ABM HELP

15 February 1997
There is a lot of help available for the proper use of the UseNet, so I won't cover it except to say, read the Welcome to Usenet FAQS first. I've also supplied the FAQS from alt.binaries.pictures. They are helpful because a.b.p is closely related to a.b.m in terms of "How To".

Welcome to UseNet
Part I General Etiquette
Part 2 General Etiquette

ABM is difficult for newbies for three reasons:

1. It's a binary newsgroup. Gotta deal with multipart posts.

2. It's a multimedia newsgroup. Gotta deal with all those formats and players.

3. It's a newsgroup with zipped files. Gotta deal with all those zips.

So let's deal with these three problems one at a time.


1. BINARIES

Large binary files are too big for servers to handle, so files have to be encoded and split into smaller parts to fit. The standard encoding format is UUE . Others are not recommended. Modern newsreaders take care of this encoding and decoding for us. If your newsreader doesn't support  "Save Binary Attachments" get one that will.

Download FreeAgent

Using FreeAgent, click on the first part of the multipart file to highlight it. Don't double click. Click on "file" then "save binary attachments".

Here's some help put together by Refridgeraider

 Downloading 101
Downloading 102
Downloading 103
Downloading 104

2. MULTIMEDIA

There are four main file formats you need to know about:


AVI: is a Windows video format where sound and video are stitched together in one file. A very popular format due to the fact that most video capture cards support it. Normally run using Mplayer that comes with Windows and handled by Video for Windows. Both come together when downloaded here. If you're having problems running some of the newer files but can play some old ones you most likely need Indeo Video's *new* 4.1 Interactive codecs and drivers.

Download Video For Windows
WIN 95 Download Indeo Video 4.1
WIN 31 Download Indeo Video 4.1


MPG: is a cross platform video format (plays on any type computer). Sound is normally in an WAV file that must be with it to be heard. See WAV below. MPG is quickly becoming a favorite due to it's small size and quickly advancing upgrades i.e MPEG1 - MPEG4. The problem is there is little support for building them. A popular viewer of MPG's is VMPEG 1.7

Download VMPEG 1.7


MOV: is a Macintosh video format flattened for PC's. They are handled and run by Quick Time. I had trouble getting MOV's to run in Win 3.11, but Win95 seems to play them fine. A note on QT: it does not play MPG's as associated in Win95.

Download QuickTime


WAV: is an audio format used to store sound for MPG's. For it to be heard it must be of the same name as the video and in the same path or directory. Also some MPG players do not support sound. An MPG not posted as a zip is likely not to have sound unless the WAV was posted separately.


3. ZIPPED FILES

Zipped files are files compressed using PKzip. Pk for Dos will work just fine for unzipping, but lacks ease of use for those not into a command prompt. Winzip serves as a Windows interface for PK for Dos. It's works well and will serve all your needs including passwords. I like the new PKware for Windows. It does not use Pk for Dos and all options are packaged into one executable file compared to a dozen separate exec's as with PK for Dos. Get the Windows version, you'll like it.

Download Pkware for Windows


PC USERS

1. Unzip using Pk for Dos: Goto a Dos prompt (either exit Windows or open a Dos window by clicking on the Dos Prompt icon). Change to the directory where pkunzip.exe resides (i.e. cd\zip). Type in pkunzip C:\movie\movie.zip. C:\movie is the directory you store your zips in. Movie.zip is the file you are unzipping.

2. Unzip using WinZip: First make sure you have pkunzip.exe on your drive and WinZip knows where it is (setup). From file manager double click on any zip. When Winzip appears, click on action then extract. You'll be prompted for the location for the unzipped files. Click on Ok.

3. Unzip using PKware for Windows: Double click any zip. PKwin will open and display the contents of the zip. Click unzip then extract . At the Extarct window, you can change destination of unzippped files, input passwords, and apply other options. Once satisfied, click on extract .

MAC USERS

Here's help for Mac users by Otto Pylot

Multimedia Download and Playback for MAC


HOW TO DEAL WITH PASSWORDS

Passwords are really easy to deal with, especially if you use WinZip or PKwin. Even at a Dos prompt it's pretty straight forward. The way zips are passworded and presented is standard. I do not know of any poster that uses passwords that does not follow the standard. Once you learn how to deal with them, it will be the same technique no matter the poster. The only thing that will change between posters is the password itself and the poster always uses the same one.

The standard is:

The zips contain a text file that is not password protected and the video that is protected.

The unprotected text file contains the password.

The text file will unzip without the password.

All passwords are all capitol letters.

Here's the "How To" on passwords:

1. Use any unzip technique described above then read the text file.

2. PK for Dos: To tell pkunzip to use a password you must use the -s switch as follows.

C:\zip\pkunzip -sPASSWORD C:\movie\movie.zip

or just....

C:\zip\pkunzip -s C:\movie\movie.zip

which will cause Pk to stop and prompt you for the password.

3. WinZip: Open the zip, under options, password, enter the password.

4. PkWin: Open the zip, on the extract screen enter the password.

NOTE: Once you learn the password for a poster, you will not need to read that text file again. A list of passwords in Notepad would be handy too.

OPTIONAL: If you use WinZip or PkWin the text file can be viewed from within the file before unzipping it. Simply click on the text file, it will open, highlight the password and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl C), close the file, go to the password enter area and paste it in (Ctrl V)