You have stated all of the methods that I know!
You should try to find a private bit torrent community. I am a member of oink.me.uk ...... It is a invite only bit torrent site. The only way to join is to be invited and the only way to get invites is to prove yourself as a good member by having a good d/l to upload ratio. The advantage is that all torrents are linked back to a user, which was invited by another "good" member. This helps cut out all of the bad/not working torrents and/or spyware and viruses.