Originally Posted by Only A Hobo

A lot of results in searches are for fake files.

AUDIO: I suggest, if searching for audio files, you go for results that show a smallish number of sources, like 10 or 20, or just go for a single source from a modem perhaps. If you can browse the host offering the file you can see what sort of host they are, and they are more likely to be genuine, but if you see they share a great many large files, then you may have difficulty getting a slot from them.

You may need to re-search a few times,

VIDEO: If you are looking for video especially check the file with Bitzi, by right clicking on the file in the search results pane and selecting advanced>look up with Bitzi. This will take you to the Bitzi Site where previous reports, if any, on the file, can be seen. Many good video files can be found in large numbers, and many are not listed in the Bitzi site, but you can contribute your own report. So do not limit yourself to small numbers of sources. It is a good idea to preview video files when they reach about 10%. This can save a lot of time and grief Many also use magnet links for video. If you do this you may get a message "need more sources", but searching for more sources often brings results.
Click here for more about bitzi and Magnet links.

Thanks to many fellow members for their input

I hope this helps