Tech-related problems

[sayumi_fan]

this mightn't be of much use to you, but i've just downloaded and played these two vids thru MPC, and they played perfectly normally.

Hah!  That's it!!  I'd forgotten about good ol' MPC, cos I'd had such good results with mplayer and with VLC MP...  I guess I got over-confident in those two, and must remember to go back to MPC sometimes.  Anyway, my MPC (ver. 6.4.9.0) plays just great the ones which were stretched out in the other players, so problem solved - thanks a heap!!

my (just downloaded) copy of koi no Vacance is 39MB (41719808 bytes) - what size is yrs? if it's a different size: then it's not downloading properly;

Now, in this case, my downloaded file is 46 Mb (I thought it was weird that it said 39 Mb on the post, but figured it was an error).  Anyway, sounds like I need to download it again, maybe with a different method.  Thanks for that pointer too!

I downloaded all three, but I just tried the koi no vacance. Played fine for me. IIRC, mplayer usually gives some sort of error message if it can't play a file. Anything useful in those? Are you using any commandline switches, as well?

Or maybe you're using MPC, then disregard what I just said

Looks like, as idiotboy suggested, there was an error with the d/l, so I'll try again...  thanks for the reply!  What did you end up playing the other two ok with?

er.. this I'm not sure.  I usually use flashget but I downloaded DAP just to try it out and that's how I got it to show up on the right-click menu.

Ah, looks like maybe I'll dispose of the others and try flashget...  seems a lot of pple are talking about it lately!  Thanks for the tip...

[frblckstr1]

Ah, looks like maybe I'll dispose of the others and try flashget...  seems a lot of pple are talking about it lately!  Thanks for the tip...

The thing I currently like about flashget is, it lets me queue downloads by limiting the simultaneous parts to 1 and the simultaneous jobs to 1 (and I still get upto 300KB/s from jphip's server )

[sayumi_fan]

yep like was already said make sure referrer is set (basically anything that has forum.jphip.com in the url). i also use flashget, and i installed the firefox flashgot extension. with it, you can right click -> flashgot a link, or select multiple links and flashget them all in one fell swoop. flashgot will also automatically put in the referrer into flashget, so you won't get nasty deny.html files popping up all over your download directory from filedump.

Hmmm...  now, I've installed both flashget and flashgot, I've got a bunch of new options in my right-click menus in Firefox, it's downloading a file as I write this...   So, great advice and thanks a heap!!    BUT - nothing I can do can seem to get me the Koi no Vacance file from ...  any clues, anyone?  What has anyone successfully got this one with?

[~Dan~]

What has anyone successfully got this one with?

I just rightclick and save as.
Works every time.

[sayumi_fan]

Hah!  That's it!!  I'd forgotten about good ol' MPC, cos I'd had such good results with mplayer and with VLC MP...  I guess I got over-confident in those two, and must remember to go back to MPC sometimes.  Anyway, my MPC (ver. 6.4.9.0) plays just great the ones which were stretched out in the other players, so problem solved - thanks a heap!!

Damn!  I spoke to soon!  When I went back to actually play them in MPC, the sound is out of sync with the picture.  I seem to have Xvid installed (at least, there's a folder in my Program Files called Xvid which has a bunch of stuff in it   )...  any ideas why I might still be experiencing this?  It was sound sync problems with other files that made me go for MPC in the first place, and I've not had this problem with it before - but those W PVs just don't seem to like it.

[Janihan]

Atleast the Robokiss file stretches for me in MPlayer. For some reason the file seems to have an aspect ratio of 2.997515. Luckily this is pretty easily corrected by using -noaspect, to disable aspect ratio checking, or "-aspect 4/3", to force the aspect ratio 4:3.

For VLC try using "--aspect-ratio 4:3" as a command line option or using Preferences -> Video -> Source aspect ratio in the graphical interface.

If you want to use MPC you could try upgrading your XviD to a newer version. Old versions might have problems with newer files.

Koi no Vacance worked perfectly in MPlayer. I downloaded it with wget.

[sayumi_fan]

I just rightclick and save as.
Works every time.

Ah    Yup, being a small file, I could get it that way too, even on my dialup...  never thought of that, doh!  Bit too obvious to even think of... so, thanks!  Dunno why it spat the dummy when the others didn't in flashget tho...

[sayumi_fan]

For VLC try using "--aspect-ratio 4:3" as a command line option or using Preferences -> Video -> Source aspect ratio in the graphical interface.

Great!  Thanks for that...  bit of a pain to do, but I can play the vid, so wonderful!  If I was to create a VCD out of these (not that I have the software yet) would I have to do something to these files to prepare them differently than the others?

Also, I've seen a bunch of references lately to "using a command line"...  sorry for basic ignorance, but where can I learn something about this?

If you want to use MPC you could try upgrading your XviD to a newer version. Old versions might have problems with newer files.

Heh heh, just went to xvid.org and it seems that right here they give it to you as source code     Now, for someone who doesn't know about command lines, I'm obviously not gonna know what to do with that     So, can I d/l a working version somewhere?  Also, how do I tell which version I have (like, there are bunch of different .exe files in the Xvid folder, so how do I know which one runs the program so I can look at the 'About' details...  or doesn't it work like that)?

Koi no Vacance worked perfectly in MPlayer. I downloaded it with wget.

Thanks, I've got that one working ok on the second try now...

Thanks for all your help, Janihan!!

[Janihan]

Great!  Thanks for that...  bit of a pain to do, but I can play the vid, so wonderful!  If I was to create a VCD out of these (not that I have the software yet) would I have to do something to these files to prepare them differently than the others?

To make this less of a pain you could somehow rewrite the aspect ratio stored in the avi header. The easiest way to do this is probably doing a direct copy of the video and audio stream to a new avi with the aspect ratio you want. Also this way there is no quality loss.

In MEncoder I used the following command and it seemed to work.
mencoder  "W - Robo Kiss.avi" -ovc copy -oac copy -force-avi-aspect 4/3 -o "W - Robo Kiss2.avi"

NOTE: mencoder will most likely be mencoder.exe in Windows.

Quick explanation of the options just incase someone is interested:
-ovc copy = copy video stream
-oac copy = copy audio stream
-force-avi-aspect 4/3 = use the aspect 4:3
-o "W - Robo Kiss2.avi" = output to file named "W - Robo Kiss2.avi"

Now I'll make a guess that you're using Windows ( ) and give some extra help on doing this. The MPlayer package for Windows should come with MEncoder. Atleast the package that I found on the official MPlayer site comes with it. (The zip from here.)
1. Open a command line.
[INDENT]1a Start menu -> Run..
1b Type "cmd" in the box
1c Click OK[/INDENT]
2 Go to the your mplayer folder
[INDENT]2a type cd C:\path\to\mplayer[/INDENT]
3 Run the command
[INDENT]3a mencoder.exe  "C:\path\to\W - Robo Kiss.avi" -ovc copy -oac copy -force-avi-aspect 4/3 -o "C:\path\to\W - Robo Kiss2.avi"[/INDENT]

Also, I've seen a bunch of references lately to "using a command line"...  sorry for basic ignorance, but where can I learn something about this?

What I just showed was some pretty basic usage. With a quick search with the term "command line windows" I found this guide. I don't know if it's good. :|

Heh heh, just went to xvid.org and it seems that right here they give it to you as source code     Now, for someone who doesn't know about command lines, I'm obviously not gonna know what to do with that     So, can I d/l a working version somewhere?  Also, how do I tell which version I have (like, there are bunch of different .exe files in the Xvid folder, so how do I know which one runs the program so I can look at the 'About' details...  or doesn't it work like that)?

Someone suggested this site for XviD binaries. You could try them.

Thanks for all your help, Janihan!!

No problem. Helping Sayumi's fans is always a worthy cause.

[Janihan]

I just realised that avis created the way I described in my last post only work properly with MPlayer.
Maybe the -force-avi-aspect option is broken or something because even the MPlayer/MEncoder FAQ suggests the command I posted.

If you're interested you could try doing this with another program like VirtualDub or by reencoding the video stream with MEncoder.

On a related note I found an easier way to change the aspect ratio in VLC. After the video has started playing select Video -> Aspect-ratio -> 4:3. A lot less of a pain than changing your preferences.

[sayumi_fan]

On a related note I found an easier way to change the aspect ratio in VLC. After the video has started playing select Video -> Aspect-ratio -> 4:3. A lot less of a pain than changing your preferences.

Wow, Janihan, there's some pretty technical stuff there which I'm gonna need some time to digest and experiment with...  thanks for all that, I'll be copying it into a Word file where I keep such stuff for further reference, so your help is wonderful!

Thanks for that last tip which makes it much easier to adapt VLC to whatever I'm playing - just great!!!  I think I need to get into the habit of exploring the menus of new software a bit more...  it's just time and inexperience prevents me, but thanks to pple like you, I (and others) are learning all the time!!

[huggumwuggums]

I was seeding a batch of PVs and after my seed ratio was 2.00, utorrent automatically stopped seeding it and as there were no more leechers at the time so I removed it from the list. After that, I deleted one of the files in the batch(as I replaced it with a better version) and I was wondering if there's a way for me to seed the rest of the files?

[idiotboy]

I was seeding a batch of PVs and after my seed ratio was 2.00, utorrent automatically stopped seeding it and as there were no more leechers at the time so I removed it from the list. After that, I deleted one of the files in the batch(as I replaced it with a better version) and I was wondering if there's a way for me to seed the rest of the files?

sure: load the incomplete torrent you wish to seed in utorrent; click the 'Files' tab in the bottom window of utorrent, right-click the files you don't want to seed, and select 'Don't Download' from the right-click menu. utorrent will ignore those files, and will happily seed the rest.

[huggumwuggums]

^ Thanks idiotboy!

[Masabi]

My computer doesn't play any sound at all, and it says I don't have a sound codec installed. o__o  It's probably because I just reinstalled.. Someone help?

[Foxy Brown]

Looks like you need drivers for your sound card. Do you know what model you have?

[Janihan]

If you don't know the model of your sound card, post the brand and model of your computer.

[Masabi]

I don't know the model of my sound card.

The brand is Compaq and the model is Presario 6000..

[Foxy Brown]

 If you have a 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, or 8000 series PC, you need to identify the correct model number of your PC using this document before locating product support information.

[Masabi]

6400nx nevermind, I'm smart, I figured it out

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?lc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=240109&dlc=en&sw_lang=8&os=228

right? xd