FAQ & GROUP CHARTER

alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese
alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese.repost
revision 02.06 - January 25, 2005

Document Notes.

Last update

Updated with additional information to help filter out spam,
reporting spam and setting filter/scoring details in some news
readers.


In txt file only: Numbers prior to the headline are indicative of
their location in the HTML version and only added as reference.

Thank's to the suggestion posters and contributors.
Thank's to all contrinutors for their help, input and corrections.

Techie.


INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION
2. GROUP CHARTER & FAQ CHANGES
3. Changes of FAQ: (Amended by Techie & J.R.)
4. HOW TO REQUEST FILES/POSTS
5. HOW TO DOWNLOAD FILES/SEGMENTS
6. HOW TO POST FILES/SEGMENTS
7. HOW TO DEAL WITH FLAMES AND RUDENESS
8. FAQ - Common File Extensions And Their Usage.
9a. FAQ - What are RAR files?
9b. FAQ - PAR files
9c. FAQ - PAR2 Files
9d. FAQ - SFV files
9e. FAQ - MD5 Files
9f. FAQ - YNC Files What is Yenc?
9g. FAQ - Software missing information in this document
9h. FAQ - Virtual Dub
9i. Main Concept MPeg Encoder Help & Tips...
9j. FAQ - RM/RMVB Files and Conversion
9k. FAQ - Various News Reader Applications
9l. SPAM - JPG Filtering and Spam reporting
10a. A word about Fan-subbing (by Techie - subject to revisions)
10b. A Word About News Server Providers
11. The Toolbox - Tools and Utility Links



1. INTRODUCTION

Introduction for the newcomers, transients from other groups or
complete newbies!
**********************************************************************
The regulars of these two groups have by years of experience developed
a certain way of communicating with each other, which may seem foreign
and in many cases, compared to other groups, really friendly and
family
like. This due to the fact that we all realize we share a common
interest
in the Japanese culture in general and dorama and movies in
particular.

For the sake of helping those who are new to "our corner" of the
Internet,
we have come up with an FAQ to further enhance our experience in an
otherwise
fast paced setting.

If you have been to other news groups you may have seen how flame wars
are
started, nasty comments are thrown back and forth and one or more
users
questioning others intelligence and ideals on a regular basis. This is
something we have chosen in here not to accept but instead to try to
refrain
from for the benefit of all who are active in here.

Why did we outline these recommendations? Well simply because just as
many
users there are on the Internet, that's how many ways there are to get
things
done. We have elected to regulate ourselves, not others, by following
some basic
rules of understanding to help each other in here. Everyone has their
own favorite
newsreaders, posting software, connection providers and so on, and
each one of
these elements provides a specific set of complications and benefits.
That being said, the recommendations below will help us become a bit
more
"cross-user" compliant so that all can participate in here on a more
equal
basis without having a news reader throw a fit and reject some posters
data on so on.

Footnotes about definitions and help for newbies are framed in
asterisk fields
below Except in the strict FAQ section providing introductory help for
applications
and tools commonly used in here.

If you are an absolute beginner, please note the following!

Do not use the nickname provided as default by your newsreader, as
this is a
generic name often used by spammers and other less desirable
individuals.
You may become auto filtered out by mistake since most regular users
don't appreciate Spam.

We, who have been in these groups for some time would sincerely
appreciate
you taking five minutes out of your time to review the recommendations
below
and then join us for a great time in sharing the joy in dorama.

2. GROUP CHARTER & FAQ CHANGES
= CHARTER STATEMENTS ======================================

GROUP CHARTER: alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese

This newsgroup is for the sharing of Japanese movies, television shows
(doramas), Jpop music videos, and other Japanese-related videos.

Anime should not be posted here, use one of the already established
anime groups. Pornography (Japanese or any other kind) is not allowed
in this newsgroup. Also, mp3s or other audio formats should not be
posted
here, use a.b.sounds.jpop.

Unmarked off-topic materials, advertising (Spam), excessive posting,
cancel attacks, virus infected binaries, and abusive cross postings
are prohibited.

GROUP CHARTER: alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese.repost

This newsgroup is for the full reposting of Japanese movies, TV shows,
music videos, and other Japanese-related videos that have previously
been
posted to the parent group alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese.

Unmarked off-topic materials, advertising (Spam), excessive posting,
virus infected binaries, and abusive cross postings are prohibited.

***********************************************************************
Footnote for the newbies!

Group Charter is a document filed with the proper organizations before
starting a news group or forum of any kind, to display a compliance
with
intent of a specific topic and theme to the groups. Thus making it
possible
to get the group listed with news servers in the first place. It is
virtually
impossible to change the charters so please do not ask to deviate from
the outline above.
***********************************************************************
Changes of FAQ: (Amended by Techie & J.R.)

Any changes or additions to this FAQ will be done after appropriate
deliberation
among the users of the two news groups or as deemed fit by the
individual/s
maintaining the same depending on the changes of technology referenced
herein.

After this a POLL may be held in A.B.M.J to verify the reception of
any additions to, or alterations of its contents, as well as to
specify
changes and updates for group members who may not be reading the FAQ
on
as regular a basis as newcomers.

The foundation of these newsgroups outlined in the charter above will,
as recently discussed, NOT be changed as this is nearly impossible.


3. POSTING LIMITS

To control scroll-offs and other bandwidth problems,
posters should limit themselves to 4.5 GB per poster day for both
groups.

***********************************************************************
Footnote for the newbies!
Scroll-offs = loss of retention and you cannot see any or only part of
the files posted. Thus you have to request reposts to often and this
causes even more scroll-offs.
***********************************************************************


4. HOW TO REQUEST FILES/POSTS

Note to newbies!

All potential posters and re-posters should be aware that it is
perfectly
ok to simply enjoy the offerings posted to these groups. There is no
implied obligation to "give back" or contribute to the group. The
postings
to the groups are done to spread the wealth and enjoyment of Japanese
entertainment.

Posters post for the sheer enjoyment of sharing. Users who do not have
access
to postable materials should feel no obligation to reciprocate. In
this case,
"leech" is NOT a dirty word.

Always read the NFO or 00/xx file to find the poster's policies.
It simplifies a great deal for the original poster to find & fill your
requests if you follow the outline from him/her.

Also wait for a period of time and re-check your news server as in
some cases
The files posted may take several hours to propagate over to your
servers from
the one used by the poster. Please remember that what is said in this
FAQ/How-To
statement is a recommendation and should be seen as such. We try to
all work in
an environment, which consists of many users and, with the ever,
increasing
number of users, there are a lot of requests posted.

In almost 100% of the case, you will receive a reply promptly
following
the recommendations below, and with almost the same certainty, not
following
these recommendations will/may lead to auto kill filtering / plonking
or other
measures imposed by regular users AUTO SETTINGS. This is in other
words
NOT PERSONAL but simply a way for frequent users to deal with the
overhead
of Spam and other undesired infiltration on the Internet.

a. Directing question to other nickname/user
When posting a question to a specific nickname/user, please always
specify
the subject beginning with "ATTN: [Nickname]". This simplifies for
the user
to see the subject and find it in the listings, as it will show up
very high
up in the list of segments, as well as show to whom it is directed.
Please, DO NOT be surprised if another user answers your question as
this is
a public forum/group and as such anyone can see what you are typing.
We do
not try to regulate who says what or sees what and appreciate all the
help
we can get when we're stuck on something.

If you wish to specify a topic for the question, see the sections b
through d
below as well and add the topic after the ATTN part.

b. Requesting help, general information, related data
When requesting help with a specific subject, codec information or
other topic,
it is sometimes helpful to put this partially in the subject line.
What this
topic consists of is entirely up to you however, please refrain
from posting
your entire question in the subject line.

Most newsreaders have a limitation of 70 - 78 characters per line in
the text part
of a message and the subject lines are much shorter. Thereby if your
subject is to
long, it will not be easily seen and accessed by most users
newsreaders, which
complicates responses and may delay or negate you getting a reply at
all.

We also commonly reserve the abbreviation "REQ." for those subjects
containing
requests for binary file parts as well as fills. In a topic concerning
a codec
or general help, you should best use the word "ABOUT" or "HELP NEEDED"
for a
more accurate response.

c. Requesting full season, post & repost of episode and similar
requests.
When requesting episode data and files, please be aware of the
following
commonly used abbreviation in these two newsgroups. They will help
you
immensely to reduce the length of a subject line and thereby speed
up replies.

S >> Season
E or Ep. >> Episode

When specifying a show, you could formulate a header as follows;

"REQ. [Title of show] - S [#] - E [#]"

where S [#] is the season number and E [#] is the episode wanted.
If needing a full post of a whole season, another example would be;

"REQ. [Title of show] - S [#] - Full Season"

Please do NOT specify a REQ in the subject of a binary post, as this
may become
kill-filtered by most users and both your request and binary post are
lost to
the community as a whole. See details on the recommendations under the
section
"How to post files" below.

VERY IMPORTANT!

When requesting a file, fill or post, do not post the requests X
number of times.
This is referred to as V-Spam or vertical spamming and is not
appreciated due to
the following reasons,
a) although the subject makes a small footprint and little
overhead, it pushes the files downwards and makes it more annoying to
find what you need,
b) the regulars in here will read almost 99.99% of all headers anyway
and we will NOT miss
a single line request posted,
c) user who use the kill-filter functions frequently have disabled
reception of
such requests, and they will be marked as Spam whether or not they
are. In other
words, the request will be lost to the people who may actually be able
to fill your request.

And most importantly, don't forget to thank the poster.
They are doing this on their time and bandwidth for no compensation.

d) Requesting fills, corrections, additional data files
There are a few additional elements to requesting fills for
episodes,
seasons or shows which may have been posted or are currently
posted in
these two groups. For this purpose, this section is divided in two
categories.

A) the recently or currently posted items and,
B) the fill requests for shows which were posted in the past 6 -
12 months.


a. When requesting a fill due to loss of retention, segments of files
being
corrupted or completely unrecoverable, please adhere to the following
common
principles used in here.

In the subject you can use to following format;

"Attn: [postersNickname] REQ. repost [Title of show] - S [#] - E [#] -
[corrupt/missing/lost] - part ##"
If more than one part is missing, please specify a parts list in the
body of
the post request and not in the subject line as this makes the subject
far
to long for most newsreaders.

ALWAYS remember to include which title, season and episode if provided
for the show.
Otherwise it will be impossible to fill your request.

If PAR or PAR2 files were included/made available with the original
post,
please use these excellent applications (see app's list below) for
recovering
corrupt files before requesting re-posts or fills. The reposts and
refills count
towards the loss of retention on the news-servers, which lead to
additional loss
of retention. A Catch 22 we try to avoid as best we can.

Reposts should be directed towards the group in which the files were
posted
if it was a recent post of an episode/movie etc. In other words, if
you found
the corrupt files in A.B.M.J. the repost request, and the repost of
fills will
be/should be directed in there, and the same for files posted to
A.B.M.J.R.

At the poster's discretion, large-scale fills of many parts may be
posted to
ABMJR with a pointer message in ABMJ.

b. When requesting a fill of past shows.

In the subject you can use the following format;

"REQ. repost [Title of show] - S [#] - E [#] full"

In most cases reposts are directed to the A.B.M.J.Repost group as they
were
fairly recently posted in the A.B.M.J. group.

See further details about where to place your posts in the section
"How to post files" below. There you will find the recommended
placement
group of the files.

At the poster's discretion, large-scale fills of many parts may be
posted
to ABMJR with a pointer message in ABMJ.

VERY IMPORTANT!

When requesting a file, fill or post, do not post the requests X
number of times.
This is referred to as V-Spam or vertical spamming and is not
appreciated due
to the following reasons, a) although the subject makes a small
footprint and
little overhead, it pushes the files downwards and makes it more
annoying to
find what you need, b) the regulars in here will read almost 99.99% of
all
headers anyway and we will NOT miss a single line request posted, c)
user
who use the kill-filter functions frequently have disabled reception
of
such requests, and they will be marked as Spam whether or not they
are.
In other words, the request will be lost to the people who may
actually
be able to fill your request.

And most importantly, don't forget to thank the poster.
They are doing this on their time and bandwidth for no compensation.



5. HOW TO DOWNLOAD FILES/SEGMENTS

When downloading files, please note the following.

Netscape browsers, Opera browsers and Outlook mail applications are
NOT
true newsreaders. They will therefore thread messages differently than
true newsreader applications and not be able to read all parts,
segments
and do decoding of Yenc properly. (see below in the FAQ about Yenc.)

First make sure you have a newsreader, which is able to read and
preferably
decode Yenc encoded files on the fly.

In the newsreader you select, ensure the files thread primarily by
file
name as multi segment files are ordered that way. Most newsreaders
also
have small indication icons next to the files to immediately show you
if
a file is missing a segment/block or corrupted.

Text messages and regular .nfo files (our way of saying iNFOrmation
files)
can be read as pure text by double clicking the posted subject lines.
These files contain information added by the poster about the files
codec,
(video/audio format), cap devices and other useful data about the show
itself.
It is a must read as it also outlines the posters preferred format for
fill requests.

If a file is posted in several parts such as PAR, P##, RAR, R## or
PAR2
files, you should also read the sections below in the FAQ for these
particular
file extensions.

Remember that there is more than one way made available to us,
to check if a file is corrupted, complete or to recover even the most
corrupted parts.
It is well worth your time to read up on these sections below. Also
see the section
"A Word About News Readers" by JR in FAQ section 8.

A word about downloading files through web interface based news
servers.

Many ISP's have a cache server installed parallel to their routers.
This cache server is transparent to your web browser until they
corrupt a download.
This can happen when you download files exceeding 255 Mb per file.

To circumvent cache servers, try to use port 81 for web downloads when
possible
or use a download manager that can split your downloads properly to
avoid using
bandwidth to get only corrupt files.



6. HOW TO POST FILES/SEGMENTS

Introduction to posting!

The constant reposting of file segments, full parts, full episodes and
even full series has contributed to bandwidth problems, storage
limitations
and declining retention times. With that in mind, a few guidelines are
in
order for posts, reposts and fills.

All potential posters and re-posters should be aware that it is
perfectly
ok to simply enjoy the offerings posted to these groups. There is no
implied
obligation to "give back" or contribute to the group. The postings to
the groups
are done to spread the wealth and enjoyment of Japanese entertainment.
Posters post for the sheer enjoyment of sharing. Users who do not have
access
to postable materials should feel no obligation to reciprocate. In
this case,
"leech" is NOT a dirty word.

Where do I post?

Original posts, complete new movies and so forth should be posted to
ABMJ.

Series reposts should be made to
alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese.repost (ABMJR)
with a pointer message in alt.binaries.multimedia.japanese (ABMJ).

If a series to be reposted is significantly different from the
original post
(i.e. SVCD vs. DivX, significantly improved subtitles, etc.) then it
might
be more appropriate in ABMJ - use some judgment here. Provide a
message
explaining the difference from the original post.

If you are unsure, please ask the regulars in the group when or if a
show
you intend to post has been posted recently. This can save a lot of
headache
and retention is improved.

A very useful tool is to drop in a text message a few days before you
intend to start a post. Specify a subject such as

"ATTN: ALL - Intent to post [TITLE] {S #}{E #}"

This will provide time for feedback, alterations in the last minute
and so forth.
It will also provide time for users on poor retention server to
prepare for a download.

When posting to ABMJR, it is also helpful to send this message in both
ABMJ and ABMJR to inform the users where the show will be posted and
when.

About subjects.

Please keep subject lines short. This will help ease the finding of
your
posts as well as appear much more precise.

Example of a good subject line;

"[TITLE NAME HERE] - S [#] E [#] - [FileName.nnn]"

You may wish to add a comment about the codec used and if you split by
CD or day of posts, which could appear as;

"[TITLE NAME HERE] Day 1 of 2 - S [#] E [#] - DivX #.##/AC3 sound
- [Filename.nnn]"

This is IMPORTANT:

Be sure *nothing* follows the file name. Otherwise news clients will
not be able to join sections automatically. No one enjoys conjoining
42 or 74 attachments manually, so your post might be ignored.

About Subjects by (Bob) "Trim Your Headers."

A good header (subject) describes the post in as few keystrokes as
possible. If a header gets too long, its right end will disappear
from view in many news clients. With a multi-part file this makes
downloading *very* difficult. But just a minute's thought will produce
an effective but brief header.

VERY IMPORTANT!

When posting a file, fill or post, do not post the requests in
the headers/subjects. This appears as V-Spam and may be automatically
kill-filtered by many regulars. In other words, the request will be
lost to the people who may want to download your posts.

Also remember that leech is not a bad word. There is NOT a need for
you to post a file to get another filled. The posts of the type
"Here is what I have and need" are most often kill-filtered and your
entire message is lost in the process ending up costing you bandwidth
instead of bringing fills you may need.

As a rule, to ease any mishaps of this kind, post requests in one
subject
and post files for others in a whole new thread, preferably after
sending
a "Intent to post" notice a few days in advance.

When posting.

Please make sure you use a posting application capable of posting in
Yenc
format. Yenc, better described below in the FAQ, is a newer way to
encode
posts rather than using MIME or UUE and can reduce bandwidth costs for
a
downloader by up to 40%. Besides, for users of NNTP on Easynews, we
get
another 30% bandwidth for the use of Yenc tools in downloads.
A huge savings for everyone involved.

Also remember to include a simple NFO file. Also called Info, 00/00
file or TXT file in the beginning of your post. Include such facts
such as file codec, source, complete size of your upload (so the
downloader knows)
and other interesting information such as casting and more.

It has been a topic of discussion to change the NFO files to TXT as
they may
appear differently to W2K and XP users, however, binary file readers
do not
always catch files named with the .txt extension.

To further reduce bandwidth used, please read the section about RAR
files in the FAQ.

Segments in posts.

Most news servers read all kinds of file size well. However there are
a
few things to think about in posting segmented files.

Please limit the line count to 4000 or less. Some readers may still
have problems decoding Yenc in lines over 4000 in a single
segment/block.

Some Yenc and other encoder styles also have trouble with character
lines shorter than 512 byte. At the writing time I am not certain how
much this may affect the applications we commonly use here but it
should
not have that a great impact.

Some news servers may have difficulty retaining segmented files
properly
when the line count exceeds 2500. This has been a case on some fairly
large servers from time to time.



7. HOW TO DEAL WITH FLAMES AND RUDENESS

In short, we don't! The best way to entertain any flamer, spammer and
similar
less desirable individuals online is not to entertain them at all. As
such,
there are only two efficient ways to maneuver in cases of undesired
messaging
and flames.

In most cases, offending users are newcomers lacking the general
knowledge
and input as to how things are done where others are regulars. Don't
be too
fast to judge as we all were beginners in one form or another at one
time.
In most cases a courtesy-call in the message line could be enough to
alert
the offender to that something is not appreciated.

*TO NEWBIES*********************************************************
If you don't get a response, you could have been plonked.

Please note that some users may elect to automatically remove any
offensive
subjects and subject lines not conforming to the recommendations in
here,
and as such they will never show up to the other readers in this
group.

This is NOTHING PERSONAL!
It's simply a setting by a computer and computers are by their nature
stupid.
**********************************************************************

Alternative 1. Please use the PLONK button or link in your newsreader.
"Plonking" a user blocks the user by his/her selected nickname and you
will
not see what he/she is posting to the group. The user can still post
to the
group and may thereby cause scroll-offs and loss of retention however
you
will at least not have to sit and get agitated over the users
misbehavior.

"Plonking" is also a time-limited option in most newsreaders. You can
plonk
the user for a certain number of days, within which time the user
normally
will have self-regulated and left the group failing to instigate a
riot or
flame war. If you set the plonk to 0, most news readers will accept
that as
permanent plonking however as the user may leave shortly, this feature
is
unduly strong.

Alternative 2, use SCORE files.

A score file is a way to do a hard plonk and will allow you to specify
the newsgroups affected, sender by nickname, email address and much
more.
As such the SCORE option is more useful but also a more hardcore way
of
blocking messages from a user.

If your newsreader does not have the options to PLONK or SCORE a
poster,
please consider replacing your current application with one listed in
the application list below.



8. FAQ - Common File Extensions And Their Usage.

Once we all get online we realize that there are hundreds,
if not thousands of file extensions in use already.
In this document we touch but a few of them and the most commonly
used/affecting our usage.

Here follows a brief summary for quick reference;
Formats marked with * are further described below in later sections of
this FAQ.

NFO; W2K and XP may use these for configuration of the O/S.
We use them for regular TXT contents.
They will NOT damage your system as they contain no system
information. W98 users can specify their default program
to be Notepad for this type.

RAR, R##; Compression format used by WinRAR and RAR compression *
ZIP; Compression format used by WinZIP, LZH, Lzip Azip and others
PAR, P##; Parity file for file recovery of corrupted downloads *

PAR2; Parity file for file recovery of corrupted downloads *

SFV; File verification index using CRC or CRC32 for Cyclic Red.
Check *

MD5; Hash file (and not the potato kind) to determine file
corruption *

YNC; Yenc file format. If your newsreader cannot decode them on
the fly your downloads may appear as saved to ync files.

MPG, MPEG; Video file formatted for MPG,
usually MPEG-1 (VCD) or MPEG-2 (SVCD)

AVI; Win Video files, usually encoded in DivX or XviD codec.

AC3; A type of sound codec commonly associated with VOB files.

VOB; Video file format used on DVD's. Vob can be converted
directly
to MPG or AVI but does not retain the sound without using a
AC3 sound decoder first.

DAT; Video format as stored when you use MPG or AVI converted
to SVCD or VCD disks

CUE, BIN; Video format files, indicators for video disks
(VCD/SVCD).



9a. FAQ - What are RAR files?

What are .rar, .r00, etc files? And why use them?

Rar files are compressed and split archives. Nearly everything in the
newsgroup
is posted in this format. This is done to make successful downloading
much more
likely and it makes reposts much easier. It is the nature of the
Usenet that large
binary files are broken up into smaller parts automatically during the
data transfer
process. The files in a.b.m.j. usually run from a few megabytes to
several hundred MB.

If these files are posted in a single post and even one part doesn't
make it to
somebody's server, then the file is useless. When the files are split
up into
smaller, archived parts, the chances of the individual files arriving
intact
are greater. Also, even if some of the parts don't make it, the poster
only
needs to repost one small part to fill it.

Contained within a Rar archive is the multimedia file - in some form
that is
useable on the computer. Most frequently these are in MPEG or AVI
format, but
occasionally RM, ASF or others are used.

To uncompress these archives, you need to download every single part.
This can be anywhere from a few parts to over a hundred parts,
numbered
consecutively. For example, the file MOVIENAME will have parts named
MOVIENAME.r00,
MOVIENAME.r01, MOVIENAME.r02, - - - MOVIENAME.r??, MOVIENAME.rar. The
Rar parts will
be identical in size, except the last numbered part, which may be
smaller. When you
have downloaded ALL of the parts, including the xxx.rar part, you can
then use a Rar
program to combine and decompress these files. The poster may also
include additional
information files to help you. These may take the form of
MOVIENAME.txt, MOVIENAME.nfo
or MOVIENAME (00/xx). The "00" or "NFO" files are not part of the
archived binary, but
contain important information about the main file, playing/decoding
instructions or
repost requests. You should always read this information before doing
anything else.

NFO files are simply text files that can be read with Notepad or other
text reader.
Windows XP users may need to change the NFO extension to TXT for
proper reading. You
may also see files like MOVIENAME.sfv. These are error checking files
and are discussed below.

Rar programs can be found at: http://www.rarsoft.com (Who's computer is this?) for most major
platforms except Mac. Use http://macrar.free.fr (Who's computer is this?) for Rar version 2 for
Macs.
A version 3.0 Unrar utility for OSX only can be found at

http://webpages.charter.net/kyngchaos/software/ (Who's computer is this?) .

Also for MAC OSX, MacPAR Deluxe will create or extract PAR files or
extract Rar files - www.xs4all.nl/~gp/MacPAR_Deluxe/ .

Once you have the Rar program installed, you can simply double-click
on the xxx.rar
file and the program will take it from there. The result will be a
reconstituted
multimedia file in a hard drive location of your choice.

Posting large, unarchived files, or files archived in a non-RAR
format
(especially an uncommon one) is frowned upon and may cause people to
not
download your file, or even launch flames in your direction.

There are two kinds of error messages as you unrar a file:

A. "Invalid or corrupt authenticity information."

In this case, it merely means that the poster used an unregistered
version
of winrar, so that the error recovery data is not saved. Usually this
is not
a problem and the file should extract just fine, unless the files fail
the
crc check when checking with sfv (see B below). In that case, the
recovery
method will not work and a repost is required.

B. "CRC error."

In this case the files are actually damaged. Check the file size
against
the other files of the same archive. Sometimes it is possible to
repair the file
if the error recovery data is present. Other times, especially if the
file is
short by a few bytes, repair will not be possible. Damage can occur
anywhere
along the multiple-server pipeline from the poster to the news server.
If one
of the file repair methods does not work, the part must be downloaded
again,
either from a different news server or by way of a repost from the
original poster.

Rar Recovery Method [Bogus Name]

Yet another good reason to use rar is the recovery record in
the RAR file. In winRAR, highlight the affected R?? file,
select the Commands menu and click Repair Archive. Then rename
the resulting archive to the name of the corrupted archive
(after first renaming or moving the corrupted archive).
All should be well.

Another site with good explanations on rar files is at
http://www.freepicgirl.com/nero-x/ (Who's computer is this?)


9b. FAQ - PAR files

WHAT ARE THESE "PAR AND Pxx" FILES? ( Tobias Rieper )

To decrease repost requests and fills, many posters are using parity
volume sets.

Let's say, I have 20 rar volumes (foobar.r00 to .r18 + .rar). With
the appropriate
program I can create a parity volume set for those files. With a
setting of 10 %
redundancy, 3 files will be created:

foobar.P01
foobar.P02
foobar.PAR

This is a parity volume set.

The .Pxx files are called parity volumes. They contain a parity
checksum of
the files. The .PAR file is called index file. It contains information
on what
files are stored in the parity volume set and their checksums.

What's it for?

If a file stored in a parity volume is lost, you can restore it from
a parity
volume and the remaining files. Case in point, you are missing .r04.
Then you
can restore it out of .r00 to .r03, .r05 to .rar and one Pxx file. It
doesn't
matter, which Pxx file it is (p01/p02/p03) - every one will do. If you
miss 2
files, you can restore them with 2 parity volumes. (Again, it doesn't
matter which ones...)

So you can consider the Pxx files as "wildcards". Every one can
restore one missing file.

When does it not work?

If you're missing more files than parity volumes are available, you
can't
recover them. So you have to get more files or more parity volumes.

What do I have to do?

Step 0: get the program SmartPAR.

Download at:

http://www.disc-chord.com/smartpar/ (Who's computer is this?)

Read the manual and play a bit with it to see how it works...

Another good program is FSRaid at www.fluidstudios.com/fsraid.html .

For MAC OSX, try http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/MacPAR_Deluxe/ (Who's computer is this?) .

Step 1: Ignore it!

Download only the rar files and the sfv (as usual).

Step2: Try to get your files.

If a file is incomplete or corrupt, do the usual things.
(waiting a bit, trying other servers, trying the recovery record etc.)
Still missing one? (usually the time for a fill request):

Step 3: Determine how many files you are missing.

Do this the usual way or download the index file (PAR). It's small
and
works like a sfv, it can find and rename misnamed files too.

Step 4: Get your parity volumes.

Download as many Pxx files, as files are missing.
They have to be from the same set. What files you download, doesn't
matter.
The index file (PAR) doesn't count of course...

Step 5: Recover.

Restore your files. You can open the index file or a parity volume
with SmartPAR.
So the PAR file isn't really needed.

Missing more files than parity volumes are out there? Then request a
fill.

A suggestion about requesting filling:

Let's say, we have 3 parity volumes, but you're missing 4 files: r00
to r03.
You think "Sh**! I need one more file" and request a fill for r00.
Someone
else is missing r02 to r05. He requests r05. So the poster needs to
repost r00 and r05.

Better you state _ALL_ missing files in your request:

Attn. John Doe missing foobar.r00 to r03 - need 1 file.

Attn. John Doe: missing .r02-05 please post one of these


9c. FAQ - PAR2 Files

WHAT IS PAR2? WHY AND HOW SHOULD I USE IT? (JR - with a little help)
PAR2 is an improved, more advanced parity-based file recovery tool.
The developers built on the success and ease-of-use of the PAR v.1
system to add more flexibility and functionality.

The PAR v.2 system (PAR2) adds several improvements over the older
PAR,
but the most significant is the ability to recover incomplete RAR
archive
files by replacing only the missing file segments or "blocks."

PAR1 requires replacement of the entire corrupt or incomplete
archive file. For example, a post that includes 4 incomplete files,
each missing 2 blocks or segments, would require the download of 4
complete PAR files to replace the 4 incompletes. Using PAR2, the same
repairs could be made by downloading only 8 segments, meaning far less
bandwidth used for repairs. Additionally, even incomplete recovery
files
can be used for repairs, as long as the incomplete recovery files
contain
a sufficient number of complete segments.

An added advantage to the PAR2 system is that most PAR2 programs can
use
PAR1 files to make a PAR1 recovery when PAR2 files are not available.
There is no need to maintain 2 different parity recovery programs.

Disadvantages to the new PAR v.2 standard have been identified.
The major ones include a lack of cross-platform compatibility and
prohibitively
extended recovery times when large numbers of incomplete files must be
repaired.

Additional information, along with limited sets of downloads, can be
found at:

www.par2.net - and http://parchive.sourceforge.net (Who's computer is this?) .

SOFTWARE (Cliff H., Techie added Linux info)

Following is an incomplete list of PAR2 programs that are reported to
work:

Windows -

QuickPar <HTTP://parchive.sourceforge.net>

Mac OS 10.2 or higher -
MacPar Deluxe 2.6 <http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/MacPAR_deLuxe/ (Who's computer is this?) >

Linux/Unix/etc. -


http://rpms.mandrakeclub.com/rpms/mandrake-devel/contrib/amd64/parchive2-0.3-1mdk.amd64.html (Who's computer is this?)
USING PAR2 FILES.(Techie, Cliff H., JR)

Recovery:

A) Always download the otherwise incomplete or corrupted file
segments as
well as all complete segments. These are used by the recovery program
to
recover the missing blocks in between completed segments. (This is
unlike
PAR, which does not need/use the otherwise corrupt elements.) All
downloaded
parts must be in the same folder. The procedure for capturing
incomplete
archive files varies for each newsreader program.

See your documentation.

Instructions for Agent and MT Newswatcher 3.2+ (Mac) follow:

Agent 1.93+ -

Select the incomplete file. Choose the "Message" dropdown menu.
Then select the "Join" command. When the available segments are
listed, select all,
then click on "Save." Make sure the segments are saved to the same
folder as
the rest of the files.

MT Newswatcher 3.2+ (Mac) -

Expand the thread to see all the messages.
Select all the messages in the incomplete file segment.
Use the Extract Binaries Manually command in the News menu. Click
"Extract."

B) To check a file/files for corruption, you only need to download
the primary
PAR2 file to the same folder as the archive parts. Those with volume
numbers
contain data for recovery.

When you double click the PAR2 file, all individual "blocks" in a
file,
or files if segmented, will be counted and compared to the needed
amount
to make up a complete post.

If any files are missing, the PAR2 program will check all other files
in the folder.
To avoid wasting time, be sure the folder does not contain any files
that do
not belong in the set you are checking.

If the count says you "NEED ## MORE BLOCKS", you will have to
download additional VOL (volume) files.

C) When downloading volume files, note the numerical count in the
file's name.
PAR2 recovery files have names that end with "vol###+nn.PAR2", where
"+nn"
indicates the number of "blocks" included. For example,
"catseye-raw.vol001+02.PAR2"
has 2 recovery blocks. Download enough recovery files so the number of
blocks adds up
to what you need or more. Any combination of VOL files that contain
enough blocks will do.

When you have downloaded the needed number of blocks, put them in the
same folder
and run the initial PAR2 again. Repair of the file will start
automatically.
If enough blocks are present, select "Repair" and the program will do
the repair.

Creation:(Techie)

Reduce bandwidth usage and need for the end receivers download by
splitting a PAR2 file into several volume files.

In other words, create the standard set (app. 10) of volume
files.
There is no need storing 25 blocks in one volume file if a user
only
may needs to recover a few missing blocks.


I find it a good rule of thumb, to stick to the default settings
for
file naming. In this way, even beginners can find their way to the
files as they are default and easy to locate in the application.


The redundancy setting is by default 10 %. A higher setting means
a
higher safety margin, but also more blocks to store and more
blocks to upload.
In my experience I have never needed more than app. 5% to recover
any incomplete post.


Finally, if you store the created files and your post plan for
some time on
your PC before posting, make a trial recovery of the files before
posting.
This will alert you to if anything happened to the files between
the time
you created them, and the time you post them. Anything can happen
and if
your drive fails, and you upload without testing the files first,
the errors will simply propagate out to the receivers and a
complete
new file set must be created and uploaded.



9d. FAQ - SFV files

What are SFV files?

SFV stands for Simple File Validator and is used to determine if
files have
become corrupt during transfer. It does this by doing a CRC (cyclic
redundancy check).
The poster generates this (text)file with a SFV-generator and the
downloader checks it
with a SFV-program to see if there are any problems. After the check
it displays which
files contain CRC-errors and therefore are corrupt.

If a file is corrupt the first thing to do is try to repair it. Since
most archives
are created with a recovery record you should first try to repair the
file yourself.
See #1 above "What's with the .rar, .r00, etc files" on how to do
this. If this fails
you should make a request for a repost by using the guidelines in
"About repost requests
(Sod, some of these parts are incomplete!)". Before you do however,
first check
the newsgroups to see if it was reposted already or if there are
already outstanding
request(s) for it. Don't forget to also check
alt.binaries.multimedia.reposts (ABMR)
for reposts.

The programs:

The 2 most used programs for SFV are WinSFV and QuickSFV and are
fairly easy to use.
Most SFV's generated can be checked by the other SFV programs. One
exception is WinSFV.
The first line for this program must always include: ';Generated by
WIN- SFV32'
otherwise it won't work properly.

The only FAQ for WinSFV that exists at the moment is in Dutch. It is
supposed
to be translated to English, but the page hasn't been updated in a
while.
It does have a small section in English with the 3 most asked
questions.
It also offers the latest version (1.1a) for download. It is located
at

http://members.tripod.lycos.nl/winsfvfaq/ (Who's computer is this?)

The official page for QuickSFV is:

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Mouse/4668/index.html (Who's computer is this?)

and always has the latest version for download. A nice feature of
QuickSFV
is that it can generate SFV's compatible with WinSFV. That means it
generates
the first line that must be included for WinSFV in a SFV-file.

QuickSFV can be downloaded from:

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Mouse/4668/ (Who's computer is this?)

Other SFV generators/checkers are:

hksfvhttp://www.big-o-software.com/
nvCRC http://members.home.com/animeh/info/info.html (Who's computer is this?)
PdSFV (Windows and Linux version) http://pdsfv.isonews.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
CheckSFV (Linux and FreeBSD version) http://www.fodder.org/cksfv/ (Who's computer is this?)
Mac SFV checker: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~dereksmi/sfv.html (Who's computer is this?) .



9e. FAQ - MD5 Files

ABOUT MD5 (by GROINK)

MD5 is another algorithm used to validate a file's completeness.
It serves the same purpose as a SFV, with some advantages. In sum,
MD5 provides a more reliable checksum than CRC32 used in SFV,
especially in very large files.

For a more technical explanation: CRC32 generates 32-bits...
32-bits are not enough to ensure that even a 15MB file is unique.
You see, 32 bits gives us 4,294,967,296 bit combinations, while a
simple 15MB file has of them: 5,287*10^3084 (that's in scientific
notation,
it means the number has 3084 digits).

As you can see, there are many different 15MB files and there is a
possibility that the CRC32 algorithm used in SFV files will generate
same code for two completely different files. Normally, this is not
really a problem. Usually when files get corrupt, they do not have a
lot of changes being made (few bits/bytes) which are not enough to be
corrupt and still generate a valid code.

Usually, we generate SFV files on relatively small files (15MB),
not complete BIN/CUE or large video files (400MB or more).

Therefore, MD5, with its 128-bit algorithm, offer better avalanching
than CRC32 (this means even a single bit of difference will make
significant
impact on the output). Slowly, more and more people are switching to
MD5,
even though the majority is still using SFV.

PROGRAMS TO USE

Microsoft Windows 98 or later
- WinMD5 http://come.to/Chr.Nutz (Who's computer is this?)
- fsum http://www.slavasoft.com/fsum/ (Who's computer is this?)
- FileCheckMD5 http://www.brandonstaggs.com/filecheckmd5.html (Who's computer is this?)

UNIX/Linux
- Use man md5sum for instructions
- or check out
http://man.linuxquestions.org/index.php?query=md5&section=0&type=2 (Who's computer is this?)

Mac OS X
- Open Terminal, the use md5 {/path/to/the/file}
(Drag-n-Drop the file of interest to the open terminal window will
automatically
fill in the complete path.)

Further reading recommended:

RFC 1320 is about the MD4 Message-Digest Algorithm.
RFC 1321 is about the MD5 one.



9f. FAQ - YNC Files What is Yenc?

Yenc is a newer form of multi part encoding and single part encoding
files for transfer on the Internet. It is using a newer algorithm than
MIME64 or UUE base encoding and leaves files with up to 40% less size
to transfer.

In other words, it is faster than previous encoding used.

There has been many writings posted on the Internet as to why not
to use Yenc, be it its built on an old system with inherent errors
and more, however it's here and will stay for now.

If your newsreader cannot decode them on the fly,
you should seriously consider changing reader, as this encoding
format will save you bandwidth.



9g. FAQ - Software missing information in this document

Software / Tools - Still missing information here

The following sections are currently being reviewed and worked
on as time allows. However, if anyone has good ideas and wish to
contribute to these parts, please feel free to do so.

Still not included are...

VobSub (this applies to version 2.23)
VCDEasy (this applies to version 1.1.3)
About TMPGenc
About Nero



9h. FAQ - Virtual Dub

About VirtualDub (this applies to version 1.5.4 with AC3 support)

A couple of short hand notes from Techie about VirtualDub.

a)version 1.5.4 is the only one with support for AC 3 sound.
As such it is the optimal tool for VOB-to-AVI conversion.

b)When you do video conversions consider the speed requirements for
your PC to work optimally with Vdub. If you are using a 1.7 GHz PC,
even with up to 1 Gb RAM installed, and regular EIDE hard disks,
you may be forced to disable interleave in sound settings. Also
specifying a time laps for some files even up to 300 ms off in
either direction. See the off set note in Vdub for details.

On the other hand, if you have a 2.8 GHZ CPU, 2 Gb RAM and S-ATA
disks,
you may not need to do as much off set on the time. You can simply run
a pass and test the avi result for sound diffs, and then work with the
files without a problem, simply because your disk speed is so much
higher.

c)There is no faster way I have found to make Vdub take more ram and
run faster on a system with lots of RAM installed. Consider then
that MS Windows 98 is optimized for use with no more than 256 MB
RAM,
W2K upper recommendation is 512 Mb and for XP the same spec is 2 GB
RAM.
Even if the O/S supports more RAM, it does not imply that it can
allocate it properly.

Further more, Vdub will not use more memory either, due to the way
it is written to map the files while doing it's read & write
functions.

d)When re-encoding a file to include the new sound, be sure you don't
forget to specify the sound settings to "full processing mode" and
selecting a suitable output codec. Use the highest possible setting
if you end up doing both a first and a second generation encoding.
e)When specifying Video codec, should you select to use uncompressed
output for the avi, consider that a 45 minute show takes up about
75-80 GB of hdd space. instead select the highest possible setting
for a codec such as DivX 5.x at 4000 kbps for the video.

Should you end up doing a secondary encoding, when finalizing the
compression
to a ratio of app. 1,900 kbps in the second generation, you achieve
approx.
the same quality as with first generation clips at 750-800 kbps.

f)All of the above about Vdub may not apply to your version, system
and so on.
There is in fact only one long hard way to go about getting good
results in this.
That is to try it out, and prepare to re-encode several times for
the same original
until you hit a setting that seems to work for your computer.

g)There are a lot of useful tools in Vdub, such as cropping of the
output
video if you have apparent bleeds and other details popping up on
you.
Cropping is located under the menu option "FILTERS". Click ADD and
select NULLTRANSFORM.

When specifying a crop setting, remember if you use DivX that your
height
and width in the output file must be constrained to match a standard
file
format output. For instance if you use Y2 offset 10 and X2 offset by
20,
and your original clip is 720 x 480 pixels, it will be saved as 700 x
470
pixels, which is still ok according to the constrained proportions.
Once again,
test and test again to get it right.

h)To burn so-called soft subs into a avi as hard coded subs, select
FILTERS,
ADD, VobSub 2.23, provided you have FAQ - Main Concept Mpeg encoder



9i. Main Concept MPeg Encoder Help & Tips...

At a first glance, the Main Concept encoder does not hold to much
detailed
functions, and appears to be a simple tool to do a quick (it's really
fast)
conversion to MPeg of your encoded AVi's and VOB files.

However, looking behind the skin of this encoder, you soon find a lot
of
really advanced features, selection of multiple MPG's for
concatenation
and specific encoding settings.

Instead of going through their entire double digit help pages here,
check out Main Concept MPeg Encoder aid located at
http://www.dvdhelp.us/html/sefy/ (Who's computer is this?)

Also, you can download the Main Concept manual in PDF format from
MC's
web site. Links to this is provided in the application. Just make sure
you do get the right version and don't run get the first link that
shows up.



9j. FAQ - RM/RMVB Files and Conversion

RM/ RMVB video files hints, links and tips.

How to play RM files and RMVB files without installing the
RealPlayer.

To download the latest version of RealAlt, the alternative RM player,
visit http://www.click-now.net/html/RealAlternative.htm (Who's computer is this?)

This link currently offers downloads of RealAlt 1.21, 1.22 and 1.23.
Also note the specific limitations in RealAlt as all codec downloads
needed to play an RM file are automatic in Real Player but not in
RealAlt.

In fact, RealAlt is just a revised user model of the Classic Windows
Media
player 6.x which does know how to play RM and RMVB files if the codec
is not
any extraordinary type. Further more, you should be aware of the
limitations
of using SMI and SMIL files in

Real Alt - Media Player Classic, as it may only play the initial
few seconds of them and then skip over them completely.

FK's list of Tools for rm RealMedia

Edit and encode
Easy RealMedia Producer V1.8 & Editor V1.6
http://redcheek.net/erm/ermp_full.zip (Who's computer is this?)

Web : http://redcheek.net/erm/ (Who's computer is this?)

convert <HR> TMPGEnc Plus


http://myweb.hinet.net/home2/oz6877/TMPGEnc%20Plus-2.54.37.135_cht.zip (Who's computer is this?)
Real Alternative

http://myweb.hinet.net/home2/oz6877/realalt110.rar (Who's computer is this?)

This page, provided in Chinese, desribes with screen caps how to
convert RM to MPG with TMPGenc plus.

Web : http://myweb.hinet.net/home2/oz6877/1.htm (Who's computer is this?)

VirtualDub(freeware) VirtualDub is a very useful tool, this link will
tell you how to make it handle RealMedia files.

http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=231192 (Who's computer is this?)

Graphedit(freeware)

The idea of this is if I already have all the codec in my computer,
why I cannot
just use them to do the job. That is what Graphedit(freeware) is for.
http://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/89139.php (Who's computer is this?)

This example isn't for rm->avi, but you can use almost same way to do
the job

For Mac OS X conversion of rm & rmvb to avi or mpeg can be
accomplished with
the latest version of ffmpegX ver 0.0.9p (Shareware) at
http://homepage.mac.com/major4/ (Who's computer is this?)

9k. FAQ - Various News Reader Applications

A word about Newsreaders
(text provided by users mentioned in parenthesis where known)

Agent/Free Agent

For Windows, Agent (http://www.forteinc.com (Who's computer is this?) ) is very good. It is not
free though.
The free version, Free Agent, is usable but lacks some valuable
features like
sorting by subject line.

Agent Tricks and Tips. [inc]

A couple of things to know about Agent.

A.) Combining segments from multiple posts/servers:

In Agent, segments from a given part can be retained in a work folder
and later combined with other segments from a different post of the
same
part. Segments (or Sections) are the actual individual messages that
are
propagated by Usenet. You see them as something like foobar.r03
(4/16).

This segment would be the fourth message of the sixteen that make up
the
RAR part foobar.r03. If you have an incomplete part (say, only 14 of
16
segments of foobar.r03 made it), they can be saved to a work area
within
Agent and later combined with segments from a repost of that part.
(To make a work folder, be in the Groups/Folders window. Right-click
and chose New Folder.)

When you have segments to retain: <UL>
- Select the RAR part that has the messages you are going to
save.
- Choose "Message / Split sections"
- Select all the segments to save.
- Do "Online / Get selected message bodies."
- Right-click the messages and "Copy to Folder"

Then, later, if the part is reposted, but is again incomplete, you
can check if the segments missing from the first post made it, if
they did, save them to the same work area.

Once you have all the segments in the work folder.
- Select all the messages that make up the part
- Right-click and "Join sections"
- Verify the order & "Join" </UL>

The only requirement is that the poster is sending with the same
segment size on both posts (and, preferably, with the same software
& version).

This method can, of course, also be used to combine segments of
the same part post from different servers.

B.) Missing messages:

Your server may be loading messages out of numeric ID order.
By default, Agent just checks the ID of the last message you
have and grabs headers from there on. If any new messages went
on the server that has a lower id, you don't see them unless you
do a "Get all headers."

There is an option in Agent that can cure this:
"Options / User & System / System / Server creates messages out of
order" ==> Checked.

Agent will then check for holes in the message ID list.
Obviously slower, but you won't miss anything. Free Agent doesn't have
this option
- instead you have to open a newsgroup with the "download all headers
in selected
groups" command.

Another site with good explanations of how
to use Agent is at http://www.freepicgirl.com/nero-x/ (Who's computer is this?)

NewsGrabber [Severin]

For people with access to more than one news server, NewsGrabber,
[shareware, currently $17 and it's worth it IMHO] from TronTech at
www.news-grabber.com carries the Severin Seal Of Approval. While not
as easy to use as Agent or News Express this thing is AMAZING in that
it can piece together complete posts from parts gathered from any of
the servers you tell it about. ex: a 15 part article, with M1Jax
having
1, 4-6, and 14; M1Naples having 1-3, 11, 13-15; M1Pompano having 7;
AirNews having 1-6, 8-10; and EasyNews having 8-15 is complete from
NewsGrabber's point of view. @home users may find this particularly
useful, since I understand that all of their news servers are
available
to all of their customers.

Xnews [Meep Meep]

A excellent newsreader for binaries is Xnews, available at
http://xnews.3dnews.net (Who's computer is this?) - It is currently freeware.

It works best as an on-line browser, which is fine for people
who have constant-on connections (cable, dsl, etc).

It can be a little bit cryptic to use at first, but the manual is
very
clear. For downloading binaries, parts can be downloaded and held in
an
'archive' while you are waiting for the rest of a post, and assembled
afterwards (this really helps on @home servers, where early parts of a
post usually expire before the last parts of a post).

A newer feature is the 'q-archive', which does not download parts
but can let you queue up article parts across multiple servers and
then download them. Very cool (and space efficient). Keygens/serials
can be found at http://astalavista.box.sk/, (Who's computer is this?) use at your own risk.

Binary News Reaper - aka BNR[Yuri]

If you need an automated approach so that you never miss any binaries
get Binary News Reaper (free) at http://www.bnr2.org/ (Who's computer is this?) , You can setup
filters for your favorite posters or set filters for generic terms
like
".rar" , ".par" and so on. Also setup newsgroup refresh interval. If
you
have a BIG (200GB) hard drive, you can set it and forget it, go away
on
vacation for 2 weeks and be sure that all the binaries in your
favorite
newsgroup will be downloaded and ready to process when you get back.
this
works out very nice, because A) you won't need to ask for reposts and
B) you'll be all caught up, so you won't be spending countless hours
downloading a backlog of files that you want. Platform: Windows &
Linux

Other good newsreaders for Windows with no one writing a
review on them so check them out yourselves:

NewsbinPro http://www.newsbin.com (Who's computer is this?)
Newsrover http://www.newsrover.com (Who's computer is this?)

Linux Newsreaders (darkwire)

PAN (Pimp Ass Newsreader) http://www.superpimp.org/ (Who's computer is this?)

This is the newsreader I use for all my NG sessions under Linux.
It is very similar to XNews and Agent and seems to have taken the
best features from both. It is currently a work in progress, and
requires a fair amount of memory and resources to run. Since it is
beta, it does segfault occasionally, or gets a hung thread. But
otherwise,
I use it as my *only* newsreader, so I rely on it solely for all my
news needs.

Mac OS 9 and OS X Newsreader

MT-NewsWatcher (Freeware) http://www.smfr.org/mtnw/ (Who's computer is this?)

This newsreader is available for both OS9 and OSX. Good online
documentation.
Built in Yenc decoding, multi-threading and multi-server capable.



9l. SPAM - JPG Filtering and Spam reporting

Included addition from Groink - January 24,
2005=====================================

Subject: ABMJ Make binary postings FILTER FRIENDLY
From: groink

The solution to the filtering of legitimate JPEGs should never have
been in the hands
of the downloaders. but rather the posters. When posting a video file,
if there is
an image file that goes along with the video, it should be kept
together, wrapped
in a RAR package. Like I mentioned in an earlier posting, all
components of your
uploads should be kept in a single folder, and then package the folder
in a RAR.
An example package would include:

- AVI/MPEGs/other video files
- JPEGs related to the video (snapshots, posters, etc.)
- NFO files
- SFV and/or MD5 files

Even if you just want to post a single image file with nothing else,
still you should
put it in a RAR first.

Another idea would be to append a prefix to the subject name. for
example:

[ABMJ] Shinsengumi! Ep41 (esub,svcd) [xxxx......

That way, you can place a filter to look out for anything containing
[ABMJ]
in the subject name and maybe highlight them with a certain color.
Someone
outside of the abmj group would have to have vast knowledge of our
standards (if this became a standard) if they were to append that tag
on their
pr0n postings.

Some thoughts on the spammers... It'll be VERY difficult for them to
work around
these ideas I've expressed. They're posting those images on a massive
scale so
that it's impossible for them to stick [ABMJ] into the subject name.
Also, putting
their filth into RARs is also not in their best interest because it
doesn't allow for
the viewers to click-n-view them right on the spot. Even if they were
to stick
files infected with viruses into the RARs, your PC should be scanning
for viruses
as you unRAR the files.

If all posters were to follow these recommendations, everyone can then
filter out
JPEGs and other image files with confidence. I'd actually take it one
step further
and put this up for a vote so it's added to the FAQ as a recommended
standard.

Included addition from Techie, Hashi & Bob - January 25,
2005===========================

NOTE! - To the posters...

If you do post an image file in compressed format, make sure it does
NOT read
JPG anywhere in the subject line, file name posted or other places
where filters
will pick up on the JPG name. Otherwise it would be filtered as if it
was posted
in an uncompressed format.



Footnote by Techie in regards to
the issues of spam posters and reporting the same.

In light of the extensive spamming which has been going on since many
news servers
decided to dump the more questionable newsgroups, usually freqeunted
by pronographers,
the level of spam has increased on a logarithmic scale.

It is prudent for all to take an active part in cleaning up the
community a bit,
and as such make use of the methods to report spam which have been
made available to us.

Reporting spam is fairly simple, and can be done by the following
methods.

On Easynews.com;

Log in to your account.
Go to the web browser interface of the group you find spam in.
Check mark all posts you consider to be spam.
Click the "Report Spam" button at the top of the page.

While using only nntp readers;

Set your reader to "Show All Headers"
Look for a X- line named X-abuse
This line should contain an email address to the posters
originating news servers abuse account.
For example abuse@usenetserver.com

I am aware that this address used in the example is not available.
usenetserver.com will require that you visit their spam report web
page instead.

There may be others, but they vary from server to
server and can not all be included here.

As have been pointed out by AP, JR and others in ABMJ/ABMJR on several
occasions
it appears as if many of the smaller news server companies also are in
cahoots
with the spammers, and therefor no reaction is seen to spam reports.

With the ever growing posting ratio to the usenet, and the spools
being basically
generated from main sources and then concatenated into one huge spool,
it is also
in the interest of the commercial news servers to take their communal
responsibility
and filter out non responsive usenet servers and non compliant
posters.
Well this may be an opinion I'm standing for but I think it's
completely doable
and should be suggested time and time again to the servers.

Filtering as many times suggested, will only work if distinct
characteristics appear
in a spammers settings, and as we all know, many of these settings
change by the minute.

It will not necessarily help to use the KILL and PLONK settings made
available
in your applications but instead you may end up filtering out a lof of
information
you would really like to see. This is where Groink's examples above
come in very handy.

As we have said many times before, in regards to this "FAQ and
CHARTER" post,
it is not a law how things should be done, but suggestions made to
make the community
better on as a whole to all users.

Please follow the advise of those who are long time users and
experienced in the "accepted" parctice in groups you frequent.

--- Techie
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

FILTERING JPG POSTS...

If you are using XNews;

click Filter >> Custom Filter
In the SUBJECT field enter .jpg
checkmark INVERT
The FILTER BY option 1. Subject should by default be checked
already.
Click APPLY FILTER

The drawback with this is that you have to perform this procedure
every time you
open the news group you wish to filter. This setting is not remembered
between sessions.
A topic for suggestion to the developers of the applications
to include in a new release perhaps.

Note from "Hashi";

"You should probably look into scoring. a killscore on subject:
\.jpg
with hardkill turned on is a more persistent solution."


This should be possible to tie to the news group in particular by
specifying
a score file filter for the individual group. Thus making the filter a
more
viable solution for long time usage

If you are using Agent; (by Bob)


Set up the kill filter with the subject (not author). A space
after the colon, type ?.jpg . {The result is Subject: ?.jpg}


**HELP ADD MORE INFO
PLEASE*************************************************************

If you use another news reader (which many are) please submit
suggestions for inclusions
here to help users set their applications up in a proper way.

****************************************************************************************


Also note, that filtering the files as such, will not remove, report
spam or
give you the option to see it, to submit reports, and you may also
filter out any
jpg or other files you otherwise would like to get.

This once more falls on the posters to submit their posts in the
format
suggested by Groink above and will eventually become a standard.

Infact this principle is already used in many of the other binaries
groups where cover
shots and other graphics are expected to be posted along side some
multipart posts.

--- Techie with
help------------------------------------------------------------------




10a. A word about Fan-subbing (by Techie - subject to revisions)

So after having been part of a project from start to finish related
to sub titling of a season, I felt compelled to write something short
for all newbies out there, considering to start the same on their own.
Since I am not much of a writer, and when I start I tend to go on
forever, I'll stick to the short hand version of notes and thoughts
on the subject.

The simplest form possible and what to say about sub titling in
general,
Don't do them!Eeeh hmm well not really but if you really want to do
them,
make sure you consider the following.

You are not the writer/director!

In other words, don't make up a story line as you go, and make clear,
especially in fan-subbing, that you may be doing the subs for
educational
purposes, or some other personal reason, and you are solely sharing
the
data for others enjoyment. Even more so, your level of linguistic
skills
and so forth, should not be kept secret and don't be afraid to share
the
fact that you might not be fluent in the original language you are
translating
from. How ever, this is just why you're doing educational subs in the
first
place, isn't it?

Critics, they will be there so be prepared!

Critics are always out there and everyone can impossibly do the same
level of quality job as someone else, but better than others. Shrug it
off and be friendly but firm in the fact that your plan is laid out
and
can change, but also, you don't need to please everyone. This is, as
we
all know, impossible. And besides, we all begin somewhere.

Get the right tools for your needs!

After receiving several helpful hints and tips from many in the group,
it is clear that there are as many ways to write subs as there are
PC's
on the net. Everyone does not like the same tools, and some tools are
more useful than others much depending on your level of skills.

"Sub Station Alpha" may for instance be an excellent tool for those
who have a fairly advanced understanding of a language, and if you
can manage with writing subs only by hearing the sound track of a
scene or movie. For those of us who have less excellent understanding
and work with others provided material, we might not be helped at all
by the advanced features in this great little gadget.

Look for other tools such as "Sub Title Workshop", "Sub Creator" or
for that matter, work in notepad or Emacs (probably the worst ever
written text editor for Linux J), if you feel confident in getting
the job done.

I personally prefer "Sub Title Workshop" because it allows me
to preview the movie while editing time lines, as well as quickly
navigate the files by using keyboard commands only. To speed up
typing,
if I use others material, I will rather type in notepad first then
import
the file as a simpler format and simply click the time stamp into the
SMI
before going back and timing each line to fit the speech.

Timing!

As you hear, it is not as simple as to grab a file set
and expect to have the steps done in one sweep, unless
you know the applications by heart and the script equally as well.

Expect nothing less than hours on end in front of the screen to
get a good grip on the work you're about to take on.

A few hints about timing which have been useful for myself and others.
The best form of sub titles, are still the breath-by-breath provided
by very few sub-writers. However, it does put a certain demand on
the sub-writer as far as timing goes as well. These recommendations
apply equally as well to those of us who still have to stick to
writing a more commercially common form of subs.

Keep short comment subs for single or two word statements to
app. 1 - 1.5 second blips.

Longer single line sentences should be app. 2 - 4 seconds but
not begin before the speaking actor/actress starts talking and
also not linger on for seconds after the speaker stopped talking.

Double line subs may be used for a longer time, but once again,
see if you can't be somewhat creative and reduce the time text
lingers on from one speaking party to another.

If the dialogue is extremely rapid, you must consider to take the
artistic
freedom to some extent to shorten sentences, first of all by perhaps
not
focus on perfect language, finding synonym lines meaning the identical
thing.

Consider for instance the saying, "All my life, all I've ever gotten
was"
as a replacement for "All my life, everything I've ever gotten was".
Everything may sound better not to repeat the word all to many times,
however once it shows up on the screen "all" is a far better word to
eliminate undue line breakers. Still the word "all" per say is
grammatically
correct and not a bad result in this compromise.

Credits!

Give credits where due, and place them appropriately. In some cases
there
may not be enough room in the introduction for fan-sub titles and
credit
info, so don't fret it placing them last in the clip. As long as
credit
is given to those who help you, you'll come out ahead.

Original source of translations!

Consider at least to a start where your source material is coming
from.
Even if a sub title provided you from an earlier project is seemingly
correct, it may be so far from the truth that you can't believe the
outcome
from time to time.

Even commercially accepted sub titles aired on TV already, may be very
far off from the gist of the director or script, and you end up having
to re-do the entire sub title file from scratch anyway.

This is where it really comes in handy to be fluent in a language
before
attempting the sub title work, just don't let this discourage your
first
work effort along these lines. After all, you may learn some pretty
refined linguistic skills if you hang in there.

The same goes for how you time a show. If you look at the screen and
time
at the same time, you may turn lazy and simply accept some things
thrown
back to the screen.Try using audio over video as much as possible for
the
timing to flow better with the actually soundtrack in the clip.

Now there are about a gazillion other things to consider,
but this short section will hopefully help you in finding your
way to producing your own fan-subs for your favorite shows.

For more on tool tips, also refer to Dr. Mercury's Movie Kit normally
posted in alt.binaries.multimedia.utilities on Fridays. (at least for
now)

Techie - July 30th, 2004.



10b. A Word About News Server Providers

Disclaimer! The listed providers below are not affiliated with the
writer
of this document but are included solely for the purpose of
information and
education on the topic. Some of these services may not be available in
your
region, and pricing and similar interchangeable information has
intentionally
been left out. Please check disclaimers and policy statements issued
by each
provider before picking a service, which may be best for your
purposes.

"A word about news servers." (JR)

One of the more frustrating issues for regular Usenet users is the
problem
of incomplete parts or posts. 95%+ of the time, this is not the fault
of
the poster. Most likely it is a problem with the downloader's news
server.
Most Internet Service Providers (ISP) include Usenet access as part of
the
package you pay for. Unfortunately, the ISP is not in the news
business,
and does not devote much in the way of server space or other resources
to
his news server. It is a sad fact that anyone who wishes to do much
binary
downloading from the Usenet will not have much long-term success
depending
solely on his ISP's news server for access. Message reading and
occasional
binary downloading for free through the ISP are fine, but any kind of
volume
will probably necessitate something more reliable. This can take the
form of
multiple news servers through the ISP or a separate account with a
for-pay
premium news service. Most regular high-volume users have at least
one, and
in many cases more than one premium account. It costs a bit more per
month,
but is definitely worth it if one wishes to regularly download or post
binary files.

Think of it as the cost of a hobby. $10.00 or $20.00 (US)
per month is a lot less than the cost of most hobbies.

A list (very incomplete) of premium news services follows below.
Many regular users will respond to a request for recommendations
posted to the group. I highly encourage the use of premium services
for heavy downloading.

Most services have a website for information and many have free or
low cost trial periods.

Easynews - cheap, very long article retention, dedicated posting
server.

Supernews - reliable, good article completion, moderate retention.

Giganews - graduated price list, excellent retention and completion.
Newsguy

Usenetnews

NewsScene

Many others - do an internet search on "Usenet Service" or
"News Service," or ask in the group. You'll get lots of
recommendations.



11. The Toolbox - Tools and Utility Links

Due to the widespread use of different operating systems one and all
applications may not be available for all operating systems. Thus,
please verify with the providers of the applications if their company
has cross-O/S compatible applications. In 95% of all cases the
applications
are developed for Win environments first before being ported to other
systems.
This also reflects the global commonality of O/S's used by the end
user.

The following is a quick summary for shortcuts to the tools and
applications
specified above, which may prove useful to new users.

Video Tools

VirtualDub: http://virtualdub.org/ (Who's computer is this?)
VCDEasy: http://www.vcdeasy.org/ (Who's computer is this?)
VobSub: http://www.softpedia.com/public/cat/11/2/7/11-2-7-8.shtml (Who's computer is this?)
TmpgEnc: http://www.tmpgenc.net/ (Who's computer is this?)

Recovery Tools

SmartPAR: http://ice.prohosting.com/smartpar/ (Who's computer is this?) for PAR (1)

Windows PAR2


QuickPar: http://parchive.sourceforge.net (Who's computer is this?)
QuickPAR: http://www.quickpar.org.uk/index.htm (Who's computer is this?) for PAR2 recovery

Mac OS 10.2 or higher - PAR2


MacPar Deluxe 2.5.1 http://www.xs4all.nl/~gp/ (Who's computer is this?)

Linux/Unix/etc. - PAR2



http://rpms.mandrakeclub.com/rpms/mandrake-devel/contrib/amd64/parchive2-0.3-1mdk.amd64.html (Who's computer is this?)

QuickSFV: http://www.smr-usenet.com/tutor/sfv.shtml (Who's computer is this?)

Newsreaders

FreeAgent: http://www.forteinc.com/agent/download.php (Who's computer is this?)
Xnews: http://xnews.newsguy.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
NewsbinPro: http://www.newsbin.com (Who's computer is this?)
Newsrover: http://www.newsrover.com (Who's computer is this?)

Linux Newsreaders

PAN (Pimp Ass Newsreader) http://www.superpimp.org/ (Who's computer is this?)

When all else fails, try.


http://www.google.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.tucows.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.download.com/ (Who's computer is this?)
http://www.sourceforge.com/ (Who's computer is this?)