Compression
Some of you might be asking ‘What is compression and why should I use it’? Well good question! Compression is when you take a file and compress it to make the file size smaller but still maintain the original quality of the file. This could be useful when you want to burn a drama series to a disc and share it with a friend but all the files won’t fit on one disc. Sometimes compressing it will do just the trick. Afterward, the file can be decompressed to its original quality for them to watch. Here are some programs that I find useful in doing this.
1) WinRAR
WinRAR is not the most powerful compression program out there but it’s been around quite some time and is the choice of preference among many users today including myself. Besides compressing files, I also use WinRAR to split files over 1 gigabyte so free users are able to download it from Megaupload.
People with premium accounts won’t have to worry about it but I’m trying to make the dramas available to as many people as possible ^_^ WinRAR itself is not free, but it comes with a 40 day trial period before you are asked to register and it is still a much better alternative to other compression programs such as WinZip which is also not free. Even after the 40 day period is over, you can still use WinRAR to compress files but it will display a message prompting you to register.
2) 7zip
7zip is the most powerful compression software that I have come across to date. Despite that, for some reason WinRAR still seems to be the preference among many users on the internet today. Chances are because WinRAR has been around a lot longer and the compression strength of 7zip isn’t a HUGE difference between WinRAR’s compression. Or maybe people just don’t like the .7z file extension, who knows. Whatever the case, I use 7zip when WinRAR just isn’t able to compress a file a little bit more so it fits onto a single disc. The main difference between WinRAR and 7zip though is that 7zip is free =)
