Is there a way to preview a torrent while its DL'ing?

[littlewing]

I'm downloading a legal torrent right now that consists of multiple episodes. It is 50percent done and half the episodes are finished dl'ing. But when I try to play a completed episode while the torrent is incomplete or dl'ing it won't let me. Is there any way to preview the episodes?

 

[littlewing]

help?

 

[Mik3y]

if they're video files, use VLC media player. should work.

 

[P0ldy]

If you don't have the first piece downloaded, it probably won't load. You should also stop the torrent before doing it.

 

[Some1ne]

Most bit-torrent clients completely prevent access to the content while it is being downloaded (even read access). I know there are some torrent clients that allow this to be configured, but I can't remember specifically which ones they are.

 

[P0ldy]

Also, your client must be pre-allocating the diskspace when you start the torrent for this to work...

 

[littlewing]

hmmm ok. I'm using ABC and I don't think I can preview any content while its still incomplete.

 

[Lonyo]

Have you tried closing ABC and trying to play the file while ABC isn't trying to use it at the same time (to upload)?
If that works, then make a copy of the file to play, and leave the original one in the DL directory. If not then I dunno.

 

[Bozo Galora]

bittorent transfers data in specified chunks, which can arrive in any random order

 

[Some1ne]

Have you tried closing ABC and trying to play the file while ABC isn't trying to use it at the same time (to upload)?

That method works, at least when using Bit-tornado (and I don't see why it wouldn't work with any other client). The problem is, as mentioned, the data can come in any order, and most players will error out at the first chunk of missing/invalid data they run into, so the preview might not play as much as you'd think it would. Oddly enough though, I've noticed that in practice, my torrents almost always seem to download in a fairly sequential fashion (for example, if I'm downloading a set of MP3's, they'll complete in alphabetical order).

 

[imported_Nacelle]

An mp3 can be played at any time. But, you don't download it from begining to end. You get a bunch of skipping.

 

[Czar]

azareus works perfectly for this, download a multi video torrent, even set the program to download certain files first or even set it so it tries to finish files closest to finish in higher priority. When thats done and the rest is downloading just open the file

 

[Diademed]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
bittorent transfers data in specified chunks, which can arrive in any random order

QFT

short answer: No.

Not unless you have randomly downloaded every piece in order. By nature, BT grabs whichever chunk is in reach, in no order whatsoever.

 

[HN]

if the individual episode happens to be done at 100%, then you can copy it somewhere else and play it (sorta mentioned above but i have not needed to stop/close the program). And some file types even work when it's not 100%.