Playing torrent files.

How do torrent files work?

I was on one torrent site and downloaded a file, and the extension was ".torrent". I downloaded a couple different torrent clients, one being Azureus. I THINK it was that one that switched the torrent to a ws.pdtv.xvid-remax.avi file. (I'm not sure because I had downloaded a few different programs, and it was really late at night!)

How can I play that ws.pdtv.xvid-remax.avi file?


THEN I downloaded another one, and it downloaded as a bunch of .rar files (without me having to even use Azureus, like, it never just downloaded as a .torrent). StuffitExpander won't do anything with the .rar files.

How can I play those?!



Is torrent supposed to be THIS complicated?!

Torrents are advanced. They will be complicated if you don't know what your doing.

http://dessent.net/btfaq/

thanks.
it's still so confusing though!

basically a torrent file is a link to download the main file (what ever it may be).

you drag and drop or open the torrent file using the Torrenting program you are using. uTorrent (has good reviews) or for OS X (transmission)

Here's something I don't understand about Torrents:

Does the torrent file download from the same place no matter what torrent program you are using? For example, I use Bittorrent (I think). Say there are more users worldwide of Transmission. Would I be downloading faster if I used Transmission, since there are more people using it? Or do all the programs go to the same "place" to download the file?

I don't really care about the user interface or anything, just the efficiency of the download.

Brandon said:

Here's something I don't understand about Torrents:

Does the torrent file download from the same place no matter what torrent program you are using? For example, I use Bittorrent (I think). Say there are more users worldwide of Transmission. Would I be downloading faster if I used Transmission, since there are more people using it? Or do all the programs go to the same "place" to download the file?

I don't really care about the user interface or anything, just the efficiency of the download.

Click to expand...

It doesn't matter. Your bittorrent client downloads from all other clients as well.

Thank you.

Brandon said:

Thank you.

Click to expand...

Your welcome. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask.

Be careful as some torrents block certain torrent clients. Azureus gets lots of negative comments on the Mac. However I use it on my MacBook without any issues. This is one of the more popular torrent clients and isn't generally blocked.

the clients access the file, not the other clients... so what client anyone else has is irrelevant.

ok, so once i get azureus to download the files, how to I actually play the video?! I've downloaded a few different torrents, and they always turn out as really obscure file formats!

it depends on the file, not all torrents are the same file. if it is just a video (avi, mp4, mpg... ect) than quicktime should play them fine. what kind of file formats are you getting?

ki99 said:

it depends on the file, not all torrents are the same file. if it is just a video (avi, mp4, mpg... ect) than quicktime should play them fine. what kind of file formats are you getting?

Click to expand...

well the last one i tried to play was an xvid .avi file. i think it may have just been a messed up torrent, because I tried a few different things that probably should have played it and they didn't...

I downloaded a special xvid thingy...
I don't even remember what it was cuz I downloaded a BUNCH of stuff that night, and it was really late
lol

To play XVID-encoded files, you need this: http://n.ethz.ch/student/naegelic/download/

It's a QuickTime extension. I believe it just involves copying a few files to the Library directory on your machine.

Chris Armstrong said:

To play XVID-encoded files, you need this: http://n.ethz.ch/student/naegelic/download/

It's a QuickTime extension. I believe it just involves copying a few files to the Library directory on your machine.

Click to expand...

hmmm that link didn't work for me...

Try now? I just clicked it and it seems fine.

deathtolife04 said:

hmmm that link didn't work for me...

Click to expand...

ok it worked.
i think i already downloaded something like that though. and when i tried to play the .avi file it said it wasn't a movie file???