Streaming Comes to uTorrent

People have been making bets this year over who will triumph in the streaming vs.p2p race. However, aware of users growing very fond of streaming some companies will not just sit and wait for an outcome. The best example is Bit Torrent Inc. which recently has announced the adding of a new very useful option to uTorrent (perhaps the most popular p2p client in any country except for China) that allows users stream video files while downloading.

Back in October we quoted Craig Labovitz, chief scientist for Arbor Networks with a statement about streaming services that makes BitTorrent’s move logical:

"It's far more convenient and faster. It used to be the case that to watch a movie, you had to wait eight hours for your peer-to-peer to seed. And now you can go to one of these sites and watch a movie in real time in [high definition] via streaming."

After almost ten years since its birth BitTorrent is everywhere on the net and on everybody’s lips as well. It has totally and irreversibly changed the way we look at content distribution.

The latest feature available from now on in file sharing application uTorrent responds to the increasing demand for streaming support which makes users’ wait time much pleasant by letting them play video files when downloading.
Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management stressed: “Our hope is to transform getting media using uTorrent from a ‘load-wait-watch-tomorrow’ to more of a ‘point-click-watch’ experience.”

TorrentFreak reported:

“By default the latest uTorrent release is configured to use the DivX web player to stream video. This works well for most files but for us it caused problems with some video formats. Changing it to VLC or any other media player is relatively easy though, by nominating a different streaming player in uTorrent’s preferences.

For now, uTorrent users will have to settle for on-demand streaming. Those who do not intend to use the feature can be assured that the streaming implementation used by uTorrent is designed on the principles of tit-for tat sharing, meaning that it does not slow down regular downloads.”

To download streaming in the uTorrent installer click the link: http://download.utorrent.com/beta/utorrent-2.1-beta-17618.upx.exe.