4 ms·

Works great for storing pirated content though

jedberg 4y ago
Usually you aren't live streaming your pirated content right off other people's boxes. You download it first and then view it. So you don't need every chunk available at just the right time.
- monocasa 4y ago
  Popcorn Time worked pretty well with just that model; watching more or less immediately is it's downloaded in order from the swarm.
  - jedberg 4y ago
    Did you actually use Popcorn time? It got stuck all the time waiting for a chunk. Also, again, people sharing pirated content don't care about privacy and are happy to share their home hardware for other people to use. Paying customers care about that stuff.
    - PaywallBuster 4y ago
      Used it dozens of times, usually works fine for the popular content. Good quality, barely any buffering. The niche content may be too difficult for a "live" streaming experience.
    - monocasa 4y ago
      I have; it worked flawlessly for content that was decently seeded. And that's without the sorts of table stakes you'd expect for a streaming platform like the same content encoded at different bit rates, but chunked on the same boundaries so you can dynamically change bitrate as your buffer depletes. And I'm not sure most people actually care if their home hardware is being used for whatever by the service they're using, or else there'd be pushback on electron apps from more than just HN. The sense I always got from Netflix's P2P work was that it was heavily tied into the political battles wrt the BS arguments that Netflix should pay for peering with tier 2 ISPs. Did this work there continue much after that problem went quieter?
- naet 4y ago
  Somebody I know (cough) starts torrent downloads in sequential order after downloading the first and last chunk, and then opens the file in VLC while it is downloading. Works amazingly well for watching something front to back if your download speed is fast enough; you'd never know it wasn't being streamed. The hardest part is finding a good torrent for what you want to watch. Ironically the Netflix catalog is one of the most easily available to pirate since people rip it directly from web.

Usually you aren't live streaming your pirated content right off other people's boxes. You download it first and then view it. So you don't need every chunk available at just the right time.

monocasa 4y ago
Popcorn Time worked pretty well with just that model; watching more or less immediately is it's downloaded in order from the swarm.
- jedberg 4y ago
  Did you actually use Popcorn time? It got stuck all the time waiting for a chunk. Also, again, people sharing pirated content don't care about privacy and are happy to share their home hardware for other people to use. Paying customers care about that stuff.
  - PaywallBuster 4y ago
    Used it dozens of times, usually works fine for the popular content. Good quality, barely any buffering. The niche content may be too difficult for a "live" streaming experience.
  - monocasa 4y ago
    I have; it worked flawlessly for content that was decently seeded. And that's without the sorts of table stakes you'd expect for a streaming platform like the same content encoded at different bit rates, but chunked on the same boundaries so you can dynamically change bitrate as your buffer depletes. And I'm not sure most people actually care if their home hardware is being used for whatever by the service they're using, or else there'd be pushback on electron apps from more than just HN. The sense I always got from Netflix's P2P work was that it was heavily tied into the political battles wrt the BS arguments that Netflix should pay for peering with tier 2 ISPs. Did this work there continue much after that problem went quieter?
naet 4y ago
Somebody I know (cough) starts torrent downloads in sequential order after downloading the first and last chunk, and then opens the file in VLC while it is downloading. Works amazingly well for watching something front to back if your download speed is fast enough; you'd never know it wasn't being streamed. The hardest part is finding a good torrent for what you want to watch. Ironically the Netflix catalog is one of the most easily available to pirate since people rip it directly from web.