(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); .7z-High compression format using LZMA compression. Can be opened with 7-zip program.

.ac3-Dolby Digital (AC-3) is Dolby's third generation audio coding algorithm. It is a perceptual coding algorithm developed to allow the use of lower data rates with a minimum of perceived degration of sound quality.

AC3 audio is used on pretty much every single retail DVD you will buy. To play back AC3 audio on your computer, you should install the AC3Filters. This will also play back AC3 audio in DivX or XviD files.

.aif-A .aif file is usually an AIFF audio file. AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format. It was developed by Apple Computer Inc. to store very high quality audio.

Foobar 2000 is an advanced audio player that can play these kind of files.

.aifc-A .aifc file is usually an AIFF audio file. AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format. It was developed by Apple Computer Inc. to store very high quality audio.

Foobar 2000 is an advanced audio player that can play these kind of files.

.aiff-A .aiff file is usually an AIFF audio file. AIFF stands for Audio Interchange File Format. It was developed by Apple Computer Inc. to store very high quality audio.

Foobar 2000 is an advanced audio player that can play these kind of files.

.ape-A file with the extension .ape, is an audio file compressed using Monkey's Audio. Monkey's Audio is a lossless compression, which means it does not permanently discard data during compression. It achieves compression rates of around 40%.

Since it is lossless, the quality of the audio after compression will be the exact same. There are several players for Monkey's Audio. One of the best is Foobar 2000.

.asf-A .asf file is an Advanced Streaming Format file. Microsoft's audio/video format, meant specifically for streaming purposes. It doesn't specify how the video or audio should be encoded, but instead just specifies the structure of the video/audio stream. This means that ASF files can be encoded with basically any audio/video codec and would still be in ASF format.

.asx-A .asx file is an Advanced Stream Redirector file. When you run a .ASX file you get redirected to streaming content usually on web servers. It is a plain text file that contains server and media information.

If you open ASX files in a text editor you will often see the real filenames that you will be accessing for your streaming content.

.avi-AVI, which stands for Audio Video Interleave, is a Container format used by Microsoft's Video for Windows multimedia framework. Since it was developed for Windows 3.1 in 1992 it lacks some features found in newer containers like MPEG or MP4, but is still widely used by consumers and even supported by some standalone DVD players. Although still supported in Windows, and suitable for certain formats like DV, it's not a good general purpose container, and even Microsoft uses other containers for their own video formats.

.avs-File extension .avs in video editing world quite often refers to a script file created using/for AviSynth.

AviSynth is a program that allows manipulating video files via a scripting language, thus being extremely flexible and convenient tool to do very specific modifications to files or batch of files at once. The downside of this is obviously the fact that as it is a scripting language, the learning curve is rather steep for new users to learn how to do things efficiently and to do most of the scripting using good old text editor.

.bin-A .bin file has many uses. It is used by many virus scanners and anti-spyware software as an update file for example.

One of the main uses of .bin files right now is the creating and burning of CD-Images. When the CD is completely ripped to a .bin file, a .cue file is also created that contains information on the .bin file for burning or mounting software. A .cue file is also created when a .bin file is actually made from files on a HDD and not from a CD.

If you were to look through your hard drive, you would probably find a lot of files with the .bin extension, but don't be fooled, these are not all CD Images and they are most likely very important to your operating system or software that you have installed.

However, if creating CD images, creating cue/bin images is highly recommended; that's why it's the most used CD image today.

.bup-BUP files found on DVD-Video discs are simply backup copies of IFO files and are only needed if the original IFO on disc gets corrupted.

.ccd-A .ccd file is a CloneCD Control File. A CloneCD image would consist of three files, a .CCD file, a .IMG file and a .SUB file. The CCD file is simply an ASCII text file that holds information on the CD that is needed for the burning process.

A .ccd file on its own is useless, there also must be the .sub file and the .img file. These files must also be in the same directory (same folder on same hard disk drive) and must have the same file name. For example a folder like C:\Images\ would have to have IMAGE.CCD, IMAGE.IMG and IMAGE.SUB so that it can be burned to disc or mounted onto a virtual drive.

There is a variety of software titles that can make use of .ccd files. For example, Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools can mount CloneCD Image Files onto virtual CD drives (so you don't need to burn to use them) or you can burn the image with CloneCD.

.cda-A .cda file is a CD Audio Track. These are found on audio CDs that can be played in standalone CD players or CD-ROM drives. It is also possible (if no copy protection is present) to rip CDA to MP3 and other lossy or lossless audio formats.

Exact Audio Copy is one of the best rippers for audio CDs available.

.cso-CSO is a compression method for the ISO image format. It is used to compress the file sizes for image files taken of the Playstation Portable UMD disks. This format came to be as a rival of the DAX format formally found for compressed UMD images.

The DAX format was once the most popular format to find UMD images in, but with the success of the Devhook homebrew application which favors the CSO standard, CSO has become more popular. CSO images often take longer to load due to the system's need to decompress the image file every time it needs to access a new part of the UMD.

CSO provides nine levels of compression. While the highest levels of compression can introduce slowdown and lengthy load-times in software which relies heavily on disc streaming, even the lower levels are capable of substantial compression. This is partially due to the data layout of a UMD, though more frequently due to the use of Dummy Files as both an anti-piracy tool and a means to more optimally lay the data out physically on the disc.

.cue-A .cue file is often packed with a CD Image or with lossless audio to be burned directly to a CD. A .cue file or a "Cue Sheet Track" can be opened by many CD burning software titles. It provides information on the CD image file or on the audio that is important to the burning software (such as locations of track breaks, the separation of songs on an audio CD is the result after burning).

The most common type of file a .cue file is packed with, is a .bin file. The cue/bin combination is probably the most used for CD images right now. It is very easy to use software to either burned a cue/bin to CD or to rip a CD into a cue/bin image.

Cue/bin images can also be mounted onto Virtual CD Drives, through use of software like Daemon Tools.

.d2v-.d2v is a "pass-through file" generated by a tool called DVD2AVI. The .d2v file is basically a dummy file telling what other files should be processed and how. Typically the .d2v is opened with a TMPGEnc, as the .d2v file can be opened using TMPGEnc video encoder's so-called VFAPI mechanism. It should be noted that a file called dvd2avi.vfp is needed so the TMPGEnc knows how to process the .d2v file via its VFAPI interface -- this file is typically included within the DVD2AVI distribution package.

In its most common way, DVD2AVI creates .d2v project file that links to several .vob files and tells how to process them and when the .d2v is opened in TMPGEnc (or other tool supporting .d2v), the files TMPGEnc actually reads are the .vob files that are "passed through" the .d2v to the TMPGEnc video encoder.

In some cases, .d2v is rather non-practical, as very few tools support it. Therefor, there is a tool called VFAPI Reader Codec that basically "wraps" the .d2v file into a special version of .avi -- and as it is in .avi (even though it still works exactly like descibed above, i.e. it requires the "source" files to be left on the HDD, as the actual data comes from them), it can be opened it virtually all video processing tools, including VirtualDub, Premiere, etc.

.dal-A .dal file is a DVD Project File that can be saved and opened with MediaChance's DVD-Lab authoring software. You can save a .DAL file while working on a project but all objects used in the process like video files and pictures have to be kept in the same folders and should not be deleted.

.dat-A VideoCD or SuperVideoCD data file. Typically a .dat file found on VCD or SVCD disc contains MPEG-1 (in case of VCD) or MPEG-2 (SVCD) -encoded video and audio encoded in MP2 format.

However, as VCD and SVCD can contain variety of other content as well, it is easier to simply state that .dat contains whatever data is there on a disc for that particular track -- it can be a normal, plain audio/video data, but it can also contain subtitles or photos (JPEG -compressed).

VCD .dat files can be played with virtually all standard video software players, but in order to play SVCD .dat files, the system needs to have an MPEG-2 codec installed or the player has to have an integrated MPEG-2 decoding that supports SVCDs (one such player is open-source player called Media Player Classic).

.divx-A file with the extension .divx has been encoded with the DivX codec. DivX is an MPEG-4 format, therefore usually producing high quality video files at lower birates, especially from a DVD source. Most files encoded with DivX nowadays have a .avi extension but there are still plenty of .divx files floating around P2P networks.

You need to download and install the DivX codec to play back these files.

.doc-.doc is the generic file extension for documents created with Microsoft Word. Even though the format is proprietary (and owned by Microsoft), it has become de facto standard for (formatted) text documents even though open alternatives would exist.

It should also be noted that the file extension .doc itself doesn't give out any information about the version of the Word that the file was saved with -- and typically older versions of Microsoft Word can't open files generated with the latest versions of the same software (unless the creator has specifically stated he/she would like to save the document using an old Word format).

Despite being a proprietary document format of Microsoft, .doc can be opened with most of the alternative office tools, including the open source OpenOffice.org.

.ecl-A .ecl file is an Encoder Control List file. You will often encounter these files if you are saving a project with the Cinema Craft Encoder (CCE). When opened in the Cinema Craft Encoder it loads the saved settings for input and output files.

The Cinema Craft Encoder is often regarded as the highest quality MPEG-2 encoder available. For new users, it can be used with DVD2SVCD to easily convert, DVD to DVD, DVD to SVCD, AVI to SVCD and AVI to DVD. You can also use it with DVDRebuilder to make DVD backups. The resulting quality is usually very high (depending on the input)

.exe-An executable Windows application file.

.fla-There are two common types of files that carry the .fla extension. Firstly you might have a Macromedia Flash Authoring file. This can be opened with Macromedia Flash software for editing.

Another type of file you might have when you get a .fla file, is a FLAC music file. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It is open source and provides lossless audio compression. This means that even though the audio is compressed, it will still maintain its exact original quality. However, since it is lossless, music stored in this format would definitely take up more space than say MP3 or Musepack audio or any other lossy compression.

.flac-here are two common types of files that carry the .fla extension. Firstly you might have a Macromedia Flash Authoring file. This can be opened with Macromedia Flash software for editing.

Another type of file you might have when you get a .fla file, is a FLAC music file. FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It is open source and provides lossless audio compression. This means that even though the audio is compressed, it will still maintain its exact original quality. However, since it is lossless, music stored in this format would definitely take up more space than say MP3 or Musepack audio or any other lossy compression.

.gz-The GNU zip format. (MIME-Type: application/gzip) gzip is a free compression program based on the DEFLATE algorithm, which was developed as an alternative to LZW, which is limited by patents.

Unlike, for example, zip, gzip compresses a single file. gzip is often used in conjunction with tar to create a compressed collection of files (.tar.gz or .tgz).

.ifo-In video editing, IFO normally refers to a file on DVD-Video disc and stands for InFOrmation.

While the main content of DVD-Video disc are the VOB files which contain the actual MPEG-2 audio, video and subtitle streams, the IFO files provide information for DVD player where DVD-Video disc's chapters start, where certain audio tracks are located, etc..

.img-A lot of different files use the .img extension. It could be a photo but if it's a large file then it is probably a CloneCD Image File. CloneCD is a well known CD copying software title. A CloneCD .IMG file should also be accompanied by a .CCD file and a .SUB file.

These files must also be in the same directory (same folder on same hard disk drive) and must have the same file name. For example a folder like C:\Images\ would have to have IMAGE.CCD, IMAGE.IMG and IMAGE.SUB so that it can be burned to disc or mounted onto a virtual drive.

There is a variety of software titles that can make use of these image files. For example, Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools can mount CloneCD Image Files onto virtual CD drives (so you don't need to burn to use them) or you can burn the image with CloneCD.

.iso-Apart from being one of the leading standards organizations, ISO refers also to a CD or DVD image (not picture..) file with an extension of ".iso". The extension comes from the full name of the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM file system specification, ISO 9660.

Just like other CD/DVD image formats, ISO is a file that contains full content of the disc, including every single track, directory, file and information about the structure of the disc (i.e. ISO files can't be used as they are, but they need to be either "mounted" with tools like Daemon Tools or burned to CD or DVD in order to see what files the disc image actually contains). Normally ISO files are being used to replicate existing CD/DVD discs, transfer those discs over the network to other location (or to other person) and burn back to CD/DVD which then would be an identical replica of the original disc.

.ivf-A .ivf file is an Intel Indeo video technology file. Latest versions of Windows Media Player should play back this video format. Indeo is a video codec that was developed by Intel but now is owned by Ligos. It is often used as in-game video during cutscenes.

.list-A file with the extension .list is often a PeerGuardian 2 blocklist. It should be placed inside the lists folder in the PeerGuardian 2 installed directory. PG2 blocklists include everything from Educational facilities to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Obtaining a blocklist .list file is easy using the PG2 built-in update service. Never accept .list files for PG2 from any site other than the PG2 main site.

.m2v

.m3u

.m4a

.m4b

.m4p

.mds

.met

.mkv

.mnu

.mov

.mp+

.mp2

.mp3

.mp4

.mpc

.mpeg

.mpg

.nds

.nfo

.nrg

.ogg

.pbp

.pdf

.pls

.r01

.ra

.rar

.ratdvd

.rm

.sfv

.srt

.ssa

.sub

.sxc

.sxw

.tap

.tar

.tgz

.tme1

.torrent

.ts

.txt

.vaf

.vob

.vpd

.wav

.wax

.wm

.wma

.wmd

.wmv

.wvx

.xls

.xtodvd

.zip

*****WILL CONTINUE POSTING AT A LATER TIME*****


To satisfy Mr. NGB Rocks this information has been compiled and placed on to a 1 page, through Afterdawn

Nice list althought u missed a lot like .msi, .deb, .xcf.....etc

nice

but keep updating the list, ur missing a lot

I def intend to finish this, ill prolly finish it by friday, and search the additional missing formats.

very nice list, i will rep+ you for it

nice tall list. very intersting information you got. i will +rep you for that.

very helpful for me
thankz

nice big list

.m3u - This is a playlist file. In most occasions, an mp3 list file.

.mkv - MKV is another audio+video format. It's an open source codec. You need a special player, like You must login or register to view this content.

.mov - MOV is the movie file that's developed by Apple. You'll need a program like You must login or register to view this content. to play them.

.mp3 - MP3 is a format you should know. It's an audio format, and widely used.

.mpeg - MPEG is an advanced video codec, used in most of todays videos.

.mpg - MPG is just another extension of MPEG.

.pdf - PDF is an Adobe Reader Document, mainly used for books and flyers. You can't edit a pdf file, that's why most PDF's are made from source files, like word documents or image files.

.r01 - A part from a RAR compression. Programs like You must login or register to view this content. can divide large files into pieces, so they don't take as much bandwidth over internet. an .r01 indicates the first piece of a compression. Then .r02 goes, which is the second piece. This can go on and on.

.rar - A compression format. RAR has the same quality as ZIP, but compresses the files more. You need a program like You must login or register to view this content. to decompress them.

.sub - A subtitle file. It contains information for subtitles at specific movies. You need a player or compiler to watch movies with these files.

.tgz - A TAR file compressed with GZIP.

.torrent - A little file that contains information where to find files. If you enter this file into a torrent, like You must login or register to view this content., the torrent will download the file and save it on your pc. Torrenting is faster than normal downloading, and you can pause the download, shut down your pc, and start the download again, without any loss of files.

.txt - The basic text file. Typically made by editors as Notepad. TXT files don't contain any information about fonts, colors and such. It's plain text.

.wav - An Audio format.

.wma - Windows Media Audio. Windows' new standard for audio.

.wmv - Windows Media Video. Windows' new standard for video.

.xls - a Spreadsheet, created by programs like Microsoft Excel. A spreadsheet is a large table, or several tables, where information is stored. Spreadsheets can contain mathematical formulas.

.zip - A compression format, like RAR. ZIP is Microsoft's standard. You need a program like You must login or register to view this content. to decompress these files. WinZip works too, but WinZip can't decompress .rar files.

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All I could think of Hope I helped a little