Hi There,
I noticed out in cyberworld an alarmingly popular way of posting video is stuffing them in a .rar folder. The problem is that it is hard for me to tell in advance what are .rar files or avi from the torrent and even until it is finished.

Is there a method under OSX after using Stuffit/Exp to actually use the video or should I stay away from these all together as I have heard that more often than not they are loaded with viruses?

Well, eztv does not accept .rar torrent files, so you won't find them in the TorrentGuy link unless they are submitted by a member (user).

I can only say from experience in using other sites that, if you click on a link for more information about the torrent, you'll find out the file extension (.rar, .avi, etc). I use uTorrent, so my popup window also gives me details about the file after I select it for download, but before I press "okay" to start the actual download. In other words, I can see the actual files, with their appropriate file extension, and if it's .rar, I can press "cancel."

Does that help at all?

It most certainly does....thank you..

Or you could just grab http://www.unrarx.com/

yeah they got .rar expanders for most pop OS's: MAC, Windows, Linux, PPC, Palm, etc.

and once unrared, you'll have a playable video ;)

I have XBOX Media Center and it plays videos within the .rar so I don't even need to expand them, which rox!

I think unrarX is only for MAC Os not a Windows Os so dont get caught out.

@onlyme1 That is sort of the point, as danieladamsmith says in the title and the post he is running OSX.

One thing you should do if you DL a rar file is scan it before extracting to make sure there are no viris.
They are known to be used to hide them.

@Joker: Glad I run linux. Haven't had to give virus/malware a second thought for years.

and also you are far less likely to be affected by a virus in a .rar if you use MAC anyways

i download a lot of "rar" files but only from private tracker sites.
to extract them i use "WINRAR" its a free download if you google it. so far "fingers crossed" never had a problem with any of them.

BTW i am running windows xp

Many downloads i get are split into multiple rars. While i do not understand why this is done anymore (it used to be done like this so that people could download big files bit by bit, back in the days of 56k and no such thing as torrents or p2p)

anyways, thing is, it's still done. http://www.rarlabs.com/download.htm is the OFFICIAL rar website for downloads, which inlude a version for OSX, linux, and windows. I would suggest using that as it would be the most supported software.

I dont even install winzip any more because this handles them as well.

@havoc et al

To me it appears to just make work for the downloader and nowadays serves no purpose except to sell the programs that convert all the messy little files back to one .avi file.

It's technology gone mad.(in the insane sense of the word)

curiousandroid: and also you are far less likely to be affected by a virus in a .rar if you use MAC anyways.

You are not a Mac user are you? Or if you are, you believe the advertising then? Have a big shock for you... The chances of get a virus on a Mac to a Windows user are very close. It is only perception and good advertising that makes you believe otherwise.

To give you a classic example, my flatmate is a Mac user (granted he is a porno fanatic!) and I am a power PC user compared to him. He will get 2 or 3 viruses in a month, whereas I will not see one for 5 or 6 months.

So it is all relevant to what you do on the computer. Vigilance is always recommended doesn't matter what system you use. Better to be be safe than sorry.

Andy always remember - the first virus was on a Mac!

@vyp3r

Well said!

Always scan your downloads.

@quark, winrar from rarlabs is free. Also, it's roots go back to warez distribution, not trying to sell people products.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_(warez)#Packaging

Read up there. "Scene" releases follow some strict standards, and one of them is packaging. Rars have been upgraded from small enough to download in a certain amounf of time on 56k to fitting on a floppy, to a cd, etc...

If you get a release which is in multiple rar format, it is LIKELY a scene release, or at least one done by some one who feels like he wants to be a part of the Scene scene.

@Havoc

Now surely you agree a lot of them are for sale and a lot of people buy them unnecessarily which was all I was saying besides the extra, wasted, time converting them back to avi. or whatever.

@quark
first off, i dont enjoy dealing with the rars, just stating why they are there.

Secondly, it seems to me most things pushed when downloading torrents are free. rar programs, players (like VLC, media player classic)

whenever a bad program is pushed, usually it is spyware over cost-per-download sort of stuff. I don;t think I am disagreeing with you, just agreeing with different words :D

@vyp3r

well back in the days of the power pcs, which were my first Internet enabled macs (I also had one of the original Apple Macintosh PCs which didn't have a hard drive just floppy drives and had a modem that could be used to access bulletin boards and had such limited Internet accessibility that I won't count it at all) but I never had a problems with viruses on any of my macs but they have evolved quite a bit since and have grown even more in popularity so it's no surprise to me that they have become more vulnerable.

Now Linux is like the new mac and are not very prone to viral attacks