Torrent Help, Please.

[tweetdriver63]

I installed Vuse yesterday, and I've now downloaded three things, 2 movies and 1 episode of a TV show. The movies are both in XviD format, and from the Vuse console, I just go to "Library," select the movie I want to watch, and click "Play" or "Launch" and it plays perfectly. The TV show, on the other hand, when I do the same with it, just opens a folder with about 25 files in it. Most of the files say they are part 1, part2, etc, and they have ".rar" extensions. The other two files say they are info files. I'm at a complete loss for how to play the TV show. Can anybody help?

[ailwyn]

Chris,

Try winrar for re-assembling and decompressing your TV show. Rar format files are compressed archives, same function as a zip file.

However, you are a braver man than me if you'll re-assemble and execute/extract any "dubious source" compressed file.

Ailwyn

[dapinky]

I agree with Ailwyn.

If you want to get stuff from torrent sites, be aware that there are plenty of to$$ers out there who will give you viruses at the same time

You are best getting torrents which are .avi files, not .rar files, but sometimes there is little choice as to the format.

I use a program called 'extract now' (free from www.download.com) to decompress my .rar and .zip files - and i always decompress them on an old laptop where i can re-boot if worst comes to the worst - but generally, if you run antivirus though the .rar files it will pick up any 'nasties' before they can do any harm, and then run it through the uncompressed files before loading them into media player.

PS - there is more chance of a virus on 'dodgy' downloads (Porn/unreleased films/new software titles) than from a TV series, but it is worth getting downloads from a reputable uploader and/or reading comments left by other users - as a general guide, the more seeds there are, the more reputable the media is likely to be.

[tweetdriver63]

This is kind of an experiment with the TV show. The new season of Friday Night Lights (my wife's favorite show) is exclusively on DirectTV (which we don't have), and will play on the network later. She has a friend who is downloading it and sending it to her on DVD, so I don't really need to get it. In fact, I think her friend feels really good about being able to help her, so I don't want to take that away. I just wanted to learn how. I've been using Limewire for music, etc for quite a while (really glad to hear the music industry is dropping its legal pursuit of file-sharers), but everything there is mpg, mov, or avi.

The Friday Night Lights episode I downloaded had almost 5000 seeds, and nothing but good comments/reviews, so I'm not all that worried about getting an STD (software transmitted disease).

[dapinky]

I've been using Limewire for music, etc for quite a while

be careful of Limewire...... i used it a couple of years ago and picked up some nasty trojans on the system - hopefully it has been cleaned up since then.

From what you say about the TV show, it sounds like it could be okay, so just get either winrar or extract now and then just drag the .rar file into the box and let the computer do its magic!

[tweetdriver63]

We've downloaded a lot more files using Limewire than the music industry would like, but haven't ever had a problem. I did once download a movie, and when I played it, it wasn't the movie it claimed to be (good thing neither of my kids was there at the time), and it also caused my browser to open up and start loading a bunch of porn sites. I hit the power off button on the computer, restarted it, deleted the movie file, ran a full scan (with no infections detected), and all was well. I stick to the music files there now, and I'm what you'd call a "leecher." I don't let other people access my computer, I just thank them for letting me access theirs for the files. I also do all that on my laptop, which doesn't have anything vital on it.