REQ Help: How to preview AVI, MPG partial download

[zhodak]

Does anyone know of any software that can be used tp preview a AVI or MPEG file while it is downloading using a BT client?

AVI Preview works well with Kazaa, but, does not work with BT files.

[SuperSaiyanZero]

hello,

I use the DivX Player to preview AVI files but i think that will only work if the files are encoded using DivX (which most of them are)!

its free to download from www.divx.com

i don't think it can preview MPG files but i've not tried it either!

regards, Adam

[zhodak]

Thanks Adam

I just tried using the Divx player and unfortunately it doesn't work with partial downloads from BitTorrent files. The message displayed is "Divx failed to open the file".

But thank you for your suggestion

[Flying Purple Wombat]

Bit Torrent downloads work differently than other download methods. The short answer is most player software won't work with incomplete BT downloads.

Most other methods download a file in linear order, from beginning to end. A player sees the file as a normal data stream.

Bit Torrent does not work that way. BT breaks files into chunks, which are downloaded in random order. It allocates space for all the chunks on your hard drive as soon as download begins, but all of the chunks are blank. BT then goes about gathering all the chunks and filling in the blanks, depending on which seeders have what chunks available and when. It continues until all the blanks are filled in. You will seed the swarm with the chunks that you already have, allowing other users to fill in their blanks. Eventually, everyone has a complete copy of the file.

Players attempting to open the file will see the blank chunks and bail out, because the file is not correct yet - it is not a proper data stream. If you attempt to play a BT download that is far enough along, it may play for some time before encountering a blank chunk.

I've had good luck previewing incomplete BT downloads with Virtual Dub. In fact, it's my preferred player because it lets me do whatever I want. It wouldn't surprise me if Virtual Dub simply ignores the blanks, and continues on with what it does have.

[zhodak]

Thanks for the advice Mr Wombat.

I will give virtualdub a go next time when I'm downloading