watching a downloaded video got complicated

[realutd7]

So far, everytime I have downloaded a video, i've been able to watch it because it is pretty simple.

Now, I downloaded one movie and it just got too complicated for me...

Maybe I cant try to fix it, but i'm not sure if what i am doing is the right thing or a harder way which just wastes time. Also, there may be other newbies who will experience this problem so i'm just gonna post it.

Now the problem..

Usually the 'type' of the downloaded video file is a 'video clip', or a movie, or an 'mpeg file' or watever. It's just always been some time of video type.

But one movie i downloaded, the file type is WinRAR. This is already different enough from me, but i know how to extract the files so it's not too bad.

My main problem is that there are so many of them (see picture below)

So what is exactly the proper way to watch this movie??

Just choose one of the files and extract the video in it and you're done?

Does it matter what you choose?

Does the fact that when you open each file, they have the same 'size' but different 'packed' size,, does that matter?

What is "packed" suppose to mean anyway (or does it even matter)?

If it's too long to explain or too complicated and you just dont have the time, i basically just want to know the right way of opening the file where you can watch the movie from the beginning to the end (not starting in the middle or somethin).

If you do have the time and the knowledge, could you fill me in with all the information?

[caf4926]

display your files in list view, its easier to determine the first file in the series

then right click the first file and select "extract here"

that should auto extract them all in to one video file (just hope there is no password)

[realutd7]

what's suppose to happen next?

or what am i suppose to do next?

because i did what you said and then it extracted. When it reached 100%, i'm waiting and waiting but nothing is happening?

[dimchopicha2003]

You can choose how much to be the size of the archive. So if you choose for example 20MB and you need to archive 700MB at the end you will have:

movie.rar 20MB

movie.r00 20MB

movie.r01 20MB

movie.r02 20MB

......

and so on.

To extract such archives you need to right-click on one of them (doesn't matter which one) and choose extract to movie (i prefer extract to folder name - the name of the archive because if there are 100 files in there when you choose extract here you will have one big mess of files in there.)

so if everything is normal - all the archives are ok, not corrupt you should finish the extracting of the files without any problems.

In your way something is wrong.

Make a screenshot with your files in details view please so we can see what is going on.

Another suggestion - in windows explorer go to tools->folder options->view tab->scroll down to hide extensions to know file types -> uncheck. You cant have 2 files with same names and extension in one folder. And as you can see on the screenshot you have 32 files with same name - only the extension is different here but with that option checked you cant see the extension and it is so confusing.

When you uncheck that option you will see that this blue icon has the extension *.nfo. Right click on it and choose open with...choose notepad check the option always to open such extension with notepad and hit ok.

Then open this file and read. There should have instructions how to make your movie playable. If you are doing everything like they and we say then your files are corrupt and you can't do anything.

[realutd7]

how do u choose yourself what size you want the archives to be?

and basically, are you saying that i choose any one of them and extract the movie? because the movie will be same no matter which archive i extract??

i opened that notepad file but it didnt say anything about how to open the movie so just forget that part.

also, everytime i open windows explorer and go to the folder options part, i dont know why but windows explorer just closes down and computer freezes for a couple of seconds..

anyway, i dont know if this helps, but here goes the screenshot

[kluelos]

You choose the size if and only if you are the creator of the archive.

Time for you to bone up on archives.

Archivers are created for two purposes. One was to keep groups of files together, and sometimes in the proper directory substructure. The other purpose was compression. File compression was a very big deal some time ago, when bandwidth was generally a lot harder to come by. As a result, most files were compressed into one sort of archive or another just to save bandwidth when transferring. They all have to be uncompressed to be used, of course.

Compression is much less useful now, because contemporary audio and video formats are already as compressed as they can reasonably be. If you try to squeeze them down any further, you'll merely waste a great deal of time and end up saving less than 2% of the original file size. Not worth it.

There used to be many constraints on file sizes, imposed by external circumstances. For example, the various sizes of floppy disk in use were one constraint. If you had a very large archive, much too large to fit onto a single floppy, you could tell the archiver to split it into floppy-sized chunks that could then be copied to however many floppies it took, transported, and reassembled onto another hard disk before being unarchived back to the original size/structure.

Another constraint was Usenet, which imposed maximum size limits on messages posted to newsgroups. It became common to split such files into multiple chunks to comply with these limits. A downloader had to assemble all the chunks from the various messages in order to reassemble the archive.

These size limits are simply outdated. There is no reason to use archiving at all for modern audio/video material, and even less reason to split it into chunks. But some sites are still doing these silly, time-wasting things, and you've got hold of one of them that does. Some torrent sites even insist on it. If you can't educate them, avoid them.

You've got a WinRAR archive, named for the program you'll need to extract it. It's an archive, so you're pulling something out of it and putting that something somewhere on your disk. Once it's been extracted, winRAR's job is done. It'll say, Extracting...70%...80%...90%...done!" and quit.

It has extracted the files, whatever they were, to whereever you told it to extract them. Now you're done with WinRAR, and done with the archive too. Now you can use the extracted file(s), whatever they were. Maybe what was extracted was one large movie file, perhaps an .avi or .mp4 file. You can watch that movie file. You can get rid of all the pieces of the archive, and all of its .sfv files as well.

[realutd7]

I've gotta say,, once I downloaded BitComet, I am learning so many things about computers and it is very interesting and I love it.

Not to make things weird or uncomfortable, but thank you very much for giving a very long explanation and using your own time. I have learnt so much from you (kluelos) in many other threads. Not only do you have the knowledge, but you're willing to pass on the knowledge to those who need it in your own time, so thank you very much for all your time and effort. I think it's an amazing thing that you do.

(of course, I am also very grateful for the other members/administrators who are contributing so much)

[dimchopicha2003]

also, everytime i open windows explorer and go to the folder options part, i dont know why but windows explorer just closes down and computer freezes for a couple of seconds..

then go to start menu->settings->control panel->folder options

and basically, are you saying that i choose any one of them and extract the movie? because the movie will be same no matter which archive i extract??

yes; imagine that in the first archive you have the first 5 min from the movie, in the second archive the second 5 min and so on. WinRar make all of the archives linked and when you choose to unpack one of them it automatically find the other needed parts of the archive. You can try to move one of the archive out of the folder and then try to unpack (extract) the movie; you will receive a message telling you that one of the archive is missing and giving you the option to browse for it. That is why if even one of these archives is missing or corrupt you will be unable to extract and watch your movie.

how do u choose yourself what size you want the archives to be?

you choose this in the options in WinRar when you creating archives.

Edited August 3, 2006 by dimchopicha2003 (see edit history)

[realutd7]

thanks for the knowledge

but even through your way of going to 'folder options', when 'folder options' does open the same thing still happens: the windows explorer closes and computer freezes for a couple of seconds

[dimchopicha2003]

hmm you have problem with your windows then, prepare for windows to crush soon. You can try to fix this by cleaning your temporary files - you can use CCleaner for this purpose.

and clean your registry

what happend with the archives? Have you managed to extraced your movie?

[realutd7]

yes the movie is fine now thank you