why "rar" format?

[scholesy]

also you can check out what the quality is like by downloading a single rar file,rather than waiting for the whole thing to be downloaded,that is in case sample is not included

[Stevis]

also think of this, with so many rars in a torrent, you could select to download partially so you could partially seed that torrent

HE KNOWS TOO MUCH!

[fstokebanget]

hehe, I think many others do that on a large torrent

[Stevis]

Yup. Good ratio builder

[pdj2]

also you can check out what the quality is like by downloading a single rar file,rather than waiting for the whole thing to be downloaded,that is in case sample is not included

its a scene rule for most things

its how newsgroups are done

someone unrars a release, uploads the iso, no one can help him, he leaves the rars in tact, uploads them, a lot of users can help seed it.

these are things which i didnt know before , well i can say its reasonable to use "rar" fromat but yet dont think its better than having games and tv shows in original formats

If you don't have 8 GB of HDD space, you have more to worry about than downloading RARs.

im not talking about just one 4 gig torrent , as u may know games and lots of other aplications are in image format and must of pple use virtual drives to mount and use their images (ineasted of burning them on dvds they use hard drive as storage ) which in that case they have to keep both the image and rar files (image to use app And RARs to seed the downloaded files )
just having 3 normal game needs around 25 gig space , a lots of users also download huge tv-shows seasons and have to seed beside watching them ( it may takes a long time to watch a whole season) Plus learning stuff wich most of them are huge dvd packs
i have a 250 gigs hard drive which is alomst full . out of 250 around 90 gigs are 'rar' files wich i have to keep them just to seed :|

[rvt]

Another reason for rar that I recently came across.
Older versions of apache will spit out a 403 error if you try to download any file bigger than 4GB. Not too good on a seedbox.

Yes, I could have upgraded, but I'm dumping it this month. Could have used FTP, but then you don't get the benifit of 8 concurrent http threads

Rars can also be stored on older filesystems like fat32. 4.5GB ISOs can't.

[corpse]

If you have some time to read...

------------------------------------
Explanation of original rar-releases
------------------------------------


Why share original rar-releases and how does it work?
-----------------------------------------------------

Releases are ripps of movies and software by organisations specialized in ripping,
also called releasegroups. Examples of such are FLT, FLiX, VcdVault, Dominion etc.
The advantage by downloading these ripps/releases is that you know what you get,
compared to downloading *.avi's or *.mpg's from all over and end up with a "newbie"
ripp, which may be good but in most cases crap. Not everybody knows the tricks and
understands how to make an excellent rip. Releases sometimes comes as an image,
most often as *.bin and *.cue).
It's an image of a complete CD which can be burned using i.e. Nero or read with
Daemon Tools. This goes for SVCD, games and software releases.
In most movie releases the *.avi file is usually rar-ed directly. To lighten the
load on the downloaders and by tradition the releasegroups allways rar's their
releases and then split them into smaller sized files. This is the standard for how
the releasegroups do their releases.

Within the release there are also a *.sfv and a *.nfo file. The *.sfv file is a
checksum file to ensure that all the other files have the correct checksum after
you've downloaded them. This way you can check/control for yourselves that all
files are received correctly. The *.nfo file contains information about the release,
which format, resolution, etc (for movies).


The advantages of this should be obvious:
-----------------------------------------

1. You allways have a checksum-file (SFV) to check if the file is corrupt. DC++ does
this automatickly when downloading, and if you loose your connection there is no
risc that the file you downloaded is somehow unusable because of the sfv-file
check... should something go wrong the file will be downloaded once more.

2. If a file is corrupt you only have to redownload 15, 20 or 50 MB instead of 700 or
4.5GB.

3. You can que the same original release from 5 users and download some files from
each user until you've got them all... and in this way maximize your downloadspeed
-> less time to download.

4. The files are identical with all users, so there's no doubt which file to resume.

5. We won't have these unneccesary questions in mainchat.. "What codec do I use for
mib2.avi ??" "What movie is fastnfurious.avi?"..... The nfo-file says it all!

6. Not to mention it's way too easy faking a large share with 4.5 GB -img-files...

7. Anyone who uses DC will gain from this as it is an excellent, if not the best way,
to share movies and software on DC.

As you can see there are numerous advantages by downloading this way therefore we hope
you will all use this format in the future, that is if you're not already using it.


How a release is built, how to use checksum and unpacking:
----------------------------------------------------------

A release is a directory and a number of subdirectories. It can look something like this:

Darkness.Falls.PROPER.DVDRip.XviD-UTi (Maindirectory)
CD1 (Subdirectory) The rar-archives for cd1
CD2 (Subdirectory) The rar-archives for cd2
Sample (Subdirectory) A small sample/preview
uti-df-xvid.nfo (file) Previously explained
darkness.falls.dvdrip.xvid-uti.sfv (file) Previously explained

In the CD1 directory you'll find the files which unpackes directly to a *.avi file or a
*.bin and *.cue file, depends on what kind of release it is. In this case the format is
XviD and therefore there is a *.avi file in the archive. Besides there is a *.sfv file
which contains checksums for all the rar's in the directory. By using a program to compare
the rar files to the checksums in the *.sfv file you can ensure that all files are intact.
There are several programs that will do this i.e. hkSFV, TotalCommander and if you use DC++
it's built in when you download. (automatic sfv-checking in settings>advanced)

In case there is a corrupt file you only have to redownload that particular file. When all
files have correct checksums you can unpack them. This is easiest performed with WinRAR. The
rar files are usually named *.rar - *.rxx. Start with the *.rar file and extract and WinRAR
will complete the rest. After unpacking you should have a *.avi file which you can play in
you chosen mediaplayer or a *.bin and *.cue file you have to burn onto a CD with i.e. Nero
or open in Daemon Tools or similar applications.

To have a highest possible amount of releases in the hub it's important that you share the
release as it is for others to take advantage the same way you did. This means no renaming
or unpacking. Also do a sfv check on the release before you share it.


How can I check for releases and keep updated?
----------------------------------------------

There are special sites on the internet where such information is posted, i.e. www.nforce.nl.
www.vcdquality.com is another site where releases can be rated and then choose which one to
download.


It takes up too much space to keep both rar's and the unpacked files!
---------------------------------------------------------------------

I've heard this argument repeatedly when I've tried one of my pro-rar speaches. The
simple solution is to only save the rar's and not the unpacked files. Store all your releases
as rar's on your harddrive and when you want to watch a movie you just unpack it. The whole
procedure takes about 3 minutes and is a lesser con than all the other pros of sharing rar-
releases.


Pros and cons in short:
-----------------------

The advantages of using this format for sharing movies and software is:

You know you've got a complete and working release of whatever you download, through checksums (CRC-check).

This means that you have an exact copy of the files as the person who made them. Instead of
downloading a *.avi file that have been back and forth over the internet and on numerous
harddrives, and may have been damaged by transfer errors.

This doesn't mean that the file don't work but it may have discoloration and "freeze-frames".
This is somnething many ppl don't understand, they will say things like "rar-files always gets
corrupt when I download them, avi's always work". They seem to belive that the rar "data" is
more likely to get corrupt than the *.avi "data", ofcourse this is not true. It's just that
when *.avi's get corrupted ofted you won't notice it, you will get freeze frames, the quality
of the movie will get worse and worse for each transfer. This will never happen with RAR's,
since you will detect coruppted data immediatly!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This text can and should be spread around as much as possible, just include source and author.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: Genesis ([email protected]). English translation by Pirate69.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[rvt]

If you have some time to read...

.....

The advantages of this should be obvious:
-----------------------------------------

1. You allways have a checksum-file (SFV) to check if the file is corrupt.

....

4. The files are identical with all users, so there's no doubt which file to resume.

There is a problem there though. If you can't trust the source of the sfv, you can't trust that the file is the same as the original release.

Say somebody decides to upload 700MB of donkey porn to TPB. They rar it up and name it like the latest release of I Am Legend. Create a new SFV, throw in the I Am Legend nfo file and watch the fun.

NFO files with the sfv info attached to the bottom would work, or a source for SFV files like nforce, but afaik there's nothing like that.
The scene wont really give a crap because anyone doing that would just be scene banned, but anyone with public upload access should at least consider the possibility.

[pandabear]

For the amount of money you are saving with your pirating, just go pick up another hdd, there so dead cheap.

On any proper 0day site, files will always come in rar format, because that is the way it is done on scene.

[fstokebanget]

yap, it's becoming kinda a 'tradition' there