Understanding file extensions

[redbeard1]

Hi, wonder if anyone has the patience to either explain file extensions and descriptions like 720p and 1080p,
or can direct me to a page where all the movie extensions are explained.
It's just that I've d/loaded some movies lately and not been able to watch them although I made sure
that VLC player is up to date.
Understand that there are new types which allow for greater compression ... don't understand how to de-compress them.

Also, bit basic I know but I'm a dummy here, how do people put movies up on PBay?
Where do they source movies in the first place in order to upload them?

hey, thanks ... but isolated here and really enjoy movies but have no-one to discuss these matters.

happy viewing to all
.

[joew771]

Hi, wonder if anyone has the patience to either explain file extensions and descriptions like 720p and 1080p,
or can direct me to a page where all the movie extensions are explained.
It's just that I've d/loaded some movies lately and not been able to watch them although I made sure
that VLC player is up to date.
Understand that there are new types which allow for greater compression ... don't understand how to de-compress them.

Also, bit basic I know but I'm a dummy here, how do people put movies up on PBay?
Where do they source movies in the first place in order to upload them?

hey, thanks ... but isolated here and really enjoy movies but have no-one to discuss these matters.

happy viewing to all
.

Wowsa, that's a lot of stuff to ask at once.

720 and 1080 are the resolutions of the files, the width of them actually. A 1080 movie is 1080 pixels wide, a 720 movie is 720 pixels wide. Those are the 2 standard resolutions of tv's nowadays.

The extensions are a lot more complicated. The extension of a movie, avi., mpg., mkv., etc is the format in which it was encoded.

But there is also the codec. Which to be simple is the method in which it was compressed. Examples are, xvid, x264, x265 etc.

A movie can use different combinations of compression and format. A movie could be an xvid .avi, or an xvid .mpg and so on.

To play a movie, the most important part is usually the codec. If you don't have the right codec, you can't play the movie.

If the movie is x265 you may not be able to play it. It's a new codec and isn't able to be played by many players. I can't play them

So that may be your problem.

Where people get movies and how do they upload them. I'll leave that to someone else for now.

[Moe]

If you can't play it with VLC, chances are you downloaded a fake.

[redbeard1]

thanks joew771 -

that makes sense about the pixel width!

yr right too ... it was mostly x265 that I had probs.

I learned to be really cautious about codex as one download had a link to the codex needed but in fact it just downloaded
a whole lot of malware which took ages to clear.

You said you can't play x 265 either ... isn't it possible to update the codex? How would you do that?

Thx to you too Moe ... again totally right ... the ones I couldn't play were not genuine files but traps loaded with the above mentioned malware.

appreciate yr imput

[bob5695]

tiny correction, if i may:

1080p and 720p are not about the width. they're about the height. the p stands for progressive (i means interlaced).
the width for 1080p is 1920 and the width for 720p is 1280 -- assuming 16/9 as AR.

[joew771]

tiny correction, if i may:

1080p and 720p are not about the width. they're about the height. the p stands for progressive (i means interlaced).
the width for 1080p is 1920 and the width for 720p is 1280 -- assuming 16/9 as AR.

I just came here to edit my post because I realized I put width not height. Glad you caught it though.

[bob5695]

[joew771]

You said you can't play x 265 either ... isn't it possible to update the codex? How would you do that?

I don't know how. I tried to look for an x265 codec and found a bunch of crap. None of which would let me install the codec.
If someone knows how to do that, I'd be interested too. I'm using win7 btw.