What's unique about BitTorrent? Why do video developers offer only .torrent files over other common file types such as .wmv, realplayer, etc.?
2006-12-18 02:38:48 · 3 answers · asked by Mirza Hakimi 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
BitTorrent is *not* a media player. It is however a way of transferring large files over the internet, be it media files or any other large download.
So if a content provider wanted to offer a large movie on the net, he would put it up on a server.
Before BitTorrent, a lot of people would try to get this file, but the server can only serve a finite amount of users. Its like a big departmentstore has a great sale going, but only one entrance. People will clog up the entrance and everything will be very slow for everybody.
BitTorrent tries to get around this bottleneck to do a "Peer-to-Peer" sharing network.
The large download is cut up into a lot of small chunks. If a lot of people connect to this torrent, each of them gets a different chunk of the big file. Now if those small chunks are downloaded, they are offered to everyone else on the Torrent.
So you can download from the original server as well as from another user who has that part, that you need.
So the more people have those small parts, the more they can share to everyone else, and make downloading faster for everyone.
Finally, if the large file is completely downloaded, you can watch the file in your media player.
2006-12-18 03:03:09 · answer #1 · answered by Arminator 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
BitTorrent isnt a media play or a media format.
It is a file which is used with a bit torrent client (such as http://www.utorrent.com)
They allow users to download files faster etc.
You download a .torrent file and load it into your client. The client will then download the files that the torrent relates to, in your case probably a .wmv/.avi file
2006-12-18 02:50:37 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
BitTorrent is not a media player, it is a peer-2-peer file transferring program that is really catching on now. It is used to download files (media files in your case) from others that have already downloaded the same file...the more people that download it, the faster the download goes.
2006-12-18 02:43:42 · answer #3 · answered by Yoi_55 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋