For playing videos: An AppleTV4K with the Infuse app. Just point it to your network share and it builds a library and plays back pretty much anything. It’s also incredibly user friendly for roommates or family to use.

They’re available on the public tracker x1337

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.