Trouble with previews

[wizardly1]

Ok, while the preview will load from my emule program, it is very short preview. Is there any way to get a longer look at movies that are downloading and I have say half a fil downloaded already? it is annoying to have to wait for the whole movies before I can view enough to decide to keep it or not, and some movies have taken as long as a week and a half to download! What a colossal waste of time!

Wiz

[Debaser]

I Know what you meen!, and sometimes the only preview you get it the credits, and they dont always give you a good idea of quality/whether there are subs etc.

Still, I dont think a week and a half is a colossal waste of time!, its not like we have to be sitting in front of our computers for that long, well I hope no one does anyway

Anyhoo, I think there is a way, someone told me you can do it with VLC, but I only get a short clip with that too!

[emuler]

The cause of your problem lies in the fact that an ed2k file is not completed sequentially, but part by part. This means that an incomplete file can have gaps anywhere (ie. where a part has not been downloaded yet). Many media players get stuck in these gaps and are unable to go further at all. Some do manage to do so, but only after a long delay while it painstakingly works its way through the gap.

The solution is to use VLC (VideoLanClient), a freeware media player from http://www.videolan.org in conjunction with an ed2k partfile plugin. Remember that the partfile plugin is tailored to a particular version of VLC and will not work with other versions, so get the plugin first, then download the VLC version that matches it.

This very useful plugin gets information from your ed2k client about where the gaps are in your partially downloaded file, and allows the player to just jump over the gap to the next valid data.

http://www.videolan.org/
http://forum.emule-project.net/index.ph ... opic=70846 (news)
http://www.geocities.com/sibermutant/

Sometimes it helps to disable the audio while previewing. The player is often unable to maintain synchronization with an incomplete file, so the video doesn't run smoothly.

Maybe this can be pinned in a how-to section of the forum.

[sodepetahi]

Another problem you sometimes get is that you can download 80% of a film and when you get to preview it in VLAN it says 0/00

[pooniman]

I've found that if you copy the part file you can often open it in windows media player too. Alternatively you can try avipreview http://www.avipreview.com/ which can play a lot of partial files other players can't.

[billanben]

I always use VLC - version 0.84, no problems usually. There is an option in em to downlaod parts first to enable preview of film. Personally half the fun is waiting for that elusive moment when you can get the movie to open, though can be frustrating when 99% downlaod stops and you still can't preview

[emuler]

sodeptahi: you don't have the partfile plugin.

[wizardly1]

My thanks for all the helpful suggestions! I appreciate it greatly. While keeping in mind I am about as computer literate as your average rock, I will go forth and try to conquer my preview problem! <Poses heroically> <G>

Wiz

[ghost]

To see a preview you need at least the beginning and the end of the file (and VLC or avipreview). That's all

[emuler]

Not quite. You need the first 360KB or so (which contains the avi header) and you need the partfile plugin, which will let VLC quickly jump over the missing portions to the parts that are downloaded. You'll be able to see nearly all the parts that you have downloaded with this method, even if there are big gaps between them.

Download the plugin (correct version) and extract it into the vlc\plugins directory.