First I want to say I am a newbie since this week. Only have two complete good movies downloaded and the DVD burner I ordered isn't even here yet. During this week I have learned:

1. Read these forums; Being lazy and not reading will give you a lot of heartache and you will end up back here anyway when things don't go well. They are loaded with information you need to know to make LW work well.

2. Look at the size of the files in your search window. If they are around 700MB it is a complete file. If it is way small you have a short clip, preview or an incomplete file. (For more info on incomplete files search the forum using 'incomplete file'.

3. Right click on any title in the search and in the pop up menu click on Bitzi Web Lookup. Often there will be a rating there for the file and this will save you some headaches. While you are at their site register and download the software so you can add comments on files you have downloaded. How to use Bitzi Web Lookup (click on blue link)

4. When you have a partially downloaded file going you can click preview to see if it looks like a good file.

5. Have fun!


* As for fake files see these links: (a) Beware of Fake files in search results, __ (b) Typical virus spam file sizes - Make a note of them (click on blue link to see)

* Frequent used spam words to filter out: Direct instructions to eliminate porn from results (includes link to more words also)

My previous post has an error...I wrote 700KB when it should have said 700MB.

I downloaded "Pink Panther" and got the porn movie, "Deep Throat". Some pervert's idea of a cute trick, I guess.

I did a search for "Cheers", and got a dozen porn movies, but not one hit on the old TV sit com.

I did a search for "Frasier", and got a bunch of porn hits.

Will the Pro upgrade stop this? It would sure be worth the money if so.

Does anyone know of a way to prevent getting porn downloads, or mislabled hits?

Is anyone monitoring this? Is there anywhere to complain, so jerks who mislabel movies would be banned?

Dick

The Pro Limewire will not prevent porn files. Did you look up the files with Bitzi to see if they were rated? If you checked Bitzi and the file(s) were unrated then it's up for grabs what you might be about to download.
When I start to download a file with no Bitzi rating I let it get to about 10% and then preview it with a program I have to see if it looks like a good file. Do a Google search for VideoLan and download the free software...it's a video player that plays most files.

Following rsbabyone's advice carefully will help you to find what you're looking for! Size, Bitzi Lookup, & Previewing will all save you a lot of time, surprises & disappointment.

Common Gnutella Network video file formats: __ (see fuller list of video extensions here): Video File Formats (look under .m for variations of mpeg extensions.)

Recommended formats in blue:

mpg/mpeg/mpe (MPEG Video File), __ mp4 (MPEG-4 or H.264 Video File), __ dvx/divx (DivX-Encoded Movie File), __ xvid (Xvid-Encoded Video File), __ avi (Audio Video Interleave File), __ mkv (Matroska Video containor),
mov (Apple QuickTime Movie), __ wmv (Windows Media Video File), __ rm (Real Media File), __ 3gp (3GPP Multimedia File), __ swf/flv (Macromedia/Adobe Flash Movie),
amv (Anime Music Video File), __ m4v (iTunes Video File & is H.264 format), __ mkv (Matroska Video File)


* Both AVI & MOV extensions are 'containers' & can represent videos that have been formatted differently including encoded via DivX, XviD, Matroska, etc.
* MPG can represent mpeg 1 or 2 or 4 formats, but generally mpeg1 or 2.
* MOV files sometimes represent H.264 format videos, since .mov files encoded using QuickTime may represent any of the multiple QT formats.
* MOV files might not have been encoded with QuickTime, but a windows program that uses their own odd version of the file extension (such is commonly used for porn spam).


Movies should usually be 500 MB or larger. Short shows, between 150 MB or higher (generally 350 MB+).

Best Quality video formats in order of encoding efficiency & quality: (1) H.264, (2) DivX, (3) MPeg 4, (4) MPeg 2, (5) MPeg 1.
(Note: These are all 'Lossy' video formats which means saving them into these formats results in throwing away information to help them save & reduce in file size. Only as a last resort would you wish to re-save them into another lossy video format, and best to choose the highest quality option when doing so. XviD & 3ivx range in quality between standard MPeg 4 & DivX. _ DVD video uses MPeg 2 format. VCD uses MPeg 1 format & SVCD uses MPeg 2 format. Blu-ray Disc uses H.264 format. Lots of users would like to see maintaining of the original video dimensions where possible; eg: 720 x 480 (ntsc), 720 x 576 pixels (pal), or higher for HDD/widescreen. _____ VCD dimensions are much smaller; 352 x 288 Pal, 352 x 240 ntsc. SVCD = 480x480 ntsc, 480x576 pal. ___ Note: Whilst some video formats might be better than others, obviously it depends on quality settings when encoding the video as to how good the actual resultant video file is. For those encoding videos nowadays from originals, please choose original video view dimensions (eg: 720x480), a good HQ video format (eg: H.264) and high quality settings with VBR & preferably 2-pass encoding. Most people have fast speed internet connections nowadays & can download the extra larger size of higher quality videos! 1 GB plus in size no problem ... don't be shy to give it the quality it needs. )

If using an older DivX encoder, I'd instead recommend using MPeg Streamclip (Free) & encoding into H.264. It does a far better job than DivX. And, do not use mp3 for audio in DivX video encoding. (Besides, I've seen so many highly pixelated DivX videos, not to mention with mp3 audio which is difficult for converters to extract since mp3 is not a regular video audio format.)


Commonly spammed via formats (generally porn or rubbish): wm/wmv, _ asx (Microsoft ASF Redirector File), __ asf (Advanced Systems Format File), __ mov (those less than 150 MB in size), __ rm
(These files are generally less than 120 MB (120,000 KB) in size & not a bad idea to put this collection of extensions in word filter to remove them from search results, else be aware of their size & likely true spammed content.)


More about H.264 here _ (Click on blue link);
H.264 file extensions:
.avi -> Yes, people use .avi for H264 videos too!
.mp4 -> Nero Recode, Quicktime & MPeg Streamclip use this format. Better than AVI as you can store AAC audio as well. _ (.mp4 is also the default extension for MPeg 4 when saved via Quicktime Pro.)
.mov -> Quicktime also commonly uses this for H.264
.mkv -> Matroska container - can support many video and audio formats. Have a look here for more info. (An mkv file could contain 'any' video or audio format within, similar to avi & mov.)
.m4v -> used by various programs. This is a generic MPeg 4 format file extension.
.h264 -> This extension is not commonly used. Maybe in the future.

Where to get H.264 codec? Check H.264 converters for encoders. By the way, X.264 = H.264. The x264 Encoder is highly regarded. H.264 is already supplied for QuickTime Pro users. ___ MPeg Streamclip (Free) is a great program for converting to H.264 with more parameter control than Quicktime Pro (I suspect MPeg Streamclip actually uses X.264 due to its B-Frame abilities.)


Meaning of CODEC: (a) CODEC, __ (b) wikipedia definition of CODEC
No picture or sound on video playback? Check the list for Codec pack updates or players with in-built codecs to help with reliable playback (click on blue link)

To stop the creation of Preview files being created in the incomplete folder when you use the Preview function. Instead, go to the LimeWire Library window, (1) select the incomplete folder _ (ii) (click the Name bar so the arrow is pointing upward so it's in alphabetical order for ease of finding, unless you think arranging by size is easier then click that heading bar, or whichever manner is easiest to find the file), _ (2) Find the file you wish to preview in the incomplete list & select it, _ (3) Press the Launch button.

An alternative method is go to the Library window, select incomplete folder, press Explore button which will open the folder on your desktop (it may take you to the level up, so double-click on incomplete folder on the desktop to open the folder). Set to view in List/Details mode. Arrange the folder by date modified. You should find the file you wish to preview near the very top. Double-click the incomplete video file to open, else right-click the file & choose open with whichever video player you prefer. (see first technique example image below.)




Here is an example for the second method of launching an incomplete file, this time from an open folder on your desktop (this example is Mac OSX but same principle applies to both Windows & Linux):




For LW 5, you will need to right-click the incomplete file from the Download window, choose Get File info..., then from Information window, choose Locate on Disk. From the incomplete folder the file will be selected, simply open it. Incomplete files should be at least 5% downloaded, 10% better since downloading of the data is not necessarily in sequential order & parts of the beginning, middle & end only might have downloaded, so you can pan through to check. Sample image showing what to do below to check incomplete files (without creating Preview files.)



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Attached Images

	Launch-from-incomplete-fold.gif (17.6 KB, 432 views)
	Explore-incomplete-folder.gif (23.1 KB, 185 views)
	Launch-incomplete-file.gif (49.6 KB, 106 views)