
Video Streaming over BitTorrent networks - mariorz
https://www.tribler.org/StreamingExperiment
======
Zev
Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't make any sense to use Bittorrent to stream
videos. One of the strengths of Bittorrent is that you don't download
everything sequentially (which makes sense to do if you're streaming audio
and/or video). It's broken up into pieces that can be sent randomly to many
users who then redistribute the data.

Sure, there's Initial Seeding (spec: <http://tinyurl.com/6y2ng2> ) which sends
data sequentially. But that refuses to send data to a peer until that peer has
already sent its data out to everyone else. There's also HTTP-based seeding
(spec: <http://tinyurl.com/p5kpn> ) but the implementations - or attempted
implementations - that I'm aware of don't exactly work well.

~~~
mariorz
Yes they modified the bittorent protocol, article talks about it, it remains
backward compatible though (for non-live streams).

On a different note, please cut it out with the tinyurls (not just you
everyone), needless obfuscation of usable information makes no sense.

~~~
Zev
I read the article and noted that they modified the protocol. I also mentioned
a bunch of previous ways that the protocol was changed that _might_ be similar
to what tribler is doing and that they don't exactly work very well. Hence my
skepticism.

Also, if you're going to click the URL anyway, so what difference does it make
if its tinyurl'd or not? I don't expect to be rickrolled on HN.

~~~
mariorz
The url is information I use when deciding to click or not, especially if
you're linking to non-html files. More importantly whats the point? Nobody is
getting charged by the character here. It's a terribly annoying custom
probably encouraged by that twitter app.

------
pkrumins
Some fun - I just posted The BitTorrent Song:

[http://www.catonmat.net/blog/musical-geek-friday-the-
bittorr...](http://www.catonmat.net/blog/musical-geek-friday-the-bittorrent-
song/)

