Alt.Binaries.VCD FAQ v. 5.01

FAQ for the ALT.BINARIES.VCD structure (Revision 5.01)

If you received this HTML file via some location other than at http://abvcd.how.to
or the VCD groups, there is a possibility that it may have been modified or may
be incomplete. Please refer to the web page if you think this FAQ has
inaccurate statements or post a message in ALT.BINARIES.VCD.D

As in most groups, it is up to you to make the most of what the newsgroups has to offer. However, there are a few tactical issues you should consider while you are participating here:

The files are stored in UNIX Compressed Format with a .Z file extension. WinZip, Winrar and many other archival utilities will decompress them. They can be viewed with any plain text viewer, but a simple text editor like notepad will not preserve the formatting. View them with something like WordPad, Microsoft Word, even Forte Agent's text message window will preserve the formatting.

Often times posts are incomplete because local ISP's have poor servers. If you are missing more than 10% of a multipart file, during normal traffic in the groups then start looking elsewhere.

Generally it is considered that you will have some sort of backup server or make use of the repost group. Posts are to be done in a considerate method here so that the majority that frequent these groups are not adversely affected. In other words no one should be posting in a way that forces a large amount of people to have to obtain a pay service to just be able to keep up. This is not to say that if this is going to be your hobby that you should not invest in a premium service, in fact many do.

BE WARNED Do not post movies through your ISP! Use easynews or usenetserver, see Links at the end of this FAQ.

This is the most important thing to consider. Good things come to those that know how to wait!

Ignorance is not Bliss!

With so many people willing to help and so many resources available to the newcomer, there is no excuse for not knowing how to conduct yourself in the group. Use good judgment as you may get flamed if you are impatient.

The VCD groups can be likened to the difference between a back hill road and a freeway in a large city. You would not drive the same way in the city as you would on a dirt road. This is the large city of the news groups with a huge amount of data poring through it, all it takes is a couple inconsiderate, impatient people to bring it to a grinding halt or severely impact a large amount of people's ability to download the posts.

If you want you head handed to you on a pole, breaking the charter will surely do it! These groups are not for the faint at heart nor for the new person testing out their software like on a back road where no one will care if you make a mess.

Because of the sever impact that an inconsiderate person can do here, beware that the regulars will show you the violation of the charter. If you are flagrant about not following the charter, your ISP will receive many letters asking that your head be handed to you. Violating the charter for news groups is taken very seriously by the ISP's, so much so that in your terms of service, it is more than likely referenced or directly stated that you must abide by the charter of the group.

The choice of many people for reading and occasional downloads is Forte's Agent. Forge Agent is the standard that many others try and duplicate. In the line of heavy downloads and not so much reading is MicroPlanets Gravity, Xnews, NewsBin and NewsGrabber to name just a few. You can also get these programs from Tucows.

Winrar by Rarsoft is the primarily used compression application used and preferred by most. Please stay away from the beta versions of their software if you are going to be posting, of those applications out there, Winrar beta is VERY beta and should not be used here. With the size of the mpeg files posted in the VCD structure the possibility of someone being able to successfully post and download a 600MB mpg file is few and far between. Please do not try as you will be flamed for it as a newbie move.

Most all posts have a file that ends in .SFV these are files that are used to verify if the file you downloaded is healthy or exactly as the poster supplied it. Among other programs use QuickSFV to verify the files you download to make sure you have everything correctly.

PARity files are for recovery of a completely missing file in a set of files. It was developed by someone that is familiar with the theory and use of RAID with hardware. It is applied it to a set of files thus allowing you to recover completely missing pieces to a set of files, the only condition being that you need as many PAR files as how many missing RAR files you have.

(If the whole RAR set has 40 rar files, and you're missing 3, then you need ANY three other .P?? files.)
The .PAR file is very small. It contains just the CRC values of the RAR files. Usually the .PAR file gets posted at the beginning of a post so you can keep up with the download and make sure that as it goes along you have the files in a condition that is good, or as the parity set was created.

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Q. Do I need the small .PAR file?

You do NOT need the small .PAR file, it is there as a convenience during the post before the actual .PXX files get posted (usually at the end of the cd in the post). Each .PXX file actually has the contents of the .PAR file in the body of the .PXX file.

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Q. What's the point? Just post the rar files again!

Ok, let's say that out of a post of 40 files, Alfie needs .RAR, Betty needs .R10, and Charlie needs .R15.

Dave, who has all the files (he may be the original poster) can create a "Parity" set. Rather than posting three files here, he can simply post the .PAR file (around 5KB) and ONE other parity file... (P01, or P02, or P05, etc).

Dave only needs to post 15MB (1 file), instead of 45MB (3 files).

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Q. How big are parity files?

The .PAR file is around 5KB. The other parity files (P01, P02, etc) are the same size as the RAR files. In A.B.VCD, most RAR files are 15MB.

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Q. Amazing! How does it work?

It uses math. On a smaller level, it's almost like this:
Imagine I have 20 cents, you have 15 cents, and Jimmy has 12 cents. The PAR file would add up the total... (47 cents).

Let's now assume Jimmy Hoffa goes missing. We add up the total of what we have (20 + 15) = 35 cents. The PAR files can figure that someone with 12 cents is missing.

In PAR files, it works on a similar principle, but working on a much smaller level (so a PAR file might contain 15 million totals for a 15MB file).

Things get a little more complex when multiple RAR files are missing. If we both go missing, and only Jimmy is left, his total is now 12c, and the PAR says 2 people with a total of 35c are missing. Using more math, and another 'totals' table, it can figure that one missing person should have 20 and the other 15.
(This is why we need one PAR file for each missing RAR file).

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Q. Who really cares?

Most serious usenet users recognise that most problems from missing files are caused by files no longer being on a server,(Duh) the file expired, (the server removed it from it's storage) so it could store more new files.

If three files are reposted, when only one needs to be, then that means another two files are being deleted from the server. This can cause a nasty cycle, causing people to now want reposts of those other two missing files.

The BEST solution right now, is to get people to subscribe to a premium news server (Less than $10/month) and get JUST THEIR MISSING FILES from that premium server. Most people should keep using their ISP's server for to get most of their files.

In the short term, PAR files cause more files to be initially posted, but in the long term, cause far LESS files to be reposted.

This gain works out only if people use PAR files.

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For an indepth examination of the file specifications where this all started, check out: http://sourceforge.net/projects/parchive

There are several windows programs that support PAR, they include but are not limited to the following;
http://www.fluidstudios.com/fsraid.html
http://www.disc-chord.com/smartpar

There are also other OS supported versions that can be found at the source forge: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=30568

Please do NOT include any support files like SFV or NFO files in the PAR set, As some older programs will require them to recover the other files. Make sure your PAR set ONLY contains the RAR files in it.

REV files are an attempt of Rarsoft's to incorporate PAR into the set of files produced by Winrar. It is in Beta at the update of the FAQ and not very reliable, please stay away from posting them and use something that produces PAR files instead.

An NFO file is basically a text file that contains information about what is contained in the file set. It may contain details of the movie, IMDB rating, size of the mpegs, posting sequence, how your handling reposts, there is no an established standard for an NFO file but the more information the better. Some are extremely well done but the clearer the better. Here is a samples of a basic NFO file,

Source Properties
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium: DVD
Video: Color, NTSC, MPEG-2, 720x480, 23.976fps, 16:9, Progressive
Audio: AC3, 48KHz, 16-Bit, Stereo, Dolby Digital

Media Properties
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Format: bin/cue
Video: SVCD 1.0 Compliant MPEG-2, 2496/900kbps, CQ90
Audio: MPEG Layer-2, 44.1KHz, 192kbps
Chapters: Yes (from source)
Discs: 2 x 650MB
Validation: Yes (QuickSFV)

Archive Properties
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Format: RAR
Part Size: 20,480,000 bytes
Recovery Record: Yes
Parity: 10% (FSRaid)<

Posting Policy
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.vcd.svcd
FAQ: http://how.to/abvcd
Validity: Articles are tested for completion and propagation.
Repost: None. Use PARs to fill.

Posting Schedule
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 1: NFO,PAR,RAR,R00-R19
Day 2: R20-R37,P01-P04
Day 3: NFO,PAR,RAR,R00-R19
Day 4: R20-R36,P01-P04
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An intent to post is basically a notice in advance of your desire to share something. It is used to see if the group really wants it and to see if the post would be a waste of space or not. The reason for an intent to post is to conserve bandwidth and utilize all available resources efficiently.

The purpose of the groups is to share but if no one wants what you have, there is no need to waste your time and the bandwidth on something that no one or a very few want. For this reason the charter specifies 48 hours must pass to allow for sufficient response. MAKE SURE TO WAIT 48 HOURS before posting to give enough time for replies.

The Intent to post can be the contents of the .NFO file but it is not to be an attachment like an NFO file would be.

The Intent to post is to be TEXT only, posted in the main group and crossposted to the discussion group (alt.binaries.vcd.d) and is the reason why it is not to be a binary attachment and only inline text.

The Intent To Post should be crossposted to the discussion group, since by definition, it is to elicit discussion, even if it's only a yea or nay. Also, the Charter specifically states that, "an article proposing the image MUST BE sent to the discussion group, alt.binaries.vcd.d." This is true for the VCD, SVCD and OTHER groups.

This does several things. The most important being that it lets people know what all is getting posted in all the VCD groups, since the discussion group becomes the central location for all Intent To Post articles. No need to pull headers in all the groups when there is a central place to find out what is getting posted. It also promotes the use of all the groups, kind of a reminder that there is life outside of the main group. :)

Any sample that gets posted, however, must comply with the specifications for the group it is posted to. So any ITP for the SVCD group that gets posted to the VCD group, the sample should still be posted only to the SVCD group. Anyone in the main VCD group that is interested can then pull headers in the SVCD group to download the sample. Alternatively, the poster can d/l the sample (or split sections and d/l just the first segment) to get the MessageID and then post that in the ITP to give folks a clickable URL.

MAKE SURE YOU SET THE FOLLOWUP-TO Header to point to alt.binaries.vcd.d as this is required by the charter for the group to see how to do this, Please see here for Agent and here for Power Post. This is so the most of the replies will be sent to the .d group where the discussion will be done.

Example:
Intent to post: alt.binaries.vcd,alt.binaries.vcd.d (follow-up set to alt.binaries.vcd.d)
Sample: alt.binaries.vcd (follow-up set to alt.binaries.vcd.d)

For more on this subject, see the section on Posting Pattern of files

If this is your first group or you are fairly new to Usenet, please read over a couple of web pages,

Welcome to Usenet
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/welcome/part1

Writing a Readable Message
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/writing-style/part1

A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/primer/part1

For the most part all discussion should be done in alt.binaries.vcd.d as that is the whole reason for the .d group namely Discussion. If your news server doesn't carry it, ask!

Following a thread in a newsgroup can be a very confusing and frustrating experience. It is always a good practice to spend some time developing a sense of what is going on before jumping in with a post or a remark or you may get your head cut off. Read the headers and body of messages. Do searches for a specific topic and see what is out there. It really is a sign of impatience and incompetence to just jump in, ask a question or a request without reading what is going on. This is a newsgroup. You are suppose to read!

News group discussion is done from top to bottom. The first message being at the top and then further messages put at the bottom. Please do not "Top Post" as when trying to ascertain what and whom you are talking too gets very easily lost, you may end up getting flamed for something you had nothing to do with because you interjected in the wrong location.

If your intent is to post a file or a series, realize that not everything is wanted nor warranted. Beware that there is a place and a time for everything and that holds very true for the VCD structure. Reposting a file in the wrong place may get you flamed and can even get you turned in for posting in the wrong group.
Please keep in mind that there are rules (charter) and they should be followed, reposts go in the respective .repost group, SVCD's go in the SVCD group and so on.

If you don't know what is OK then read the charters for the groups and of all things, ask!

The files that usually are preferred are in MPEG, and BIN/CUE format. The hierarchy is subdivided by format and not content, although anything above an MPAA rating of R is not to be posted to any of the VCD structure. There are more then enough other groups that cover the porn material.

There are several groups to the VCD structure and here is how the hierarchy is broken up;

ALT.BINARIES.VCD

The nature of the groups are focused on VCD and not lesser formats like ASF, AVI, DIVX, MOV, Jpeg so they are discouraged and will probably be subject to flaming possibly you loosing your ISP or News access due to the violation of the charter. Please, if you want to post any of these types of files, please do so in a group that allows the media. alt.binaries.multimedia, alt.binaries.movies or alt.binaries.mpeg are just a few, ask if your unsure.

If there is a specific group for your material that is more appropriate then it should not be posted here nor crossposted here. A message stating that it is being posted in said group is allowable but don't get carried away, 1 message is sufficient. A good example of this might be Startrek material. There is an ALT.BINARIES.STARTREK group, they will more then happy to see your material posted there. There are over 34,000 news groups. The reason for so many is the subject or material is specifically allowed or setup for that and caters to that subject or material.

Use Winrar (NOT THE BETA) get a copy and learn how to use it, cut the file into 10MB to 15MB chunks. Keep the subject line simple. If you have never made a post, watch how other people do it, or ask about procedures, a lot of people are very willing to help new posters. A poor post will exasperate downloader's so make sure you have tested your procedure in ALT.BINARIES.TEST

Use a good posting application like " Power post 2000 to do a multi-file post. Please don't post in sizes larger than 15Mb or smaller than 10Mb. Too small a file will dominate a viewers display window and they may end up adding you to a filter just so they can see what is going on.. Taking an entire CD and ripping into one file and posting that will aggravate anyone that hasn't got the kind of bandwidth or connection you do, the likelihood of it making it through is very low and just ends up wasting space.

If you put nothing in there, any time someone clicks on reply to the file, it will default to the group(s) the post originated in which is not good, new people will click reply and ask for a repost wherever it is if they don't know about the repost groups.

Power Post is not the best application for sending up an Intent to post because you can not alter the Followup-to for each post, if you are making an Intent to post then Forte Agent or something similar should be used so the proper followups can be done without accidentally sending the file as an attatchment to the .d group.

When you are at the composition window, click Message-->All Fields (or just Ctrl-D) In the list that appears, scroll down until you see Followup-To, and click it. The entry box just below should now say Value for Followup-To. Just type in al.binaries.vcd.d then click in the composition window and you're set.

You can also make this setting automatic for all your posts in a particular group. Right click on a Group name (a.b.vcd, e.g.) and choose Properties (not Default Properties, that would change it for all groups.) Go to the Post tab, check 'Override default settings, then scroll down in Fields 'til you see Followup-To. Click it, than check 'override default value' and type in alt.binaries.vcd.d.

Be careful that you set the correct followup-to setting for a particular group, though. As an example, set the default followup-to for the abvcd, abvcd.svcd, and abvcd.other groups to alt.binaries.vcd.d. There is no need to set it for the alt.binaries.vcd.d group itself since by default the setting is for the current group. In the other groups in the hierarchy, make the determination for where to set the followup on a case by case basis.

You also might like to put a note in your signature line that a follow-up to was set. It's just a polite thing to do or else they have no idea where their reply went.

Note that you can also override the followup-to if you wanted to when posting (for instance, if you know for a fact that a certain person replying to you doesn't carry the .d group.) Just clear the field when you are composing.

Generally VCDers expect a certain pattern of a post. Sure you may do it your own way but if you deviate from the standards that everyone has become accustomed to, you may actually cause minor wars because you didn't follow the pattern of a quality poster. What follows is an example of a post, you can use it as a basic starting point. Days 1, 2 & 3 are required by the charter so don't skip them.

Make sure to set the Follow-up in your post to be for the apropriate repost group, this is required by the charter of the main group that the follow-up point to the repost group. (See here for Agent) (See here for Power Post)
The Charter says this regarding it:

After talking with some news admins, the 400MB limit is really and truly the correct figure. The Charter also allows for increasing that limit when the Usenet infrastructure can handle it, BTW.

What many people cannot (or will not) understand is the way these groups really work, and why the highest volume groups (like this one) are a special case, not to mention why the highest volume groups get the most attention by news admins. The amount posted per day in a regular, normal, run-o-the-mill binary newsgroup is essentially irrelevant. What matters most, what has the biggest impact on things, is the Readership figure (the number of people who download stuff and the amount of MB's they download).

It's very hard to be able to convey this to someone who spends all their time in some binary group with relatively low readership, but that handles full CD's just fine. alt.binaries.old.games is a perfect example. It's one of the highest volume newsgroups in terms of bytes posted. It is currently number 7 on the list, but it's not even on the Top 250 list in terms of readership. So a relatively few number of people are downloading all those bytes.

In the Top 25 Readership newsgroups, the amount of data that gets posted becomes magnified exponentially in terms of the amount of data that gets downloaded. It's the download bandwidth that's the most expensive (because it's Upload bandwidth for the news server) and it's the download bandwidth that has the largest impact on Usenet as a whole, as well as determining retention and completeness of the data. One MB gets uploaded, but it gets downloaded many thousands of times. This can be significant when it comes to a high readership newsgroup.

In any binary newsgroup, posting 400MB versus 2GIGs is inconsequential in terms of storage in a news server. It's a drop in the bit bucket. BUT, if those 2GIGs are posted all at once, then they are going to be downloaded all at once. This is not a problem with the vast majority of newsgroups, since the majority of newsgroups have relatively low readership, and so if everyone in a group pulled those 2GIG's all at once, it doesn't have much of an effect on things. However, in a group like this one, where the readership is extremely high, 2GIGs downloaded all at once, in a single day by a bazillion people is a HUGE difference from 2GIGs being downloaded in 400MB daily chunks. Even 500MB versus 400MB has a huge impact with a group like this one, especially with a hot new release. And the hotter the release, the more damage will occur if we "look the other way just for this one" and let if all go up at once. The Lord Of The Rings flood proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The latest figures (as of April 2002) show alt.binaries.vcd as number 7 in terms of readership, and is currently at a percentage of 1.51% of all downloads (it usually bounces between 1-2%). That means that 1.51% of EVERY single article (multi-parts, text, everything) that gets downloaded from Usenet gets downloaded from this newsgroup. Considering there is more then 98,000 newsgroups and countless millions of articles, that's astounding! These ranking figures change from time to time, but not by much. alt.binaries.vcd is the only large file, full CD-type of newsgroup that is consistently on the Top 10 list. The others. on the average, deal primarily with much smaller files rather than full CD's of material. That makes the VCD group's ranking even all the more astounding.

The Top 25 newsgroups in readership contain 17 porn groups, 4 MP3 groups, 2 TV groups, 1 warez group, and alt.binaries.vcd. It should be noted that across the board, on the average, alt.binaries.vcd has just about 3 times the retention that these other 24 groups have, and it's no accident. The reason for the longer retention here is because we have a 400MB per day posting limit. Believe it or don't. But that's what 5 news admins have bluntly said, and that's also why news admins and ISP's will take very seriously a complaint about someone not observing it. A full CD or two posted here has some rather dramatic ramifications all over Usenet, and will be noticed by ISP's and news admins very quickly if left unchecked and more and more people refuse to observe it. Retention and completeness will suffer, and in some cases, ISP's will simply drop the group rather than throw money they cannot recoup at purchasing more upload bandwidth.

In terms of bytes posted, alt.binaries.vcd is number 9. It usually stays between 6 and 15 or so. That's the key to this newsgroup, consistency in posting. The repost group, incidentally, is currently 14 in bytes posted, but it's not even on the list of Top 250 in readership, which means that not that many people, relatively speaking, are downloading the posts from there. Most posts in the alt.binaries.vcd.repost group are for a small number of people, which is logical and to be expected. But that's also why is doesn't hurt much of anything when a full repost (if it's a repost, that is) or multiple posts of something go up in there - not that many people are downloading them. You could dump several gigs in there and it won't hurt the storage space on the servers. Now, if people started ignoring that charter, too, and started posting things in there that haven't first been posted in the main group, things would change on the server end dramatically, and not for the good.

The VCD Charter intentionally doesn't address requests for movies to be posted for this reason, so by default, they are permitted in the main groups. A Charter should expressly forbid something only if it is damaging to the group, or to Usenet as a whole.

Wrong-group requests for files, fills, parts, and off-topic binaries, etc., can lead to things getting done that disrupt or damage the group. A request for a movie is not likely to do so, regardless of where the request gets posted - to the .d group, the main group, etc.

It is recommended that crossposting it to the main group, as well as the .d group, and maybe even the .svcd and .other groups, as well. If itss crossposted like that, it is also recommended specifically setting the Followup-To: to the .d group for a centralized location for responses if the request were to spawn any discussions. (for how to do this with Agent go here).

A centralized location for responses would also better enable the group to determine and discuss if a previously posted movie would be considered a new post, or a repost, depending on how long ago it had been posted.

It should not be posted or crossposted it to the .repost groups, though, as it might be taken as a repost request and then be posted to that group, especially for something that had been previously posted, but would no longer be considered a repost in the main group.

This is called a HWIH post, (Here's What I Have - please fill in the rest).

Do not post partials except to fill a specific request for those pieces.

To do otherwise will simply result in more people missing the same pieces you are, which generates yet more requests for fills, which clutters up the group even more, etc. But even more than that, it is nothing but a useless waste of valuable server space which clogs up the group with worthless binaries that do nothing but push the complete archives off the servers and hastening file expiration times for everyone, including you.
If you are missing pieces of an archive, simply request the parts you are missing and be PATIENT... you'll get filled eventually.

If you can't get your fill you need, delete the files and go on with life or invest in a premium service that has better retention.

HWIH posts are THE supreme irritant for almost everyone in these groups and is an excellent way to be completely ignored by the very people who could have helped you with your fills (after they're done roasting you). In other words, posting like this won't get you FILLED, it will get you FILTERED, the exact apposite effect you were looking for.

A request done in the wrong place many times gets overlooked because in the main group there is a lot of traffic going on. You may think that no one is listening to your plead so you may think if you say it 5 or more times then someone will notice you. To be honest this is a sign that you are new and getting frustrated.

The problem is, if you ask for a repost in the wrong group, see here where repost requests belong then many will not see your request. You see, there is a feature of many news software that is called Filtering. You name gets added to the filter in a matter of right click, Filters, Add Kill Filter. Poof, your name is now filtered forever because you rudely tried to flood his view with your request.

Also many have rules set up so any time someone asks for anything labeled "Repost" or "Request" the line is filtered out so the users don't have to see the incorrectly placed repost requests.

So make your request in the apropriate group and do not be rude about it, we all have eyes and can see your request but if your rude you will never get what you want/need.

Make 1 request per 24 hour period, NOT 5 in a row.

No. If you want to post a message, be it a comment, a question, or a request for something, do not post a file attachment in order to do so. Any standard news client can post text messages. Usenet is based upon text. That's what it does best.

Many people, through ignorance or laziness, will use a binary-only posting client, like PowerPost (but there are many others), to post a request or some other simple text message to Usenet. And since these clients are not designed to post text, they are designed only to post binary file attachments, these people attach some small, inconsequential file (like an .ini file, or a .txt file, or .par, or .jpg, etc.) to the post in order to get the message posted into a header. This absolutely should not be done.

The reasons for not attaching a file to a text post are many, but the primary ones are that these little file attachments clutter the drives of those who read your messages, and they are almost certainly going to be an off-topic file attachment. For instance, there in no way an .ini file is going to be on topic in any of the VCD groups. Nor will a .txt file unless you are the poster of a movie and the .txt file is part of the post. Nor is a jpg file unless it is a support file for the movie you are posting. Nor is a .par or .sfv file unless you are posting a set of par files to support a movie you are posting. Even if the .par or .sfv file is for a currently posted movie, if that .par or .sfv file has already been posted, then it belongs in the repost group anyway, and even then, ONLY if someone requested that it be posted (the Charter for the repost group is very specific on this issue). Any other postings of these and other types of file attachments are off topic files.

Also, the posting of a file attachment in order to post a simple text message indicates to others that you have no idea whatsoever as to what you are doing, or that you are so lazy that you cannot fire up a basic Usenet news client like Agent, Xnews, Newsbin, Newspro, Outlook Express or some other standard client with which to properly post a message to Usenet. These types of users are often ignored, or worse, placed into the kill filters of the very people who can help you with your request or question.

The acceptance of SVCD media in the VCD group has been tolerated with the expressed understanding that someone would create alt.binaries.vcd.svcd or get the misplaced alt.binaries.svcd chartered. Once created the SVCD's would move out of the group completely and no longer be accepted in the VCD group. This was set forth approximately January of 2001, the group at large (TradeR, Viper69, me, Beegs, Lowen Taulman, Storm Seed, Automan, Kremen, Cyber (freakin), The Dude, Ragz, Popernicle, Flickboy, Astroboy, Just me, Spacey, Longo, Vidguy) among others where present in the group and active when this was discussed in length on January 2001.

As of the writing of this latest FAQ update (V5), SVCD's (and other non VCD-compliant material) in alt.binaries.vcd is understood to be immediately migrated to the appropriate newsgroups. All crossposts between alt.binaries.vcd and any other newsgroups shall cease no later than MAY 01, 2002. It's now time that the non VCD-compliant material is on its way to the news groups created for their purpose. All posts to alt.binaries.vcd are expected to fully comply with the alt.binaries.vcd. Charter.

This will facilitate the posting of unique (not crossposted) data into the new newsgroups and help ISP's and other news services recognize the need to add the appropriate alt.binaries.vcd.* subgroups based on the unique traffic patterns.
If your news server doesn't carry the new groups, ask them to pick them up. Most of them will not add them unless there are a sufficient number of requests for them.

The May 01 date is somewhat flexible, as a "grace" period for most posts will be in effect until June 01, 2002 - meaning, it's not likely that an ToS (Terms of Service Agreement, or Acceptable Use Policy, etc.) complaint will be filed if non-VCD compliant materials such as SVCd's are posted during this time. However, any flagrant and willful Charter violations will still be treated as such.

As of June 01, 2002, the grace period will no longer be in effect, and all postings are expected to comply with the Charter. Any that do not comply with the Charter will be addressed in the proper manner, up to and including, filing a ToS complaint for Charter violations with the ISP of the poster.

It is sincerely hoped that any complaints of Charter violations will be kept to an absolute minimum, and ideally, to zero. This is for several reasons, not the least of which is that no one wants to complain about someone to the point that they might lose their broadband internet access. However, if someone willfully, flagrantly, and adamantly refuses to comply with the Charter, then we are left with little else in the way of recourse.

Another reason we don't want to file complaints is the fact that if an ISP gets too many complaints from a particular newsgroup, the easiest way to deal with them is to simply drop the newsgroup from their news servers, eliminating any and all future complaints arising from their customer's activities in that group. We don't want to see an entire ISP's subscriber population lose access to these newsgroups. But is HAS happened in the past where an ISP simply drops an entire group or hierarchy, rather then have to deal with the irresponsibilities of it's own subscribers.

This question comes up many times in the group because someone was shown that their posting method or habits are in violation of the charter for the group and are trying to find a way out of having to abide by the rules/charter of the group.

The only one that can make a valid complaint against Copyright infringement is the Copyright holder or someone that has been given that task by the Copyright holder.

The charter of a group is something that anyone and everyone has within their grasp and has a right to enforce. The charter is a timeless thing, it will outlast regulars in the group, ISP's, Premium news services among other things. When someone violates the charter of the group, there are no flags that pop up, no sighs that stick out (unless it's a flood) so the users of the group are the ones that have to notice, speak up, point to the section of the charter that has been violated.

Everyone, including you have the right, the privilege to let the user know where they have gone astray but because you have no rights with regard to Copyright infringements, you can not say anything about that, you have no right, no power, no weight when trying to use that against someone that is trying to enforce the charter for the group.

The MPAA (or whoever) doesn't really care who you, specifically, are. The name you use doesn't matter (although, you really wouldn't want to use your real full name on Usenet, anyway). If your ISP outsources its Usenet news to Supernews, for example, and you post something through the Supernews servers, the MPAA will simply contact Supernews with a formal complaint, listing the headers of your posts. Supernews will usually then make an attempt to contact your first, rather than your ISP. If your e-mail address that is shown in the headers is valid, they will contact you directly. If not, they will simply block all of the posts coming from your IP. You'll be able to post, but they will all be filtered and never show up. They just stick you in the SPAM filter.

They still probably won't contact your ISP, as they really don't want you to lose your broadband access, either. But the MPAA isn't really going after you, exactly, but rather the news service that allows you to post copyright challenged material. (Even if you were posting using your real name, with your home phone and address listed, for legal reasons, the MPAA would likely contact your ISP or news service rather than you).

So, you'll then have to send an e-mail to the Supernews Abuse Guy pleading for access to Usenet, and promising to never, ever, under any circumstances, post copyright challenged material again. You'll then be granted access. Then, if you ever post copyright challenged material again, after promising not to do so, they will absolutely contact your ISP and you'll lose your broadband access. The reason is, it's Supernews' ass that's on the line. They don't want to risk a lawsuit from the MPAA.

News servers like Easynews and Usenetserver (UNS) do not keep access logs, so even if complaints get filed, they don't have the information needed to do anything about it. And they have policies that make it a little easier to post copyright material. Things like Terms of Service policy at UNS that state if a complaint is filed regarding the posting of copyright software, and the complainer can prove copyright ownership, they will make every attempt to remove said postings within 14 days. And of course, normal purging of articles will remove it within 14 days, anyway.

So it's better to post copyright challenged material through a 3rd party news server like Easynews and UNS, and it's a good idea not to even put the server in the position of having to mess with the MPAA in the first place, by disguising the movie name in the headers. After all, they are making it easy for us to do what we do, so we might as well at least attempt to take some of the heat off them, too.

Please read over the section What is the big deal with the 400MB limit, why not 800MB and hopefully, what is there will give you a better understanding of why the reporting of people who refuse to follow the Charter is even necessary. Reporting people is hard. It's always hard, and it always will be, for a lot of reasons. One is, if you report too many people or report too often, news admins and ISP's will do one of two things - they will either quit listening to you, or they will simply get tired of seeing complaints about their users and drop the group entirely. This is why it's so important to not report something trivial, something that's not really damaging to the group or to Usenet, even though it may be a violation of the Charter. There are tons of rules in the Charter that are absolutely NOT TOSable if reported. Tons of them. If people don't follow them, they are mainly annoying is all, and might not keep things running as smoothly as they would otherwise. Posting a repost request in the main group is one that's not damaging to the group, but posting the requested file in the main group is (it's an off-topic binary).

But there are others in there that will absolutely get you TOSed. Exceeding the posting limit is one of them, especially if done repeatedly, flagrantly and/or maliciously. Posting an off topic binary is another one, even a small utility, actually. The posting of off-topic binaries is very serious to an ISP or news admin. The amount of data is irrelevant. Posting a VCD that's not to specs, no matter how close-but-no-cigar it is, is considered off-topic since the Charter expressly states that fact, so an ISP will take it just as seriously as the Charter does. Text in a binary group is not TOSable, incidentally, unless it's a text flood done specifically to disrupt the group. (Can you imagine getting TOSed for a text flood? But it happens.) Excessive crossposting and reckless crossposting is another one that will get you TOSed, especially if just even one of the groups on the crosspost list has a Charter that the post violates. Even crossposting binaries to too many newsgroups (usually 5) can get you TOSed with many ISP's. Not many people realize that. There are lots of things in there that could go over here that are TOSable, but mainly it's common sense if you simply read and follow the Charter, or, in our case, even the FAQ. If someone follows the guidelines in the FAQ, they won't violate the Charter with anything TOSable.

The main reason that's it's hard to report people is that no one, wants to see someone lose their access. No one wants anyone to lose their access. It is very unfortunate that that's what it takes with some people. When a report is filed, it is also recommending that they NOT lose their access, even in the most blatant of cases. Most people willfully violate a charter simply because they don't believe they have to take one seriously. They think there are no rules on Usenet. Usually, a strong warning from their ISP or news admin will wake them up to reality and that's all it takes. Sometimes the ISP feels a warning isn't enough so they pull the plug. No one has control over that, however. Sure, most all who get warned or TOSed get pissed and whine and moan and sulk for weeks, months, even years in some cases, but at least they learn that there are, in fact, rules on Usenet, and they will usually follow them in the future.

What prompted all this are several things. A little history lesson is needed to explain this, it goes back to the fact that the main group had no charter.

There were rules in place, contained in the FAQ, and most people followed them. The few that didn't, people would complain, but since there was no charter, everything was permissible, FAQ or nor FAQ. But, as the group grew in popularity, and therefore bandwidth consumption, these few who refused to follow the rules were doing things that were begriming to cause problems at the server level.

Another thing that was adding to the problem was the allowance of SVCD's in the main group. Someone created a.b.svcd, but it was created improperly, and more importantly, it was misplaced in the hierarchy, so news admins classified it as rogue and many won't carry it. Because of that, it was decided to allow SVCD's in the VCD group until such time as an SVCD groups could be properly created and chartered(See HERE). It was assumed that this would happen in a matter of weeks or a few short months. In fact, it was started in alt.config but had some holes in it and the person that started the process never followed it up nor finished it.

All the above happened a around January 2001 (Read here). After more than a year of no SVCD group, there were many people who were starting to feel that enough was enough, and it was time to move the SVCD's out. Well, the problem with that was there was no Charter for the VCD group, so by default they couldn't be moved out, since everything is allowed if there is no Charter. And for that matter, none of the rules that were laid out in the FAQ were even remotely enforceable, including the binary floods.

So, the process of writing the charters for all the groups in the VCD hierarchy began, as well as the creation of some new newsgroups within the hierarchy. For the most part, the VCD Charter contains the same exact rules that were already present in the FAQ; they were already in place in the group. Many, many people had a hand in the creation of the Charter, though. It was openly discussed in the main group for months, there were well over 300 e-mails with suggestions and ideas, not including the countless e-mails from the smaller core of people who had an actual hand in the actual writing and proofreading of the many drafts of the Charter. All the while, the group was becoming more and more popular, with more and more of a Usenet bandwidth percentage being given to the VCD group. The floods and other mistakes by people were beginning to have more of an impact on things, but nothing was enforceable. News admins couldn't do anything about a few users without a charter in place. Their only option was to lower retention for the group, and it was getting very low on a lot of servers, less than 24-hours in some cases.

So here we are, about 4 or 5 months ago (around Jan 2002), the group is getting more and more popular, readership is growing exponentially, and therefore, everything that happens in here has a larger and larger impact on Usenet. A few hundred MB's uploaded here becomes several hundreds of gigs that get downloaded. And a flood, especially of a popular download, becomes detrimental to the group, and even to Usenet. This is no longer a regular binary newsgroup that can handle dumps of full CD's in a day. News servers are begining to further decrease retention, or in some cases, drop the group completely. More and more newbie's, and even some more experienced people began coming in and declaring that there ARE no rules on Usenet, and they set about to prove it. Well, at the time, they were right, since the VCD group had no Charter.

Then, the LOTR(Lord of the Rings) flood happened, and it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that this group is different from other binary groups. 4 CD's in about 36 hours were posted. More than 4 gigs including PARs. Because of the readership, the popularity of the downloads, those 4 gigs became magnified on an unprecedented scale, and it resulted in dramatically decreased retention, and massive incompleteness all over the alt.binaries.* hierarchy. Even text articles from other hierarchies were being dropped at the hub and router levels outside of Usenet. That flood caused problems that lasted for about 9 days. And still, there was no charter. No one could report the flooder to his posting news server for violating a Charter. It turns out, what he did was so bad, did so much damage, they TOSed him on their own after the first 15 hours or so, and he quickly moved to another news server which promptly did the same about 8 hours later. He then used another news server to post through, his own ISP, and they TOSed him, too. But not before it was all uploaded and the damage was done.

About 6 weeks later, on Fed 10, 2002, the Charter for the main group, as well as the newly created groups in the hierarchy were created and archived at the ISC. The Charter now had some teeth to it and would be enforced by news admins and ISP's when flagrant or malicious charter violations occurred. Most people, the vast majority in fact, posted according to the Charter, and retention was almost immediately raised at most servers. Still, some people didn't "get" it. They refused to believe they had to abide by a Charter. Those who refused to listen to people who asked them to post according to the Charter, and continued to post in a manner that was detrimental to the group, and to Usenet, some of them got reported however, not nearly as many as some would like to believe.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, (April 2002) a couple of particularly immature posters got reported, and they whined, screamed and cried very long and loud about it. One who kept posting messages that his news server would ignore any and all reports to them for Charter violations, so therefore he could do whatever he wanted to. Even posted irrelevant (and incorrect) snippets from the TOS at his news server to support his claims that he could do whatever he felt like. He flooded the group, was reported by several, and promptly got his posting privileges for a.b.vcd revoked. Whoops. So much for being able to do whatever you want to do, so much for 'there are no rules', so much for not having to follow a Charter. A couple of other people got reported, (not by Bugs, but Bugs got blamed for it anyway) and they caused quite a stir. They came after Bugs, primarily, but Automan, as well. Partly because they don't like it when I call a Charter violator names, especially when it's they who violated the charter and got called the names. Someone got the attention of some flooders, who started a coordinated campaign to come after the regulars here, and to take control of the groups, both the main and the discussion group.

The kiddies who whined and got the flooders attention apparently have seen their mistake, and have since disappeared, ironically, as we've not seen any posts from them since all this began. This is pretty much what was expected would happen to them. The flooder gang will continue their efforts to "clean up the group" but they will fail since the regulars have ways of filtering their filth out.

Originally, the Usenet was invented for discussions, i.e., exchange by textual messages. So, Usenet software and protocols were developed with this limitation in mind: all messages are textual.

When it was realized that it would be good to be able to post binary files as well, it presented a problem. Binary files, e.g. pictures, contain all sorts of byte codes, not only textual. Posting them meant violating the "text-only" limitation that had been built into Usenet software and protocols. So, the software would not accept binary files or would not work properly with them.

This problem found a simple solution: let's encode binary files in such a way that they contain only acceptable byte codes, and then we can post them. This is what encoding is for. Normally, encoding and decoding is performed transparently by your mail and news software and you don't have to know anything about it.

All encoding methods (uuencode, xxencode, base64 and binhex), except yEnc, use the same basic principle: they replace every 3 bytes of the original binary file with 4 bytes from an encoding table that contains only textual codes. It is a bit more complex than that, but this is the idea.

When you download an encoded file from the Usenet, your decoder performs the reverse transformation and you end up with the original binary file.

Please note that the size of the encoded file is at least 33% larger than the size of the original binary file.

yEnc is based on the recognition that not all "non-textual" byte codes are "bad" for the Usenet, but only a few of them. The rest can be posted and processed by Usenet software without any problems.

yEnc encodes binary files in two steps: first, it changes each byte by a constant in order to minimize the amount of "bad" bytes in the file. Second, it replaces each "bad" byte with a unique sequence of two bytes. Again, it is a little bit more complex than that, but not much.

As far as we know, this process increases the size of the encoded file only by 2-3% on average.

The advantage is obvious: about 30% of encoded file size savings. This means that posting and downloading binary files take about 30% less bandwidth and your time. Also, please keep in mind that binary groups consume most of the Usenet resources (news feed traffic and server storage space). Here is where yEnc brings savings, too.

VCD stands for 'Video Compact Disc' and basically it is a CD that contains moving pictures and sound. If you're familiar with regular audio/music CDs, then you will know what a VCD looks like. A VCD has the capacity to hold up to 74/80 minutes on 650MB/700MB CDs respectively of full-motion video along with quality stereo sound. VCDs use a compression standard called MPEG to store the video and audio. A VCD can be played on almost all standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. It is also possible to use menus and chapters, similar to DVDs, on a VCD and also simple photo album/slide shows with background audio. The quality of a VCD is about the same as VHS tape based movies. (This was taken directly from vcdhelp's VCD).

SVCD stands for "Super VideoCD". A SVCD is very similar to a VCD, it has the capacity to hold about 35-60 minutes on 74/80 min CDs of very good quality full-motion video along with up to 2 stereo audio tracks and also 4 removable subtitles. SVCDs use a compression standard called MPEG to store the video and audio. A SVCD can be played on many standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. It is also possible to use menus and chapters, similar to DVDs, on a SVCD and also simple photo album/slide shows with background audio. The quality of a SVCD is about the same, but usually better than SVHS tape based movies but it depends how many minutes you choose to store on a CD, less minutes/CD generally means higher quality. (This was taken directly from vcdhelp's SVCD).

YES! A VCD is an MPEG put onto a CD in a special way. But that's just like saying "Is an audio CD a wav file?"

Yes and no. A DVD is obviously a lot better quality. A VCD uses an MPEG-1 file format which is MPEG at 352x240 (NTSC) and a DVD uses MPEG-2 which is MPEG at 720x480. There are also many differences in audio quality and the like. DVD movies take up more space, obviously, which require the CDs to hold more space. DVD discs can hold around 13 gigs with 2 layers and 2 sides, although there are many different types of DVD discs, etc.

A DAT file is what is produced when you burn an MPEG to a VideoCD. It's an MPEG file, but it's not exactly the same as a MPEG-1 MPEG. There is house keeping data and some CRC data added to the mpeg as it is being burned to the CD and the .DAT file contains that extra data. You should not ever want to have a .DAT file -- you should always want to convert it to an MPEG. The only reason that they exist, is because people are too lazy to convert the file to MPEG when they rip it off a VCD. If you see one, convert it to MPEG with VCDgear using (DAT to mpg) and never ask for one.. it just confuses people.

A bin file is a CD image file created (probably) by CDRWIN. It usually comes with a .CUE file and they are both used together to burn an exact image of a CD with all the track information in tact. This saves people from having to figure out how to re add track information and other goodies like menu's to the compilation. They are a nice way for people to download movies, and burn them in the proper formats easily, and quickly.

To burn a bin/cue to a disc you will need to use an application that properly handles bin/cue data files, like CDRWin, CDRDAO (part of VCDEasy), BlindWrite and Fireburner. It is not a good idea to use Nero to burn bin/cue files of VCD/SVCD's since these are multi-track bin images. Nero will properly burn a single-track bin image just fine, but NOT a multi-track bin. The MPEG file can be extracted out of the bin using something like VCDGear or ISOBuster, which can then be burned with Nero. However, doing so will not preserve any of the extra features that may be present in the bin/cue, like chapters, entry points, multiple camera angles, etc.

None of these classify as a VCD or an SVCD so they are not welcome in the VCD structure. Please do not post them anywhere in the VCD hierarchy.

You can watch VCDs on your TV a number of different ways. The first and easiest way, is to buy a VideoCD player or DVD player that supports (S)VCD! Another way, although it isn't very easy, to watch VCDs on your TV is to have a computer set up with TV-out. The quality is usually pretty good, although it is not very convenient if you want to watch them at your friends house or if your wife wants to watch the movie when your at work.

A DVD player is the most likely method since the whole reason for sticking to specifications is so they will play on a set top machine. A lot of the newer DVD players will support the playing of VideoCDs. Check your documentation that came with the DVD player to see if it will work. Sometimes it's hard to get a DVD player to recognize home-brewed VCDs because they were not encoded to specification, but when they do.. they seem to work great.

Check at VCDHELP for reviews on DVD players.

Many of newer DVD players will play (S)VCD, the best way to know -- is to check the documentation that comes with the player! Also check at VCDHELP for reviews on DVD players to see if yours will.

Yes! almost any computer will play VCDs, because they are based on MPEG technology. If you have a 2x CD-ROM, and a video card with 2 Mb or more of memory -- it should work fine. If you are running windows95 or higher -- get the latest version of Microsoft windows media player. If you are running Mac Os, get the highest version of QuickTime available for your OS. If you are running windows 3.1 you will have to look for some software that plays MPEG files. Try http://www.tucows.com.

SVCD is another story, Microsoft media player doesn't natively have a MPEG-2 player, they call it a codec but is more then that. Microsoft's media player even after it has the drivers it needs tends to not get the aspect ratio correct, then you end up with tall people or some other bizarre results. Stick to software specifically designed for SVCD or DVD playback like WinDVD and PowerDVD, there are others, go to VCDHELP and click on HOW TO PLAY on the left side.

This is a very deep subject that is outside the scope of this article/FAQ.
For a hands-on approach, try Dr. Mercury's "DivX & SVCD Movie Kit", posted late Friday night to alt.binaries.multimedia.utilities. For a one-step procedure, use DVD2SVCD, avaliable from http://www.doom9.org.

The person capturing the film may have had an extremely old tape or they were using a camcorder in a theater. Another reason is because they are traded on VHS tapes 19 times before they are captured by a cheap capture card. VHS to VHS to VHS to VHS does not make good quality.

The dark ones are usually the telesyncs. They are usually dark, because the camera they used to cam the movie did not have good backlighting on it. Most telesyncs are darker than the original movie. Get used to it if you like bootlegs.

The Z, THX, AC3, Globe and NB symbols are from the groups who actually buy the VHS tapes and encode them to VCD. This is done to distinguish one release from another and usually to give credit in some way to the origination of the rip. The THX and AC3 is done to convince people to buy the movie because dumb will think that's what the audio quality is. Just ignore them. Sometimes you don't even notice them after a while until they start crawling all over the screen, I personally hate that.

Counters are usually on movies that are still in the process of being made -- such as work prints. Every camera and film has the counter from the camera in it before it is finished. Each camera having its own timing marks thus making it easier to be edited or add more content in a specific area from a specific camera. They are cropped out in the final release sent to the public in the theater.

You are probably watching a telesync if you are missing an audio track. Newer sound systems such as DTS have multiple channels of audio. (Left, right, back right, back center, etc.). When they telesync a movie, they get the audio from an alternate source like assisted listening devices. Because this alternate audio source is just the voices, a telesync maybe missing other audio that is present in the surround sound theater and that's why you don't actually hear all the sounds in some movies. It might also be that you are watching a work print version of the movie, where they might not have decided what sounds/music they are going to include at that particular point in the film. In some cases the sounds or music have not been created yet!

When the audio is hollow sounding on a VCD, it is because it was taped in a theater using the microphone on the tape, and not an alternate source. Since most theaters are big and open, it gives you that nice hollow effect. These are usually pretty bad, and most people don't keep them.

A Screener is a promotional tape sent out by the movie industry for various reasons. In the VideoCD scene it is implied that a screener has perfect quality... so that's pretty much what it has evolved into. Video is usually perfect, and Audio is usually perfect.

A Telesync is a movie that was recorded in a theater with some sort of camera. They are supposed to be camcorder on a tripod with a separate audio source, although people pretty much release any type of camcordered movie now and call it a telesync. If it's a true telesync the video is anywhere from fairly good to great, and the audio is near perfect. Be aware that there are now groups releasing movies that do not have an alternate audio source, and the audio is extremely hollow sounding... and at times can be unbearable. Make sure to get a sample to check the audio source.

A work print is a movie that is usually still in progress. It could possibly be missing scenes or audio tracks, but could also contains scenes that will not make it to the theater... such as alternate endings. They are usually released before the movie hits theaters. The audio is usually perfect, and the video is dependent on the original source... it can be anywhere from awful to perfect.

A cam is usually when someone took a CAMcorder into a theater, set it on a ledge, in a seat or put it on a tripod. These are usually low in quality because after all, it is a camcorder and the microphone on those are less then top grade. It is almost the same as telesync but without the external audio source.

A Telecine machine is a special type of machine and camera setup. Electronically synchronized where each frame is displayed and then captured. You will not see many Telecine rips, they are expensive to produce but when you see one, you will appreciate the quality. It is similar in quality to a high grade VCR tape that you would rent at blockbuster, about as good as you can get without having a DVD of it.

Most of these are work prints, or occasional promotional copies. They are made for advanced screening purposes to see how audiences react to the movies so they can make last minute changes, or to see how they will market the movie. Sometimes you will see work prints before they hit the theater because somebody who is working on the movie, or has access to the movie during production made a copy.

If your MPEG file won't burn to a VCD, because it says that it does not follow the Whitebook standard, or does not have a specific video/audio bitrate -- then you will probably have to re-encode it. The MPEG that you are trying to burn does not meet all of the standards of an MPEG-1 movie file. It's like trying to burn a wav file to an audio CD, but your wav file is the wrong bitrate or something like that.

If your DVD player won't recognize a VCD, then either: 1) your DVD player doesn't play VCDs 2) you didn't burn a true VCD 3) Your DVD player doesn't read CD-R's 4) the type of VCD you burned is not compatible with your DVD player. The best way to make sure your DVD player can play VCDs that you burn, is to burn on a good blank -- such as a Kodak gold, To create the VCD using WinOnCD or videopack4, and to close the session when you create it. I've seen DVD players that won't read VCDs, because the session was not closed, or finished.

If your VCD player won't recognize a VCD, then either: 1) It's broken 2) you didn't burn a true VCD 3) Your VCD player doesn't read CD-R's 4) the type of VCD you burned is not compatible with your VCD player. The best way to make sure your VCD player can play the VCDs that you burn, is to burn on a good blank -- such as a Kodak gold, To create the VCD using Nero or videopack4, and close the session when you create it. I've seen VCD players that won't read VCDs, because the session was not closed, or finished.

Some times an mpeg will go out of SYNC that is to say as the mpeg is playing back the audio gets ahead or behind the video and you get a lip-sync type of situation. The average person will not have a problem with up to 1 second of sync but when it gets to say beyond 2 seconds then for some people it is unbearable.

If the quality of the capture or conversion is something that warrants spending some time on it and you have the file space then you can possibly fix the problem or make it less noticeable.
This has been known to fix VCD and SVCD mpegs, it will require around 3 or 4 times the space that your existing data is taking up as you don't want to delete the originals until you are sure the end result has fixed the problem.

Here is one way of going about fixing the mpeg!

If you downloaded an MPEG, and it won't play at all -- then there isn't a whole lot I can do for you. Most of the time, people will have problems with MPEGs not playing, though, when they convert it to MPEG with VCDgear. If you converted your bin/cue file to MPEG with VCDgear, and the MPEG won't play with an updated version of windows media player -- try getting a different version of VCDgear, or try using the "fix" switch when you convert it. You may also try using -raw2dat, instead of -cue2mpg. Other than that, you might try opening it up with TMPGEnc, and reencoding it, but that's about all.

First make sure you have all the RAR files! This is a common mistake! After that, use QuickSFV and the .SFV file to check and make sure that the RAR files are not corrupted, or fail CRC check and you have all the files, it will tell all! In order for you to use SFV on your RAR files, you must have the ".SFV" file that came with the original RARs. If some of your files FAIL, then delete them and redownload them, You might try repairing the file, many posters include error correction data in the file for just such occasions. If it still doesn't pass the SFV then redownload the file. If it still won't extract, make sure you have enough room on your hard drive.

The SFV file is less used now, Use a .PAR file if the .SFV file was not provided.

It is also possible that the person used a beta version of Winrar to create the file set. You may need to download the one they created it with, do not load the beta version on top of your existing version if you have the latest full version rather put it in its own sub directory and do not associate it with the RAR files but rather open it only when needed.

The most common mistake. Open up the .CUE file with notepad, or any other text viewer (DOS EDIT), and look at the first line. It should look something like: FILE "D:\EVIL\RELEASES\EVILTS.BIN" BINARY First take off the path, and then, get rid of the quotes. The first line should look more like this: FILE EVILTS.BIN BINARY. If it's not burning after that, make sure that your burner is supported by CDRWIN.

Fireburner doesn't care about the file names in the cue file so if it still won't burn try it with Fireburner.

First of all, if you have a .DAT file -- convert it to mpg with VCDgear. You should never want/have/need a .DAT file! They are useless! They exist only because people are lazy/lame. Convert it to an MPEG, using VCDgear from www.vcdgear.com, and burn the MPEG to a VCD using an app like Nero as a VCD compilation, NOT A DATA compilation. That would be like trying to burn an Audio CD as a DATA CD, your car stereo won't play it that way, neither will a DVD/VCD player if not burned with the correct template.

A bin file, is a CD-image. (Read about bin files). They come with a cue file, and you can use any CDRWIN, CDRDAO, BlindWrite or Fireburner to burn them. If you burn the bin/cue file after you download them with any of these applications, your resulting CD should be a proper VCD. If, for some reason, you can't get any of these applications to work, convert the bin/cue files to an MPG file using VCDgear or ISOBuster. Then burn the MPG file as proper VCD/SVCD like you would normally with Nero.

NEVER try burning a BIN/CUE file with Nero, because of the nature of a BIN/CUE being multi-tracked, Nero doesn't create the session correctly and in most cases will cut off a bit of the beginning or end of the mpeg file (usually a bad thing), as well as not properly handling the second data track, which is the track that contains the instructions for any extra features.

You don't. CDRWIN is used for burning cue/bin files only. (In the VCD scene that is).

Note!!! If Nero complains when you add the mpg you have encoded the VCD MPG file to wrong format, you can then either let Nero encode to correct format or check our VCD Convert guides so you have encode correct or repair the MPG.

(For these same instructions and pictures, go to Vcdhelp's Nero burning page.

Sometimes you will get an MPEG-1 (VCD) or MPEG-2 (SVCD) file that was improperly created using an incorrect video packet size (muxrate, sector rate) or an incorrect system data stream type. When this occurs, not only will Nero and other burning applications balk due to non-compliance, but the resulting video will likely have audio sync or jitter problems. The fix is usually an easy one. All that is usually necessary is that you demux and remux the file.

When you demux (De-Multiplex) you are taking the audio/video MPEG file and separating out the two audio and video streams into two separate files. When you remux (Re-Multiplex) you are simply putting the separate audio and video streams back together into a single MPG file, and doing so with the correct system stream type for your project (VCD/SVCD).

To demux, open TMPGEnc and go to FILE | MPEG TOOLS. Click the Simple De-Multiplex tab. Click the BROWSE button and navigate to the MPG file you want to demux. Change the output paths or filenames is you wish, then click RUN. Wait a bit for the process to complete. Done.

In the above example, if you demux a file called movie.mpg you will get two files, an audio file called movie.mp2 and a video file called movie.m1v (for MPEG-1 VCD video) or movie.m2v (for MPEG-2 SVCD video).

To remux the separate audio/video streams back together, run TMPGEnc and go to FILE | MPEG TOOLS. Click the Simple Re-Multiplex tab. Click BROWSE and navigate to the appropriate video file (movie.m1v or movie.m2v) and so the same for the audio file (movie.mp2). Type in a path/filename or browse for a location for the output file.

When remuxing, it is critical that you choose the proper system stream TYPE in the top box in the remux dialog.

If it is to be a VCD, you must choose "MPEG-1 Video-CD" as the stream type. Choosing any other setting and your MPG file will not have the correct audio/video packet size, and will not be compliant with the VCD Specifications.

If it is to be an SVCD, you must choose "MPEG-2 Super VideoCD (VBR)" as the stream type. Choosing any other setting and your MPG file will not have the correct audio/video packet size, and will not be compliant with the SVCD Specifications.

TAO and DAO are methods of burning the disc.

TAO is Track-AT-Once.

TAO It burns each track, slight pause, then another track, slight pause, etc.

DAO is Disc-At-Once.

DAO burns the entire disc from beginning to end, without the pauses regardless of how many tracks there are on the disc.

If your burner can't do TAO, then on the Burn tab in Nero, right under the Write Speed box, change it from Track-at-once to Disc-at-once.

There are many other pieces of software that will burn an mpeg file as VCD or SVCD, this FAQ just covers the basics so please visit VCDHELP on their burning mpeg section since they have very detailed instructions along with pictures.

OK, now we get to the good stuff. A VCD is burned in mode2, like an audiocd. It doesn't matter how big the MPEG file is, because the only thing that is important is the playing time. 74 minutes for a regular CD. As long as your MPEG-1 MPEG file does not play longer than 74 minutes, it should fit on a CD. I usually keep my mpegs no longer than 70 minutes, because the VCD creation program usually uses some of that extra space for different things on the CD. So don't complain that you have a 700 meg file, and you don't know how to burn it! it's probably still only 70 minutes or something. TRY IT FIRST!

The 800MB MPG is probably a SVCD MPG. Make sure you're not trying to burn a SVCD as a VCD. The same principal as above applies though.

Because CDs were designed primarily for audio, their use for computer data requires the addition of header data and error correction codes which are included in every sector. There are two different types of sectors defined in the CD-ROM specification, Mode 1 and Mode 2 (the latter being used for CD-ROM XA discs, which is what VCD/SVCD discs are).

Video CD (VCD) discs use Mode 2, Form 2 sectors for the MPEG video, allowing faster data rates (172 Kbytes/sec instead of 150 Kbytes per second).

MODE 1 SECTORS...
Mode 1 sectors are intended for the storage of computer data. Mode 1 sectors are the simplest type and are used for most CD-ROM based formats which follow the Yellow Book standards.

Each sector on the disc is 2352 bytes, and contain 2048 bytes of user data. The 304 byte difference between the user data bytes and the total sector bytes are: an 8-byte header (Mins, Secs, Sectors and Mode), a 12-byte synchronization header (links to other sectors), and a 284-byte ECC (Error Correction Code) and EDC (Error Detection Code) header to provide extra protection which CD-ROM data needs. In the middle of all this is the 2048-bytes of user data.

MODE 2 SECTORS
The difference between Mode 1 and Mode 2 is that Mode 2 has an additional 8-byte sub-header that contains the content related parameters (data type) for that particular sector. This is necessary for CD-ROM XA in order to allow for mixed-mode CD's that contain both data and audio/video. Mode 2 also contains a 4-byte EDC header that detects, but not corrects, errors.

Mode 2 sectors can be either Form 1 or 2.

Mode 2 Form 1 sectors contain 2048 bytes, and is identical to Mode 1 CD's except for the additional sub-header that allows for mixed-mode CD's.

Mode 2 Form 2 sectors are the same 2352-bytes as Mode 1, but instead of containing only 2048-bytes of user data, they contain 2324-bytes of user data per sector (an extra 276-bytes of user data). On a standard 80-minute disc with 360000 sectors, that's an additional 94.75 MB's for data storage over a regular computer data disc of 2048-bytes of user data per sector. That's why you can put a 794MB file onto a 700MB CD. :)

Form 2 sectors, with no error correction, are suitable only for data where errors can be concealed (audio or video data).

As long as a VideoCD is created properly, it should work on any DVD player that supports VideoCDs. Keep in mind that not all DVD players will recognize home made CDs -- so that could be the problem. Make sure you check the manufacturers manual and see if it is VCD compliant. The same goes for SVCDs as well. Most newer standalone DVD players support SVCDs. Check your manual for more info.

Additionally VCDHELP has a detailed information page about DVD players including if they will play CD-R, VCD, SVCD, XSVCD and so on.

The easiest way is to try to burn it with Nero and compliance mode turned on. If it works, then your MPEG most likely is correct. Other than that, you can open the MPEG file up with ifilmedit -- right click on the thumbnail -- go to properties, and at the bottom it should say if it's VCD ready. Yes or No.

You can do this many number of ways but the most easy way is by using WinDVD or PowerDVD. They have a screen capture button that will make screen captures of the scene you are paused at.

Just about every media format out there has a set of standards that define the format. VCD is one such media.

The purpose of a formal VCD/SVCD CD disc standard is to achieve full worldwide compatibility between Players and Discs, so that all discs can play on all players. The standard is a disc format specification, specifying the physical, optical, disc organization, data retrieval, content formats, metadata, and API's on the disc. It is an implicit player or authoring systems specification. How to implement a player is up to each manufacturer, but a customer is expecting that the player (or drive) can support at least all the mandatory disc functions and features.

It is kind of like making a standard for the distance between railroad tracks.

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceptionally odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and the U.S. Railroads were built by English expatriates. Why did the English build them that way? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.

Why did they use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing. So why did the wagons have that particular odd spacing? If they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts. So who built those old rutted roads? The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? The ruts in the roads, which everyone had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels, were first formed by Roman war chariots. Since the chariots were made by Roman Empire, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. The U.S. standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches derives from the original specification for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Specifications and bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back end of two war horses.

When we see a space shuttle sitting on it's launching pad, there are two booster rockets attached to the side of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRB's. The SRB's are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB's might have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRB's had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory had to run through a tunnel in mountains. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track is about as wide as two horses' behinds. So, the major design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.

VCD/SVCD standards, as well as Usenet and newsgroup Charter standards are there for a reason, even if you don't necessarily know why they are there. And it's not hard to imagine that problems will occur if the standards are not adhered to.

There are 3 sets of standards that designate an MPEG file as being VCD compliant. 1 for PAL (Europe), 2 for NTSC (USA)
Any other formatting designates the media as NOT VCD compliant and thus not welcome in ALT.BINARIES.VCD

PAL

Video:
1150 kbit/sec MPEG-1
352 x 288 pixels
25 frames/second
Audio:
224 kbit/sec MPEG-1 Layer2
Extra:
Menus and chapters
Still pictures in 720x576,352x288

NTSC

Video:
1150 kbit/sec MPEG-1
352 x 240 pixels
29.97 frames/second
(23.976 frames/second NTSC Film)
Audio:
224 kbit/sec MPEG-1 Layer2
Extra:
Menus and chapters
Still pictures in 720x480,352x240

(Taken directly from http://www.vcdhelp.com/vcd.htm)
More info about VCD specifications listed at the above link, bottom of the page.

There are 3 sets of standards that designate an MPEG file as being SVCD compliant. 1 for PAL (Europe), 2 for NTSC (USA)
Any other formatting designates the media as NOT SVCD compliant and thus not welcome in ALT.BINARIES.VCD.SVCD

PAL

Video:
max 2524 kbit/sec MPEG-2 (if the audio is in 224 kbit/s), audio + video bitrate max bitrate is 2748 kbit/s.
480 x 576 pixels
25 frames/second
with up to 4 Subtitles

Audio:
from 32 - 384 kbit/sec MPEG-1 Layer2
with up to 2 Audio Tracks

Extra:
Menus and chapters.
Still pictures 704x576,352x288

NTSC / NTSC Film

Video:
max 2524 kbit/sec MPEG-2 (if the audio is in 224 kbit/s), audio + video bitrate max bitrate is 2748 kbit/s.
480 x 480 pixels
29.97 frames/second
23.976 frames/second (NTSC Film)
with up to 4 Subtitles

Audio:
from 32 - 384 kbit/sec MPEG-1 Layer2
with up to 2 Audio Tracks

Extra:
Menus and chapters.
Still pictures 704x480,352x240

(Taken directly from http://www.vcdhelp.com/svcd.htm)
More info about VCD specifications listed at the above link, bottom of the page.

Let's assume that everything appears to fit the standards of VCD or SVCD except that some encoding parameter doesn't quite fit into the specifications listed above. It might be the Video or Audio bitrate, the Frame size (resolution) or Frame rate. For example, many people often find that their DVD player will play a VCD with a video bitrate of much higher than the standard 1150, like 1600. Or they may be able to perfectly play an SVCD with a Frame size resolution of 720x480 rather than the standard size of 480x480, and perhaps a combined audio/video bitrate of as high as 3250 instead of the standard 2748.

These have eXtended the parameters beyond that of the standard specifications. They are defined as eXtended VCD (XVCD) and eXtended SVCD (XSVCD). How do you know if your DVD player will play such discs? Trial and error, mainly. Make good use of a CD-RW disc and test it out with different bitrates and resolutions to see what the limits of your player are. The DVD Players Compatibility List at VCDhelp.com will also give you an indication of whether or not your player will play them, and in the comments section you'll often find the parameters that will work, and those that will not work on your player.

So, where should these be posted to? Since a lot of people like to rip things outside of standards, a specific group was setup just for XVCD/XSVCD's.

ALT.BINARIES.VCD.OTHER

It is a newsgroup strictly for XVCD's and XSVCD's, not for DIVX, AVI, MOV or other multimedia files, nor is this group for posting mpeg's that comply 100% with VCD or SVCD specifications.