Downloaded File Format

[RealitY]

This may not belong here, but oh well...

I downloaded a flick via bittorrent and it has about 50 .rar files and a .nfo (which I read). Anyway I did some reading on news groups, which seems to be the format, but am a little lost. What programs do I need to put this file together into one .avi?

Thanks.

[Schuler]

What you need is WinRAR. Download from http://www.rarlab.com/. Then with winrar you extract all the 50 files into a directory and that should form the avi. Just select one file, I'm assuming they're labeled something like filename.r01-r.** and a .rar file, and it will open up WinRAR. From the gui you should see what it will extract into. Then just extract into a directory and delete the rar files. I don't know if the directions were exactly clear but I'm sure you can figure it out.

[Jibbler]

Sometimes after unzipping the 50 RAR files, they may form one big RAR, depending on how the file was packaged. These days you only need WinZip and WinRAR. That should cover it. B)

[RealitY]

Well that was simple.

I take it then if I jump into News Groups I just need to get all parts and do the same, or do I need the .sfv file (wat is dat) as well? Oh, and whats Vobsubs, is this subtitles?

Thanks Again.

[Switeck]

Actually, if you only wanted to uncompress file archive types the best programs for the task are:

WinRAR and WinACE

WinZIP doesn't even deserve an honorable mention, as it doesn't support NEARLY the range of archive types that WinRAR and WinACE does.

[Schuler]

WinZIP is overrated. but I still use it, just quite accustomed to it. But WinRAR is very good I like it.

[Jibbler]

Originally posted by REALITY@3 May 2003 - 22:35
Well that was simple.

I take it then if I jump into News Groups I just need to get all parts and do the same, or do I need the .sfv file (wat is dat) as well? Oh, and whats Vobsubs, is this subtitles?

Thanks Again.

WinZip is the original. It was designed to unzip Zip files, nothing more, nothing less. WinAce really has no use, since the filesharing community doesn't release files in .ace format anymore. WinRAR still works the best, and it also unzips .TAR files, which you will commonly find on newsgroups.

No, you don't need to get the .sfv file. This stands for Simple File Verification, though this isn't really needed. People who post movies on newsgroups post the files in RAR format. Then they use PAR files, another compression format, which works like RAR files. Blah blah blah, the point is that PAR files can be used to restore a missing RAR file. So if you download 49 out of 50 rar files, SmartPar can "reconstruct" the missing file.

Its sounds more complex than it is. Best to do some searching on Google for newsgroups, and how to access them.

Vobsubs - hmm.. this is a tough one. VOB files are used on DVDs, so I assume this has something to do with the subtitles? Maybe its some kind of DVD format of subtitle? Your guess is as good as mine.