Korean Job Discussion Forums

Santiago · Joined: 26 Sep 2007

I don't have a lot of knowledge or skill when it comes to computers so bear with me.

I have two questions:
1. Cany anyone tell me what to do with a .rar file to make it viewable?
2. Does anyone know why there are no video files in some of the torrents I've downloaded?

This is the extent of my technical knowledge:
I've managed to download a couple of torrents and get them to play using Videolan. (special thanks to Mindmetoo)
I've downloaded what I thought were a few different copies of "Into the Wild" and none have worked. I don't know if it's the client I'm using, the search sites, or maybe something with the torrent file itself.

Definition of "it doesn't work": after the file completely downloads and begins to seed, I open the downloaded file with videolan and have gotten one of the following results. Twice, there has been no actual video file in the folder. Once, the downloaded file was in the following format: DviX.rar. I've googled ".rar" and managed to learn that a .rar file is a compression file similar to a .zip, but aside from that, I felt like a 5th grader reading Shakespeare (Look up three words in every sentence then reread the sentence).

For the record, I'm using the BitTorrent client and searching mainly on isohunt.com but have used many other search sites recommended on this forum.

Thanks

tired of LA · Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Location: Seoul

for the .rar file all you have to do is extract it. i use winrar and you can download it at [url]www.rarlab.com [/url]. its a trial version, but i'm pretty sure theres no restrictions. as far as the other file, i've never had a file download without a video file. unless you downloaded an .iso in which case you would need to burn it to a dvd or mount it on a virtual drive. hope this helps.

skconqueror · Joined: 31 Jul 2005

I recommend using utorrent as your torrent client Smile

hanguker · Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Location: Korea

Eg. Google: view .rar

Santiago · Joined: 26 Sep 2007

Santiago · Joined: 26 Sep 2007

Thanks to you two others. I've got the extractor now and I suppose I'll look at using a different client. Is speed the best reason to use a different client?

skconqueror · Joined: 31 Jul 2005

I have gotten better speeds with utorrent. Also, the utorrent is a very small client compared to the others, and uses much less system resources. It is the most popular client out there.

superdave · Joined: 20 Aug 2006 Location: over there ----->

azureus has a bigger market share than utorrent ... HOWEVER, azureus' new build is crap and it's a bloated arse piece of software.

utorrent is catching up quickly. it's light AND open source. it's solid.

the trick to downloading is to use sites where you can READ comments about the torrent before you download.

mininova has this, but since torrents are free, not a lot of people comment ... some do however, usually when the file is bogus.

sometimes a creator will split a torrent into 15 or 20 rar files ... this makes it easier to share, rather than one huge piece. usually you have to open the first file (they'll be numbered) and extract it. that will automatically extract the rest of the files from the other rar pieces.

personally, i use alzip ... available in english. it does a good job of managing zipped files and it's free.

mininova, as stated, is good. for free downloads you can also go to isohunt. axxo files are renowned for being good quality (he specifically uploads movies), but scene chat is that he's quit the business and some people are using his name to spread crap files.

private torrent communities are around, but they're harder to get into and are sometimes shut down. oink and demonoid are good examples. but i can tell you from experience, that if you get into a private torrent community, the quality is usually very reliable and the speeds are great.

there's a korean torrent community, but i'm not a member. if someone wants to throw an invite my way, that would be great.

to summarise, use utorrent. it's the best program in that field. mininova and isohunt are usually decent. but there are heaps of other sites too.

the rule though, unless you're a complete arsehole, is to share at least 1:1 what you download ... if nobody shared, there'd be no live torrents. so share damn you!!!! LOL

post any more questions here ... i'm a keen torrent user, so i can probably answer most of your questions ... and if i can't, there are a few others who can.

beware though. some people here claim they've got heaps of know how ... but other threads have called them out for being seriously bad leechers or seriously bad liars! Smile

hanguker · Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Location: Korea

Meh. You just can't unrar a .rar file and calling me a dunce. Laughing

'nuf said. Go rent a DVD.

dreadster · Joined: 08 May 2007 Location: Daegu, South Korea

Don't worry about feeling confused, I've been downloading torrents for several years and I'm still confused about many aspects

Be careful sometimes about .rar files, they are often a way of redirecting you to some dodgy porn sites. If they ask for a password, then it's a dodgy file and better to delete it.

Agree with the poster above that it's often better to download from sites you have to register at rather than public ones such as Mininova and the Pirate Bay. Demonoid was excellent, but sadly got shut down. I would recommend

www.ilovetorrents.com (new but number of torrents growing fast)
http://forums.mvgroup.org/ (excellent for documentaries)
http://zamunda.net/ (Just discovered this, lots of stuff on it)

Sapa · Joined: 05 Nov 2007

Santiago · Joined: 26 Sep 2007

Wow, thanks for all of your replies. It's helpful to have people talk about how everything works from a practical standpoint. Guess I'll download uTorrent later today.

I think it was superdave (if that's a reference to the old stunt man on HBO then Cheers!) that brought up the idea of sharing what I download. So far I've seeded everything I've taken so I suppose thats what you're talking about.

Question though: Most of the files I'm downloading are ~1GB and with only ~15GB of space left on my hard drive I've been deleting them after I watch them. Not sure if they're permanently uploaded and stored once they've been seeded or if they need to be present on my computer for sharing with others. Could someone let me know?

If they have to be on my system to be shared then maybe I'll leave them for a month or so before I delete them to give others a chance at them. Not sure of the etiquette here so feel free to chime in.

JustJohn · Joined: 18 Oct 2007 Location: Your computer screen

Proper etiquette is to leave them until you have at least a 1.0 share ratio. Leaving them till 2 or 3 is fine. It's also nice if you don't cut it if you're the last seed. (Unless it was a crap file or something.)

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

Peer Guardian is a must when using any torrent client, IMO.

@ Hanguker: I see your point, but everyone starts somewhere. It's cool that people trust this forum for even the most basic help; it is actually a compliment to all of us! Lets not discourage people, even the novice users.

hanguker · Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Location: Korea

Ok, I guess I was not in the best Christmas spirit the last couple of posts.

So let's see if I can't be constructive here.

A great link for lots of bittorrent help is here:

http://torrentfreak.com/20-bittorrent-tips-and-tricks-070903/

The wikipedia reference for the RAR file format is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.rar

^^ Particularly the "external links" section for everything RAR

I'm guessing you are not only new to torrents, but computers in general. I would suggest that you do searches for and read up on...

"compression formats", "iso", "daemon tools", "alcohol 120% (really)", "file-sharing", "torrents", "video codec", "what is seeding", "how to seed", "how much should I seed", "usb storage"...

Then you won't be "n00b" anymore Smile

Merry Christmas