Quality of DivX From User To User

[wee haggis]

If a DivX file is downloaded and saved , then another user d'l's from him, then another and so on......is there any degradation in the Mpeg4 quality?

[tgpo]

No.

[poonaner]

Of course it doesn't. Its not like its magnetic tape or something.

[wee haggis]

Of course it doesn't. Its not like its magnetic tape or something.

A simple yes or no would suffice......sarcasam ..I can do without smart ass!

[bachkhoa]

wee haggis wrote:

A simple yes or no would suffice......sarcasam ..I can do without smart ass!

wee haggis, you asked a question and get more information than you expected, you should be thankful. If you like a specific answer, then provide a multiple choice question.

[wee haggis]

I appreciate and expect answers like the reply from TGPO, whereas the response from POONANER is nothing more than rude.
I may not know everything about digital conversion and copying, but I'm not a 10 year old kid who does not know that audio and video tapes are magnetic as opposed to DivX digital recording.

I've seen this kind of response too many times in past posts (not directed at me) and its uncalled for.
If nobody has a civil response .....KEEP YOUR OPINIONS TO YOURSELVES!

[KingJohn]

Answer = Yes !!

Each time the movie is uploaded there is a risk of junk frames being added, if the upload brakes, source is from several people. Not to mention the possibility of the file being corrupted by the persons machine after a crash.

If you count junk frames, crackly audio as part of the quality, then yes the movie can degrade.

[wee haggis]

Thanks King John for not guessing and giving me an honest answer.

[tgpo]

What KingJohn said was true, but remember It's only a possibility. If everything works as it should then there should be no loss.

[Big_Jit]

I downloaded a copy of star wars eipsode 6 - return of the jedi and my power went out about 10 minutes before the file was done and now i have a "bad" spot in the vide that lasts for about 10 seconds ant it made the audio after that part go out of sync. From then on i send a messsage to those downloading that particular movie from me informing them of this.So be carefull who you download from. I would suggest that if using kazaa or morpheus that you send the user a message asking wether or not there are any problems with the video. I've helped a few on this subject this way...

KingJohn is right!...

[KingJohn]

Well after you finished downloading your movie, you should "Move" them out of the shared folder. Don't put it back until you verified its OK. Quite a lot of people are even downloading FAKES and end up sharing more fakes.

If you can fix the movie, then put it back in your shared folder with a rename "Fixed moviename.avi" it helps ! On the whole there is not a big problem with bad movies, if they were all perfect we would not need programs like Vdub.

[Thorn]

You're more likely to get dammaged files on p2p networks because (like kingjohn said) people don't check the files before sharing. You also get files pulled off of scratched cd's and such.

You do NOT see this problem at all if the file is properly rarred, svf'd and par'd like is done on newsgroups, because errors are detected and corrected... but that's another trading system altogether.

Basically, while computers should never add noise (like analog tapes) because it makes an exact copy of the file, software errors (and the myrad of ways that data can get corrupt on your hard drive) can always dammage a file -- but that's dammage not noise, and you'll notice that kind of problem.

[wee haggis]

You do NOT see this problem at all if the file is properly rarred, svf'd and par'd like is done on newsgroups, because errors are detected and corrected... but that's another trading system altogether.

.

Excuse my ignorance....but could you explain ..rarred,svf'd and par'd ???

[orourke]

he means compressed (not by much) by WinRAR, into volumes
(.rar, .r00, .r01, .r02, .r03 etc etc), then SFV'd which generates a txt style file which can then be checked by the downloader on completion of the download by a multitude of programs which verify's each volume is correct and does not contain any errors (from the original rar's)

PAR if im not mistaken is a rather new'ish development which, if a volume is found to be defective can be "repaired" or atleast replaced with a working volume on the condition that the PAR volumes is greater (in number) or equal to the number of "damaged" rar volumes.

AFAIK 8)

[KingJohn]

None of this makes any difference, who cars if the RAR file tells you its corrupt and if it is, its no use to anyone. At leased a bad move can be repaired

[Thorn]

KingJohn, I assume you mean "repair" the movie by removing the damaged parts. Parity files allow you to repair the file (or replace entire missing segments) giving you the an *exact* copy of the original file, bit by bit. This is important on newsgroups, where segments and files get lost or corrupted on bad servers. Also good for ftps and for people who don't have a constant connection, because you can resume without worrying about corruption.

The whole packaging bit (with rar and svf, and now with par files) is based on the distribution model - someone creates a high quality file (well, you'd hope), then packages it up so it is easily distributed, downloaded, and extracted in perfect condition (every time) by the "end user". This makes it a lot easier to get a file because you can get parts from different people and they reassemble.

Unfortunately, this is too complicated for the average peer-to-peer network user. The whole search-download-watch with minimal computer skills is what got napster and file sharing into the hands of the masses. That, in turn, leads to partial files, broken files, and millions of indistinguishable (but different) copies of files smeared over the net. Oh, well.

BTW thanks ororurke for explaining the stuff I glossed over.

[KingJohn]

KingJohn, I assume you mean "repair" the movie by removing the damaged parts.

Is there any other way you know ?

Parity files allow you to repair the file (or replace entire missing segments) giving you the an *exact* copy of the original file, bit by bit.

Provided its still available, from what I am seeing people are deliberately removing the availability of the part you want, almost like disconnecting you when you have 10 minuets to go.

All sounds very good, but for the majority of users "It don't work" I have seen hundreds of posts requesting missing rar files on FTP servers. As for resume, the resume usually finds the file has been overwritten by some idiot.

Where some of these things will benefit some people, that vast majority of people benefit from P2P programs like Kazaa, its true we do need a lot of improvements, but huh who cares at the moment, we are getting all the top movies for free.

I even see some people complaining about the quality of the CAM (Men in Black 2), or bad sound in the DVD rip. This is not a supermarket where you can return your goods and complain. You get what you get, and like it