Can anyone recommend a decent torrent site so you can download and watch without having to pay for software to do so

There are many free torrent search sites, but each torrent has its own rules.

In order to avoid "scam" torrents that try and charge you for software (or codecs, players etc.), only download torrents where the comments and/or ratings indicate it is clean and real. Some sites also have torrents that are "verified" to be clean and real.

This article lists some sites that have comments/ratings and verified torrents:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/searching-torrents.htm