GUMBY 1.

I'M GUMBY DAMMIT!

(PARTIAL MANUAL PART 1)
 WHAT IS IT?
Gumby is an image file converter and patcher. That's it. Nothing else.

Gumby drawing made on the Apple ][ back in 1983.

There are many sorts of files found on the net. Most of the tools needed to handle
these files are PC-based. Gumby tries to rectify this situation by providing aproxima-
tely 20 programs into a single application (many of which are actually better than
their PC counterparts). If you don't find Gumby useful, by all means, drag it to the
trash and make sure to empty the trash.

One more thing: Gumby is completely FREE.

WHAT IT ISN'T
It's NOT a video encoder. If you need to re-encode a video file, use one of the
following applications (there are others):

cleaner 6 mencoder ffmpeg QuickTime TMPGenc (PC)

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 WHAT IT ISN'T (CONTINUED)
What exactly is an encoder? To conserve space, files are often compressed using
various techniques. This software compressor is called a codec. Different codecs
exist to fulfill specific needs: a DV codec is well suited for editing broadcast video
while a Sorenson codec is more suited towards web delivery.

If you have an .avi file encoded in Divx and you want to make a VCD disc, the film
will need to be re-encoded in MPEG1. This re-encoding process is beyond the pur-
pose of what Gumby is all about (Gumby also doesn't recalculate spreadsheets).

WHAT IT DOESN'T DO
If you need to burn your CD or DVD images, use one of the following tools:

Disk Copy Toast NeroMAX/B's Recorder Gold

WHAT DOES IT DO?

Gumby is split into 17 modules. Here is a brief description of each function:
VCD Jelly: Extracts an MPEG-1 film from a file.
SVCD Jelly: Same thing as above but for MPEG-2 files.
SVCD Fixer: Fixes SVCD's so they work on some players.
Binchunker: Converts an image file to a proper ISO image.
SFV Checker: Performs checksum verification on files.
PS2 Patcher: Patches PS2 images (CD or DVD) for the Japanese swap trick.
PPF Patcher: Applies PPF patches to images.
MPEG Cutter: Cuts or trims MPEG documents.
Unrar Extractor: Extracts files from RAR documents.
PAR Checker: Fixes RAR documents using parity files (PAR).
PS2 PAL: Converts PAL PS2 games so they run on NTSC TV sets.
GI to ISO: Converts Primo DVD images to standard ISO.
S/VCD Builder: Creates VCD or SVCD images from mpeg documents.
MPEG Fixer: Demuxes, Remuxes, Tweaks and gives info on MPEG files.
Subtitle Lab: Converts subtitle files so they can be used in DVD Studio Pro.
Audio lab: Converts audio files so they can be used in DVD Studio Pro.
Batch Processor: Automates multiple functions to work with one click.

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 NAVIGATION
There are several ways to access the different functions in the program. The easiest
is to pick a function from the menubar like so:

Keyboard commands have been assigned to each function from -1 through -9 and
-A through -E. There is also a handy navigation bar at the bottom of the window.

You can also switch from function to function by pressing the [TAB] key or by clic-
king directly on the graphic at the top of the window.

Lastly, [Control]-Clicking will bring up a

contextual pop-up menu like this:

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 USING THE PROGRAM
Once you've picked the function you need, all you have to do is drag a file over to
the main window and press the process button. It's that simple.

EXTRA FUNCTIONS
Some of the modules have extra functions such as the ability to create RAR files or
join MPEGs together. To see if a module has dual functionality, simply hold the op-
tion key ( ) down and look at the Process button. If another function exists, the but-
ton's name will change accordingly. Here's an example from the SFV checker module:

Standard button Same button with the option key ( )

ALERTS
If you drag the wrong file type in the wrong section (such as a Playstation 2 game
image over the VCD Jelly module), you'll be alerted with a warning and see this:

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 USING THE PROGRAM (CONTINUED)

FILES VS VOLUMES
You can drag files from mounted CD's and DVD's over to Gumby. VCD Jelly and
SVCD Jelly will not extract a film from a mounted disk, you will need to make an
image of the disk first.

CHECKING YOUR PROGRESS

While the module processes your request, a progress bar will slowly fill up. When it
reaches the end, the process will be complete and the Mac will play a sound. If the
function modified an existing file, you should hear a chime. If on the other hand the
process created a new document, you'll hear a voice telling you that your file is ready.

ABORTING
You can abort any process by pressing Command-Period ( - . ) or the Escape key [ESC].

Some functions give you a choice of being able to abort or work faster; if you choose
to make those functions work faster (by clicking on the 'Quick' checkbox on that
page), will not be able to abort. These will be covered in the next section.

Just be aware that aborting a function may result in an unusable file.

REMEMBER WHERE WE PARKED

The program will remember your preferred choices (checkboxes), what function you
last used and where the window was positioned so that when you run the program
at a later date, those settings will be kept.

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 USING THE PROGRAM (CONTINUED)

WHAT'S INCLUDED

The Application Documentation MPEG-1 Sample MPEG-2 Sample Read Me

You can use the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 samples files to test Gumby's functions or use
them to build VCD/SVCD disc images to burn and test your home player's level of
compatibility.

PREFERENCES
For a very long time, Gumby came without a preference panel. At the request of out
beta testers, I reluctantly added one and thus was born what was dubbed as: "Not
the biggest preference panel in the world, but fucking close!" Let's have a peek at
each one of the sections:

OPENING:
If Gumby isn't running and you drag a folder containing files in it over it's icon, this
will tell Gumby which function you prefer to open automatically (in case the folder
contains several types of files).

WORKING:
If you click on auto process, then dragging a folder over to Gumby when it's not
running will launch the application, go to your preferred module, and execute the
command. The results will be saved in the same folder as the source material.

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 USING THE PROGRAM (CONTINUED)

PREFERENCES
WORKING (CONT'D):
If you want full automation, be sure to click on auto quit. The next time you wish
to unrar a folder full of files, drag the folder to Gumby's icon, it will launch, do the
work and quit.

FULL BACKGROUND MODE:

Normally, Gumby tries real hard to process your request as quickly as possible. This
means that background clicks (like when a window is behind another) are ignored
(but you can still cancel a job).

If you want it to respond like every other Mac program, turn full background mode
ON. But be aware that in doing so, processing becomes slower.

SAVING:
If you want Gumby to prompt you for a destination, it will bring up a dialog box
allowing you to save where you want. Otherwise, it will save in the same folder as
your source files.

NOTIFICATION:
Select Alert me when done, if you want to hear a voice speak when processing is
complete (if you like seeing the Gumby icon jump in the dock, pick the other option).

EXTRA:
Make sure this checkbox is on if you are Gay.

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 FUNCTIONS
Here is a detailed description of each module. Enjoy.

01. VCD JELLY

WHAT IT DOES:
This function extracts an MPEG-1 film from a disc image or file. The file can be a
.bin, iso, .dat, .mov, etc... The result should be a film you can open in QuickTime
Player and watch.

The module contains error correction routines that will try and fix your mpeg file
while the extraction is being performed. In a case where your MPEG file is dama-
ged too much, it may be impossible to fix and QuickTime may also be incapable of
playing it properly.

Some MPEG files aren't pure MPEG streams and are actually QuickTime movies that
have been renamed improperly as .mpg documents. If you drag such a file over to
VCD Jelly, it will detect it as such and will produce a pure MPEG file.

REPLACE HEADER:
This function will replace the header of your MPEG files with a fresh new one. You
should only use this function as a last ditch attempt to try and rescue your file after
having tried everything else.

NOTE ABOUT CORRUPTION:

MPEG streams can be corrupted in many ways. If the corruption occurs in a frame
or intra-frame, then your only recourse is to cut those frames out or recompress the
entire film. Such films can, and often will, play back via QuickTime Player or VLC
because a software player may simply skip over the corrupted data or ignore it.

Your home DVD player and Gumby's VCD/SVCD builder module expect reliable
frame data. If an MPEG stream contains such corruption, demuxing it will produce a
video file that ends abruptly where the corruption occurs. So remember: just becau-
se it plays in QuickTime, doesn't mean you can build a playable disc image with it.

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 FUNCTIONS
02. SVCD JELLY
WHAT IT DOES:
Almost the same as VCD Jelly, but for MPEG-2 films. QuickTime 6 now includes an
MPEG-2 component that will handle MPEG-2 streams. If you don't want to pay the
$20, you can use Videolan (VLC) to watch those films for free (www.videolan.org).

REPLACE HEADER:
Same as with the VCD Jelly module, this option replaces a potentially defective
MPEG-2 header with a fresh new copy. Use this only as a last resort to tray and help
a broken MPEG become usable.

A WORD ON MPEG FILES:

Just because a file has a .mpg extension, doesn't mean you can produce a VCD or
SVCD out of it. To make a VCD or SVCD, the files must be compressed using an
MPEG-1 or an MPEG-2 codec.

A file that plays in QuickTime could be an MP4 file (mislabeled as .mpg), but that's
not going to work for a VCD or SVCD and you can't make an MPEG-2 file into a VCD
(unless it is re-compressed). MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 differ in size, compression and
quality. Here are some examples:

While these images are from different sources, you can see the MPEG-1 image is
smaller and less detailed than the MPEG-2 image. With an MPEG-2 file, you can
produce an SVCD disc that will look as good as a DVD.

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 FUNCTIONS
03. SVCD FIXER
WHAT IT DOES:
It patches your SVCD image so that your home DVD player sees it as a VCD disc and
hopefully fool it into playing the disc.

SVCD discs contain a different type of MPEG file than VCD discs (MPEG-2 files to
be exact) and the structure of the discs is different as well. If you mount a VCD disc
and an SVCD disc in your computer, you will see this:

Many home DVD players can handle SVCD discs right off the bat. Unfortunately,
some still have problems (the Apex 600a is a good example). Fooling the player
often yields good results.

WHY IT WORKS:
The MPEG decoder chip inside the DVD player can handle both MPEG-1 and
MPEG-2 streams (DVD's are encoded in MPEG-2). We give it a disc with a VCD
structure in the hope that when it starts decoding, the chip switches to MPEG-2
mode automatically and the modified SVCD disc starts playing (this trick works
even with some players that aren't supposed to play SVCD discs at all!).

There are 2 important things that can be modified (refer to the pictures above): The
file extension must be changed from .mpg to .dat or the directory where the file
resides must be changed from MPEG2 to MPEGAV. Depending on your player, you'll
need to patch one, the other, or both.

A good place to check your home player compatibility with SVCD discs can be
found on the net at this URL: www.vcdhelper.com

If after patching your SVCD images, your player still refuses to play them, refer to
the VCD/SVCD Builder section of this manual for an alternate solution.

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 FUNCTIONS
04. BINCHUNKER
WHAT IT DOES:
Converts binary files (.bin) into ISO images. Most .bin files are accompanied by a
.cue file. You must make sure your corresponding .cue file resides at the same loca-
tion as the .bin file you are trying to convert. The extracted tracks will be given the
name entered in the label field.

WHY BOTHER?:
The majority of .bin files you will encounter can simply be burned directly by drag-
ging them to Toast. BUT sometimes, you will get an error message like this:

Sometimes, the .bin file gets accepted, but pressing the 'mount' button prompts the
OS to issue the following warning:

This means that Toast cannot understand the format of the file you dragged and if
you burn it, chances are the disc won't work properly. Recently, the game Freelancer
for the PC had this particular problem. Using Binchunker to convert the image to an
ISO will solve the issue 98% of the time.

AUDIO TRACKS:
Most games have built-in music, but some games have separate audio tracks in CD
audio format (it's rare, but Quake 2 was one with music by the Nine Inch Nails). If
you simply drag the .bin file over to Toast, the music portion will be ignored.

You can always double-check if the game has audio tracks by opening the .cue file
in a text editor. If there are any, you will see an entry for each audio file.

Playstation One games often had separate audio tracks and for a rythm action title
such as Dance Dance Revolution, keeping the music is pretty much a necessity.

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 FUNCTIONS
04. BINCHUNKER (CONT'D)
To burn this special CD you will first need to run Toast, set it to Audio mode and
drag your audio files over to it. Then switch over to the Disk Image format (under
other) and drag the ISO file. Hold the option key ( ) down and press the Record but-
ton. Toast will bring up a warning dialog explaining what is about to happen.

Don't worry, you can go ahead and burn (this is what we want).

MULTI-TRACK CD-ROM XA:

Binchunker can also be used to turn a VCD or SVCD .bin file into multi-track files
without having to extract the MPEG and re-build the discs. Since Binchunker cuts
multiple tracks according to the 1st index entry, you may need to edit the .cue file.
Compatibility with this format varies amongst DVD players.

FILE tcf-cmiyca.bin BINARY FILE tcf-cmiyca.bin BINARY FILE tcf-cmiyca.bin BINARY

TRACK 01 MODE2/2352 TRACK 01 MODE2/2352 TRACK 01 MODE2/2352
FLAGS DCP INDEX 01 00:00:00 INDEX 01 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 MODE2/2352 TRACK 02 MODE2/2352
TRACK 02 MODE2/2352 INDEX 01 00:04:00 INDEX 01 00:04:00
FLAGS DCP TRACK 03 MODE2/2352
INDEX 00 00:04:00 INDEX 01 00:06:00
INDEX 01 00:06:00 TRACK 04 MODE2/2352
INDEX 02 00:06:01 INDEX 01 00:06:01
INDEX 03 07:48:52 TRACK 05 MODE2/2352
INDEX 04 16:13:71 INDEX 01 07:48:52
INDEX 05 25:22:25 TRACK 06 MODE2/2352
INDEX 06 34:18:45 INDEX 01 16:13:71
INDEX 07 43:37:20 TRACK 07 MODE2/2352
INDEX 08 53:07:29 INDEX 01 25:22:25
INDEX 09 62:48:28

original file This produces 2 tracks (edited) This produces 7 tracks (edited)

NERO FILES:
Binchunker can also convert files from the popular PC program 'Nero Burning ROM'
5.5 (also known as .nrg files) into ISO images that you can burn in Toast.

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 FUNCTIONS
05. SFV CHECKER
WHAT IT DOES:
When you download files off the net, many things can go wrong. How can you tell if
a file you downloaded is ok or corrupt? That's where .sfv files come in. An SFV do-
cument is a text file which contains the name of documents and a calculated unique
number (checksum). If the files you downloaded calculate to the same checksum
result, your files are good. If not, they are corrupt and unusable.

AUTO DETECT:
This module features an auto-detect component. What this means is that you can
drag any file or any folder and the program will automatically figure out which
document to use. So if you download an entire folder of files and one of the docu-
ments is the SFV checksum file (.sfv), drag that folder over and presto: the first .sfv
file is automatically selected for you.

REPAIR FILENAMES:
Sometimes when you download files, extremely long filenames get truncated. Un-
fortunately, when this happens, the files will fail to pass the sfv check and you also
won't be able to reassemble them into a complete image until the names are repaired.

Files before. Files after the repair was done.

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 FUNCTIONS
05. SFV CHECKER (CONT'D)
If you want to repair broken filenames, click the Repair Filenames checkbox first
and then drag the folder (or any file in that folder) over to the SFV Checker module.
The repair process will then proceed automatically after you release the mouse but-
ton; you don't need to press the process buton for this.

If you have a lot of files that need to be renamed, it may take a while. Be patient.

QUICK SFV:
If you select this option, you will NOT be able to interrupt or abort the SFV check-
ing process (so you'll have to wait until it's completed). Furthermore, you will not
have any feedback as to which file is being processes and the progressbar will not
get updated...

but

the SFV checking process (depending on your machine and the speed of your CPU)
will be 2-4 times faster. Here's a small rundown on a blue & white G3 Mac:

SFV Check Quick SFV Check Win SFV (VPC 5.0)

12 files - 16 megs each 36 seconds 16 seconds 1 minute 9 seconds
35 files - 15 megs each 1 min. 37 sec. 43 seconds 3 min. 4 sec.
55 files - 15 megs each 2 min. 32 sec. 1 min. 2 sec. 4 min. 52 sec.
70 files - 50 megs each 10 min. 22 sec. 3 min. 20 sec. 19 min. 56 sec.

BAD CORRUPT AND MISSING:

When you drag a folder or a file over to SFV Checker, it performs a small verification
of the .sfv file (even if you haven't selected any functions yet) and reports its find-
ings. If any of the files in the SFV document are not in the enclosed folder, it will
report them as missing:

This is just a preliminary report that can sometimes appear before you check the
validity of your files, so that you know right away if something is missing or not.

Sometimes you'll go: "Wait a minute, it says there's 5 files missing, but I can see
them in the folder What gives?". It probably means the files are spelled differently in
the SFV file or that your files might contain extra spaces in their names (see the RAR
function on how to clean this automatically).

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 FUNCTIONS
05. SFV CHECKER (CONT'D)
Once you press the process button, the SFV check will be performed. Each file will
be used to calculate a unique number and this number will be compared to the one
in the SFV file. If any of the files are found to be corrupt, these will be automatically
moved (for your convenience) into a folder called 'bad' and Moog will report this to
you like so:

You can open an SFV file in a text editor and typically they look like this:

; Generated by WIN-SFV32 v1.1a on 2003-02-25 at 17:53.09

;
; 50000000 16:47.42 2003-02-25 o-mtgp3.001
; 50000000 16:52.08 2003-02-25 o-mtgp3.002
; 50000000 16:55.44 2003-02-25 o-mtgp3.003
; 50000000 16:59.24 2003-02-25 o-mtgp3.004
; 50000000 17:02.56 2003-02-25 o-mtgp3.005
; 50000000 17:06.58 2003-02-25 o-mtgp3.006
; 26785420 17:52.18 2003-02-25 o-mtgp3.022
o-mtgp3.001 2DFDA115
o-mtgp3.002 7C65DEAD
o-mtgp3.003 7C5992C3
o-mtgp3.004 C08A680C
o-mtgp3.005 BA4ED8AF
o-mtgp3.006 DF315F4E
o-mtgp3.022 3A7BBF36

You can pretty much disregard any line that strats with a ';' character (these are con-
sidered comments and sometimes people draw ASCII art in this area). After that you
have the name of the file (for example 'o-mtgp3.001') followed by the unique check-
sum value this file calculates to (in this case: 2DFDA115) and so on.

If you just want to check a single file (just one), you can always delete the entries
you don't need in the SFV or make a brand new SFV document for that file and
check if the cheksums are identical.

OPTION KEY:
To create an SFV (checksum) file, simply hold down the option key ( ) and press
the process button. You will be prompted to select the folder where the files are
located. The generated .sfv file will be compatible with WinSFV on the PC.

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 FUNCTIONS
06. PS2 PATCHER
WHAT IT DOES:
If you own a Japanese Playstation 2 unit, you can boot swap the Utilities Disc with
a backup of a game without using a mod chip. In order for this to work, you need
to fool the PS2 into thinking the backup disc -is- the Utilities Disc. The PS2 Swap
Patcher module allows you to change the Disc ID of a backup game to that of the
Utilities Disc.

If you prefer to swap with a disc other than the Utilities Disc, then enter the Disc ID
of your original in the appropriate field. (You can find the Disc ID on the spine of
the plastic case).

When you drag a PS2 image over, it will auto-detect the current Disc ID like so:

DVD SWAP TRICK:

You can also swap DVD's as well. The module will handle two types of DVD images:
Standard ISO images and Full Prassi Primo DVD images (.gi). If your GI images are
split, use the GI to ISO converter module to turn them into full images.

The PC patcher takes about 9 minutes to patch a CD and doesn't handle DVD's. This
Mac version handles both CD's and DVD's and takes less than 5 seconds to perform
the patch :-)

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 FUNCTIONS
A WORD ON SWAP TRICKS
As a general rule, many PS2 models can perform the swap trick without the need of
a mod chip (in case you didn't understand the first time without the need to have
a mod chip installed).

PROTECTION:
When you press reset or the eject button, the PS2 will read a disc and verify it is an
original by reading corrupt sectors on a disc which cannot be reproduced by stan-
dard CD-ROM or DVD-ROM burners (so you can't burn self-booting discs - not even
the ones you download off the net).

What we want to do it swap an original with a backup without alerting the PS2.
This means we can't press the eject button (if we did, the PS2 would re-verify the
disc) and to do that, you need to open your PS2.

As of this writing, the original Japanese PS2 can swap with any original providing
it is patched: boot the disc (for CD's use the Utilities Disc), count 10 seconds and
swap. That's all there is to it: the PS2 thinks it's still reading the same disc.

European and US models can also swap providing they use a set of Magic Swap
Disc or a GameShark (version 1.3, 1.6, 1.9, 2.0 v2 2.0 v3 no longer works).

To swap without installing a mod chip (yes folks, chips that require swapping basi-
cally only open up the tray without telling the PS2) you have 2 options:

Open the PS2 lid manually. Purchase a PS2 Flip-Top cover.

(you can close it right after the swap) (if you want it to work like a PSOne)

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 FUNCTIONS
07. PPF PATCHER
WHAT IT DOES:
If you visit many of the game sites such as www.gamefreax.de or
www.gamecopyworld.com, you may encounter PPF patch files that will add train-
ers, change the video mode of games, fix bugs or in some cases, translate Japanese
text into English. This module lets you apply those patches effortlessly.

Just drag the image file and the PPF (in any order) and the program will figure out
which is which automatically.

VIEWING PPF INFO:

Some PPF files contain extra information (usually a credit for those that made the
patch). If you wish to see this info, just click on 'View PPF Info' and a dialog box
will pop-up like so:

Clicking on the pop-up window will make it go away.

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 FUNCTIONS
07. PPF PATCHER (CONT'D)
OPTION KEY:
If you wish to create your own PPF file (that is, a patch that when applied to an ori-
ginal disc image will result in a modified disc image) all you need to do is hold the
option key ( ) down and press the modified process button. A window drops down
showing this:

The window is divided in 4 distinct sections:

Drag the original untouched disc image at this location.

Drag the modified disc image here.
You can provide a text file with your logo/credits (not required)
You can type a small description of what the patch does (not required)

While the text file and the description are not required, it might be a good idea to at
least type a description in the tagline area if you want other people to know what
the patch does.

08. MPEG CUTTER

WHAT IT DOES:
It lets you cut an MPEG file (MPEG-1 or MPEG-2) into smaller sections or segments. It
also lets you trim (cut bytes) off the end of a file which you might consider too big.

Example #1
Let's imagine you have a very large MPEG movie which won't fit on a 74-minute CD
(for the purpose of this example, imagine if you had a film which normally fits on
an 80-minute CD, but only have 74-minute blank discs to burn it on).

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 FUNCTIONS
08. MPEG CUTTER (CONT'D)
One solution would be to split the CD in two and put the first half on CD #1 and the
second half on CD #2. To do this, just drag the film over to the MPEG Cutter module,
set the number of segments to two (2) and press the process button.

Example #2
You would like to see a sample of the movie you've just downloaded, but not at
the beginning (for this example, let's say you want to see 1/4 into the movie). Drag
the film over to the MPEG Cutter module, set the number of segments (in this case
4). When it has finished segment N 2, stop the process by pressing the Escape key
[ESC] or by pressing Command-Period ( - . )

The resulting segments can be opened and viewed using QuickTime Player or VLC.

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 FUNCTIONS
08. MPEG CUTTER (CONT'D)
Example #3
You have an MPEG film which is slightly too big to fit on a disc. So instead of split-
ting it in two, you would rather cut a few minutes of the end credits (or simply
make it small enough to fit on the media you picked). When you drag an MPEG file,
the total size is shown here:

Enter the number of bytes you wish to remove from the file in the appropriate field.

REMEMBER:
This is the number of bytes you wish to subtract and NOT the final size you want.

Make sure you have your numbers right as once a file is trimmed, there is no way to
get the deleted data back. It might be a good idea to work on a backup of your file,
just to be safe.

OPTION KEY:
Holding the option key ( ) down will bring up the MPEG Visual Cutter which looks
like this (don't worry, Gumby's main window is still underneath):

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 FUNCTIONS
08. MPEG CUTTER (CONT'D)
To perform a simple cut, drag an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 file to the MPEG Visual Cutter
window (either at the top where it says Source File or where the QuickTime artwork
is displayed). It may take a couple of seconds before you can see the video, depend-
ing on your MPEG file. If you don't see anything, then your document might be cor-
rupt or invalid.

The next step is to drag the QuickTime controller to the frame where you want to
cut and press the Cut button. It's that simple.

You can also cut a segment out of an MPEG file. This is particularly useful if you
wish to remove the commercials from a TV show or a bad/corrupted segment. To do
this, just go to the beginning of the part you wish to remove and hold SHIFT while
dragging a selection. Pressing Cut will make 2 films (with the selected area removed
from both segments). Selecting auto-merge will produce a single MPEG instead of 2.

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 FUNCTIONS
WHAT'S THE DEAL?

Back in the late 80's the Motion Picture Experts Group (made up of 8 scientists, 4
researchers, a super model and 2 circus midgets) was trying to come up with a way
to put both video and audio on a 650 meg CD.

They came up with the MPEG-1 standard. The picture size would be 352x240: good
enough to play on your monitor (back then people used 640x480) and if it needed to
be played on a TV set, just double every pixel.

The MPEG-1 standard was designed to run at a data rate of 1.5 Mbit/sec. That's 150K
per second (it's not much). Consider this: 30 seconds of video at 640x480 would
roughly be 27 megs and MPEG-1 wants to put all that plus some audio in a mere
150K. Crazy huh?

You're probably wondering why they picked only 150k/sec? Well, the reason is
simple: back in the 80's, CD-ROM drives ran at 1x and 1x = 150K/sec. They made
the format run on the hardware that was available then.

[Side Note: I seem to recall that before MPEG-1, MIT did experi-
ments where they managed to put 30 min. of video on a CD by mak-
ing half the frames in B&W and having your brain fill in the gaps].

HOW IT WORKS:
MPEG compression relies on 3 different types of frames:

Intraframes (I-frames)
Predicate frames (P-frames)
Bidirectially-interpolated frames (B-frames)
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WHAT'S THE DEAL? (CONT'D)
For the purpose of this example, we will consider the following bad movie:

I-frames are like keyframes in animation: they contain all the info necessary to
reconstruct a frame completely. P-frames only store the difference between frames.
B-frames reference both past and future frames.

Here's how these would look for our example above:

I-FRAME B-FRAME B-FRAME

All the data necessary to Some of the data needed Some of the data needed
build frame 2. to build frames 1 & 3. to build frames 1, 3 & 4.

P-FRAME P-FRAME I-FRAME

Difference between fra- Difference between fra- All the data (on the left)
mes 1 & 3 mes 1, 3 & 5 needed to build frame 5.

Notice how B-FRAME #2 contains part of the background for frames 1 & 3 where
Worf talks, but it is also used for the scene where he is at a console in front of Picard
(frame #4).

What you need to understand is that frames aren't stored individually. Instead, they
are split off in re-usable chunks and combining those chunks together is what makes
an MPEG frame. So in reality, the frames would be stored like this in the file:

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WHAT'S THE DEAL? (CONT'D)
PLAYBACK
When you press play, the MPEG decoder reads an I-frame then reads a bit of B-frame
data, then adds to it some P-frame data and builds frames 1 & 3. Then reads more
B-frame data and builds frame 2. From the B-frame data it already has, it reads some
more P-frame data and builds frame 4 then it decodes a bit of audio, syncs every-
thing and pumps the video out.

Seems like a long complicated method, but that's compression for you. All this work
and for only 4 frames. (Now just imagine doing this for 30 frames in NTSC and 25
frames in PAL, every second for hours!)

[OK, this is an ultra-simplified version of what's going on. Frames

aren't stored in huge easy to see chunks like in the Star Trek exam-
ple and NTSC runs at 29.97 fps and not 30 and yada yada yada
you get my drift...]

STRUCTURE
Typically, VCD's, SVCD's and DVD's use a stream structure like this:

...I B B P B B P B B P B B P B B P B B I...
frame 50 {frames 51 - 79} frame 80

Look at the example above. What do you think would happen if you tried to cut the
file between frames 62 & 63? Can you even see where frame 62 & 63 are located?

WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU

Cutting an MPEG file in 2 parts means data is missing in each file. This translates to
missing or garbled frames. I don't know of any program on the Mac or PC which can
perform immaculate cuts. Heck, you can't even cut an MPEG file in QuickTime Pro.

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 FUNCTIONS
09. RAR/UNRAR 3.0
WHAT IT DOES:
Many programs on the net are compressed using a PC utility named RAR
(www.rarlab.com). Files are generally split up into segments so that if a segment is
corrupt, all you need to do is get that segment again without having to re-download
the entire image from scratch. You can't tell off hand if a .rar document is corrupt or
not, so that's why RAR files usually come with a .sfv document (see the SFV section
for more details). Here's what the main window looks like:

A BIT ON RAR FILES

RAR files are generally numbered .R01 though .R99 with one of the documents be-
ing (.RAR). To extract a RAR file on a PC or the Mac, you generally must drag the
main RAR document.

Except, of course, that sometimes there is no .RAR file and you have to then open
up the first document entitled (.R01) instead and in some cases there is no .R01
document and all the files start at .R00 in which case you have to open that one, but
sometimes it's not named .R00 at all but simply .000 though .999 and sometimes all
the files are named .RAR like this: file.part01.RAR and sometimes there isn't a main
rar file, it's a .EXE file (a PC executable) and sometimes you just wished PC users
would die! ARG!

You can see how unnecessarily complicated this can be. So in order to make it
simple and friendly, you don't have to worry about any of this as Gumby imple-
ments auto detection of files.

AUTO DETECT:
To put it simply, auto detect does all the guess work for you. What this means is that
you don't have to deal with any of the crap mentioned above. Drag any of the files
inside the folder or drag the folder itself over to the module and the program will
automatically figure out which file is the right one to use. It's that simple.

Auto detect is also a feature of the SFV and PAR modules as well.

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09. RAR/UNRAR 3.0 (CONT'D)
You can even drag those terrible .exe files and it works :-)

TRUNCATE FILENAMES:
Many FTP site uploaders modify the names of the actual files. They do this because
deleters often come in and throw all that stuff away. In order to prevent the deletion
of these files, they add extra spaces at the end of each filename.

Since the remote computer disregards the spaces when it tries to delete, a file called
"test.text__" appears to be a different file called "test.text" and therefore cannot be
found, thus can't be deleted. While those files can't be deleted on the server, they
can still be downloaded.

If you've downloaded a bunch, you may not have noticed those extra spaces. That's
where the Truncate Filenames option becomes handy: it removes the unseen spaces
automatically.

This is particularly useful when you're doing SFV checks and it says files are miss-
ing. It might be that the files are there, but with extra spaces. Using truncate file-
names will solve the problem.

Select it and when you drag a folder or a file over to the RAR module, the entire
folder will be parsed and any filename with extra spaces at the beginning or the end
of the file will be cleaned.

REMEMBER:
This action happens when you drag something over to the RAR module and not
when you press the 'Process' button.

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09. RAR/UNRAR 3.0 (CONT'D)
Here is an example of the before and after result of using the truncate filenames op-
tion. The extra spaces were slightly exaggerated to make the example more clear:

Before the filenames are cleaned After the filenames are cleaned

QUICK EXTRACT:
If you select this option, you will NOT be able to interrupt or abort the extraction
process (so you'll have to wait until it's completed). Furthermore, you will not have
any feedback as to which file is being processed and the progress bar will not get
updated,

but

depending on your machine and the speed of your CPU it should run 3 to 6 times
faster. Here is an example of an extraction from 37 RAR files (50 meg segments) on a
B&W G3 (notice how my G3 is faster at unraring than a real PC):

Quick Extract: 10 min. 11 sec.

WinRAR - 700 Mhz PC: 14 min. 01 sec.
Full Background Mode: 35 min. 02 sec.
WinRAR - Virtual PC (5.0): 1 hour 8 min. 44 sec.

PASSWORD PROTECTION
Some RAR files are protected by a password. If you encounter such a RAR file, the
program will automatically detect this and a password field will appear. Simply
enter the password in it and proceed as usual.

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09. RAR/UNRAR 3.0 (CONT'D)
You can view the contents of a RAR archive by selecting 'View' function. A window
will drop down displaying the file's content, the size of each document and the level
of compression:

OPTION KEY:
If you wish to create your own RAR file, hold the option key ( ) down and press
the 'Process" button (it will be modified to say 'Create...' instead). A window drops
down showing this:

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09. RAR/UNRAR 3.0 (CONT'D)
The window is divided in 5 distinct sections:

Drag the folder with the files you wish to RAR at this location.
Type a password in this field to protect the archive (not required).
Enter the size of each RAR segment, in megabytes, in this field.
Select the compression level you wish to use.
Choose between the new style and old style naming convention.

NOTES
When you drag a folder to section 1, the name will reflect the choice you made in
section 5. Use the old naming convention if your RAR files are going to be used in a
DOS environment.

If you enter a password in section 2, that password will be used to encrypt the ar-
chive. It won't be possible to extarct files without it.

The size field is used to set a maximum desired file size. Let's imagine your final
RAR archive is 48 megs and you asked for 15 meg segments. You will get 4 RAR seg-
ments, 3 will be 15 megs and the last one will be 3 megs (for a total of 48).

A compression level of 3 is a good compromise between speed & compression. Set-

ting it to 5 will make a smaller file, but processing will be much much longer. By the
same token, setting it to none will make a larger file but the process will be quicker.

10. PAR
WHAT IT DOES:
This module lets you restore missing files and repair damaged files by means
of parity archive files (PAR).

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