Torrent problems | Bangkok Post: tech

HELP Desk

I'm one of probably many readers who wrote to you after your review on a torrent searcher late December and in January who couldn't connect with its site. You wrote back to me explaining why.

A week ago you kindly suggested Bit Che, which I successfully downloaded along with uTorrent but I'm having difficulty downloading a TV programme; on each attempt I get the audio without the visual.

I'll explain what I've done and hope you may be able advise me on this problem.

The show is Two and a Half Men.

Under preferences/directories in uTorrent I directed:

location of downloaded files

put downloaded files in:

movie 1

move completed downloaded files to:

movie 2

Similarly I gave the same location for:

location of torrents

move torrents to

then automatically load torrents from

movie 1

Except for the last box "delete loaded torrents" I ticked all the other boxes and clicked "apply". I then created the files "movie 1 & movie 2" in Windows Explorer "my documents/my movies". The torrent downloads into "movie 1" but nothing in "movie 2".

Then in Windows C/documents & settings/trevor/application data/ uTorrent created it's own file with "movie 1 & movie 2" as sub-files and this where the torrent & clip down loads, in "movie 2" but as earlier stated; it's audio only.

Finally, I should mention I use windows media player.

From this information can you advise me what I'm doing wrong? This is the first time I've used a torrent searcher/downloader so I've messed up somewhere.

Thanks for your helpful columns; how's the trashed hard drive?

TREVOR MORRISON

Database replies: Wanda Sloan replies: I'm not sure what I can tell you about this. Sometimes, downloads don't work. Neither Bit Che, the torrent finder, nor uTorrent, the file downloader, have anything to say about this.

However, the usual reason that a video or audio file has trouble is because your player does not have the correct codecs (coder-decoders) to play the particular video and/or audio you are trying to play. I have two suggestions for you.

The first is to download the VLC media player from http://www.videolan.org/vlc. This is a terrific player, which I recently reviewed, capable of playing almost anything you download, unless the file is actually damaged. The second suggestion is to go to http://www.free-codecs.com and click on the link in the left sidebar to K-Like Codec Packs. Look over the possible downloads and then get and install the one that suits your system best.

With a good media player (or two, or three) and a good collection of codecs, you should be able to play any good video and audio. Of course, nothing will help you with a damaged file. If you have tried "everything" and a file still won't play, then perhaps the only solution is to delete it, and either try to find another version elsewhere, or move on to the next entertainment.

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Webcam woes

I'm unable to connect a Logitech IM webcam to my laptop. The webcam is functional (used before on different PC) but on my laptop it is not properly recognised by the software. It shows only as a yellow question mark under "devices" in the control panel. I've tried several versions of Logitech's webcam software but without success.

I cannot find a suitable solution on the net including the Logitech website.

I'm running Windows XP SP2. I've tried to install SP3 to see if this will resolve the problem but I'm unable to do so because I have the Windows Multilingual User Interface installed. This needs to be removed before installing SP3 and I'm unsure if this will cause other problems.

A READER

Database replies: Wanda Sloan replies: Well, I can't tell the exact problem here. The most likely problem is that your webcam has got out of date, ie is a victim of planned obsolescence. You can't generally use "several versions" of software - you have to use the exact software for the model number of the webcam.

The only way to be certain of having your hardware work is to install it exactly as the vendor says. You have to have exactly the software that Logitech gave you when you bought the camera.

If you right click on that yellow question mark, or if you open Device Manager and find your camera, Windows might try to find the proper software for installation. This often fails, of course.

Unfortunately for all of us, vendors really don't care that much about problems like yours. Their suggestion is to just buy a new camera and install it. Well, sometimes we have no other choice, darn it.

So the first thing is to get your exact camera model number, head for Logitech.com and try to get the exact software (for XP SP2). Next thing is to Google the model number and add "installation" to see if other users have come to a conclusion. But bear in mind you may have to bite the bullet.

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Solution found

Recently I asked you for help regarding slow loading web pages (error message: "Address not found").

In the meantime I did some research at my own and might have found the solution to my problem: openDNS. I signed up with http://www.opendns.com, read through the instructions and set my router to the given DNS. I had no problem since.

By the way, setting up the router was fairly easy.

LUKAS