If I download a show through BitTorrent, and the resulting folder name is Gilmore_Girls.5x22.A_House_Is_Not_A_Home.HDTV_XviD-FoV, and it has a bunch of segments inside it, and when I click on what seems to be the first one the computer says, "Windows cannot play this NFO file," what do I need to do to get the file to play?

(I've never gotten BitTorrent to work successfully for me on TV shows. Be gentle and go slow explaining this. Thanks.)

NFO file is usually a small txt file that says something about another file in the folder. You can try opening that file with notepad. What other segments are in the downloaded folder?

You can try opening that file with notepad.

Okay, I did that, and it's a piece of ASCII art with text that says what the file is and the names of the encoders. Nothing about how to play it, unfortunately. (But thank you, I had no idea what NFO was.)

What other segments are in the downloaded folder?

I'm not sure. The file names start with "gilmore_girls.r00" and go through "gilmore_girls.r23." There's also something labeled "RAR file" and something labeled "SFV file."

Lyra: It seems very likely that you have files named blah_blah.rar, blah_blah.r00, blah_blah.r01, et cetera. In that case, your best bet is to download WinRar (assuming you're on a windows machine, StuffIt can probably do it on a Mac) and use it to open either the blah_blah.rar or the blah_blah.r00 file. Hopefully, a file named something like "gilmore_girls.5x22.a_house_is_not_a_home.hdtv_xvid-fov.avi" should appear in the folder, which you can watch using whatever your media player of choice is. Probably.

EDIT: Your first thing to try is double-clicking the one labelled RAR file and see if anything happens.

okay, the file is compressed in Rar mode. You need a program like winrar [link] Download and install. Then double click on the RAR file and it will uncompress it. That should be your movie/tv file.

ETA: D. Gris - damn your sudden but inevitable x-post.

It's what Gris said, LJ -- WinRAR is trivial to use, and will expand the fragments to one big file.

Thanks, all. Between you guys and my husband, I managed to produce an .avi file with a a picture and everything.

Sometimes, new-to-me technology takes a village.

Jess, in the comments of one of my more recent LJ posts, Lysana recommended web thingy for Mac. Typing one handed, so can't look up.

So...I got a wireless USB adapter from Amazon, connected it to my Tivo and all is right in the universe. I cannot believe how easy it was. Glad I made sure this adapter works with the Tivo before I bought it.

Jess, in the comments of one of my more recent LJ posts, Lysana recommended web thingy for Mac. Typing one handed, so can't look up.

Ha! Okay, I'll go look...