bad video files

[Dave Gulliksen]

About half of all the video files I download won't play. My player just shows the length as 0:00. I've downloaded and installed Nimo 5.0 Build 7, but no change.

Running DIVXfix on these files finds tons of errors, and doing a reindex doesn't make them watchable.

What's the next step, besides tossing them? Is this common when downloading an avi file?

Dave Gulliksen
Stratford, CT, USA

(AudioGalaxy wouldn't even TRANSMIT avi files, so I'm new to this.)

[MeMan!]

People will sometimes rename mp3s to a movie extention so they look like they have something to trade.
MX is just a program, It is the people running it that are messing with your head.
Use your head:
Say you are looking for "New Blockbuster Movie"
a 90min movie will be at leatst 300meg or two 150meg files NOT 300K or 150K.
When you do a search look for the hits that have the most sources and are the size that is logical for it. Then click the plus sign and read ALL the names that file is going by.
Where you will get screwed is when you are "browsing" a site and can,t compare their file with others. what I do in that situtaion is select the the file, then go to the transfers window, find the file, right click on it and do "find alternates" then go to your search window and see what others are calling that file, if it looks like what your after , good, if not deleate it.
Get many players . A movie will play in one but the other. I use 4.
Get a hex editor to look inside the movies and read their headder . It will tell you what codec it needs to play it , or if it is even a movie. I use hex workshop.

[Dave Gulliksen]

OK, thanks. So it's not just me. Thanks for the suggestion for the hex editor. I'll download that and try it.

[Lost Pup]

also you may try zoomplayer as an option to watch them. while it wont play thru serious file errors, it will play files that other video players will not. it is free and doesnt have any spyware built in. it is rather simple to use and also plays DVD's, yet it has alot of features wich the tech savy geek will enjoy.

http://www.inmatrix.com/files/zoomplayer_download.shtml

but it sounds like alot of the files you are getting are returning not only index errors, but actual corrupted data, which can be edited out with a free program like virtualdub, but..... that kind of fixing isnt usually for beginner/new people.

i agree with memann about "searching for alternates" and identifying bad or corrupt or fake files before you spend time d/l them.

[please_share]

If you're trying to download a movie that is still in the theaters and hasn't yet come out on dvd, there's a much greater chance that you'll download a garbage file or a fake. For example right now Lord of The Rings-The Two Towers is hot: it is shown on winMX in about 20 to 30 different versions/file sizes. I would venture a guess that maybe all or all but one are fakes. If you look for a movie that's two years old, most of the available files will no doubt be legit.

[Vladd44]

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/gspot.html

it is a quicker way than a hex editor to find out what a file was encoded with