Rant: Why do people use rar files for videos?

[pcslookout]

You can stream .rar files as it extracts with certain programs that are video files.

 

[sdifox]

Just because I think something is retarded does not mean I don't know why it's done. I just don't think there's a point to it, it just adds an extra step and requires me to download a program, when they could have just shared the video file normally. This is equivalent to pasting a screenshot in Word, printing it, then faxing it to the help desk, when the screenshot could have just been sent directly in an email.

The corruption reason is silly, TCP/IP takes care of corruption as it will retransmit any data that did not make it properly. If the file is corrupted right at the source then no amount of splitting will fix that.

Just give it up already. It is done for a reason, you not accepting the reason is your own issue.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

http://blog.codinghorror.com/dont-use-zip-use-rar/

 

[CZroe]

The corruption reason is silly, TCP/IP takes care of corruption as it will retransmit any data that did not make it properly. If the file is corrupted right at the source then no amount of splitting will fix that.

Wrong. You are failing to consider incompleteness as a possible source of "corruption." If I spend all day downloading something and my source disappears or gets pulled or interrupted in any number of ways, as is OFTEN the case for huge downloads, I can move on to a new source and get the missing or incomplete files. It really is that simple. TCP isn't going to come swooping to my rescue.

 

[IEC]

Stop downloading warez and pr0n.

 

[Aikouka]

Well, I can tell that you've never suffered from having a single damaged RAR part in a large archive!

 

[Ichinisan]

Just because I think something is retarded does not mean I don't know why it's done. I just don't think there's a point to it, it just adds an extra step and requires me to download a program, when they could have just shared the video file normally. This is equivalent to pasting a screenshot in Word, printing it, then faxing it to the help desk, when the screenshot could have just been sent directly in an email.

The corruption reason is silly, TCP/IP takes care of corruption as it will retransmit any data that did not make it properly. If the file is corrupted right at the source then no amount of splitting will fix that.

Release groups put out their releases with nntp...which does require error correction. Also, each file is split into thousands of email messages and the newsgroup servers don't retain all of them forever.

 

[Murloc]

Wrong. You are failing to consider incompleteness as a possible source of "corruption." If I spend all day downloading something and my source disappears or gets pulled or interrupted in any number of ways, as is OFTEN the case for huge downloads, I can move on to a new source and get the missing or incomplete files. It really is that simple. TCP isn't going to come swooping to my rescue.

that's some obscure japanese porn you must be downloading.

Also torrents do all this for you, so there's no need to break up that exotic linux distro in pieces.

 

[Ichinisan]

that's some obscure japanese porn you must be downloading.

Also torrents do all this for you, so there's no need to break up that exotic linux distro in pieces.

Torrents can work in tandem with newsgroup parted RAR releases if warez kiddies knew what the hell they were doing. I've downloaded huge releases that were missing a couple pieces and used a torrent to fill-in the blanks....simultaneously reviving a dead torrent that was missing major parts from the swarm; which I restored. Since I downloaded the bulk of
It through a newsgroup, I downloaded it hundreds of times faster than I could have by torrent alone.

...and where do you get the impression that parted RAR = porn? Almost all PC/console warez and scener-released movies are released this way.

 

[sdifox]

Torrents can work in tandem with newsgroup parted RAR releases if warez kiddies knew what the hell they were doing. I've downloaded huge releases that were missing a couple pieces and used a torrent to fill-in the blanks....simultaneously reviving a dead torrent that was missing major parts from the swarm; which I restored. Since I downloaded the bulk of
It through a newsgroup, I downloaded it hundreds of times faster than I could have by torrent alone.

...and where do you get the impression that parted RAR = porn? Almost all PC/console warez and scener-released movies are released this way.

He's from Switzerland, where the internet backbones are those horns you see on Ricola ads :awe:

 

[Staples]

Pirates have been using rar for over a decade. That is why. What pisses me off is when I find a file (not related to piracy in rar). Why in the world would people compress a 25mb file in a format that an in box windows utility can't open. Windows can open zip, rar is a third party format.

 

[sdifox]

Pirates have been using rar for over a decade. That is why. What pisses me off is when I find a file (not related to piracy in rar). Why in the world would people compress a 25mb file in a format that an in box windows utility can't open. Windows can open zip, rar is a third party format.

lulz... zip is also a third party format... Just because MS chose to implement it doesn't mean they own it. I bet you don't remember pkzip.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I'm highly out-classed here.
I don't know how any archiving works, I don't know how I would go about compressing videos. (I had to. Sorry. ) I don't know how torrents work, how to revive one or anything really. All I know is to keep seeding and that my i7 hates archiving video.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wrong. You are failing to consider incompleteness as a possible source of "corruption." If I spend all day downloading something and my source disappears or gets pulled or interrupted in any number of ways, as is OFTEN the case for huge downloads, I can move on to a new source and get the missing or incomplete files. It really is that simple. TCP isn't going to come swooping to my rescue.

But like I said earlier, if that torrent gets pulled who's to say the next torrent will have those exact files. Sure people might redistribute the same torrent/content but odds of actually finding the same one is fairly slim and there wont be an easy way to tell. It's faster to just download another one fully than trying to find someone that happens to have those files somewhere.

Much easier to just offer the single file, it's less work for the person sharing and it's less work for the person downloading, and there's no need for 3rd party software or a special process.

Leave the content alone, just share it as is. The various protocols take care of data integrity and downloads don't take weeks. This is not 1995.

 

[destrekor]

But like I said earlier, if that torrent gets pulled who's to say the next torrent will have those exact files. Sure people might redistribute the same torrent/content but odds of actually finding the same one is fairly slim and there wont be an easy way to tell. It's faster to just download another one fully than trying to find someone that happens to have those files somewhere.

Much easier to just offer the single file, it's less work for the person sharing and it's less work for the person downloading, and there's no need for 3rd party software or a special process.

Leave the content alone, just share it as is. The various protocols take care of data integrity and downloads don't take weeks. This is not 1995.

This topic isn't concerning transfer corruption, rather it is the storage corruption that files can succumb to for various reasons. Internet protocols don't do a damn thing against that.

And that's the thing about torrents - if it goes dead, you either have to find a torrent of the same release (which, if done right, the file structure will be the same), or you find those individual packages you need to finish it from a host of other sites.
Or you can download the entire file again. Why, when you don't have to? For various reasons, bandwidth usage can cost a lot for some people these days.

 

[postmortemIA]

Stop downloading warez and pr0n.

+1
Unrar is free. But rar archiver is not. Preferred choice for ones that consider everything digital to be free.

 

[sdifox]

+1
Unrar is free. But rar archiver is not. Preferred choice for ones that consider everything digital to be free.

There are fee rar compressors.

 

[bbhaag]

This topic isn't concerning transfer corruption, rather it is the storage corruption that files can succumb to for various reasons. Internet protocols don't do a damn thing against that.

And that's the thing about torrents - if it goes dead, you either have to find a torrent of the same release (which, if done right, the file structure will be the same), or you find those individual packages you need to finish it from a host of other sites.
Or you can download the entire file again. Why, when you don't have to? For various reasons, bandwidth usage can cost a lot for some people these days.

Indeed

 

[pcslookout]

It compresses the video to a smaller size. So easier and faster to upload.

 

[MongGrel]

Red caught downloading porn off Mega. Priceless.

:biggrin:

 

[Dr. Zaus]

It compresses the video to a smaller size. So easier and faster to upload.

Interesting, could you tell me more?

 

[KlokWyze]

I got 99 problems but compression ain't one.

lol

rar gained popularity back when pirating big files w/ limited bandwidth, dropped connections, etc. lead to corrupted files.

old habits die hard

 

[VirtualLarry]

WTH is wrong with RAR? WinRAR is, or used to be, the first thing that I would put on a system.

 

[John Connor]

\ In Linux these files are completely useless to me. If it's something I badly need I'm stuck using winrar in a windows vm. Pain in the ass.

use 7Z! http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

 

[CZroe]

It compresses the video to a smaller size. So easier and faster to upload.

Incorrect. Modern video codecs are far more efficient and there is very little additional compression a general compression algorithm can do. As stated before, it's a holdover from newsgroups and zero-day warez distribution that makes perfect sense when you know about incomplete newsgroup retention, multiple source distribution, and other related issues.