[Howto] Fixing a corrupt longplay upload

Last updated on 13 years ago
JonL
Imagine you have recorded a longplay, and the video file is 1.5 GB. You painfully upload it to the Longplays.org ftp server using several resumes, and then an admin tells you your file is corrupt.
You can either reupload your whole movie, or you can use PAR2 files.

PAR2 files are small(er) files that can be used to repair a corrupt file. Thus it is faster to upload PAR2 files to correct the corrupt video than to reupload the whole thing.
Here's how to do that:

[size=large]QuickPar[/size]

Download and install the free QuickPar application. Find it here:
http://www.quickpar.org.uk/

[size=large]Generating PAR2 Files[/size]

[img width=500]http://www.longplays.org/uploads/newbb/486_4d370e3469150.gif[/img]

1) Run QuickPar. The first time, the configuration dialog box appears. Click OK.
2) Click Add Files. Browse and select your longplay file (let's call it my_longplay.mp4)
3) Click Create.

[img width=500]http://www.longplays.org/uploads/newbb/486_4d370e507da89.gif[/img]

A set of files will be generated in the same folder as my_longplay.mp4, named something like this (this is just an example, filenames may vary according to the size of your longplay):
my_longplay.mp4.par2
my_longplay.mp4.vol000+001.PAR2
my_longplay.mp4.vol001+002.PAR2
my_longplay.mp4.vol003+004.PAR2
my_longplay.mp4.vol007+008.PAR2
(...)
my_longplay.mp4.vol113+107.PAR2


The total size of the PAR2 files is smaller than the original video file. In this case, you get something like 150 MB. Notice that the first files are very small, and they get bigger and bigger near the end.

[img width=402]http://www.longplays.org/uploads/newbb/486_4d370e5912c62.gif[/img]

[size=large]Uploading PAR2 Files[/size]

If you upload all PAR2 files to the same folder as your longplay, admins can use them to repare any corruption in the longplay file.
If you can afford it, that's the recommended procedure.

If you have a very slow connection, however, you can try and upload the first few (smaller) PAR2 files and keep the larger ones for later. There are chances that admins will be able to fix your longplay anyway. But it's rather a matter of luck, and you might be asked to upload more PAR2 files.
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