Newbie - Stream Movies/TV shows.

Good day -

Ok..Stupid question perhaps. I see a lot of screen shots showing TV content and movies. I am wanting to build my media library. I am curious? What is the best way to achieve. If it is torrents, what sites are "safe" is there a particular format I need to download? Is there a way to stream and download at the same time (PVR I guess)?

Also I noticed, when using plugins, a lot of the links clicked to start Play come back with "Retreiving Items O Items" and then just disappears? Is this an issue? Or is something being done wrong?

Thanks for your help and ideas.