can someone explain the .mpeg and the .avi ....
 

and the .mpg and the .mov and the .mp4 and the .rm.
or at least link me to a website that can explain all of them?
also how can i change a .avi video to a .mpeg video?or anything that can play on my windows media player?
everytime i try to play an .avi video on the windows media player it says "cannot find codecs needed to play video" and i need help.:o

The different file sendings refer to different file types (in connection to their compression).
If you use the free VLC player, I guess, you won't have to worry anymore about those differences, as the player will play almost all media files. It has built-in codecs.
Download it for free here:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

To change one file format to another in regard to AVI and MPEG (or MPG) you need a converter. I use Winavi converter or TMPGEn converter.
;)

rm is real media file. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RealMedia

mpg is mpeg which can be anything from mpeg 1-4 (there's many more but they're not on the market yet) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mpeg / http://abma.x-maru.org/faq/annotated/formats.mpg.php

avi = Audio Video Interleave. It is a special case of the RIFF (Resource Interchange File Format). AVI is defined by Microsoft. AVI is the most common format for audio/video data on the PC. AVI is an example of a de facto (by fact) standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVI


We normally recommend VLC - (click on link) _ (choose nearest mirror site) as it is a free player with in-built codecs & can play most files except realmedia files. ;)

BTW MPlayer is very similar to VLC but it can play RM files. There's one or 2 things the other player can't do compared to each other.

Well if I'm that slow at replying I'm going to bed!!! lol :D

thank you very much!!!!!
your smart.........er than me!!!.....uuummm.....thanks!

That was 5 min. LOTR........:D ......but it's okay, considering the amount of info you packed into the answer.....;) :p :)