Official U.S. Soccer web torrents thread, Part 4

OK:
MLS: Chicago Fire v NY RedBull - (9/3/06).mp4
Toyota Park
MSG broadcast
Two halves
704x536
Mp4 (h264/Standard AVC)
Up @ HPI now...

YiS

 

Re: Official U.S. Soccer web torrents thread, Part 3

Was going to PM, but I thought I'd share, since I got kinda carried away...ummm...yeah.
**********

As I mentioned, one cool way you can convert that VOB file is with VLC...which is sooooo much more than just a "great video player"...
Try this:
(oh, wait!)
*ahem*... Saeyddthe's Complete Chimp Guide™ to converting files using VLC (v0.85):

1~ Open the VLC player.

2~ Select "File" > "Open File"

3~ In the 'Open' dialogue box that pops up, the "File" tab should already be shown.

4~ Next to the "Open:" dropdown, click the "Browse..." button... navigate to, and select, the file you wish to convert.

5~ At the bottom, in the "Advanced Options" section, tick the box next to "Stream/Save"... (This should enable the "Settings..." button right next to it.)

6~ Click on the "Settings..." button.

7~ In the "Stream Output" dialogue window that pops up, and in the "Output" section, tick the box next to "File". (This should enable the dropdown and "Browse..." buttons next to it.)

8~ Click on that "Browse..." button. Navigate to the folder where you want to SAVE the new file to, and type in a name for your new file. *NOTE: If you already know what type of file you'll be converting it to (mpg/avi/mp4/divx/etc), you can add the file extension to the name now (filename.mpg/avi/etc), otherwise, you can still wait until the file is done, and rename it then...

X~ Here's where the Guide™ ends, and the fun part begins... You can experiment with any or all of the rest of the settings...and the very best part is: Once you "OK out", and let it start processing, you can click the stop button on the player at any time, and check out how the mess you just made turned out!

While this isn't the most efficient or desirable method for experienced users, I highly recommend playing around with this for beginners who are uncertain or unfamiliar with video conversion...or even better, for those who might want to try it, but don't want to bother downloading new software andtrying to figure that out... It's a great way to get acquainted with your basic containers and codecs, using bitrate and scaling...you can include any switchable audio streams from the original file...and it even has a basic function for coding subs!

Even better, you might want to try the same method for capturing streaming broadcasts...just select "File" > "Open Network Stream", instead of "File" > "File"... (Remember when MLS streamcasts used WMP last year? All you had to do was copy the address (in this case, 'MMS:blahbalhbalh') and paste it in VLC, using the "Network" tab instead of the "File" tab, then activating the appropriate field and pasting the address into the box, and then using the same "Stream/Save" - "Settings" to save the file...and you could watch it at the same time!
You can even re-broadcast it to wherever you want.
All in a "player" you already have!

OK, so as far as converting that VOB to a decent smaller file, the first settings to try would be:

"Encapsulation Method" : MP4

"Video codec" : h264 - "Bitrate (kb/s)" : 1024 (should be good enough, but it's up to you) - "Scaling" : 1
"Audio codec" : Doesn't really matter much for this one...and I'd add that turning the bitrate down a bit would save you some small bit of filesize if that's un/important to you...
"Subtitles codec" : Leave that unchecked...unless you want to create your own...

Misc:
"Select all elementary streams" : You can leave this unchecked...there aren't any secondary streams (or tracks) in this one...if you want to rip a movie from a DVD, and it has multiple language or commentary tracks, then you'd want to use this.

Then, just "OK out"...and it'll start the processing... VOB to "mp4" will be an overnighter (btw~ naming the file xyz.mp4 should work just fine in this case)...so I'd suggest doing a few 15 second runs, and checking out the result until you have what you like...

I know this particular Guide is a bit impromptu, but I think maybe a lot of video newbies/novices might want to try some of these things, but are either afraid to, or just sick of more experienced people telling them to use this or that (or worse...these) program that they just swear by...when they have no idea what any of the damn words in the so-called "user-friendly interface" mean...
When they're just starting out, they don't need to know the best way to do something...they just want the easiest...and preferrably using something they already have...


YiS
Saeyddthe

 

Re: Official U.S. Soccer web torrents thread, Part 3

Niiiice...
Street cred to the thread....

EDIT: I really need to get an NFO together for my soccer caps...pretty stupid of me really...good call on your part.

 

VLC...

btw~ How's that FAQ coming along?

 

Ignore all the technical mumbo-jumbo on the homepage... That's all for more advanced uses..

Use it just like WMP or whatever. It should play pretty much anything you got...right out of the box, so to speak.

If you don't know how to set file associations:
Right-click the file (or folder) you want to play, scroll down to "Open with", then select "VLC media player"...if it isn't listed yet, select "Choose program", then look for it there (probably under "Other programs")... If you want VLC to always open that type of file, check the box that says just that before you click 'OK'...(so all you have to do is double-click a file of the same type, and VLC will automatically open it from now on...)

or

If you're still confused...open VLC, select "File" > "Quick open file", then browse for whatever file you're trying to play...


...Just so there's no confusion there...

 

Wait.
Tell me they're not .rar files...?
I should have asked what the file extension was in the first place anyways...so that's my bad again.
RAR files are a newer and more efficient alternative to ZIP files...they just compress data to conserve filesize...makes uploading stuff a bit easier and quicker, you understand.

Just in case they are RAR files (and I think they are, based on clues in your posts), download and install WinRAR.
(btw~ I'd suggest letting it be associated with everything except ISO and something else that I can't remember , and let it embed in the shell...just my own opinion, and not a necessary step, though obviously RAR files must be checked ).

Then right click on the first file in the sequence and select "Unpack here" or "Unpack Files" (and select the target destination)...

Then it will unpack all the seperate files into one single file that will be what you were expecting to download...
(at which point, you can safely delete the RAR files)

IF the files aren't automatically associated with WinRAR, it'll probably be because they're listed as ".001, .002, etc"...
...just follow the same file association steps I outlined in the previous post.
(this is necessary for the first file only, btw...You don't need to associate every single number from .001 to .999 for it to work...all you need is for all the files to be present, but once it starts unpacking, and as long as all the files are in the same folder, it will know where to go and how to unpack it, because all the information for it to do so is in each seperate file already)...

...Then right-click the first file, and 'unpack' it the same way as before...


Sorry I don't have time for a truly Chimp Guide™ for this, but it's pretty complete anyway.
If, however, you have a different file that's giving you problems, let us know...

YiS