Gamester17
July 22nd, 2008, 08:35 AM
I would like to request support for "progressive downloads" (sequential downloading) in Boxee's BitTorrent client library to enable "streaming playback" of torrents.
In general, BitTorrent's non-contiguous download methods have prevented it from supporting "progressive downloads" (downloading sequentially) or "streaming playback". But recent comments by Bram Cohen (the inventor of the BitTorrent protocol) suggests that streaming torrent downloads will soon be commonplace.
The reason for this feature would be to be able to use the BitTorrent P2P protocol for streaming broadcast and also online video viewing, making it possible to start playing back the video file before the download is complete. One practical example would be if a multimedia-player like Boxee integrated the a BitTorrent client library with progressive downloads as a backend for downloading torrents files, you point the player to a torrent and BitTorrent client library starts to download the file progressivly and then the player automaticly will automaticly start the playback once it has cached/buffered to certain procentage of the video, (similar to how Flash Video and the Flash Video player works).
Note! This "progressive download" method should of course be optional, and also note that I am not asking for the media-player to be integrated into the BitTorrent client library but for the BitTorrent client library to have this "progressive download" feature so that it can be integrated into third-party media-players and media-center software such as Boxee and XBMC.
I believe that both BitComet, FoxTorrent, and µTorrent (a.k.a. uTorrent, which is also the Mainline BitTorrent client since version 6.0) do already support progressive downloads algorithm as an option. There are also media-players such as BitLet WeStream (http://www.bitlet.org/music/) that prioritizes the bits at the beginning of each song/video, otherwise it will be impossible to stream anything before the entire track is downloaded, (however, like most other BitTorrent clients, BitLet WeStream (http://www.bitlet.org/music/) also gives a high priority to rare pieces in order to guarantee an optimal swarm speed, so that unhealthy swarms are not created). So integrating a BitTorrent client with this "progressive download" method support should enable Boxee (and other audio/video-players and media centers alike) to begin playback of audio and video torrents without fully downloading them, depending on your download speed it would just cache 5% to 10% before starting the playback (given that it downloaded enough bits from the beginning of the file as well as enough rare pieces in order to guarantee an optimal swarm speed).
Additional peer-2-peer protocols/clients that feature progressive download support:
1-Click Media (http://www.1-click.com) "1-Click Media is based in Paris, France and provides peer-to-peer plug-in to top TV channel portal. 1-Click Media guarante Speed, Bandwidth savings and Browser experience". 1-Click Media is an hybrid mixing BitTorrent tracker and a HTTP webseed for each video (that way the video is always available even if there is not enough peers seeding online).
Peer Impact (http://www.peerimpact.com/mediaCenter/index.html) can stream movies with its progressive download algorithm and they prioritise the first chucks Peer Impact also needs about a 200kbps to stream the movies that start within 30 seconds after the download is initiated in most cases.
Neocast (http://neokastblog.com) is also streaming movies and doing live p2p.
PS! There is also some interesting research going on in the streaming space at this current time, see:
https://www.tribler.org/test_streaming/index.php?n=Site.Introduction
What do you guys think? :)
In general, BitTorrent's non-contiguous download methods have prevented it from supporting "progressive downloads" (downloading sequentially) or "streaming playback". But recent comments by Bram Cohen (the inventor of the BitTorrent protocol) suggests that streaming torrent downloads will soon be commonplace.
The reason for this feature would be to be able to use the BitTorrent P2P protocol for streaming broadcast and also online video viewing, making it possible to start playing back the video file before the download is complete. One practical example would be if a multimedia-player like Boxee integrated the a BitTorrent client library with progressive downloads as a backend for downloading torrents files, you point the player to a torrent and BitTorrent client library starts to download the file progressivly and then the player automaticly will automaticly start the playback once it has cached/buffered to certain procentage of the video, (similar to how Flash Video and the Flash Video player works).
Note! This "progressive download" method should of course be optional, and also note that I am not asking for the media-player to be integrated into the BitTorrent client library but for the BitTorrent client library to have this "progressive download" feature so that it can be integrated into third-party media-players and media-center software such as Boxee and XBMC.
I believe that both BitComet, FoxTorrent, and µTorrent (a.k.a. uTorrent, which is also the Mainline BitTorrent client since version 6.0) do already support progressive downloads algorithm as an option. There are also media-players such as BitLet WeStream (http://www.bitlet.org/music/) that prioritizes the bits at the beginning of each song/video, otherwise it will be impossible to stream anything before the entire track is downloaded, (however, like most other BitTorrent clients, BitLet WeStream (http://www.bitlet.org/music/) also gives a high priority to rare pieces in order to guarantee an optimal swarm speed, so that unhealthy swarms are not created). So integrating a BitTorrent client with this "progressive download" method support should enable Boxee (and other audio/video-players and media centers alike) to begin playback of audio and video torrents without fully downloading them, depending on your download speed it would just cache 5% to 10% before starting the playback (given that it downloaded enough bits from the beginning of the file as well as enough rare pieces in order to guarantee an optimal swarm speed).
Additional peer-2-peer protocols/clients that feature progressive download support:
1-Click Media (http://www.1-click.com) "1-Click Media is based in Paris, France and provides peer-to-peer plug-in to top TV channel portal. 1-Click Media guarante Speed, Bandwidth savings and Browser experience". 1-Click Media is an hybrid mixing BitTorrent tracker and a HTTP webseed for each video (that way the video is always available even if there is not enough peers seeding online).
Peer Impact (http://www.peerimpact.com/mediaCenter/index.html) can stream movies with its progressive download algorithm and they prioritise the first chucks Peer Impact also needs about a 200kbps to stream the movies that start within 30 seconds after the download is initiated in most cases.
Neocast (http://neokastblog.com) is also streaming movies and doing live p2p.
PS! There is also some interesting research going on in the streaming space at this current time, see:
https://www.tribler.org/test_streaming/index.php?n=Site.Introduction
What do you guys think? :)