broken rar/zip trick.

[sockmuncher]

if you have a rar/zip file with a video in it that for whatever reason did not download all of the way, put the rar/zip on your desktop, open your documents, right click on the file and hold then slide it into your docs, select extract here and let go of the right button.

right before it ends and gives you the error message popup box pause it.it might take a few trys depending on how big the broken file is. when you get it paused, usually on about 92%-96% restart your computer and the partially extracted wmv-avi-mpeg will be in your documents waiting to be clicked on.

if you dled 50% of 100mb rar then you get 50% of the video, only thing is it will still be 100mb.

this will also work if you have a slow connection and you want to take a peek before its finished but make sure you send the file to your docs becouse it will not let you extract while downloading to.

 

[techie]

If you download with torrent we should add, the best thing for previews is that you define in your torrent settings to prioritize the file for previews (an option in UTorrent, not sure on other bt-clients).

If you're on a windows system, sometimes the method suggested by sockmuncher (frequently used by myself) is a good way for any zip files that cause problems, even some crc32 errors.

You may have to re-enc the videos though. I suggest VirtualDub as a fast alternative where you can slide up to the cutoff point and quickly resave the video in a new avi.
This will also prevent problems from occurring since these "half-way-saved" files may cause your win media player to shut down before starting.

Media Player classic is less prone to this problem as it does not check as harshly that the whole file exists before starting to play it.

 

[sockmuncher]

yea that is true about windows media player i forgot to add that i use the GOM player and it works everytime.