The VideoLAN Forums

Hello

In a folder are many files with extension .r00 till .r92 .. and a file with extension .rar
Wenn I click the .rar file .. VCL becomes activ .. the .rar file becomes .mkv file and a video is displayed .. f.e for 1,5 hours long.
All files are together 4.9 GB big. But the RAR-file is only 50 MB.

What happens?
Can someone explain it to me?
How come that a file with an extension RAR first changes to MKV file and then displays a long film?
Thank you.

.rar is the file extension belonging to an application called WinRAR which compresses a given file to make it much smaller than it's original size.

It sounds like you have the file association configured to open .rar in vlc which is why that happens.

To re-associate it with WinRAR (assuming you have the application installed) do the following:

1. Open Windows Control Panel and click Default Programs.
2. Click the second option "Associate a file type or protocol with a program".
3. Find .rar in the list and click it once to highlight it and then click the "Change program" button.
4. In the menu which opens, click "More Options", scroll down to the very bottom of the menu and click "Look for another app on this PC".
5. If WinRAR is installed, the menu will automatically open in Program Files. Double click the WinRAR folder and then click WinRAR.exe
6. Save and Windows will reassign WinRAR to open .rar files in future.