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Can uTorrent download Video sequentially to assist Previewin


ben4444

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When downloading a video, is there anyway I can adjust the settings so uTorrent will download the files in an order that best faciliates the video being previewed as I download it.

Or is the nature of torrent downloading, that it must be downloaded in an order from the least-available to the most-available packets.

Thanking anyone in advance for their advice,

Ben.

Edit: Changed topic to better reveal question.

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Hi

You can select files right click and change the downloading Priority from High/Normal/Low priority and dont download.

Does that help ?

Thanks for responding, but I'm sorry it doesn't.

I want the actual packets of data to be downloaded in order (even if it means some have to be skipped because of availability) of the packets appearing in the final file....not neccessarily in the order of availability.

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no it pulls what it can get but after you have sufficent video u can preview it by opening with VLC the best media player period

-wolf

Are you saying that there is no way that my Torrent client can be configured to seek data packets in a specific order that facilitates better video previewing?

I'll have a look at VLC, as I use avipreview.exe which I like from the perspective that its a standalone file and its freeware, but it does occasionally crash

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Hi

I think myself and wolf were talking about individual files, but packets is something completely different and would be really hard to sort out.

How would you know what packets you would want first anyway ? Im assuming from 0->whatever, but that would be way to complicated, I think.

But surely part 1 of 6 in High priority of whatever would let you see start, quality...?

8)

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First of all, thankyou very much for your quick responses, strange how the consumer help for free, smaller-scale programs are so much better than typically larger-scale products.

I think I may have made my problem sound more sophisticated than my amateur understanding of torrents.

basically I have download 31.4% (or 221.3) of a 700 meg AVI file. But I am only able to preview the first 40 seconds of it.

I am somewhat certain this has to do with the fact that the packets aren't downloaded in order (from beginning to end, but in order of availability). Is this just the nature of torrent downloading, or is it an option which is dependent on the client settings?

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If you download the beginning and ending pieces, you usually get the index of the file, which tells the player about how long the movie is, where frames belong, etc (I think).

Yes, it is the nature of torrents to download pieces in random order, but if you have the aforementioned pieces downloaded first (which automatically have higher priority in µTorrent), then you have a higher chance of being able to view the file. VLC, I think, skips missing frames and goes on to the next viewable one, so even if you don't have the full file, you can still watch parts that have already been downloaded.

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µTorrent does not allow you do download a file from begining to end in a sequential manner, because that would defeat the purpose of BitTorrent.

But for people downloading videos, where the torrent is healthy, with enough seeds, surely the ability to preview the file by sequential downloading of packets would be a good feature?

Or does the nature of BitTorrent downloading prohibit such a feature...

(By the way don't get the impression im arguing against anyone, I'm merely trying to understand and clarify my limited knowledge.)

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It's not prohibited, but not optimal for the swarm as a whole. Also, you'd probably end up downloading more slowly since it's not guaranteed that the next piece in the order is available for download; you'd have to wait for that one piece to finish instead of downloading other pieces.

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Hi

Like vurlix said its all about sharing data between each other.

If everyone wanted 0->xxxx, Im sure the file would just stagnate.

But that is another reason why samples are sometimes given with a download, so the downloader can see quality etc.

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It's not prohibited, but not optimal for the swarm as a whole. Also, you'd probably end up downloading more slowly since it's not guaranteed that the next piece in the order is available for download; you'd have to wait for that one piece to finish instead of downloading other pieces.

Well i was hoping for a compromise, I mean I understand that its not feasible to expect to be able to download each sequential packet...but surely theres a demand for files to be downloaded sequentially even if it means that some packets will not be downloaded in order from those who download videos?

Or should I stop pestering, and let the file finish downloading :lol:

Hi

Like vurlix said its all about sharing data between each other.

If everyone wanted 0->xxxx, Im sure the file would just stagnate.

Ok thats what I was looking for...From the reactions I've been getting surely it would only be a very small minority that would like to download 0--->xxxx (or as ideally close to it as possible).

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The reason BitTorrent is faster than traditional P2P is that it breaks the files into pieces and downloads them at random order, depending on the availablity of the pieces (seeds try to get rare pieces out first). Thus, if everyone downloaded in sequential order, this idea of distributing based on availabity is nullified, and BitTorrent becomes just another P2P network.

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The reason BitTorrent is faster than traditional P2P is that it breaks the files into pieces and downloads them at random order, depending on the availablity of the pieces (seeds try to get rare pieces out first). Thus, if everyone downloaded in sequential order, this idea of distributing based on availabity is nullified, and BitTorrent becomes just another P2P network.

Fair enough, although I only wanted such an option for video files, and Torrents would still have the benefits of a large user base, and a good error checking process.

If such a feature isnt prohibited (downloading sequentially or as close to it as possible), and If i've managed to explain why you want such a feature in terms of assisting Video previews....surely other clients have allowed their users such a feature? Or is it mutually agreed by TorrentClient developers that such a feature would be against the interests of the users of Torrents.

Thanks for replies, sorry if I seem to be ignoring your replies, but I do understand your points...it would be against the interests of people using Torrents, but I would have assumed the interests of the majority would never get in the way of the interests of a minority. Or perhaps I'm too cynical of the torrent-client community...

I'll be back tomorrow (its 3am here in Australia, Day Light Saving has altered my body clock)...Thanks for your replies so far!

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I doubt other clients allow sequential piece downloading, since it's less efficient (and the client would probably be banned from trackers since it's reducing the efficiency of the swarm) =]

Well that answers my last question...unless someone knows of a popular client that allows such a feature....I think I'll leave it at that.

Once again, Thankyou very much for the information!

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I doubt other clients allow sequential piece downloading,

BitComet has a "preview" function that appears to do exactly that. It attempts to download the file in sequence so the user can view it. It actually has a video player built into the client for this purpose.

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I doubt other clients allow sequential piece downloading,

BitComet has a "preview" function that appears to do exactly that. It attempts to download the file in sequence so the user can view it. It actually has a video player built into the client for this purpose.

thats exactely why bitcomet is a useless bloated piece of crap.

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As far as I know, there is no swarm-based streaming protocol in existence yet, which is what you're getting at. However, in the future, someone might just figure out how to get it work, and then we'll get something hybrid between torrent and shreaming, but until then, it's stupid to request pieces sequentially, since the whole basis of bittorrent's speed is to download the pieces that are available as fast as you can and then piece them together later.

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Peercast has a streaming p2p protocol, kind of, in that peers with enough bandwidth become relays for the stream they're connected to.

Abacast does something P2P style, though I don't think it works like peercast. Apparently the client connects to many sources (peers and I guess abacast's servers) and uses a huge buffer while it streams the data.

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I doubt other clients allow sequential piece downloading,

BitComet has a "preview" function that appears to do exactly that. It attempts to download the file in sequence so the user can view it. It actually has a video player built into the client for this purpose.

thats exactely why bitcomet is a useless bloated piece of crap.

That is 100% correct...and µTorrent doesn't need that crap. :!:

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