Preview to unfinished downloads

[HeavyMetal]

Hi there,

I'd like to check my huge downloads before they finish. Sometimes I DL a 700 MB file, and it's not the actual file that it was suppose to be. Wrong name, I mean.

I'd like to check those files after downloading a few percents.

I have iMac700-60GB-1GBram-OS10.2
I also have VPC in my Mac, so you can refer me PC stuff, as well.

Thanks in advance.

[AntnyMD]

When I'm encoding a file, I do a quick copy-paste-to-new-location to check quality without interrupting the encoding. My guess is you can do the same with a file thats downloading. I only use OS X, so maybe this is not possible in OS 9 (never tried it there).

[HeavyMetal]

AntnyMD:

I hope you meant "downloading" with "encoding". Because I'd like to check them while I'm downloading those.

That, copy-paste-to-new-location doesn't help me. I copied those temp or dat files to some other location, QT is not able to recognize.

Thanks.

[Ross]

Try VideoLAN to view the incomplete downloads, it has very little error checking.

[galactica]

Heavymetal and I have been discussing this issue and he posted this post to see what others think.

We do take the partial files and put them to Video Lan. Most of the time it just gives an endless spinning beachball, and on the rare occasion will play the file only then to just quit unexpectantly.

What we are trying to figure out is how to view the file after 20 or so megs have been downloaded to make sure the file we are downloading is actually the file we want. Too many times you download large files only to find out they are not what you want at all, and you just spent hours downloading nothing.

It should be noted that the downloading takes place in Virtual PC and the file is saved locally to the C: or the D: drives.
Under normal standards, the completed file will then be copied to the MAC Desktop, where it will play fine. If copying the partial, renaming to movie.avi it will not play in video lan


Just wanted to give some more detail to the situation.

Oh, it doesnt play in mplayerOSX either.

[ZeroSix]

If you are downloading a multi segment file, there is not a snowball's chance in hell of previewing it.

If you are downloading from IRC, this is possible, if you use Ircle -- all others are untested by me.

If from the USENET, it depends on your newsreader. Thoth is not one of them that would support this.

If from the web, it really depends on the format, the browser and the viewing software... I would lean more towards VLC for this over Mplayer and Quicktime...

[galactica]

Sorry, dont know why i didnt put it in earlier.
Its iMesh (a morpheus/kazza like program)

its a single file, usually .avi divx formats

Hope this helps. I would guess there is someway to preview this. When you download quicktime movies to MAC you can preview it while its downloaing, using the Apple + I, and then preview tab in the get info.

but it doesnt work in Virtual PC since its the PC environment and its Divx so the preview wont work if you copy the partial to your mac.

hope this helps clarify

ill was thinking of trying your .avi to .avi method in the other post, perhpas that will make the partial .avi acceptable for previewing
ill keep you posted

[AntnyMD]

AntnyMD:

I hope you meant "downloading" with "encoding". Because I'd like to check them while I'm downloading those.

I meant "encoding" where I said encoding, and "downloading" where I said downloading. However, I see from galactica that you're doing un-Mac-friendly stuff in a PC emulator, so a Mac-friendly solution would not work for you.

Thanks for those details up front!

[wolfwood87]

Maybe you should try DivX Tool found at http://www.digital-10k.com/divx_tool/ I haven't used it recently and maybe not in this newer version but an old version that I have can convert PC files to Mac (I think) and can allow you to watch a copy-and-pasted file of an incomplete download. I am not totally sure that all of this is possible with this program but you should surely check it out.

Wolfwood87

[markpith]

.avi's aren't easy to watch when they're not finished downloading.
I only know a PC app which can do this. (you did mention you have VPC right..) It's called Avipreview and I think it's "shipped" with kazaa lite.