Bootography Guide
How To Download From MASSIVEATTACK.IE And Playback The Lossless Audio Or DVD Video You Have Downloaded
Introduction – Two Ways To Download:
All audio and video files available in two ways. The first is that bootlegs are hosted on MASSIVEATTACK.IE’s premium MegaUpload account either in lossless audio format or as DVD videos. The second possible means of downloading is by using MASSIVEATTACK.IE’s own torrent tracker, which is intergrated as part of the forum. You will need to be a registered member of the forum in order to download/upload a show via the tracker which is private and you will also need to have a Bittorrent client (Azureus, µTorrent etc…). Any torrented shows that have seeders for them you will be able to download from. They are also no upload share ratios at present on the tracker. If the show you want has no seeders you can always make a request on that particular shows thread for seeders to come on to it and share. Full instructions on how to download and upload shows is available here in the Bootography section of the forum.
All the MegaUpload links on MASSIVEATTACK.IE should be good indefinetly as long as this site continues to operate, so you should’nt have to worry about any links becoming dead, so you can get all the bootlegs in your own time. All bootlegs as well from MASSIVEATTACK.IE, come with an info file detailing (where possible) the recording equipment that was used to record the bootleg in question, a full tracklist and duration time for each track, not to mention either a FLAC Fingerprint or MD5 Checksum file in order to verify the correctness of each download. This page presents a guide to those who might not be aware of how downloading from MegaUpload works and how to playback lossless audio or DVD video.
If you need help in how to use Bittorrent to download any of the shows, please read this thread here in the Bootography section of the forum.
How to Download from MegaUpload:
If you are a FREE user of MegaUpload then please follow the steps provided:
1. Begin by simply clicking the hyperlinks provided or by copying the Cut-n-Pastelink into your web browser.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page.
3. On the next page enter the 3 digit password into the prompt box and hit ENTER.
4. On the next page, place wait until the “Free Download” button in the center of the page has finished it’s 45 second countdown. Once the countdown is completed the button’s name will change to “Click here to Download”.
5. This will prompt the user to save the file to a specficfied location on their computer. The download should begin then.
If you are a PREMIUM user of MegaUpload then the steps involved to download are easier and far fewer:
1. Begin by simply clicking the hyperlinks provided or by copying the Cut-n-Pastelink into your web browser.
2. Assuming your premium details on stored on your computer as a cookie file then this action, will prompt the user to save the file to a specficfied location on their computer. The download should begin then.
While of course being a free MegaUpload user means that it’s free the advantages of having a Premium account is that free users have to enter some letters before the downloads start in order to have the permission to use the infrastructure of MegaUpload for free. Free users may also only download a certain amount of Megabytes per hour. If this amount is exceeded, a message will appear and the user will be forced to wait for over an hour before they can download from MegaUpload again. You can become a Premium user by clicking here. Also if you are a Premimum member oof MegaUpload, then you can use their Download manager called Mega Manager, which streamlines the process of downloading multiple files at the same time and is available here. For a further list of Premium MegaUpload features and how they would improve your downloading experience with MASSIVEATTACK.IE then look at the below image:
MegaUpload only allows users to upload files at a maximum of 100mb. While this may sound like plenty, if we consider the size of the avaerage bootleg here on MASSIVEATTACK.IE is on average 500mb with DVD bootlegs being several gigabytes in size! To get over this hurdle, the only solution is to split the bootlegs into smaller files using a archive program such as Winrar. These smaller files are unusable on there own. You must have the entire set of archived files associated with that particular bootleg in order to reassemble the full bootleg. In the case of all MASSIVEATTACK.IE files, they will be archived and packaged into RAR files which will require a file archive program such as the aforementioned Winrar, in order to reassemble the RAR files back into their original form.
Also, while this has nothing to do with the Bootography section, the RAR files that can be downloaded in the Scans section, will also need to be extracted in a similar fashion to what was just described above with a program like WinRAR.
All RAR files from MASSIVEATTACK.IE are protected with a password. This password is required in order to reassemble the rar files, and is an nessasity to stop people from stealing the links and posting them elsewhere on the internet without credit being given to MASSIVEATTACK.IE.
THE PASSWORD IS: “massiveattack.ie”
Remove the “” from the password so that is just reads massiveattack.ie. Make sure the password is in lowercase letters too.
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec, an audio format similar to MP3, but lossless, meaning that audio is compressed in FLAC without any loss in quality. This is similar to how a Zip file works, except with FLAC you will get much better compression because it is designed specifically for audio, and you can play back compressed FLAC files in your favorite player (or your car or home stereo) just like you would an MP3 file. FLAC is the audio format of choice with live bootleg enthusiasts across the world, and it is the format through which all audio files from MASSIVEATTACK.IE will be uploaded in.
Unfortunately, not all media players support playback of lossless audio like FLAC. However they are easy methods to ensure the media players present on your computer can playback the files. For the purposes of this guide, it will cover just two media players, probably the most popular media players: Windows Media Player and Winamp. In order for these two media players to playback FLAC files downloaded from MASSIVEATTACK.IE please download these plugins for them:
Windows Media Player FLAC Plugin
After downloading some of the bootlegs you may notice that many of them are divided into two seperate folders usually something like CD1 and CD2. This is because the intention of these FLAC files is to not merely be listened to on a computer but also burnt to a CD and played on an conventional stereo system. The bootlegs are split into different folders, intened for you to burn them onto seperate discs. In order to burn FLAC files, without having to decompress them back into the original WAV files here are two guides (depending on what operating systems you have) found on the internet to help you:
All the DVD bootlegs available from MASSIVEATTACK.IE are specfically inteneded for playback on a DVD player and not a computer and are ready made for the burning process. You can still watch a DVD file on your computer by using a very robust media player called VLAN Player, and using that to watch the VOB files of the DVD bootlegs. There are several CD/DVD burning programs available such as Roxio and Nero. Whatever program is used, you will not need to alter any of the files in the DVD bootleg folder you have downloaded, just burn the entire contents of the DVD folder within the main folder of each DVD bootleg download. All DVD bootlegs available from MASSIVEATTACK.IE come with proper menus that will play automatically when played on a DVD player.
What Are The Fingerprint and Checksum Files Included With Each Bootleg?:
Depending on what type of bootleg you are download, either a lossless audio or DVD bootleg, a FLAC Fingerprint or a MD5 Checksum file will also be included respectively. These small files are simply precautionary measures used to check to make sure that all the data contained within the downloaded bootleg is correct and not been compromised during transmission over the internet. Errors may occur with such large files as these, either in the repackaging of the RAR files or in the hashing together of one of the torrents that such checks are a good thing to have. To verify the FLAC Fingerprint or the MD5 Checksum against the files that are apart of the bootleg, you will need to download and install additional verifaction software. One very useful software to do this with is Trader’s Little Helper, which can also do a multitude of other tasks related to lossless audio storage and manipulation.
Can I Sell These Recordings I’ve Just Downloaded?:
No absolutely not! These recordings were provided for free by the original tapers and would show great disrespect to them and to this community if they were later sold for profit. If you should find anyone selling these recordings onwards please contact MASSIVEATTACK.IE and report them. You may of course trade these shows freely with others, but only if they are preserved as they are i.e no lossy (mp3 etc…) trading of these shows. This is again an effort to respect the original tapers wishes. You may lossy compress the shows for your own personal use, but anytime you pass on or trade these bootlegs, please keep them as you found them with the original untouched FLAC files and the info text file and the FLAC fingerprint/MD5 checksum intact.
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