[gethigh]

I just got this vid from Bittorrent (the download is kinda strange since it has multiple files so this is the 1st of 2 vids + subtitle files). Anyway, I assumed it was finished with the first file so I opened it with VLC 0.7.0 and MPlayerOSX 2b6, and both only saw 13 minutes of what looks like the beginning (the studio credits etc.).

So does anyone have any ideas on how to salvage this huge video file: is it corrupt? is it the codec? or is it just a fake?

[iOliverC]

I doubt the video has finished downloading. If you open your torrent in the client, point it to the movie it should resume. I think BT downloads in chunks but creates a 700mb file to fill, or something like that.

[gethigh]

Originally posted by iOliverC:
I doubt the video has finished downloading. If you open your torrent in the client, point it to the movie it should resume. I think BT downloads in chunks but creates a 700mb file to fill, or something like that.

The "new" version of Bittorrent (it's a Panther compatable one) doesn't seem to do this. You can actually see it build up in size. The strange thing is is that even though the file size is now stable at around 700 MB and the second video file is now being downloaded, it still seems to be being modified (I am using the Finder to see it's most recent modification date).

[Laurence]

With BitTorrent you really need to wait until the download completes (100%)

The file may look complete by file size, but there are small bits and pieces that have yet to be placed properly. that 700MB file may be 700.32 MB when it is really complete.

[gethigh]

Originally posted by Laurence:
With BitTorrent you really need to wait until the download completes (100%)

The file may look complete by file size, but there are small bits and pieces that have yet to be placed properly. that 700MB file may be 700.32 MB when it is really complete.

I'm hoping you're right.

Here's another question about the Xvid format...is it like the mpeg format and viewable in it's partial state (would that explain why I can only see a little bit of it) or is it like the "avi" format and I'll have to have EVERYTHING in there to view propertly.

[Uncle Skeleton]

it's not like avi, it is avi. If it doesn't say avi, it's just poorly named (sometimes .divx or .xvid is mapped in windows to be the same as .avi). Sometimes XviD video content lives in other wrappers like mov or ogm, but if it doesn't say, it's avi.

as for Bit Torrent, even though it no longer allocates the whole file before starting, it still downloads chunks randomly (well not quite randomly, it gets them weighted by most rare, but still random as far as you're concerned). And this is intuitive since it is compatible with older clients that still allocate all at once and then fill in as available. So instead of putting the random chunks it gets where they go in the file, it puts them in a big pile (or as many small piles as files in the torrent) gradually rearranging them to be closer to correct as they arrive. You're lucky if you can even get your player to recognize unfinished bit torrent downloads as a movie file, let alone play any part of the movie. VLC is very tolerant to file errors (or corruption or in this case scrambled-ness), but it won't rearrange half a bit torrent download to put the bits in the right order

[eevyl]

Originally posted by gethigh:
So does anyone have any ideas on how to salvage this huge video file: is it corrupt? is it the codec? or is it just a fake?

http://www.amazon.com/