Q: What is RiffTrax?

RiffTrax are comedic MP3 tracks that you play in-sync with your favorite movies. Written and performed by the stars of the award-winning TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax brings the unique humor of "Satellite of Love" partners Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett to Hollywood's hit movies.

Q: Where can I receive technical support?

Please contact us through our Support Department or the Community Forums.

Q: How do I Synchronize my RiffTrax?

Each RiffTrax contains verbal instructions to help you synchronize it. Alternatively, you might try using our free RiffTrax Player.

Q: What is RiffTrax Presents?

RiffTrax Presents are RiffTrax that are officially sanctioned by Mike, but feature other Mystery Science Theater 3000 alums, comedians and special guest celebrities.

Q: What is an iRiff?

An iRiff is a home-made audio commentary that you can upload to the RiffTrax Store and sell to our thousands of daily visitors. You'll make 50% of the net revenue your iRiff generates, paid in quarterly installments on balances over $25.

Q: Can I riff with Mike?

Yes! The creators of the best iRiffs will be invited to work with Mike on an official RiffTrax Presents.

Q: What do I need to know about Video on Demand?

When you purchase a Video-on-Demand title, you receive pre-synchronized video files, with the commentary "baked into" the video - as opposed to an audio file that you must synchronize yourself. Video-on-Demand Shorts are provided as DRM-free DivX, .mpg and .wmv files, suitable for your portable media device. Feature-length VOD titles are available as DRM-free DivX files, and may also contain the additional file formats listed above.

Q: How can I learn about other RiffTrax titles?

You can sign-up for the RiffTrax Mailing List to be notified of all new releases, upcoming events and to learn about special discounts! We'll also announce our new releases (along with contest giveaways and ticket contests for RiffTrax Live) on our Facebook page and our Twitter stream!

Q: What is RiffTrax Live Online?

RiffTrax Live Online is our new, streaming delivery of live events, where the guys will riff on whatever they want - live, on the Internet! It's powered by Watershed from UStream, who are leaders in delivering live and on-demand streaming events around the globe.

Q: I've downloaded the burnable content... what now?
Some burnable content will be listed as a single .iso file. These files can simply be downloaded, and burned to disc using your favorite burning program. However, some burnable content has been compiled into a RAR file that's been broken up into numerous smaller files for ease of download. Here are the steps required to make sure you can properly extract and burn a DVD Image file that has been compressed into a RAR format. Please check to see if you have downloaded the entire Archive, before attempting to extract files. You can verify that you have all of the files, by looking at the description location in your files section. If the description displays, "Part 1 of 4", then you will need to download pieces 2, 3, and 4 as well as have them reside in the same directory as part 1, in order for the extraction to work. Because we wish to include album art, and other goodies, we have opted to put them all together as a single file. If your computer does not know what to do with the file download, please download WinRAR here (PC) or RAR Expander (Mac) here and install it. You can associate the .rar file type with your favorite rar-extraction program. If you are having trouble seeing whether or not you have successfully extracted the file, please ensure that you are able to see file extensions. Please open up Windows Explorer -> Tools -> Folder Options... -> View -> "Hide extensions of known file types should" should not be checked Because of the way that WinRar works, you will know that you have a perfect working copy if you have an ISO file in your directory. You will not be able to successfully extract an ISO unless you have all the files, and they are complete. NOTE: If you are having an issue extracting the ISO file from your archive, you can test the validity of the files downloaded by clicking on the TEST button located along the top of the WinRAR program. This will check the archive for any errors and inform you if there is an error in your archive. Whether you are missing a file, or one of your files is corrupted. If this is the case, please download and replace the damaged file If you are unfamiliar with the burning process, and have no burning programs on your computer, follow the following steps...
  • Check to make sure that you have a drive capable of burning the downloaded content. DVD-R drive for DVD's, or a DVD-R/CD-R drive for the audio album
  • Download ImgBurn here and install it (Mac users can use Disk Utility as described here).
  • Use ImgBurn to browse to the ISO (for a downloaded DVD) or CUE (for a downloaded album) you extracted with WinRAR
  • Insert a blank DVD-R disc into your DVD Burning drive. For the Audio album, insert a blank CD-R disk into your DVD-R/CD-R drive
  • Click the Burn it! button
After the file has been successfully burned to your CD/DVD, you can play the CD/DVD like any other disc. If this answer doesn't help, please email support@rifftrax.com so we can better assist you. Common Questions and Answers
Q1: I extracted the files from a Burnable DVD archive, and only see an AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directory, instead of an ISO file. What happened? A1: This happens from clicking one too many times while inside of WinRAR. An ISO file is essentially a container, and you opened that up and extracted the contents. Please try opening the archive again, and clicking on the Extract To button and choose a location. Then please burn the ISO file using one of the programs listed earlier Q2: When attempting to extract the ISO file, I keep receiving an error informing me that I am missing the file filename.r01. What happened? A2: This happened because you accidentally forgot to download one of the archive files. Please visit your Riffrax Files section and download the missing files. Please remember that a DVD ISO is a very large file, and we have split it up to ensure that if the downloaded file has been corrupt, that you do not need to download an entire 4 gig file again. The smaller structure, while a bit more work, can save you from another four hours of waiting to try again. Thanks for being patient! Q3: When attempting to extract the ISO file, I keep receiving an error informing me that file filename.r01 is corrupted. What happened? A3: This happened for any number of reasons. Generally, the reason for this error is because the file download stopped early and some of the content of the file is missing. This can be remedied by resuming the file download, or downloading the file over again from scratch. NOTE: Optionally, in your My Files section, you will notice that if you hover over the MD5 link for a file, it will display the MD5 hash for a given file. You can use this information to check the integrity of your files if you are having corrupted file problems.
Have a question that you don't see answered here? Please feel free to e-mail support@rifftrax.com and ask. We're constantly updating this section to ensure that all of your questions are answered, and you can be watching your movies in a timely manner
Q: What do the different formats, NTSC and PAL, mean?

The short answer is that NTSC files are for people in North America, including the United States and Canada. PAL files are for users in regions other than Region 1, such as the United Kingdom and Australia. The long answer has to do with technical specifications of each format. NTSC and PAL have different framerates - meaning a PAL video actually is a bit faster than its NTSC counterpart, making it somewhat shorter. It's difficult to notice unless you have two versions of the same movie (or audio file) playing side-by-side; but eventually you'll notice the PAL version being ahead of the NTSC version. Sometimes the difference is as much as a few minutes! If you find that your mp3 file is constantly out of sync with the DVD you're watching, first make sure that you've downloaded the correct format of mp3 (NTSC for Region 1, PAL for elsewhere) and then check other things, such as the DVD version (Collector's Edition, Director's Cut, etc.) is correct for that mp3 file. These details are usually found on the product page. For more information on NTSC, as well as a list of countries that use it, click here. For PAL information use this link.

Q: What kinds of RiffTrax can I enjoy?

There are several different ways to enjoy RiffTrax.  We have riffs of feature length movies available for download in mp3 and .riff format, we have merged video downloads riffing on hilarious educational shorts and select feature titles, we have guest riffs of feature titles, and we even have your own riffs available in our iRiffs section! 

If you’d like to watch on your TV, we also have DVDs available, including compilations of our Shorts, a growing collection of feature length DVDs, and live tapings of our RiffTrax Live events!

 

Q: I got a gift certificate! How do I use it?

 It’s easy!  If the certificate is already attached to your account, all you have to do is log in, select the products you wish to purchase and add them to your cart, then select Pay with Gift Certificates in the check out screen!

Q: I need to attach my gift certificate code to my account! How do I do that?

 Go to My Account and select My Settings.  Once in the editing screen, scroll down until you reach the Gift Certificates field and enter your code into the box.  Save the page and your certificate is attached!

Q: What is the difference between the two live show prices?

If you purchase the higher tier, after the live show you will receive downloadable copies of both the short and the feature - before they are available to purchase on the RiffTrax site!

Q: Can I buy tickets in advance?

Of course.  Click here to buy a ticket to the live show or any of the encores.  You purchase the live ticket just like you would any product on RiffTrax.com

Q: How and when are the free digital goodies added to my account?

They will be added to the My Files section of your account immediately after the live show (ERIK, Link My Files to the my files section)

Q: How will I remember where to go for the show?

Hopefully you can remember RiffTraxlive.com  There will also be links on the RiffTrax homepage.

Q: Are there digital goodies for the encores?

 No.

Q: Is this available outside of the US?

Of course! All of our live online shows are streamed through UStream, which is available worldwide.

Q: Can the new player play old RiffTrax Player (.riff) files?

No. The .riff file spec was essentially the mp3 combined with sync information in different formats, and encrypted. It made updating the file, and adding new information to it, extremely difficult. Our new .sync file format is completely different in that it's simply a text file containing timing data for maintaining sync. The two formats (and players) are not compatible with each other.

Q: Do I need to redownload all of my zipped mp3 files?

No way! We've made it easy - you can download individual .sync files here: http://rifftrax.com/riffplayer

Q: Can I play any Riff with the RiffTrax Player?

Not yet!  .Sync Files are still being compiled.  You can find a current list of available .sync files here.

Q: I tried to open a RiffTrax and received an error message: no corresponding .sync file found! What do I do?

Make sure you've saved your MP3 riff and the corresponding .sync file in the same folder. Be certain the name of the sync file matches the name of the mp3 (i.e.  EmpireStrikesBack_RiffTrax.sync and EmpireStrikesBack_RiffTrax.mp3).  Remember, not all Riffs have .sync files yet, there may not be one available for the DVD you're trying to play! You can check the list of available .sync files here.

Q: There's no .sync file for the movie I want to watch! Can I still play it with RiffTrax?

Sure you can!  You can always sync a RiffTrax the old fashioned way, by playing the MP3 in your MP3 player and following the verbal instructions to sync it to your DVD.

Q: Are there any DVDs that just won't play?

Yes, unfortunately. As of this writing (March 31, 2011), the following discs are not yet playable by the Riffplayer:  Casino Royale, Last Airbender, The Dark Knight, Star Trek (2009). We hope to resolve this in a future update.

Q: The player crashed, but I still hear the riff / movie!

In Windows: Go to Task Manager (ctrl + alt + dlt, select Task Manager) and under the Processes tab, close all instances of mplayer.exe and riffplayer.exe.

For Mac: Open a terminal window, and type "ps -A | grep mplayer", hit enter.  Then kill the mplayer processes by typing "kill -9 PID" where PID is the ID of the processes listed in the first step. Do these steps again, but replace "mplayer" with "riffplayer"

Q: How do I change my DVD drive?

Go to the Options menu and select Preferences, then go to Drives on the left. In the right hand panel, select the correct drives for DVD and CD playback from the pull down menus.

Q: I changed something in my preferences and now nothing works. How do I reset my preferences?

Close Riffplayer.

In Windows: Go to your Application Data directory (In Windows XP, it's usually Documents and Settings > username > Application data; In Windows 7 and Vista, browse to your User folder at C:\Users\username). There you will find a folder named .riffplayer. Open this folder and rename your preferences file (riffplayer.ini) to riffplayer.BAK (or something similar). When you next run riffplayer, the preferences file will be recreated with the default values.

In OSX: Open a terminal window and then cd /Users/YOUR USERNAME/.config/riffplayer/ and delete or rename riffplayer.ini, then restart Riffplayer.

Q: Video playback is choppy, what should I do?

First, try running the player by itself (close any other open programs.) If your video is still choppy, try changing the audio drivers: in the Options menu, select Preferences, and click General in the left panel. In the right panel, select the Audio tab, and in the Output driver pulldown, select a new audio driver. The default is dsound, and win32, sdl are known to work.

Click Apply, and then OK, and then restart the Riffplayer for the changes to take effect.

If that doesn't work, you might also try changing your Video drivers. Same steps as above, but choose the Video tab instead. In Windows, the default is Directx (fast); Directx (slow), gl, gl2, and Direct3d are known to work. In Mac, corevideo and coreaudio are the known defaults.

Q: When I run Riffplayer, the screen blinks and my gui changes. Is this normal?

When using Directx in Windows 7 / Windows Vista, DVD programs set the Window color scheme to Basic (and turn off Aero). This is completely normal.

Q: I really want to use the player for a DVD that has no .sync file yet. Can I create one?

Please do! .sync files are just text files. Some instructions on creating a .sync file are here: http://www.rifftrax.com/riffplayer/creating-sync. Note that the process is a little complex and requires doing some math. You can submit your .sync files at this forum thread.

Q: Does the player support Blu-Ray or video files?

At this time, no - SMPlayer (which the Riffplayer is based on) does not currently offer support for Bluray; as far as video files, such as the ones you might download from iTunes, we do not currently support syncing these up, though that is something we hope to support in the near future.

Q: What do I do if the program crashes or won't run?
If the player crashes (these things happen) sometimes it's handy to see the logs from your player. We need the Riffplayer logs, available under Options > View logs > Riffplayer. Save them as a text document, and email them to player-bugs@rifftrax.com. You might fill out a bug report, which you can do at this link. You might also check the Known Issues page.
Q: Can I watch PAL DVDs with the RiffTrax Player?

Yes! We have a few .sync files that can be found on the RiffPlayer page.. But since it's hard for us in North America to make PAL .sync files, we are always looking for more contributors! If you'd like to help, see the "creating sync files" instruction page at http://rifftrax.com/riffplayer/creating-sync and give it a shot. You can contribute your .sync files by emailing them to us at player@rifftrax.com.