VLC help - playing a Movie

[NyMike07]

Hey im fairly new to this VLC,
ive been using it for a while now but not lately because my computer crashed.
Anyway i downloaded a Movie Torrent and wanted to watch it but i could not because it needed a different Video player...

so i re-downloaded VLC....and i thought i was all set to go but i wanst..the files is a "DVDSCR.XViD-iMBT"

i can only view the sample of the movie on the VLC but not the movie i cannot play any of the R01 through R47...

can someone please help me...do i need any codecs? help please

thank you

[Arite]

*.rar, *.r01, *.r02 etc. are a split archives containing compressed data (like a ZIP file). To uncompress them you need to have all of the files in the same folder and require a file archiver/decompressor to uncompress the video file.

I would recommend 7-Zip, a free open source program which can uncompress RAR files. Or, if you want to use a trial of the official RAR archive, then you could download WinRAR instead (evaluation copy).

Once you have unpacked the data then you should have an *.avi or *.mkv file which can be played in VLC.

EDIT: There is actually a VLC plugin called RARPlayer (website here) which allows one to play the video from inside a RAR archive in VLC. However, I would still recommend decompressing/unpacking it first before playback.
END OF EDIT.

Cheers, Arite.

[unimailer1972]

I have tried both of the aforementioned with the following file:

I have tried both of the above suggestions. 7-zip keeps telling me that prevail.xvid.300 is not a supported archive.
I tried the second solution you suggested, I moved unrar.exe and the vlcRaar.exe into the VLC main folder. I open vlcRaar and drag the first rar file into it and click play video, VLC opens but does nothing. Any help here?

[Arite]

It looks like you have "hide known file types" in Windows Explorer - meaning it looks like you have about 30 files with identical file names. I would recommend, at least for this process, to turn on known file types. To do this, in Windows Explorer, go to:
Tools >> Folder Options >> View

And untick the "Hide extensions for known file types" tick box. Then press Apply (if you want this for all folders press "Apply to All Folders" as well). Then press OK.

You should then see the file extensions for the RAR archive files. This first part of a split archive should be *.rar, the second *.r00, the third *.r01, the fourth *.r02 and so on. Open the first part (*.rar) file in 7-Zip and extract it to a real folder (that has been created) it should work fine. If you do not open the first part then only the contents of that part will be extracted, and the file will not play as it is incomplete and missing the header.

Hope that helped.

Cheers, Arite.

[unimailer1972]

Grrr.... I thought that would do the trick, but it still says prevail.xvid.300.rar is not supported archive.

I would normally just look for another file to download, but I'd like to learn how to do this for future reference. If it may be easier, feel free to AIM me. I also have MS Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Let me know.

Edit: the sample file wont even play. I think this is a lost cause. If you have any more suggestions, I appreciate, but I'm gonna get a different file.

[daveshrop]

Yeah i avoid movie torrents that are split up like that....its more trouble than its worth
& there's usually always an alternative file in one chunk.

[Arite]

So the sample file won't play either? I take it the torrent completed 100% (just if it didn't that would explain a lot).

What happens when you play the sample file?

Arite.

[unimailer1972]

VLC will open and you see the action bar run, but the time says 0:00/0:00 which indicates that it is unable to play even the sample. I'm just gonna chalk this up to a bad download. And yes, the torrent finished 100%, but something must have been corrupted.

On another note, if anyone who created VLC reads this thread, I would like to thank them for VLC. Many times, it is the only player that will play video files. WMP sucks, QT sucks, RealPlayer Sucks...VLC would kick the crap outta of all of them on "Celebrity Deathmatch." Keep up the good work VLC team.

[ghinsey]

Have you tried WinRAR to unrar the .rar files. You should then have an .avi file which will play just like the sample.

Many movies downloaded with a torrent client are in WinRAR compresed format. Most private trackers require it.

You can search for a WinRAR torrent.