Multimedia Files - .divx .xvid .wmv .avi .mpg .mpeg .ra .rm .ram .mp3 .mp2 .ogm .ogg . vcd .svcd .mov
CD Image Files - .bin .cue .ccd .img .sub .iso .mds .mdf .nrg
Other Files You Should Know About - .txt .doc .rtf .pdf .nfo
These are archived files. They are compressed to make your download smaller and therefore faster. You can use WinRAR (most common) or PowerArchiver to open these. WinZIP and WinACE may also be able to read these files. Once you have the file and one of the programs above to open them, just double click on the file (if it doesn't know what to open it with right click > open with > select the program from the list). A window will open and ask where you want to extract the files to. Select a location and unpack.
.cbr .cbz
These are normally compressed comics. In order to open these correctly you need CDisplay.
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These are usually motion picture formats, usually associated with things like films or TV shows. There are many different players out there, but some of my personal favourites are VLC, BSPlayer, Winamp, DivX Player and Windows Media Player. VLC is particularly good because it supports LOTS of different formats. These files usually have two parts to them, one picture and the other sound. Sound is driven by Codecs. Some of the popular Codecs are ffdshow, Xvid, DivX, ac3filer & Ogg.
If codecs are a problem you could try installing a popular codec pack which contains many popular codecs.
.ra .rm .ram
These are associated with RealPlayer. Some like it, some don't. Personally, it crashes my system too much.
.mp3 .mp2
These are music files. There are loads of music players out there, but Winamp and Windows Media Player are the most common.
.ogm .ogg
These are Ogg Vorbis media files. They are music formats and you can use DirectShow Ogg filter to play back OGM files, or the latest version of Winamp.
. vcd .svcd
These are Video CD or Super Video CD files. Once burnt onto a disc they will play in most modern DVD players.
.mov
Only associated with Quicktime movies. If you want to download Quicktime these days you need to download iTunes with it (pain if you don't actually own an ipod). Back To Top
.bin .cue .ccd .img .sub
These are images of a CD and are quite common, think of them
as a "virtual CD". They are an exact copy of a disc and
when you burn them back onto a disc you have a copy, just
done in different ways depending on the exact format. There
are a few programs out there that you can use to burn these
onto disc with, but Nero and Alcohol 120% are the most
used.
You should definitely get hold of
Alcohol 120%
Alcohol will also allow you
to create a "virtual drive". You can then put your virtual
disc into your virtual drive and you don't need to burn the
disc at all. Useful if you want to download dvd rips (4gb
in size) but don't have a DVD burner. If you rely on this
method make sure you have lots of HD space to store the
images on if you want to keep them. Alcohol 120% will also
cope well with various copy protection systems as it can
emulate them.
.iso
This is another version of a CD image. You can use Alcohol
120%, WinISO or ISOBuster to burn these.
.mds .mdf
These are Media Descriptor Images. You can use Alcohol 120% to burn / mount these.
.nrg
These are Nero specific images made using Nero. You will
have to use Nero to burn them yourself.
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You can open a .txt file with Notepad, and .doc files with Word, or something like OpenOffice & StarOffice. .rtf (Rich Text Format) files can also be opened in Word (or similar).
You can view these with Adobe Acrobat Reader.
.nfo
These are information files. You will probably come across these lots. You should read them every time. Open them with notepad. Or, if you want to see them as they were meant to be seen (graphically better) then use something like DAMN nfo Viewer or UltraEdit.Back To Top
