The [over-]simplified explanation/tutorial is:
. Usenet content practically speaking is either text or binary. Binary files are encoded (skipping the details) and generally need some kind of application to unencode/download them to your device/PC. Files (text or binary) are "uploaded" to various usenet groups (like alt.binaries.multimedia.cooking = a.b.m.cooking), and the files reside on usenet servers that automatically synch all content (across the world). Given the question asked it appears many people use an application (like Newsbin on a windows pc) to "list" what files have been uploaded to a newgroup (a.b.m.cooking), *click* on those files to directly dowload them, and then the application you use to download those files automagically turns them back into binary (video) files in our case.
However, not all cooking shows get uploaded to our group. Equally, not all cooking shows that do get uploaded have descriptions that are meaningful (that you could search for - like "cooks country"). Folks who upload non meaningful descriptions are in the simple case "obfuscating" the upload - which means you can't tell what the file really is unless you download it or get a description of it that's been posted to special sites that track obfuscated files/file information (I'll skip how that is done).
So, in order to find cooking shows one either seachers known news groups like a.b.m.cooking, or alternatively one uses an open search site (like www.nzbindex.com or www.binsearch.info) to search all newsgroups for files that have a description matching what you've searched for. So, if you use nzbindex to seach for "cooks country" you'll see the encoded/.nzb files for shows that you can click on to download them. However, if the file/file description has been obfuscated then text searchs are not going to find them, so you need yet another means for finding the shows.
So, there are "indexing" and ".nzb listing sites" that specialize in tracking obfuscated binaries. Those sites allow you to find and download an .nzb file that allows "binary news readers" (like newsbin for the PC, but there are tons of others for all the different OSs), to dowload the binary file you're interested in regardless of the crazy file naming that might have been used. The .nzb file contains information on what newsgroup it was posted to (thus to download from), along with a description of exactly what to download (in a well documented "language" that everyone in the usenet community now uses).
So, if you "click" on a .nzb file your application downloads the .nzb file to you PC (like downloading a .pdf file to your PC), or if it's smarter, and you tell it to, it downloads the .nzb file to a binary news reader (like newsbin) and that application knows how to read the contents of the file, download all the encoded bits, and then reconstruct the original binary file (a video) for you. This last case is like downloading a .pdf file, but rather than having it saved to disk the file gets passed to adobe reader and it's then displayed on your pc (and you can save it to disk then if you want). The binary news reader is like adobe reader ...
So, I uploaded .nzb files for 2 reasons. First, they're small and require very little bandwidth to upload, and 2nd they "point" to the (cooking show videos) binary files that already exist, that have already been successfully uploaded by another person to another group. So, why upload them again??
So, by "clicking on" / using an .nzb file with a decent "[usenet] binary news reader" you automagically get the file/video you're looking for w/o further machinations.
So, I'd argue it's not complicated - It's actually very very simple. Re: clicking on .nzbs to download a file, yes there is a risk you're going to download something that you don't want, but I've been tracking this newsgroup for many many years and I can't remember the last time something like that was done. Further, if you're expecting a video, but don't get one, then don't open the file! Delete it and ask. Related, even if a file is labelled a video file, but it's really not, the odds are extremely high your video player is going to refuse to open the file or just crash if you try to use it, in which case you have an indicator that something fishy might be going on....
Best Regards.
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