Great stuff Virtual1, I wish I understood everything you said. If I did, I wouldn't have asked for help. I download from torrent search engine and then from kickasstorrent directly to my HD. I download about a dozen TV episodes/movies a week without any problems except for the odd fake. I have 8Gb Kingston ram which I renewed a few months ago which I'm sure is okay considering all the downloads I've done. Yesterday I downloaded the TV episode that followed the 2 episodes that froze and it played just fine. Maybe it's something that's inexplicable. However, since DivX copies are not corrupted, I'm satisfied.
Thank you for your comprehensive reply. jaybass

OS 13.6.6 iMac (Retina 5K, 27", 2017, 3.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 24 GB RAM, 2400 MHz DDR4. SuperDuper. 1 TB Lacie HD