Guide: How to download, extract, play and burn movies from this site


Made by Kyle

Downloading the movies on this blog
The movies on this blog are mostly supplied via the Rapidshare file service. For movies that only come in a small number of parts, you might simply want to click the links and save each one manually. For bigger movies, especially DVDs, you will find it far easier if you use a download manager. We use JDownloader, which is a powerful program that can handle downloads from many different share sites. JDownloader is especially useful if you do not have a premium membership at the share site, because it will queue your downloads, and automatically get them for you when the annoying countdowns are over. Get JDownlaoder from:
http://jdownloader.org/
With my DVD uploads, you only need to click on the linklist, and it will automatically transfer the entire list of downloads to JDownloader (provided JDownloader is running of course!). With Mike’s files, you must click on the link, then in the download window that pops up, select the URL at the top of the window, right click, and select copy. This will then copy the URL to JDownloader.
Once you have a list of links that you want to download, right click in the JDownloader Linkgrabber window and select Continue with all. Your files will be downloaded and saved to the default JDownloader directory.
Read the JDownloader manual for more details on how to use the program.

Warning!  By default, JDownloader will automatically extract RARs or join HSplit archives. This is useful, but you can end up with extracted files that only have a bit of the movie, especially if you only used JDownloader to get the first part. Personally, I disable JDownloader’s automatic extraction process. To do that, open JDownloader, click the Settings tab, and go to Plugins & Addons, click the word Extensions, then ensure that JD Unrar and HJSplit are deselected.

Clicking a link brings up a window of text garbage
When a file is split using hjsplit or a similar program, the first file will have the extension “.001)”. For some reason this causes Rapidshare a problem. There are three ways you can overcome this: the first is simply to use the Mozilla Firefox web browser instead of Internet Explorer. You can download Firefox from:
http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/
The second way is to clear Internet Explorer’s cookies and browsing history. However, the easiest solution is to copy the link for the garbage page into Jdownloader, as described in the previous section. Jdownloader will then download the file perfectly.

Extracting the video files
Files are provided on this site in one of two ways: in RAR archives, or as HJSplit archives. The file sharing sites impose a limit on file size of 100MB, so if we are sharing 700MB movie file, it has to be split up into 7 parts. Historically, people use HJsplit or similar to split and join videos because even if one of the files is missing, the program will make a playable video file, with part of the movie missing.
When it comes to DVDs, they cannot be played if part of the file is missing, so it makes sense to use WinRAR, which produces smaller files.
You can download HJSplit from here:
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/desktop/file_managers/hjsplit.cfm
You can download WinRAR from here:
http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
Both programs are completely self-explanatory.

The difference between file formats and file codecs
File formats are the container files used to contain video. AVI, FLV, MPG, Quicktime and so on. The extension denotes that the file contains video, just a an MP3 extension tells you that a files contains audio.
Codecs are the video recording systems used to encode and decode the video. Different codecs provide a different balance between quality and file size.  Common codecs are MP4, DIVX, XVID, MPEG, and so on.
Your computer needs to understand both the file format AND the codec to play a video.
The easiest solution is the KLite Codec pack – see below.

Playing the movies on this blog
Most of the movies on this site are provided as compressed videos in avi, MPG, wmv or FLV formats. You can play all of these formats and far more using Media Player Classic, which is available as part of the KLite codec pack from here:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/k_lite_codec_pack.htm
Download and install the entire package using the default settings and it will install all of the codecs (video decoders) so that your PC can play all of the different file formats and codecs. Media Player Classic looks old, but it is actually a far more  powerful and versatile player than Windows Media Player.
You can either load Media Player Classic, then open videos using its file/open menu option, or you can associate all of your video file types with the program so that they will automatically load in Media Player Classic when you double click them in Windows Explorer.

DVD images
We have started to provide some popular movies in DVD format. These must be extracted in the same way as movie files, but the end result is an ISO file, that cannot be played in any kind of video player. An ISO is a self contained image of a disc, and it’s a great way to distribute a disc so that other people can simply burn the disc without having to mess around with folders, or file structures.
You have two options: you can burn the ISO to a DVD which will then play on your set-top DVD player, or you can mount the ISO into a virtual DVD drive on your computer using Daemon Tools, and play it with your favourite DVD player software (I recommend Cyberlink PowerDVD).

Burning an ISO
Both Nero and Roxio can burn ISO to a DVD disc, so I won’t waste time explaining them. My preferred choice is DVD Decrypter, a banned program that can also be used to take the protection off commercial DVDs so that they can be copied and shared. Get it here:
http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk/
Simply go to the Mode menu, and choose ISO/Write. Then choose the ISO file you want to burn, set the write speed, and click the Go button. 5 minutes later you’ll have a DVD with all the menus and features intact!

Large DVD images
We believe that people on this site have a special appreciation for quality and extra features like commentaries, and making of documentaries, so we will sometimes share images that are too large to fit onto a single layer DVD. Dual layer DVD only cost about 50 cents if you buy in bulk, and considering many of these movies may not be available in your country, it’s worth the investment!
Single DVDs have a capacity of 4.7GB. If a movie file is larger than that, DVD Decrypter will inform you that you need a larger disc.
If you do not wish to buy larger discs, you can still mount large ISOs using Daemon Tools, and play the DVDs directly on your computer.

Mounting ISOs on your computer so that you don’t have to burn them
If you prefer not to burn DVDs, you can still play ISO DVDs directly on your computer. You will need a virtual drive program such as Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120%. You can download Daemon Tools here:
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/eng/downloads
the free Lite version is fine for your needs.
Simply install the program, then add the required ISO. When you want to play it, use the mount option. The ISO will then be transferred to Daemon Tools’ virtual DVD drive, and will appear to your computer just the same as if you put a DVD movie into a regular DVD ROM drive. You can then play it using your favourite player software.
A small correction about ISO files:
An ISO file can be played using VLC Media Player.  It will appear on your computer just as it would if it were burned to DVD and played in a DVD player.
A quick bit about different region codes and TV formats
In an effort to control the distribution of DVDs, most publishers embed regional coding to the DVD so that, in theory, it can only be played in the territory or country matching that code. For instance, region code 1 means America and Canada, 2 means Europe and Australia, etc. Most set-top players will only play DVDs encoded for a specific region, although most budget European set-top players include service codes that can be entered via the remote, to turn them into multi-region players.
In preparing these DVDs I have removed regional encoding, (or more accurately, set the region code to 0, which means All Regions).
However, different countries also have different TV standards, and these cannot be circumvented. America uses NTSC, Britain uses PAL, and parts of Europe use SECAM. If you do not have a TV that can play multi-formats (or a format converting DVD player), then you can only watch on TV, movies in your country’s native format.
The simple solution is to watch the DVDs on your computer. DVD ROM drives are region locked, but if you use Daemon Tools (see previous section) to create a virtual drive, then you can watch any ISO on your monitor.