bunch of newbie questions

[rennie]

Hi. I need lots of help. I can't get tmpge to recognize any files i have downloaded. I can use to nero to encode to them but the best results I've had playing in my dvd player is that the vcd plays for a while then freezes up. Could this be a bitrate probelm and how do I find out? Is it better to download mpeg files even though it takes alot longer ? How to I find out the bitrate of files I am downloading and what should it be? Is there anyway to check the quality of a download before its done so I don't wate my time downloading junk? How do I find out what codecs my system has and what codecs a downlaod has? Any help here is really apprieciated as I am completely lost. Thank you.

[Truman]

Start with the FAQ if you have no clue where to start.

[rennie]

I have read the faqs it tells you what a codec is and thats all doesnt tell you how to figure out which ones you have and how to know which ones you need to use. I see the codecs at the tools page but I have no idea which ones I need. I also can't find anything about bitrate except for the tools. And after reading them again I see no where that tells how to play a partially downloaded file to check for quality.

[lucindrea]

control panel/multimedia/video codecs/properties/propeties

open an avi in notepad ... first few lines you should see somthing like
LIST” strlstrh8 vidsDIV3
the above file was a DIVX MPEG-4 file ... look in here http://softcinema.amiga.pl/features.html for id strings

partially downloaded avis can be played in virtualdub ... mpegs should play partial as is.